The international community is placing a growing emphasis on developing local capacity as the key to alleviating poverty and hunger in the developing world. Although ensuring the effectiveness of a capacity building effort requires appropriate use of evaluation, few organizations have implemented a system for monitoring or evaluating the changes taking place during organizational development. In January 2000, ISNAR began an ambitious Evaluating Capacity Development project, which aimed to improve capacity development efforts in research and development organizations through the use of evaluation. This book explains how the project used an action learning approach, bringing together people from various countries and different types of organizations. As they conducted six evaluation studies over the course of three years, project participants learned a great deal about capacity development and the process of evaluation. The authors use examples and lessons drawn from the evaluation studies as a basis for making more general conclusions regarding how capacity development efforts and evaluation can help organizations to achieve their missions.

Globally crop pathogens and pests cause significant yield and quality losses in agriculture production systems. Foliar fungal diseases of small grain cereals are economically among the most important diseases worldwide and in the Baltics. Finding an effective, reliable, and easily accessible method for plant disease diagnosis still presents a challenge. Currently used methods include visual examination of the affected plant, morphological characterization of isolated pathogens and different molecular, and serological methods. All of these methods have important limitations, especially for large-area applications. Hyperspectral imaging is a promising technique to assess fungal diseases of plants, as it is a non-invasive, indirect detection method, where the plant’s responses to the biotic stress are identified as an indicator of the disease. Hyperspectral measurements can reveal a relationship between the spectral reflectance properties of plants and their structural characteristics, pigment concentrations, water level, etc., which are considerably influenced by biotic plant stress. Despite the high accuracy of the information obtained from hyperspectral detectors, the interpretation is still problematic, as it is influenced by various circumstances: noise level, lighting conditions, abiotic stress level, a complex interaction of the genotype and the environment, etc. The application of hyperspectral imaging in everyday farming practice will potentially allow farmers to obtain timely and precise information about the development of diseases and affected areas. This review provides an introduction into issues of hyperspectral imaging and data analysis and explores the published reports of worldwide research on the use of hyperspectral analysis in the detection of foliar fungal diseases of small-grain cereals.

Semi-natural grasslands (SNG) are essential in the context of farmland biodiversity. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), on the other hand, is an important tool for the continuation of the management of semi-natural grasslands. Explicit knowledge on the pattern of grassland area changes is important to foster a more effective use of CAP for grassland biodiversity conservation. Our aim was to determine the habitat-specific changes in the distribution of Latvian SNG across different management regimes. Based on state-owned geospatial data of SNG distribution in 2014 and 2022, we assessed changes in semi-natural grassland areas over nearly ten years by analysing grassland management and spatial distribution including areas inside and outside the Natura 2000 network. The spatial distribution of SNG remained similar in both periods. Eastern Latvia retained the highest share of SNG while the central part showed the most pronounced increase in new localities of SNG due to extensive habitat mapping carried out in recent years. Abandonment appeared as a more important threat to SNG in the Natura 2000 network and more profoundly to unproductive habitat types while transformation into arable land and grassland intensification was a considerable threat to SNG outside the network and to more productive habitat types. We suggest that agri-environment schemes should address the different needs of SNG in the Natura 2000 network and outside it.

The use of the smoke released during the wood burning process to prepare food products is a centuries-long tradition, practically all over the world. However, during the combustion process, a group of compounds called polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed in the flue gases, which are carcinogenic and condense during the smoking process and diffuse into the smoked food product. Therefore, permissible PAH norms have been set for food producers, which significantly complicate the use of wood. In the study, using a gas analyser, we measured the flue gases released during the burning of specially made, apple and grey alder wood pellets, with and without enrichment of the supplied air with ozone. The use of ozone does not ensure a higher burning temperature of pellets, but it stabilizes it – temperature fluctuations are significantly wider using non-ozonised air (697 to 817 and 611 to 817 ℃, respectively). The content of CO2, CO, as well as CH4 and N2O increases significantly in apple wood flue gases using ozonised air, while CH4 increases and N2O decreases in grey alder smoke. Which generally indicates specific reactions with ozone during combustion. Comparing the flue gases released during the burning of apple and grey alder wood pellets, grey alder smoke contains significantly more N2O and CO2 than apple wood pellet flue gases. On the other hand, using ozonised air in the combustion process increases N2O significantly in the flue gas of apple tree pellets compared to white alder.

Diabetes is a metabolic disease whose prevalence in the world is increasing every year. To improve the life quality of diabetes patients and achieve better treatment results, adjusted food products with lower carbohydrate quantities are necessary. Primarily fructose is used in products for diabetes patients, but fructose increases obesity risk. The aim of the study is to evaluate available scientific articles on potential natural sweeteners for the substitution of fructose in food products for people with diabetes. Natural sweeteners could be a good alternative to fructose, they decrease product glycaemic index and positively influence the health of diabetes patients. Stevia is a plant used in food production for obtaining sweet taste. Glycosides extracted from stevia are food additives, i.e. sweeteners. Stevia decreases sugar levels and improves insulin secretion, it has antibacterial and antioxidative features. The use of stevia in food production causes a bitter aftertaste of products. To disguise the bitter aftertaste, other natural sweeteners are added to stevia. Thaumatin is a sweet protein used in food production. To improve product taste, polyols and other natural sweeteners are added. Polyols are a good alternative for fructose substitution because they slightly influence sugar levels in the blood and they have high chemical thermal stability. Products containing different combinations of several natural sweeteners possess the best sensory features. The research results show that stevioside, rebaudioside, thaumatin, and polyols are good alternatives for fructose substitution in products. To clarify how sweeteners, influence food product features additional researches are necessary.