Dataset Information

Economic Performance and Sustainability of a Novel Intercropping System on the North China Plain.

ABSTRACT: Double cropping of wheat and maize is common on the North China Plain, but it provides limited income to rural households due to the small farm sizes in the region. Local farmers in Quzhou County have therefore innovated their production system by integration of watermelon as a companion cash crop into the system. We examine the economic performance and sustainability of this novel intercropping system using crop yield data from 2010 to 2012 and farm household survey data collected in 2012. Our results show that the gross margin of the intercropping system exceeded that of the double cropping system by more than 50% in 2012. Labor use in the intercropping system was more than three times that in double cropping. The lower returns per labor hour in intercropping, however, exceeded the average off-farm wage in the region by a significant margin. Nutrient surpluses and irrigation water use are significant larger under the intercropping system. We conclude that the novel wheat-maize/watermelon intercropping system contributes to rural poverty alleviation and household-level food security, by raising farm incomes and generating more employment, but needs further improvement to enhance its sustainability.

SUBMITTER: Huang C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4537243 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Economic Performance and Sustainability of a Novel Intercropping System on the North China Plain.

Huang Chengdong C Liu Quanqing Q Heerink Nico N Stomph TjeerdJan T Li Baoshen B Liu Ruili R Zhang Hongyan H Wang Chong C Li Xiaolin X Zhang Chaochun C van der Werf Wopke W Zhang Fusuo F

PloS one 20150814 8

Double cropping of wheat and maize is common on the North China Plain, but it provides limited income to rural households due to the small farm sizes in the region. Local farmers in Quzhou County have therefore innovated their production system by integration of watermelon as a companion cash crop into the system. We examine the economic performance and sustainability of this novel intercropping system using crop yield data from 2010 to 2012 and farm household survey data collected in 2012. Our ...[more]

PMID: 26275297

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Project description:Background: Responses to hypoxia have been investigated in many species; however, comparative study between conspecific geographical populations in different altitude regions is rare, especially for invertebrates . The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, is widely distributed both on high-altitude Tibetan Plateau (TP) and on low-altitude North China Plain (NP). TP locusts have inhabited Tibetan Plateau since Quaternary glaciations events and thus probably have evolved superior capacity to deal with hypoxia. Results: Here we compared the hypoxic responses of TP and NP locusts from morphological, behavioral and physiological perspectives. We found that TP locusts were more tolerant of extreme hypoxia than NP locusts, with a lower proportion exhibiting stupor, a faster recovery time, and higher respiration rates. We compared the transcriptional profiles of field TP and NP locusts and found that their differences were possibly attributed to a combination of multiple factors, e.g. oxygen, UV radiation, temperature and nutrition. To evaluate why TP locusts respond to extreme hypoxia differently from NP locusts, we subjected them to extreme hypoxia and compared their transcriptional responses. We found that the aerobic metabolism was more active in TP locusts than in NP locusts. RNAi disruption of PDHE1b, an entry gene from glycolysis to TCA cycle, increased the ratio of stupor in Tibetan locusts and decreased the ATP content of Tibetan locusts in hypoxia, confirming the significant importance of this metabolic branch for TP locusts to conquer hypoxia. Conclusions: Here we show that TP locusts are better tolerant of hypoxia than NP locusts and the better capacity to modulate primary metabolism in TP locusts contributes to their superior tolerance of hypoxia compared to NP locusts. FIELD POPULATION: TP locusts vs. NP locusts;direct comparison on 6 separate microarrays; each microarray compares one biological replicate; each biological replicate contains 10 individuals. LAB POPULATION: hypoxia-treated TP locusts vs TP locusts in normoxia; hypoxia-treated NP locusts vs NP locusts in normoxia; direct comparison on 6 separate microarrays; each microarray compares one biological replicate; each biological replicate contains 10 individuals.

Dataset Information

Economic Performance and Sustainability of a Novel Intercropping System on the North China Plain.

Publications

Economic Performance and Sustainability of a Novel Intercropping System on the North China Plain.

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