On-Farm-Produced Organic Amendments on Maintaining and Enhancing Soil Fertility and Nitrogen Availability in Organic or Low Input Agriculture

Maintaining and enhancing soil fertility are key issues for sustainability in an agricultural system with organic or low input methods. On-farm–produced green manure as a source of soil organic matter (SOM) plays a critical role in long-term productivity. But producing green manure requires land and water; thus, increasing biodiversity, such as by intercropping with green manure crops, could be an approach to enhance the efficiency of renewable resources especially in developing countries. This article discusses soil fertility and its maintenance and enhancement with leguminous intercropping from four points of view: soil fertility and organic matter function, leguminous green manure, intercropping principles, and soil conservation. Important contributions of leguminous intercropping include SOM enhancement and fertility building, biological nitrogen (N) and other plant nutrition availability. Under a well-designed and managed system, competition between the target and intercropping crops can be reduced. The plant uptake efficiency of biologically fixed N is estimated to be double that of industrial N fertilizers. After N-rich plant residues are incorporated into soil, the carbon (C):nitrogen ratio of added straw decreases. Another high mitigation potential of legume intercropping lies in soil conservation by preventing soil and water erosion. Many opportunities exist to introduce legumes in short-term rotation, intercropping, living mulch, and cover crops in an organically managed farm system. Worldwide, long-term soil fertility enhancement remains a challenge due to the current world population and agricultural practices. Cropping system including legumes is a step in the right direction to meeting the needs of food security and sustainability

Gluten consumption may contribute to worldwide obesity prevalence

Gluten consumption has been controversially associated with obesity in previous studies. We sought to examine this association at the worldwide level.Country specific data were obtained from 168 countries. Scatter plots, bivariate, partial correlation and multiple linear regression models were used to explore and compare the coincidence between obesity prevalence and consumption of gluten, non-gluten cereal protein and total cereal protein respectively. The established risk factors of obesity: caloric intake, sedentary lifestyle, urbanization, socioeconomic status, meat protein intake and sugar consumption were included in analyses as potential confounders. The 168 countries were also stratified into developing and developed country groupings for further examination of the relationships.Worldwide, bivariate correlation analyses revealed that the strength and direction of correlations between all variables (independent, dependent and potential confounders) were at similar levels. Obesity prevalence was positively correlated to gluten consumption but was negatively correlated to consumption of non-gluten cereal protein, and was in almost nil correlation to total cereal protein consumption. These relationships were similar across all countries (n= 168), developed country grouping (N=44) and developing country grouping (n=124). When caloric intake, Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity, sedentary lifestyle and urbanization were kept statistically constant in the partial correlation analysis, obesity was significantly correlated to gluten consumption in all countries, developed country grouping and developing country grouping, and was significantly but inversely and weakly correlated to non-gluten cereal protein in all countries and developing countries, and was in almost nil correlation to total cereal protein in all country groupings. Globally, stepwise multiple regression analysis, when all the independent variables and potential confounding factors were included, selected consumption of sugar as the variable having the greatest influence on obesity with R2 = 0.510, while gluten was placed second increasing R2 to 0.596. Gluten consumption may have been emerging as an inconspicuous, but significant cause of obesity. While Westernization has driven the diet patterns worldwide to incorporate more gluten crops, obesity prevalence projection methods may estimate future obesity rates poorly if gluten consumption is not considered

Gluten consumption may contribute to worldwide obesity prevalence

Gluten consumption has been controversially associated with obesity in previous studies. We sought to examine this association at the worldwide level