Agrociencia Uruguay

Wood production and financial return in two silvopastoral systems

Mariana Boscana — 2023-03-09

Silvopastoral systems combine forestry and livestock activities, establishing productive and economic interactions that must be known in order to project their viability in the medium to long term. Important aspects of these systems are spacing arrangement, wood production and economic return. The present study was carried out on a farm with commercial forestry and aimed at evaluating wood production and its financial return in two silvopastoral systems of Eucalyptus globulus: Conventional Forestry System (CFS) in a plantation arrangement of 3.5×2.7 m, and Silvopastoral System (SSRA) (2×2)+8 m of alley. Each system was evaluated in three strata, at age 68 months. No differences (p> 0.05) were found for Survival (S), Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), Height (H), and Dominant Height (DH) between CFS and SSRA values. However, both systems differed (p <0.05) in wood production values (m³/ha) at age 68 months: CFS produced 83.7 m³/ha, while SSRA produced 60 m³/ha. Optimal technical rotations estimated were 12 and 13 years for CFS and SSRA, respectively. The Equivalent Annual Income (EAI) was 140 and 141 US$/ha/year for CFS and SSRA, respectively. However, SSRA requires a lower plantation investment and provides greater liquidity throughout the rotation. Forestry systems can be designed in ways that allow greater spatial integration of livestock, becoming more complementary systems.

How to foster changes towards farm sustainability?

Paula Colnago — 2022-12-06

Current global challenges for family farmers, such as the deterioration of arable land and low family income, cannot be addressed only by working on single farm components. Improving the sustainability of family farms requires a multi-objective systems approach and may be seen as an evolutionary process composed of iterative learning cycles. We developed a co-innovation project from 2014 to 2017 that involved characterisation, diagnosis, redesign, and implementation and evaluation of the redesigns on farms. Low family income, low labour productivity and the deterioration of soil quality were the main problems impacting farm sustainability. We identified crop management factors and soil fertility deficiencies as the main causes of low yields. After three cycles of diagnosis, redesign, implementation and monitoring, the average family income increased by 32%, labour productivity increased by 22%, and all the farms implemented soil erosion control measurements. Greater implementation of the farm redesign plans resulted in greater improvements in family income, labour productivity, and crop yields. We identified four types of activities that supported learning throughout the co-innovation process: regular farm visits; meetings to discuss diagnosis, planning and evaluation; field days, and reflection workshops. The strategic use of system analysis tools to promote learning eased communication among different actors, allowing shared learning.

Dairy organizations in the eastern basin of Uruguay and the development of the sector

Martín Grau — 2023-02-15

In recent years, Uruguayan dairy has seen significant growth and development. From the territorial point of view, this has shown different intensities. The non-traditional basin of eastern Uruguay, consisting of the departments of Lavalleja, Maldonado and Rocha, showed lower levels of development compared to other areas of the country. This asymmetry would be influenced, at least partially, by weaknesses of the dairy producer organizations present in the eastern region, as they represent collective instruments of support, promotion and defense of the interests of the sector. The objective of this study is to analyze the structure and characteristics of these organizations and to inquire about the causes that limit dairy development in the region. The conceptual framework is based on the vision of social capital as a contributing factor to productive, economic and social development. The research was carried out between 2015 and 2017, and consisted of collecting primary information through semi-structured surveys and consulting secondary information. The results show that dairy producer associations have small social mass, low levels of partner participation and a low degree of articulation and cooperation with other entities of the local and national environment. In general terms and in a broad sense, there are weaknesses in the regional social capital related to dairy, which helps explain the relative lag of the sector in this region compared to the traditional basin.

Inorganic contaminants (As, Cd, Pb) in peeled and whole potatoes and sweet potatoes

Alexandra Sixto — 2023-02-27

Vegetables are a rich source of macro and micronutrients. Particularly, potatoes and sweet potatoes are widely consumed and are two of the most important food crops in the world. Therefore, contamination of these products due to their content of inorganic contaminants is of great concern.

Considering the healthy trend of consuming these tubers and roots with their skins, which are rich in fiber and other nutrients, analysis of the whole product could provide valuable information in relation to their food safety. Therefore, the presence of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in peeled and whole potatoes and sweet potatoes was studied. To do so, analytical methods were optimized and validated according to the Association of Official Analytical Collaboration International (AOAC) requirements for food analysis. Although the content of As, Cd and Pb was in most cases more than three times below the maximum allowed levels for these contaminants, the presence of Cd was detected in the samples of whole sweet potato but not in the peeled ones. The same behavior was observed for Pb in most of the sweet potato samples analyzed. This information points to the need to generate information on the whole root and tuber contaminants content, and to have analytical methods available to gather data on the occurrence of these contaminants in the whole vegetable in order to perform their risk assessment according to the consumption habits.

Fungi associated to Platanus x acerifolia in Uruguay and failure indicators

Agueda Claudia Scattolini Rimada — 2023-02-09

In the last few years, the interest in keeping the city trees healthy has increased in order to improve their survival and minimize claims due to potential accidents. The pest and diseases, the pollution, and the climate change together with the little genetic diversity of trees in urban areas are some of the factors that contribute to increase the likelihood of death and/or failure of trees in the cities. This work is part of a sanitary and risk of failure assessment of plane street trees (Platanus x acerifolia) carried out between 2019 and 2020. A random sample of 10 city blocks and their 193 plane trees was selected. In these, the presence of cankers, abnormal bark colorations, deformations, and a series of structural attributes that determine likelihood of failure variables were registered. The proportion of individuals with each symptom and the severity main index (SMI) were calculated as a weighted average of the different severity (SEV) levels in the total of evaluated plants. The severity indices were determined according to trunk or branches circumference and the portion of the tree affected (1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd portion from the base). Deformations presented the main incidence (0.6), SMI (1.68) and a correlation with the presence of damages and human injuries. The presence of cankers and reddish bark were the symptoms that most affected the density of the crowns.