L3: On Farm systems and risk management

This project seeks to define the interplay between market access, crop and livestock technologies, and investment risks in water- and market-scarce environments that leads to technology adoption by farm families, enabling them to enhance food security and incomes through more efficient water use. Water efficient farm enterprises and climate risk management Innovation Platforms will be established at project sites to bring together all role players necessary to increase investments in farm management strategies to improve productivity of crop and livestock systems through improved fodder production. Investment choices matched to farmer capacities and climatic risk environment Understanding how the capacity of farmers and their ability to make use of new opportunities is affected by their wealth status, investment priorities and variable climate will assist in the design of new and more target-specific crop-livestock management strategies. Market-led technologies for smallholder farmers developed and tested The project will use market access as the driver of crop and livestock technology uptake. Market development initiatives such as contract farming, voucher-based input distribution schemes for seed and fertilizer and innovative fertilizer marketing strategies will be implemented by project partners, technically supported by research and extension and monitored for impacts across the value chain

The APSIM manure module: improvements in predictability and application to laboratory studies

应用RACE方法获得斜带石斑鱼膜结合型免疫球蛋白M（membrane-bound immu-noglobulin M,mIgM）,膜结合型免疫球蛋白D（mIgD）,分泌型免疫球蛋白Z（secretory immu-noglobulin Z,sIgZ）的重链基因。斜带石斑鱼膜结合型IgM重链恒定区包含3个恒定区结构域（μ1,μ2,μ3）以及两个跨膜外显子（TM1,TM2）,TM1外显子与μ3结构域末端相连接。氨基酸序列相似性分析结果显示,斜带石斑鱼mIgM各恒定区与牙鲆mIgM恒定区相似性最高,为53%-78%。mIgD的cDNA全长为3 375 bp,开放阅读框包含3 006 bp,其恒定区由1个μ1外显子,7个δ外显子以及跨膜区组成。斜带石斑鱼IgD恒定区与鳜IgD各恒定区氨基酸序列相似性最高,δ1-δ7的相似性分别为75.5%、75.8%、65.4%、76.6%、88.1%、90.6%、82.8%,TM结构域为82.7%。sIgZ的基因结构与其他硬骨鱼类sIgZ的结构相似,包括4个外显子和3个内含子,内含子长度分别为222、129和458 bp。利用半定量PCR分别检测了这3种基因在斜带石斑鱼各器官/组织中的表达,发现mIgM在头肾、肾脏、脑、脾脏、肠、鳃、心脏和胸腺中均有表达;mIgD的mRNA在头肾、肾脏以及胸腺中有较高的表达,在肠中表达量较低;sIgZ mRNA主要分布于淋巴组织如头肾、肾及脾脏中,而在鳃、心脏和胸腺中的丰度较低

Scope for improved eco-efficiency varies among diverse cropping systems

Global food security requires eco-efficient agriculture to produce the required food and fiber products concomitant with ecologically efficient use of resources. This eco-efficiency concept is used to diagnose the state of agricultural production in China (irrigated wheat–maize double-cropping systems), Zimbabwe (rainfed maize systems), and Australia (rainfed wheat systems). More than 3,000 surveyed crop yields in these three countries were compared against simulated grain yields at farmer-specified levels of nitrogen (N) input. Many Australian commercial wheat farmers are both close to existing production frontiers and gain little prospective return from increasing their N input. Significant losses of N from their systems, either as nitrous oxide emissions or as nitrate leached from the soil profile, are infrequent and at low intensities relative to their level of grain production. These Australian farmers operate close to eco-efficient frontiers in regard to N, and so innovations in technologies and practices are essential to increasing their production without added economic or environmental risks. In contrast, many Chinese farmers can reduce N input without sacrificing production through more efficient use of their fertilizer input. In fact, there are real prospects for the double-cropping systems on the North China Plain to achieve both production increases and reduced environmental risks. Zimbabwean farmers have the opportunity for significant production increases by both improving their technical efficiency and increasing their level of input; however, doing so will require improved management expertise and greater access to institutional support for addressing the higher risks. This paper shows that pathways for achieving improved eco-efficiency will differ among diverse cropping systems