CHICORY AND ARUGULA IN INTERCROPPING WITH COLLARD GREENS1

ABSTRACT Vegetable intercropping systems use complementarity between species to increase agricultural profitability. This study evaluated the effects of intercropping chicory and arugula species with collard greens on crop yield and land use efficiency (LUE). Six treatments, consisting of species planted as monocultures or intercropped in various combinations, were evaluated in a randomized block design with four replicates. The cultivars ‘Top Bunch’ (collard greens), ‘Pão de Açúcar’ (chicory) and ‘Folha Larga’ (arugula) were used. The yield of collard greens in monoculture did not differ from those obtained when they were intercropped with chicory, arugula, or both species, whereas chicory and arugula yields were higher in monoculture. However, even with yield losses for chicory and arugula in intercropping, LUE indices were greater than 1.0 in all intercropping systems, indicating their viability. The highest LUE index (2.41) was obtained in the chicory-arugula-collard green intercropping system.

Agrarian Distress and Sustainable Development Goals: An Overview

The number of undernourished people dropped by almost half in the past two decades because of rapid economic growth and increased agricultural productivity. Unfortunately, extreme hunger and malnutrition remain a huge barrier to development in many countries as there are still 821 million people estimated to be chronically undernourished as of 2017 because of environmental degradation. The second sustainable development goal to attain zero hunger by achieving food security can only be achieved by improving agricultural productivity and providing suitable opportunities to the farmers and producers to enhance production in this sector. But in India after liberalization and globalization, Indian agricultural profitability starts declining and the Indian farmers because of mounting agrarian distress comes under severe debt trap. Several paradigm shifts in governmental policies although helped them in improving their economic position but still the farming community was not able to help the global world to attain second Sustainable Development Goals.

Presentation and validation of induction irrigation as an efficient and profitable method

The scarcity of water resources along with population growth and low precipitation exert stresses on the agricultural sectors of arid regions. The evapotranspiration losses due to water use in the warm months of the year are high for walnut production, for example, which is one of the main Iranian agricultural exports. Also, the water losses occurring in flood irrigation, surface storage, and water conveyance, and the high costs of drip irrigation increase the need for efficient irrigation methods. This study proposes induction irrigation as a novel method for preventing evapotranspiration losses, increasing water-use efficiency, and raising agricultural profitability. Induction irrigation relies on recharge and extraction wells to inject treated sewage and withdraw groundwater, respectively, and create a saturated zone in the plants' root area. This paper demonstrates that induction irrigation applied to walnut orchards would lower costs and water losses, avoid surface pollution, and increase agricultural profitability.

Conclusion

This chapter argues that the case of Rajpura provides insights into the causes and trajectory of India’s “land wars” and their implications for development. It suggests that the exclusionary trajectory of capitalism in contemporary India is the structural underpinning of farmer protests and explains why the political stability of India’s neoliberal regime of dispossession rests on its ability to substitute land prices for inclusive development. However, even an ostensibly “pro-farmer” overhaul of India’s Land Acquisition Act will be inadequate to generalize the compliance achieved in Rajpura, especially where agricultural profitability and dependence are higher, inequalities are more muted, and histories of peasant activism are more militant. “Land wars” are a symptom of dispossession without development and will not disappear without a major redirection of India’s political economy. To the extent that they can foster this redirection, anti-dispossession movements are agents of—rather than obstacles to—development.

Uso De Un Polímero Hidrófilo A Base De Poliacrilamida Para Mejorar La Eficiencia En El Uso Del Agua

As an alternative in search of new options to reduce overexploitation of groundwater that allow us to increase agricultural profitability in water scarce areas, the behavior of a commercial hydrophilic polymer based in polyacrylamide (PAM) Lluvia solida®, was analyzed by evaluating the polymer hydration capacity. The tests that we used showed that this polymer is capable of absorbing its own weight in 268 times when using distilled water. When salts are dissolved in the water, the polymer reduces its water absorbing capacity, the hydration capacity being lower as the salt content increases, with a water absorption reduction up to 116 times its weight. The polymer hydration capacity also decreases significantly when a complete nutritive solution is used, reducing water absorption up to 55 times its weight; in the presence of divalent (Ca2+ and Mg2+) and monovalent (K+ and NH4 +) cations the polymer hydration capacity reduces proportionally to the cation concentration as an exponential function. Urea did not have any effect in the polymer hydration, thus this fertilizer may be used along with the polymer. The use of this hydrophilic polymer is a tool that improves the water use efficiency but the effect depends on water quality, being reduced by the presence of salts in water.