Making Sustainable Agriculture Real in CAP 2020: The Role of Conservation Agriculture

Europe is about to redefine its Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) for the near future. The question is whether this redefinition is more a fine-tuning of the existing CAP or whether thorough changes can be expected. Looking back to the last revision of CAP the most notable change is, undoubtedly, the concern about EU and global food security. The revival of the interest in agricultural production already became evident during the Health Check as a consequence of climbing commodity prices in 2007/08. It is therefore no surprise that “rising concerns regarding both EU and global food security” is the first topic to appear in the list of justifications for the need for a CAP reform. Other challenges mentioned in this list such as sustainable management of natural resources, climate change and its mitigation, improvement of competitiveness to withstand globalization and rising price volatility, etc., while not new are considered worthwhile enough to be maintained and reappraised

Open innovation: a preliminary model from the Knowledge-based Theory

Objeto: El modelo de innovación abierta supone un camino alternativo y/o complementario a la gestión del conocimiento en sus distintas etapas, cuestionado la validez de algunas de las estrategias y procesos imperantes en innovación tecnológica. La nueva lógica del proceso innovador, reconoce el valor de la difusión del conocimiento a través de nuevas comunidades de innovación y considera prioritario el acceso a los conocimientos desarrollados por los miembros de dichas comunidades. El presente trabajo pretende contribuir a la construcción de un modelo integrado de factores clave de éxito en los procesos de innovación abierta. Se analiza para ello el papel que determinadas decisiones de gestión de conocimiento tienen en los resultados de los proyectos de innovación abierta, al facilitar el proceso de cambio y generar nuevas capacidades necesarias. Diseño/metodología: A través de la revisión la literatura teórica y empírica, se plantean –desde un enfoque exploratorio– las principales variables relacionadas con el funcionamiento de los sistemas abiertos de innovación, y se establecen diferentes proposiciones acerca del sentido e intensidad de tales relaciones. Resultados: La gestión del proyecto de innovación abierta mejora a través de tres factores externos: el liderazgo técnico basado en la experiencia, el empleo intensivo de las TICs, que permite alcanzar una comunicación multilateral, y la existencia de agentes intermedios o facilitadores con un marcado carácter neutral. Los resultados también dependen de ciertos factores internos: los puestos de enlace, las rutinas de búsqueda, el establecimiento de sistemas de incentivos que fomenten la proactividad y la cultura organizativa. Valor añadido: Ante la falta de propuestas completas que orienten la toma de decisiones eficaces relativas tanto a la gestión de las relaciones entre las organizaciones, como a los factores inherentes a cada una de ellas, el presente trabajo propone un modelo exploratorio que integra los factores clave de éxito en los procesos de innovación abierta.Peer Reviewe

Spatial and temporal variability of CO2 emisions in soils under conventional tillage and no-till farming

Agricultural soils can act as a carbon sink depending on the soil management practices employed. As a result of this functional duality, soil management systems are present in international documents relating to climate change mitigation. Agricultural practices are responsible for 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG’s) (MMA, 2009)(1). Conservation agriculture (CA) is one of the most effective agricultural systems for reducing CO2 emissions, as it increases the sequestration of atmospheric carbon in the soil. In order to assess the performance of CA in terms of CO2 emissions, a field trial was conducted comparing soil derived CO2 fluxes under No-till (NT) farming and under conventional tillage. Three pilot farms were selected in the cereal-growing area of southern Spain, located in Las Cabezas de San Juan (Seville), Carmona (Seville) and Cordoba. Each pilot farm comprises six experimental plots with an approximate area of five hectares; three of the six plots implement CA practices, while the other three use conventional tillage techniques. The subdivision of each tillage system into 3 plots allowed the simultaneous cropping of the three crops of the wheat-sunflower-legume rotation each year. Results showed that carbon dioxide emissions were 31 to 91% higher in tilled soils than in untilled soils, and that there was a great seasonal variability of CO2 emissions, as weather conditions also differed considerably for the different sampling periods. In all cases, the CO2 fluxes emitted into the atmosphere were always higher when soil was subject to conventional tillage

Census of HII regions in NGC 6754 derived with MUSE: Constraints on the metal mixing scale

We present a study of the HII regions in the galaxy NGC 6754 from a two pointing mosaic comprising 197,637 individual spectra, using Integral Field Spectrocopy (IFS) recently acquired with the MUSE instrument during its Science Verification program. The data cover the entire galaxy out to ~2 effective radii (re ), sampling its morphological structures with unprecedented spatial resolution for a wide-field IFU. A complete census of the H ii regions limited by the atmospheric seeing conditions was derived, comprising 396 individual ionized sources. This is one of the largest and most complete catalogue of H ii regions with spectroscopic information in a single galaxy. We use this catalogue to derive the radial abundance gradient in this SBb galaxy, finding a negative gradient with a slope consistent with the characteristic value for disk galaxies recently reported. The large number of H ii regions allow us to estimate the typical mixing scale-length (rmix ~0.4 re ), which sets strong constraints on the proposed mechanisms for metal mixing in disk galaxies, like radial movements associated with bars and spiral arms, when comparing with simulations. We found evidence for an azimuthal variation of the oxygen abundance, that may be related with the radial migration. These results illustrate the unique capabilities of MUSE for the study of the enrichment mechanisms in Local Universe galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, 7 Figurs, accepted for publishing in A&

Conservation agriculture in the dry Mediterranean climate

The objective of this article is to review: (a) the concepts and principles that underpin Conservation Agriculture (CA) ecologically and operationally; (b) the potential benefits that can be harnessed through CA systems in the dry Mediterranean climates; (c) current status of adoption and spread of CA in the dry Mediterranean climate countries; and (d) opportunities for CA in the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region. CA, comprising minimum mechanical soil disturbance and no-tillage seeding, organic mulch cover, and crop diversification is now practised on some 125 million ha, corresponding to about 9% of the global arable cropped land. Globally, the area under CA is spread across all continents and all agro-ecologies, including the dryland climates in the Mediterranean basin region as well as in the Mediterranean climates elsewhere in the world. Worldwide empirical and scientific evidence is available to show that significant productivity, economic, social and environmental benefits exist that can be harnessed through the adoption of CA principles for sustainable production intensification in the dry Mediterranean climates, including those in the CWANA region. The benefits include: fundamental change for the better in the sustainability of production systems and ecosystem services; higher stable yields and incomes; climate change adaptation and reduced vulnerability to the highly erratic rainfall distribution; and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. CA has taken off globally and is now spreading in several Mediterranean climates outside the Mediterranean basin particularly in South America, South Africa and Australia. In the dry Mediterranean climates in the CWANA region, CA is perceived to be a powerful tool of land management but CA has not yet taken off. Research on CA in the CWANA region has shown that there are opportunities for CA adoption in rainfed and irrigated farming systems involving arable and perennial crops as well as livestock

Sandfly saliva of Lutzomyia ovallesi (Diptera: Psychodidae) as a possible marker for the transmission of Leishmania in Venezuela Andes region

Background & objectives: The saliva of the Phlebotominae is highly immunogenic to the vertebrate host and isa determining factor in the Leishmania infection. The aim of this work was to study the saliva of Lutzomyiaovallesi as a possible risk marker for the transmission of Leishmania.Methods: Two populations of L. ovallesi from different geographical areas and subjected to different environmentalconditions were compared by geometric morphometry of the wings, by protein profile analysis of salivary glandsand by assessing the presence of anti-saliva protein in human sera confronted with laboratory L. ovallesi saliva.Results: The results showed differences in the isometric size and structure of the wings but no allometric effects.Protein profiles of salivary glands of both the L. ovallesi populations studied were found to be similar, based on11 protein bands with molecular weights ranging from 16 to 99 kDa. Anti-saliva antibodies were present inhuman sera, but human sera infected and uninfected with leishmaniasis could not be differentiated.Interpretation & conclusion: We conclude that the saliva of laboratory-reared L. ovallesi is representative ofthat of the wild population. It is suggested to study the presence of anti-saliva antibodies in other species ofsandflies and mosquitoe

Enfermedades congénitas e identificación

X Congreso Nacional de Paleopatología. Univesidad Autónoma de Madrid, septiembre de 200

Aroma Fingerprint Characterisation of La Mancha Red Wines

In the present study, Rojal, Moravia Dulce and Tortosí wines were elaborated across four harvests (2006to 2009) from minority red grape varieties cultivated in the La Mancha region of Spain. Wines werestudied by instrumental and sensory analysis to determine the influence of grape variety on the aromaof the wine. Aroma compounds were isolated by solid phase extraction (SPE) to later be analysed usinggas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The odour activity values (OAVs) for the differentcompounds were classified into seven odorant series that describe the aroma profile of these wines (1: fruity,2: floral, 3: green/fresh, 4: sweet, 5: spice, 6: fatty, and 7: other odours). The total intensities of everyaromatic series were calculated as sum of the OAV of each one of the compounds assigned to this series. Allwines showed the same sequence, with the highest aroma contribution being those of the sweet and fruityseries, followed by fatty. The sensory profile of Rojal, Moravia Dulce and Tortosí wines was evaluated byexperienced wine tasters using a non-structured scale. The panellists founded several differences betweentheir sensory profiles. This study provides a complete aromatic characterisation of these wines