The agricultural sector is considered as one of the main elements of a “functional” society and its welfare for providing means to fulfil the most basic human need for food. In the past, an improved overall welfare of developed countries was directly related to early investment in conventional farming machinery parallel to the industrial development. With the expected future population increase and climate change, farm yield gaps are expected to increase and become more volatile. The awareness of negative externalities ...

Changing climate and weather patterns increase the pressure on food production systems worldwide, significantly impacting livelihoods and economies at various scales. Understanding and adapting/mitigating climate change are essential to cope with the adverse effects of climate change. Biophysical crop modeling offers a unique way to assess the pros and cons of different adaptation strategies because they integrate physical and biological principles to simulate the use and allocation of captured resources mechanistically. ...

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important agricultural commodity that is important to the economies of many countries in the world. Due to cocoa’s dependence on fertile forests soils, its production is a major cause of deforestation and soil degradation in producing countries. When grown in agroforestry systems it can conserve biodiversity, sequester carbon (C), and maintain soil fertility. There are many cocoa agroforests which are managed without synthetic agrochemicals. Because organic cocoa certification is now ...

Bei der maschinellen Holzernte mit schweren Holzerntefahrzeugen wird der befahrene Waldboden deformiert und damit potenziell in seiner forstwirtschaftlichen Produktivität eingeschränkt. Mögliche Lösungsansätze für diese unerwünschte Nebenwirkung des Technikeinsatzes sind die Beschränkung der Befahrung des Waldbodens auf permanenten Rückegassen und die Verwendung tragender Bogiebänder. Es besteht jedoch eine Forschungslücke zur Veränderung der physikalischen Eigenschaften von vorverdichtetem Boden bestehender Rückegassen ...

Agro-processing is key to reducing post-harvest losses. Agro-processing is defined as a set of techno-economic activities applied to all the products originating from the agricultural farm, livestock, aqua cultural sources, and forests for their conservation, handling, and value-addi-tion to make them usable as food, feed, fibre, fuel, or industrial raw materials [12]. Processing can be sophisticated (relying on industrial plants and machinery) or simple (depending on the sun or indigenous small-scale processes). The ...

The global urban population is expected to reach 5.2 billion by 2030 and by mid-2023 approximately 4.6 billion out of more than 8 billion population were living in towns or cities. This represents approximately 57% of the total global population and is set to reach 60% by 2030. India’s urban population is expected to reach 607 million by 2030 and by mid-2030 40% of the total population will be living in urban areas. Growing urban population has multi-sectoral and dimensional implications in the rural, peri-urban, and ...

The use of biochar as an additive in anaerobic digestion (AD) is a potential pathway to enhance AD while promoting biomass-to-biochar value chain within a circular bioeconomy. Biochar, a novel biomaterial, serves for managing residual biomass following the cascading use principle, prioritizing material use over sole energy generation. AD, as a well-established method for biogas production and organic substance management, plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. Therefore, this thesis investigated the ...

There is great interest, not only in technologically advanced societies, in developing innovative sources of raw materials, especially lignocellulosic biomasses such as cereal straw, which do not interfere with food production. In Germany, 4 – 9 million tons of cereal straw, mainly wheat, are utilized annually, corresponding to an energy potential of 57 – 129 PJ/a. Lignocellulose, found in plant cell walls, consists of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, and it requires complex fractionation to enable its polymers ...

Maize is among the three most important crops worldwide, while its multifunctional nature allows a diversified use. However, the traditional (silage) maize production often has negative side-effects related to the unprotected soil surface — e.g., erosion, weed pressure and related mechanical weed control. There are several alternative management systems to enhance the sustainability of (silage) maize production. However, the means and strength of influence are still unclear in some cases. Therefore, the current thesis ...

Urbanization leads to effects on many aspects of ecosystems and societies. Among the affected are agricultural systems and, specifically, soils. One of the most evident pathways of urbanization effects on agricultural soils is through an increased demand for agricultural commodities requiring agricultural intensification, hence, changes in management practices that alter soils. In this context, the purpose of this study was to understand how the main agricultural management practices taking place in urbanizing ...