This study investigates the possibilities of applying water generated from the atmosphere for agricultural processes, particularly hydroponic systems. A solar powered, off-grid greenhouse system is proposed as a theoretical solution to food production, in areas affected by water scarcity. Two experiments are conducted with the purpose of testing atmospheric water quality and how it performs in a hydroponic setting. The plausibility of powering said greenhouse system using solar energy is investigated, considering several available solar technologies. Ultimately, the footprint area required to install enough capacity to power the system is discussed, and the potential site of such a system is modelled and visualized. The experiments concluded that atmospheric water is likely suitable for hydroponic use. The study also found that the footprint area required for the greenhouse system probably can be considered reasonable for certain applications, but more research and advances within solar power technology would be beneficial | <p>2021-06-08</p>

Acinetobacter spp. has emerged as a pathogen of major public health concern due to their increased resistance to antibiotics and their association with a wide range of nosocomial infections, community-acquired infections and war and natural disaster-related infections. It is recognized as a ubiquitous organism however, information about the prevalence of different pathogenic species of this genus in food sources and drinking water is scarce. Since the implementation of molecular techniques, the role of foods as a source of several species, including the Acinetobacter baumannii group, has been elucidated. Multidrug resistance was also detected among Acinetobacter spp. isolated from food products. This highlights the importance of foods as potential sources of dissemination of Acinetobacter spp. between the community and clinical environments and reinforces the need for further investigations on the potential health risks of Acinetobacter spp. as foodborne pathogens. The aim of this review was to summarize the published data on the occurrence of Acinetobacter spp. in different food sources and drinking water. This information should be taken into consideration by those responsible for infection control in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

The complexity of water, food and energy security is analysed from the perspectives of (i) water and food and (ii) water and energy and their interconnectivity and focuses ultimately on water as a primary input into processes, the entry point for participants of the Third World Irrigation Forum. The paper provides an overview of trends in water, food and energy security, highlights the interconnectivity between the various elements and introduces the water–food–energy nexus as a tool for improving productivity and sector policies, avoiding unintended consequences on other sectors. Invariably, there will be trade‐offs and the challenge is to find combinations of measures that have a net positive outcome. In order to quantify security in the three elements and the trade‐offs between them, emerging modelling approaches for the nexus are discussed. Sub‐theme 3 of the forum focuses on productivity and technology interventions¹ and sub‐theme 2 on stakeholder interaction. The combination of modelling, technology innovations and stakeholder participation in a water–food–energy nexus approach leads to better understanding of linkages and more robust policies and is used to derive recommendations for an enabling policy environment.

Water is a key input for food production. It is used on farms to grow crops, raise livestock, clean processing equipment, generate electricity, and rinse produce. While water is important, available freshwater for human use is scarce. Much like other natural resources, freshwater is faced with supply and demand stresses, including population growth, climate change, and changing consumer preferences.

Relying on published literature, we reviewed water-energy-food issues in Lao PDR in the context of a policy shift to more sustainable ‘green growth’ and significantly increased infrastructure investment resulting from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI provides the prospect for the country to address its infrastructure deficit and transform from a ‘land-locked’ to a ‘land-linked’ country. However, great care is needed to ensure that future investments do not result in further environmental degradation and harm to communities. An integrated ‘nexus’ approach, in which enhanced water management is central, is a prerequisite for more inclusive and sustainable development.

Climate change might have direct impacts on water quantity in Egypt and lead to indirect effects on Mediterranean saltwater intrusion to groundwater, which exposes agriculture to vulnerability. This study investigated impacts of climate change on agriculture, with particular regard to food security and socioeconomy, and quantified the effectiveness of cropping pattern adaptation measures by integrating three mathematical models. The BlueM model was used for hydrological simulations of Nasser Lake under flooding scenarios to predict the water supply from the High Aswan Dam. The water and salinity balance (WB-SAL) model was adopted to estimate the water salinity in the Nile Delta. The simulated results from the BlueM and WB-SAL models were integrated with the agricultural simulation model for Egypt (ASME) to project cropping patterns, food security, and socioeconomy throughout the country. The results showed that future climate change will directly affect the total crop area; crop areas for 13 crop types; the self-sufficiency of wheat, rice, cereal, and maize supplies; and socioeconomic indicators. The proposed cropping pattern adaptation measures focus on fixing the crop areas of rice and orchards and providing half of the population with lentils, maize, onion, vegetables, milk, and meat. The adaptation measures have the potential to promote food security without causing deterioration of the socioeconomic situation. However, water availability has much more significant effects on food security and socioeconomy than cropping pattern adaptation measures do. Accordingly, the country should rationalize water use efficiency and increase water supply.

Water, energy, food, and environment are highly interconnected, with intricate dependencies and multiple uncertainties involved in agricultural system. This paper presents a novel water-energy-food-environment nexus (WEFEN) optimization model for sustainable development of agriculture. The developed model incorporates stochastic multi-objective programming, triangular fuzzy numbers, fuzzy credibility-constrained programming, mixed-integer programming, non-linear programming, and Stewart model into a general optimization framework. The model is capable of (1) balancing the tradeoffs among socio-economic, resources, and environmental concerns; (2) generating valid WEFEN management solutions achieving the targets of maximum net economic benefit, maximum renewable energy production, minimum water footprint, and minimum carbon footprint simultaneously; (3) dealing with complexities and uncertainties existed in agricultural WEFEN systems. The model was applied to the Zhanghe irrigation district to give policy-makers insights into what efforts should be made towards sustainable agricultural management. Flexible alternatives were generated under different scenarios and sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results highlighted the significance of improvement of internal water storage capacity, reasonable farmland management, and compromise decision preferences. The proposed methodology is applicable for other agriculture-centered regions suffering from multifold resources and environment crisis.

Relying on published literature, we reviewed water-energy-food issues in Lao PDR in the context of a policy shift to more sustainable ‘green growth’ and significantly increased infrastructure investment resulting from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI provides the prospect for the country to address its infrastructure deficit and transform from a ‘land-locked’ to a ‘land-linked’ country. However, great care is needed to ensure that future investments do not result in further environmental degradation and harm to communities. An integrated ‘nexus’ approach, in which enhanced water management is central, is a prerequisite for more inclusive and sustainable development.

Water resources face an unparalleled confluence of pressures, with agriculture and urban growth as the most relevant human-related stressors. In this context, methodologies using a Nexus framework seem to be suitable to address these challenges. However, the urban sector has been commonly ignored in the Nexus literature. We propose a Nexus framework approach, considering the economic dimensions of the interdependencies and interconnections among agriculture (food production) and the urban sector as water users within a common basin. Then, we assess the responses of both sectors to climatic and demographic stressors. In this setting, the urban sector is represented through an economic water demand at the household level, from which economic welfare is derived. Our results show that the Nexus components here considered (food, water, and welfare) will be negatively affected under the simulated scenarios. However, when these components are decomposed to their particular elements, we found that the less water-intensive sector—the urban sector—will be better off since food production will leave significant amounts of water available. Moreover, when addressing uncertainty related to climate-induced shocks, we could identify the basin resilience threshold. Our approach shows the compatibilities and divergences between food production and the urban sector under the Nexus framework.

This handbook is designed to provide a summary of the principal federal and state (Florida) laws that directly or indirectly relate to agriculture. Because these laws are subject to constant revision, portions of the handbook could become outdated at any time. The reader should use it as a means to determine areas in which to seek more information and as a brief directory of agencies that can help answer more specific questions.