In the face of climatic and other socioeconomic changes, most South Asian countries having large and growing population, limited land resources, and increasing water stress face a common challenge of how to grow more food with the same or less land, less water, and increased energy prices. This concept paper seeks deeper understanding of the interlinkages among water, energy, and food, which is crucial to formulate cross-sectoral policies for more resilient and adaptable societies. In South Asia, such a nexus approach inevitably needs to take Himalayan ecosystem services into account. Rice and wheat, the staple foods in South Asia, require huge amounts of both water and energy. The Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra plain - the sub-region's grain basket and one of the world's largest areas of irrigated agriculture - depends in large part on the Himalayan mountain system as a source of both surface and groundwater for irrigation; as a source of hydropower; and as a regulator of climate and a repository of agro-biodiversity. To sustain these services and to ensure both upstream and downstream food, water, and energy security in South Asia, policies and strategies must therefore promote improved management of Himalayan watersheds, forests, wetlands, and rangelands. Recommended measures include support to restoration of natural water storage capacity; development of climate smart, environmentally and socially sound water infrastructure; adequate investment for natural resource management; and incentives to mountain communities for managing Himalayan ecosystems.

Temperature is considered as the major factor determining virus inactivation in the environment. Food industries, therefore, widely apply temperature as virus inactivating parameter. This review encompasses an overview of viral inactivation and virus genome degradation data from published literature as well as a statistical analysis and the development of empirical formulae to predict virus inactivation. A total of 658 data (time to obtain a first log10 reduction) were collected from 76 published studies with 563 data on virus infectivity and 95 data on genome degradation. Linear model fitting was applied to analyse the effects of temperature, virus species, detection method (cell culture or molecular methods), matrix (simple or complex) and temperature category (<50 and ≥50°C). As expected, virus inactivation was found to be faster at temperatures ≥50°C than at temperatures <50°C, but there was also a significant temperature–matrix effect. Virus inactivation appeared to occur faster in complex than in simple matrices. In general, bacteriophages PRD1 and PhiX174 appeared to be highly persistent whatever the matrix or the temperature, which makes them useful indicators for virus inactivation studies. The virus genome was shown to be more resistant than infectious virus. Simple empirical formulas were developed that can be used to predict virus inactivation and genome degradation for untested temperatures, time points or even virus strains.

Makean veden kulutuksesta on tullut tärkeä kestävyyden ulottuvuus mitattaessa kulutuksen ja tuotannon kestävyyttä. Tämä kirjallisuuteen perustuva katsaus käsittelee elintarviketuotteiden makean veden kulutuksen ja sen vaikutusten mittaamista. Monitahoinen vesikriisi koettelee elintarvikesektoria: ilmastonmuutos vähentää alueellisesti veden saatavuutta, toisaalta kastelun lisääminen kasvattaa energiankulutusta ja sitä kautta ilmakehän hiilidioksidipäästöjä. Kriisin merkkejä ovat myös veden niukkuudesta aiheutuva ekosysteemien köyhtyminen sekä kilpailu vesivaroista maatalouden ja muiden toimijoiden sekä ruuantuotannon ja non-food-tuotannon välillä. Kansainvälinen vesitilastoinnin suositus IRWS (International Recommendations for Water Statistics) pyrkii harmonisoimaan vesitilastointia mm. kansantalouden tilinpidon kehittämiseksi. Vesitilastointi tarjoaa globaalisti suhteellisen kattavan tietolähteen vedenkulutuksen arvioimiseen. Kansalliset vesitilastot eivät kuitenkaan yleensä huomioi piiloveden tuontia maan ulkopuolelta eivätkä kasvien haihduttamaa vettä. Hoekstran ja Hungin vuonna 2002 esittelemä vesijalanjälkikonsepti pohjautuu virtuaali- eli piiloveden käsitteeseen, laajentaen ja syventäen sitä makean veden kulutuksen globaaliksi mittariksi. Kansainvälinen verkosto Water Footprint Network (WFN) tukee konseptia, joka erottelee sinisen eli ns. teknisen ihmisen käyttöönsä ottaman veden, vihreän eli kasvien käyttöönsä ottaman maaperän veden sekä harmaan veden, jolla tarkoitetaan sen laimennusveden määrää, jolla pilaantunut vesi saataisiin laimennettua referenssitasolle. Elintarvikkeiden vesijalanjäljestä merkittävin osa on yleensä peräisin elinkaaren alkuvaiheesta, kasvintuotannosta. Vesijalanjälkikonseptin on todettu soveltuvan hyvin yrityksen riskien tunnistamiseen ja strategiseen suunnitteluun. Konseptin vahvuutena on pidetty sinisen ja vihreän veden erottelua erityisesti maatalouteen perustuvilla tuotannonaloilla. World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) ja UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative ovat olleet aloitteellisia menetelmäkehityksessä vedenkulutuksen arvioimiseksi osana elinkaariarviointia. ISO on puolestaan aloittanut työn standardin tuottamiseksi vesijalanjäljen laskennasta. Elinkaariarvioinnissa vedenkulutus suhteutetaan useimmiten alueelliseen niukkuuteen. UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative esittää vaikutusarvioinnin viitekehyksessään mm. että veden kulumista resurssina voidaan käyttää indikaattorina (ns. keskipiste), kun taas vaikutukset ihmisen terveyteen ja ekosysteemiin ovat lopullisia tarkasteltavia haittoja (loppupisteitä). Näihin haittoihin päästään kiinni ns. vaikutusketjumalleilla, joilla hahmotetaan veden kulutuksen syy-seuraus-suhteet. Elinkaariarviointia pidetään tieteellisesti kehittyneenä menetelmänä, joka soveltuu hyvin vertaamaan makean veden käyttöä vaikutuksineen koko tuotteen elinkaaren ja toisaalta laajojen alueiden välillä. Hankaluutena pidetään sitä, että mitkään LCA-menetelmät eivät ole vielä laajasti hyväksyttyjä ja toisaalta arviointitulosten viestimistä pidetään vaativana teknisen monimutkaisuuden vuoksi. Vedenkulutusta on tarkasteltu myös osana talouden materiaalivirtoja ja panos-tuotos-malleja, kuten Mäenpää kehittämässään Suomen kansantalouden mallissa. Suomalaisen elintarviketuotannon näkökulmasta haasteita elintarvikkeen vesijalanjäljen arvioimiseksi riittää sekä datan hankinnan että menetelmäkehityksen puolella. Globaali vesikriisi kuitenkin haastaa yritykset luomaan omat vesistrategiansa sekä vastuullisen hankinnan periaatteensa, joissa veden kulutus ja sen vaikutukset ovat mukana. | Fresh water consumption has become an important dimension of sustainability assessing sustainability of consumption and production. This literature based review deals with measuring the consumption of fresh water and its impacts in production. Water crisis is a complex phenomenom, which strains the food sector: climate change decreases the availability of water regionally, on the other hand irrigation increases energy consumption and CO2 -emissions in the atmosphere. Also ecosystem degradation due to water scarcity and completion over water resources between agriculture and other sector and between food production and non-food production are signs of the crisis. International Recommendations for Water Statistics (IRWS) is aiming to harmonize water statistics for National Accounts among the other things. Water statistics provide globally relatively comprehensive data source for assessing water consumption. However the national water statistics do not normally take the import of virtual water or water evapotranspiration from crop production into account. Water footprint concept presented by Hoekstra and Hung in 2002 is based on virtual (embedded) water extended to a global index of fresh water consumption. International Water Footprint Network (WFN) supports the concept. In the concept the three different types of water use are distinguished: blue water is water technically put into operation by humans, green water is soil water used by plants and grey water is the theoretical amount of dilution water needed to dilute the low-quality water to the reference level. The significant proportion of water footprint of food stuffs is normally derived from the beginning of lice cycle, agriculture. The concept of water footprint is found to be suitable for identifying the risks and strategic planning in companies. The strength of the concept especially in agriculture is the separation of blue and green water. World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative have taken the initiative in methodology development to assess the water consumption as a part of life cycle assessment. ISO has launched a work to produce a standard of water footprint assessment. In life cycle assessment the consumption of water is normally put in proportion with regional scarcity. UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative propose in their framework of impact assessment of LCA that water consumption (water as a resource) could be used as an indicator (so called middle point), and impacts on human health and ecosystem are final areas of protection (endpoints).These areas of protection are approached by so called impact-pathways, which are used to conceive the cause and effect relations of water consumption. Life cycle assessment is kept as scientifically advanced method, which is suitable for comparing fresh water use and its impacts in a product level and between wide areas. A difficulty is that none of the LCA methods are widely accepted and on the other hand communicating the results is challenging due their technical complexity. Water consumption is studied also as a part of material flows of national economy and input-output-models as Mäenpää in Finnish national economy model. In the perspective of Finnish food production there are lots of challenges in assessing water footprint of food stuffs. Both data acquisition and methodology development are difficult tasks. However the global water crisis is challenging companies to develop their own water strategies and include the water consumption and its impacts into their principles of responsible purchasing. | v | ok

Thenkabail et al., 'Assessing future risks to agricultural productivity, water resources and food security: how can remote sensing help?', Photogr. Eng. Remote Sensing 78(8): 773-782, ill. Ref.

Selecting appropriate crops and applying deficit irrigation can help increase water productivity in water-limited regions such as the Mediterranean. The objective of this study was to develop water production functions of major cereal and legume crops under the same environmental and management conditions. Bread and durum wheat, faba bean, chickpea, and lentil were grown under full supplemental irrigation (FSI), two deficit irrigations levels of 2/3 of FSI (2/3SI) and 1/3 of FSI (1/3SI), and under rainfed conditions (no irrigation). In average, the actual evapotranspirations (ETs) under FSI were 549, 552, 365, 451 and 297 mm, for bread wheat, durum wheat, faba bean, chickpea and lentil, respectively. For the same crops, they were 463, 458, 330, 393 and 277 mm for the treatment 2/3SI and 357, 351, 265, 318 and 244 mm for the treatment 1/3SI, respectively. In the case of the rainfed treatment, ETs for the mentioned crops were 250, 251, 227, 237 and 215 mm, respectively. The experiment was conducted at the ICARDA experimental station at Tel Hadya, near Aleppo, Syria, over three growing seasons from 2007 to 2010.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a 6, 12, 18, 24, or 30h transport period on the physiology and reproductive success of breeding age gilts, simulating transport of breeding gilts from one farm to a commercial breeding herd. Fifty gilts were allocated to one of five transport (TRANS) treatment groups; transported for 6, 12, 18, 24, or 30h. Fifteen gilts were allocated to one of five control (CON) treatments; gilts remained in their home pen for 6, 12, 18, 24, or 30h. Every 6h, gilts from one TRANS treatment were removed from the trailer. Blood samples were collected from gilts and their respective controls before and after transport. Gilts were then bred after puberty. The granulocyte to lymphocyte ratio (P<0.05) and cortisol concentrations (P<0.07) were greater in TRANS compared with CON gilts after a 6 and 12h transport period. Albumin concentrations were greater (P<0.001) in transported gilts after an 18 and 30h transport period compared with CON gilts. Blood urea nitrogen, glucose, and total protein concentrations were greater (P<0.05) in transported gilts compared with controls, regardless of the transport period. Reproductive performance measures did not differ (P>0.05) among treatments regardless of the length of transport duration. These data indicate that gilts transported for a period of up to 30h experienced initial acute stress during the first 6 to 12h and changes in water homeostasis throughout the 30h journey due to dehydration, food deprivation, and transport, however reproductive measures suggest that the long-term homeostasis of the gilts in this study were not significantly compromised. Transport of breeding gilts induced acute, transient stress but did not negatively impact reproductive performance. Interestingly, gilts were more at risk of physiological perturbations when transported 6h or less than 12 to 30h.

Mini Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2012. | Most agricultural water sources are often considered contaminated, due to poorly maintained sanitation systems, polluted river streams and other water catchment areas. Agricultural water used for irrigation and reconstitution of pesticides is suspected to play a direct or indirect role in the transmission of human pathogens to fresh produce. The contamination of fresh table grapes during pesticide spraying can therefore be seen as a potential risk factor. This study focuses on identifying possible sources and levels of bacterial contamination in a river, holding dam and tank in table grape production areas. In addition, the ability of selected pathogens to attach and survive on table grape surfaces was studied using transmission electron microscopy. Water sources sampled in this study were found to be microbiologically contaminated. Microbial populations varied with season, sampling period within a season and water treatment conditions. No human pathogens were detected under natural field conditions on crops irrigated with contaminated water used for reconstituting agricultural pesticides. This study further showed a wide range of pesticide products that permitted survival and multiplication of most of the tested foodborne pathogens i.e. Escherichia coli 157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus. This information provides insight into the potential risk that may be associated with table grapes due to the use of contaminated water. These findings highlight the importance of considering pesticides used, water quality and spray schedules prior to application. Detailed risk assessment studies on the potential of contaminated irrigation water and the actual link with foodborne disease outbreaks have not been investigated and should in future be determined as well as intervention strategies. | Microbiology and Plant Pathology | MSc | Unrestricted

Engineering the interface of oil-in-water emulsion droplets with biopolymers that modify its permeability could provide a novel technique to improve flavour retention in dry powders. The objective of this study was to determine if volatile compounds were more retained in dry emulsions stabilized by pea protein isolate (PPI)/pectin complex than that stabilized by PPI alone. The retention of ethyl esters during spray-drying increased with decreasing volatility of the encapsulated compound and ranged from 28% to 40%. The addition of pectin to feed emulsions was quite effective in markedly improving the retention of the three studied flavour compounds. In our previous work (Gharsallaoui et al., 2010), we showed that pectin was able to improve physical integrity of emulsion oil droplets during spray-drying. However, the pectin positive effect on both the droplet stability and the flavour retention at the time of spray-drying can also be explained by a protein molecular structure protective effect. Indeed, the obtained FTIR results showed that pectin was able to preserve the β-sheet secondary structure of pea protein when pea globulins/pectin complexes are heated. The study of the release characteristics of a flavour compound from dried powders showed that pectin addition did not affect the release profile mainly accomplished by the diffusion mechanism.