Spatio-Temporal Agricultural Drought Quantification in a Rainfed Agriculture, Athi-Galana-Sabaki River Basin

This study employs a quantitative approach to comprehensively investigate the full propagation process of agricultural drought, focusing on pigeon peas (the most grown crop in the AGS Basin) planting seasonal variations. The study modelled seasonal variabilities in the seasonal Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Agricultural Drought Index (SADI). To necessitate comparison, SADI and SPI were Normalized (from −1 to 1) as they had different ranges and hence could not be compared. From the seasonal indices, the pigeon peas planting season (July to September) was singled out as the most important season to study agricultural droughts. The planting season analysis selected all years with severe conditions (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017 and 2022) for spatial analysis. Spatial analysis revealed that most areas in the upstream part of the Basin and Coastal region in the lowlands experienced severe to extreme agricultural droughts in highlighted drought years. The modelled agricultural drought results were validated using yield data from two stations in the Basin. The results show that the model performed well with a Pearson Coefficient of 0.87 and a Root Mean Square Error of 0.29. This proactive approach aims to ensure food security, especially in scenarios where the Basin anticipates significantly reduced precipitation affecting water available for agriculture, enabling policymakers, water resource managers and agricultural sector stakeholders to equitably allocate resources and mitigate the effects of droughts in the most affected areas to significantly reduce the socioeconomic drought that is amplified by agricultural drought in rainfed agriculture river basins.

Thought on the Implementation of Agricultural Standardization in the Grain Production and Modern Agriculture

The construction of Grain Production Functional Zone and Modern Agicultural Zone （Two Zones for short） plays a key role in the development of modern agriculture and solving the quantity and quality problems of agricultural products. The Two Zones serves as the important form and carrier of agricultural standardization and the agricultural standardization provides means and ways for it. The paper puts forward the suggestions and solutions for agricultural standardization in Two Zones in the aspects of boosting standards innovation projects, management and so forth.

Study on Consistent Agricultural Compensation Standards for Ecosystem and Ecological Value

Chinese and international studies on agricultural ecological compensation standards fall into two categories:While some focus on the cost of ecological protection,others proceed from the value of ecological services.Cost and value are two aspects of an integrated input-output system,but most existing studies on both types of compensation standards are independent of each other.Drawing upon the reasonable elements from both types of studies to overcome each other’s one-sidedness,this paper has created a“model of consistent compensation standards for the ecosystem and ecological value,”integrating the research approaches for both types of compensation standards under the same analytical framework.Through the application and analysis of this model,this paper has verified the model’s theoretical and practical significance in correcting the one-sidedness of each type of research.The principles and methodologies for creating the model may be further extended to research on agricultural ecological compensation standards under different conditions.In some circumstances,the ability of relatively redundant resources to create ecological value is overlooked.To address this problem,this paper employs a linear programming(LP)sensitivity analysis instrument to correct the model’s initial optimal solutions and arrive at consistent compensation standards that satisfy the consistency between ecosystem and ecological value,thus perfecting the theoretical and methodological system created by this paper for research on agricultural ecological compensation standards.

Construction of Agricultural Circular Economy and Standard System in China

Under the new situation of advocating the development of circular economy and low-carbon economy in the world, the agriculture is facing all the challenges to ensure food safety, dealing with climate change, promote energy conservation and pollution reduction, protect resources and environment, and increase the income of farmers. Moreover, developing circular agriculture is in the direction that the international challenges can be dealt with and the development of agriculture in China can be accelerated. This paper has reported current situation of agricultural circular economy, keep energy conservation and pollution reduction, and analyzed the basic thought of developing agricultural circular economy.

National mandatory standard on agricultural mulch film issued

The revised national mandatory standard on polyethylene blown mulch film for agricultural uses was officially issued in October 2017.The new standard defines the increase of the minimum thickness of mulch film,which can prevent the overuse of ultra-thin mulch film and promote the recycling and aging-resistance of mulch film,according to Sha Nansheng,Deputy-Director of Science and Technology Division,MIIT.