Journal articles on the topic 'Eastern Irrigation District (Alta.)'

However, irrigation practice is poor in Ethiopia, increases agricultural production and productivity. The study was conducted in Haramaya district, Eastern Ethiopia. The object of this study is to see contribution of small scale irrigation towards increasing agricultural production, and identify the factors that affecting the use of small scale irrigation. From the district, three peasant associations were purposively selected each from different agro ecological classifications. Sampling size of 116 households was interviewed and Secondary data were also collected from the office. Three different types of irrigation were identified; Surface irrigation type using furrow method of irrigation is the most common irrigation type in the study area, which accounts about 66.5%. The study indicated that, water scarcity, lack improved seed, and disease outbreak and drought were among the major constraints of irrigation practices in the study area. Therefore practicing water harvesting and supplying improved technologies provide extended service regularly for farmers should be practiced in the future.

The North China Plain is the main grain production district in China, with a large area of well irrigation resulting in a large groundwater depression cone. In the 1970s and 1980s, small-scale managed aquifer recharge (MAR) projects were developed to recharge shallow groundwater, which played an important role in ensuring stable and high crop yields. MAR projects are divided into 10 types based on local water conservancy characteristics. The combined use of well–canal irrigation has been widespread in the Yellow River Irrigation District of Shandong Province for nearly 40 years, where canals play multiple roles of transporting and storing Yellow River water or local surface water, recharging groundwater and providing canal irrigation. Moreover, the newly developed open channel–underground perforated pipe–shaft–water saving irrigation system can further expand the scope and amount of groundwater recharge and prevent system clogging through three measures. Finally, an adaptability zoning evaluation system of water spreading has been established in Liaocheng City of Shandong Province based on the following five factors: groundwater depth, thickness of fine sand, specific yield, irrigation return flow, and groundwater extraction intensity. The results show that MAR is more adaptable to the western region than to the eastern and central regions.

El distrito de riego y drenaje del Alto Chicamocha (DRACH por sus siglas en español), es la principal unidad de producción agropecuaria del departamento de Boyacá, Colombia, abarca un área de 8016,78 hectáreas y debido a las condiciones naturales y al manejo que se le ha venido dando a la cuenca alta del Río Chicamocha, la salinización ha sido reconocida como limitante. Por lo anterior se buscó determinar las sales solubles predominantes en los suelos que comprenden el DRACH. Con base en la información de análisis químicos de suelos de 301 muestras, obtenidas de estudios realizados por el GISSAT-UPTC y Corpoica, se determinó C.E, pH, aniones y cationes presentes en el suelo. Para el análisis espacial de las variables estudiadas se usó el sofware ArcGis 10.3. Se colectaron 31 muestras de agua en pozos de la red freatimétrica para realizar la caracterización química del agua. Se encontró que el 48,01% de los suelos del distrito eran no salinos, el 22,93% ligeramente salino, el 14,74% moderadamente salino y salinos el 14,33%. Las principales sales solubles en el suelo fueron el Na2SO4, Ca2SO4, NaCl2 y CaCl2, las cuales están relacionadas con el origen lacustre y la presencia de termales en la región. Las zonas con mayor riesgo de salinización se presentan en los municipios de Tibasosa, veredas Patrocinio, Ucaca, las Vueltas; en Santa Rosa de Viterbo en la vereda Salitre; en Duitama en las veredas Cebadero e Higueras con C.E. mayores a 2,00 dS m-1.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the antibiogram fingerprints of some Enterobacteria recovered from irrigation water and agricultural soil in two District Municipalities of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa using standard culture-based and molecular methods. The prevalent resistance patterns in the isolates follow the order: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium [tetracycline (92.3%), ampicillin (69.2%)]; Enterobacter cloacae [amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (77.6%), ampicillin (84.5%), cefuroxime (81.0%), nitrofurantoin (81%), and tetracycline (80.3%)]; Klebsiella pneumoniae [amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (80.6%), ampicillin (88.9%), and cefuroxime (61.1%)]; and Klebsiella oxytoca [chloramphenicol (52.4%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (61.9%), ampicillin (61.9%), and nitrofurantoin (61.9%)]. Antibiotic resistance genes detected include tetC (86%), sulII (86%), and blaAmpC (29%) in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium., tetA (23%), tetB (23%), tetC (12%), sulI (54%), sulII (54%), catII (71%), blaAmpC (86%), blaTEM (43%), and blaPER (17%) in Enterobacter cloacae., tetA (20%), tetC (20%), tetD (10%), sulI (9%), sulII (18%), FOX (11%) and CIT (11%)-type plasmid-mediated AmpC, blaTEM (11%), and blaSHV (5%) in Klebsiella pneumoniae and blaAmpC (18%) in Klebsiella oxytoca. Our findings document the occurrence of some antibiotic-resistant Enterobacteria in irrigation water and agricultural soil in Amathole and Chris Hani District Municipalities, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, thus serving as a potential threat to food safety.

This paper explores the impact of irrigation on India’s mixed crop-based dairy production system. It uses a four-equation recursive regression model to outline the impact of water applied under different modes (groundwater irrigation, surface water irrigation, and rainfall) on the bovine herd efficiency and dairy output. The results of the model show that rain-fed areas account for 47% of the total value of milk output, whereas area under groundwater irrigation and surface water irrigation account for 38% and 15%, respectively. Of all the different irrigation modes, groundwater irrigated areas have the most efficient bovine herd for milk production. The addition of one hectare of groundwater in an irrigated area adds around Indian Rupees (INR) 20,000 (~US $448) to the gross value of milk output of a district, which is twice the addition of one hectare of surface water in an irrigated area and five times the addition of one hectare of rainfed area. Based on the results of the model, the paper suggests that expanding well irrigation in the groundwater-abundant eastern and central tribal belt of India can yield a positive impact on milk production.

Abstract Treated effluent from the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) Virginia Initiative Plant (VIP) was evaluated in 2000 and 2001 as an irrigation source for landscape plants. Landscape plants common to eastern Virginia were installed in raised beds and overhead irrigated at the rate of 2.5 cm (1 in) per week for five months. Aesthetic quality ratings, and soil and water analyses, were conducted monthly. Aesthetic quality ratings were lower on certain plants irrigated with treated effluent in both years of the study. Damage appeared to result from foliar contact by irrigation water high in dissolved salts. Soil tests showed salt accumulation in the planting soil. Damage that occurred on plants irrigated with treated effluent was species specific and included leaf burn, chlorosis, defoliation, stunting, and death. All symptoms were consistent with and typical of salt damage. Salt concentrations in this treated effluent were too high to allow use of this water as an overhead irrigation source for many landscape plants without further treatment or dilution. Irrigation with treated effluent should be based on landscape species composition, local climate conditions, and irrigation method.

In the current study, the quality of ground water (GW) from an area of western part of Jorhat district of Assam (India) was assessed in order to ensure the safety of its use in irrigation and drinking purposes. The physico-chemical parameters of the collected GW samples were evaluated and compared the data with the Indian Standards (IS) for drinking purposes. The investigation was mainly emphasised on the evaluation of Water Quality Index (WQI) and different parameters for the quality measurement of water for drinking and irrigation purposes, respectively. Correlations among the physico-chemical parameters were evaluated through statistical analysis. The physico-chemical parameters revealed that almost all the parameters except iron were within the permissible limit. Arsenic was found to be present in few water samples in both seasons (pre and post monsoon). In both the seasons, the WQI of the majority of collected water samples were observed to be falling under the poor category for drinking. Almost all the collected water samples were found to be fit for irrigation purposes. However, based on sodium percentage (Na %), Kelly’s ratio (KR), and Magnesium ratio (MR), few of the water samples are classified to be doubtful and inappropriate for irrigation.

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is a perennial herbaceous plant height from 40 cm to 2.5 m high with erect branched, leafy stem. The length of the growing season is 4.5–5 months. The yield of tubers in average 15 t/ha, the total productivity of terrestrial bodies – 70...90 t/ha. In Tajikistan, the Jerusalem artichoke began to be cultivated in 40–50 years of the last century. In the conditions of the Gissar valley at an experimental plot of the Institute of botany, physiology and plant genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, located in the Eastern part of Dushanbe at the altitude of 840 m above sea level, and carried out the planting of Jerusalem artichoke tubers in midApril. In the conditions of Rasht valley (Jirgatol district at altitudes of 2100 and 2700 m above sea level and the Rasht district, at an altitude of 2300 m above sea level) planting tubers of Jerusalem artichoke was conducted in the third week of may. Identification of the general size a biomass sun artichoke on the irrigation fields of Gissar and Rasht valleys fluctuates within from 66.5 to 94.2 t/hec. and on rein field from 30.4 to 72.5 t/hec., yield of tubers from 24.95 to 38.4 t/hec. on the irrigation fields and from 11.85 to 22.95 t/hec. on rein fields. On the Jerusalem artichoke average the biomass on the irrigation fields makes 78.8 t/hec. and on rein fields 47.4 t/hec, and a crop of tubers accordingly 30.63 and 15.73 t/hec. that testifies to efficiency of cultivation sun artichoke in irrigation and rein fields of our republic. The irrigation promote increase of biomass yield of american artichoke on 30.4 t/hec. (64.1 %), yield of tubers – on 14.9 t/hec.( 94.7 %) in comparison with cultivation without irrigation.

<p><em>One of the factors that affect the productivity of cacao plants is water availability. Water deficit will negatively affect the development of cacao flowers and beans. Water stress is reported as one of the causes of low productivity on plantation crops in Lampung Province. The study was aimed to analyze the characteristics of agroecology and supplemental irrigation required for growth and production of cacao in Lampung. The research was carried out in the District of Pesawaran, Tanggamus, East Lampung, and South Lampung, Lampung Province, from 2012 to 2015. The study was conducted with the survey method and literature study for the collection of the primary and secondary data, related to the characteristics of the land agroecology. Geographically, the main cacao growing areas in this region is divided into two regions, western region consist of Pesawaran and Tanggamus District and east region comprise of East Lampung and South Lampung District. Based on agroecological zones, the planting of cacao in both regions is in accordance with the recommendations of land use. However, land suitability analysis showed that some of the agroecological characteristics of land becomes a limiting factor for the growth and production of cacao, including soil pH &lt; 5.5, low cations exchange capacity (CEC) (&lt; 16 cmol(+)/kg), air humidity &gt; 75%, and in some areas there is an erosion hazard. Another obstacle is the water deficit that occurs during 140 days within 1 year of cacao growth cycle that occurred in July until mid-November. There are two factors that can be applied to increase cacao productivity in Lampung province, i.e. (1) an improvement of cacao cultivation technology that can address the characteristics of agroecology as a limiting factor of growth, and (2) an application of a supplemental irrigation technology to avoid cacao from water stress. The requirement of supplemental irrigation is 340.5 mm in western region and 209.7 mm in eastern region of Lampung.</em></p>

Abstract The water and soil environmental vulnerability in arid areas is mainly affected by vegetation, hydrology, terrain, and climate. To accurately evaluate the water and soil environmental vulnerability and its evolution in the Jingtaichuan Pumping Irrigation District in China, this paper, taking 1994, 2006, and 2018 as typical years, selects 13 index factors that directly or indirectly drive the water and soil environmental evolution in this area, and adopts the cloud theory and analytic hierarchy process to determine the weight of each index factor. Spatial analysis technique and supervised classification were used to obtain and standardize the spatial distribution raster maps of each index factor. The multi-source data fusion was performed according to the index weight to analyze the evolution characteristics of soil and water environmental vulnerability. The results showed that soil salinity, vegetation coverage, and land use type have a significant impact on the water and soil environmental vulnerability in this irrigation area, and most of the area is at mild risk. High risk mainly occurs in closed hydrological units in the eastern part of the irrigation area. From 1994 to 2018, the evolution process can be divided into two stages, namely the ‘environmental deterioration stage’ and the ‘environmental restoration stage’. The results showed that the water and soil environment of the irrigation area is developing in a healthy way.

The accurate mapping of crops can provide effective information for regional agricultural management, which is helpful to improve crop production efficiency. Recently, remote sensing data offers a comprehensive approach to achieve crop identification on a regional scale. However, the classification methods for multi-year mapping needs further study in regions with a complex planting structure, due to the mixed pixels at a spatial distribution and the high error in different years at a temporal scale. The objective of this study is to map the multi-year spatial distribution of three main crops (maize, sunflower, and wheat) in the Hetao irrigation district of China for the period 2012–2016 based on a pre-constrained classification method. The pre-constrained method integrates a parameterized phenology-based vegetation indexes classifier and two non-parametric machine learning algorithms—support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). Results indicated that the performance of the pre-constrained classification method was excellent in the multi-year mapping of major crops in the study area, with absolute relative errors mainly less than 14% in the whole irrigation district and less than 20% in the five counties. The corresponding overall accuracy was 87.9%, and the Kappa coefficient was 0.80. Mapping results showed that maize is mainly distributed in Hangjinhouqi, southern Linhe, northern Wuyuan, and eastern Wulateqianqi, while wheat is relatively less and scatteredly distributed in Hangjinhouqi and Wuyuan. Moreover, the sunflower planting area increased significantly and expanded spatially from Wuyuan and western Wulateqianqi to northern Hangjinhouqi and Linhe from 2012 to 2016. In addition, the phenology-based vegetation indexes classifier was found to be effective in improving the classification accuracy based on the contribution analysis.

Despite that the European Water Framework Directive has attracted scholars’ attention worldwide, research is sparse on how its implementation is carried out for the whole River Basin District (RBD). This paper aims to fill this research gap by studying the implementation of this directive in the Italian Eastern Alps RBD. Based on 21 semi-structured interviews with both public authorities and the stakeholders engaged with implementation, along with a document analysis, we traced the overall implementation process, from planning to implementation, of measures to increase irrigation efficiency. Our interest was on how coordination mechanisms for the entire RBD were established during the main steps of the implementation process. Moreover, we looked at the effects of the Water Framework Directive at the local level, both in terms of changes in irrigation management practices and in terms of stakeholders’ engagement in decision-making processes. We found that, establishing decision-making processes based on a stronger coordination among all the authorities involved was fundamental both in terms of the production of shared decisions and of the participants’ satisfaction with the processes. Moreover, if true participation of stakeholders has to be achieved in the decision-making processes, then the RBD could not be the only scale where participation takes place. Actually, interactions among stakeholders and public authorities, in order to consider local interests in the decision-making processes, could be more effective at the sub-RBD level Ultimately, while cross-administrative coordination can be achieved for the whole RBD through specific coordination mechanisms, public participation should find more appropriate spaces at the sub-RBD level.

Abstract. Fresh water is consumed during agricultural production. With the shortage of water resources, assessing the water use efficiency is crucial to effectively manage agricultural water resources. The water footprint is an improved index for water use evaluation, and it can reflect the quantity and types of water usage during crop growth. This study aims to establish a method for calculating the regional-scale water footprint of crop production based on hydrological processes, and the water footprint is quantified in terms of blue and green water. This method analyses the water-use process during the growth of crops, which includes irrigation, precipitation, groundwater, evapotranspiration, and drainage, and it ensures a more credible evaluation of water use. As illustrated by the case of the Hetao irrigation district (HID), China, the water footprint of wheat, corn and sunflowers were calculated using this method. The results show that canal water loss and evapotranspiration were responsible for most of the water consumption and accounted for 47.9 % and 41.8 % of the total consumption, respectively. The total water footprint of wheat, corn and sunflowers were 1380–2888, 942–1774 and 2095–4855 m3 t−1, respectively, and the blue footprint accounts for more than 86 %. The spatial distribution pattern of the green, blue and total water footprints for the three crops demonstrated that higher values occurred in the eastern part of the HID, which had more precipitation and was further away from the irrigation gate. This study offers a vital reference for improving the method used to calculate the crop water footprint.

The prevalence of bacteria with multidrug-resistance (MDR) is a significant threat to public health globally. Listeria spp. are naturally ubiquitous, with L. monocytogenes particularly being ranked as important foodborne disease-causing microorganisms. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and determine the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiles of multidrug-resistant Listeria spp. (MDRL) isolated from different environmental samples (river and irrigation water) in the Sarah Baartman District Municipality (SBDM), Eastern Cape Province (ECP), South Africa. Molecular identification and characterization were carried out using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and isolates that exhibited phenotypic resistance were further screened for relevant antimicrobial-resistant genes (ARGs). Findings revealed a total of 124 presumptive Listeria isolates; 69 were molecularly confirmed Listeria species. Out of the confirmed species, 41 isolates (59%) were classified as L. monocytogenes while 9 (13%) were classified as L. welshimeri. All Listeria spp. exhibited phenotypic resistance against ampicillin, penicillin, and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole and further screening revealed ARGs in the following proportions: sulI (71%), blaTEM (66%), tetA (63%), and blaCIT (33%). Results confirmed the occurrence of ARGs among Listeria inhabiting surface waters of ECP. The present study indicates that the river water samples collected from SBDM are highly contaminated with MDRL, hence, constituting a potential health risk.

The prevalence of bacteria with multidrug-resistance (MDR) is a significant threat to public health globally. Listeria spp. are naturally ubiquitous, with L. monocytogenes particularly being ranked as important foodborne disease-causing microorganisms. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and determine the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiles of multidrug-resistant Listeria spp. (MDRL) isolated from different environmental samples (river and irrigation water) in the Sarah Baartman District Municipality (SBDM), Eastern Cape Province (ECP), South Africa. Molecular identification and characterization were carried out using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and isolates that exhibited phenotypic resistance were further screened for relevant antimicrobial-resistant genes (ARGs). Findings revealed a total of 124 presumptive Listeria isolates; 69 were molecularly confirmed Listeria species. Out of the confirmed species, 41 isolates (59%) were classified as L. monocytogenes while 9 (13%) were classified as L. welshimeri. All Listeria spp. exhibited phenotypic resistance against ampicillin, penicillin, and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole and further screening revealed ARGs in the following proportions: sulI (71%), blaTEM (66%), tetA (63%), and blaCIT (33%). Results confirmed the occurrence of ARGs among Listeria inhabiting surface waters of ECP. The present study indicates that the river water samples collected from SBDM are highly contaminated with MDRL, hence, constituting a potential health risk.

Studies from India and several eastern African countries found that the impact of dairy animal ownership on household nutrition varied greatly, depending on the socio-geographic context. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between livestock ownership and household dietary quality in rural Kolar district, India. We collected data from a household survey in four study villages (n = all 195 households of the four villages) of Kolar district, applying a cross-sectional design. Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient was employed to determine the correlation between milk consumption and other dietary variables. Multivariable logistic regression was used to describe the relationship between dairy animal ownership and household milk consumption. Households owning dairy animals more often had access to irrigation (58.3% vs. 25.2%) and were less often woman-headed (2.4% vs. 22.5%). Household milk consumption was significantly correlated with consumption of vegetable variety, egg, and meat (all p-values < 0.05). After adjusting for multiple confounders, the odds ratio of milk consumption between dairy animal-owning households as compared to other households was 2.11 (95% confidence interval 0.85, 5.45). While dairy animal ownership was found to be associated with improved dietary quality, larger households were in a better position to adopt dairy animals, which, in turn, might contribute to better household nutrition.

To verify the feasibility of portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) for rapidly analyzing, assessing and improving soil heavy metals mapping, 351 samples were collected from Fuyang District, Hangzhou City, in eastern China. Ordinary kriging (OK) and co-ordinary kriging (COK) combined with PXRF measurements were used to explore spatial patterns of heavy metals content in the soil. The Getis-Ord index was calculated to discern hot spots of heavy metals. Finally, multi-variable indicator kriging was conducted to obtain a map of multi-heavy metals pollution. The results indicated Cd is the primary pollution element in Fuyang, followed by As and Pb. Application of PXRF measurements as covariates in COK improved model accuracy, especially for Pb and Cd. Heavy metals pollution hot spots were mainly detected in northern Fuyang and plains along the Fuchun River in southern Fuyang because of mining, industrial and traffic activities, and irrigation with polluted water. Area with high risk of multi-heavy metals pollution mainly distributed in plain along the Fuchun River and the eastern Fuyang. These findings certified the feasibility of using PXRF as an efficient and reliable method for soil heavy metals pollution assessment and mapping, which could contribute to reduce the cost of surveys and pollution remediation.

The Brooks Aqueduct is a very large elevated flume commissioned in 1914 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to carry water at the rate of 25.5 m3/s over a valley 3.2 km wide and 20 m deep. Construction of the aqueduct permitted the irrigation of a 50 000 ha block of land within a region now known as the Eastern Irrigation District in southern Alberta. The flume is 6.5 m wide and 2.5 m deep with a curved cross section. It is supported by 1030 columns. A 3000 mm diameter inverted syphon near the outlet of the flume permitted the crossing of the CPR main line through the valley. All components of the aqueduct, including the shell of the flume, columns, syphon, and inlet and outlet structures, were constructed of reinforced concrete. The Brooks Aqueduct was abandoned in 1979 with the completion of its earth-fill replacement. Except for a 122 m section, removed to permit the construction of a county road, the old aqueduct still stands. It serves to remind us of the significant engineering accomplishments of the pioneer civil engineers who helped to realize ambitions to irrigate the vast plains of southern Alberta at the turn of the century. On May 28, 1988, the Brooks Aqueduct was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Site by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. Key words: Brooks Aqueduct, history.

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) provides remotely-sensed estimates of evapotranspiration at 70 m spatial resolution every 1–5 days, sampling across the diurnal cycle. This study, in partnership with an operational water management organization, the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in Southern California, was conducted to evaluate estimates of evapotranspiration under ideal conditions where water is not limited. EMWD regularly uses a ground-based network of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) from the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS); yet, there are gaps in spatial coverage and questions of spatial representativeness and consistency. Space-based potential evapotranspiration (PET) estimates, such as those from ECOSTRESS, provide consistent spatial coverage. We compared ECOSTRESS ETo (estimated from PET) to CIMIS ETo at five CIMIS sites in Riverside County, California from July 2018–June 2020. We found strong correlations between CIMIS ETo and ECOSTRESS ETo across all five sites (R2 = 0.89, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.11 mm hr−1). Both CIMIS and ECOSTRESS ETo captured similar seasonal patterns through the study period as well as diurnal variability. There were site-specific differences in the relationship between ECOSTRESS AND CIMIS, in part due to spatial heterogeneity around the station site. Consequently, careful examination of landscapes surrounding CIMIS sites must be considered in future comparisons. These results indicate that ECOSTRESS successfully retrieves PET that is comparable to ground-based reference ET, highlighting the potential for providing observation-driven guidance for irrigation management across spatial scales.

Subirrigation system can furnish water to plants. The upward flux and the discharge rate must satisfy the plant’s lifesaving irrigation needs during summer. The experiment was laid out in A-block of Eastern farm, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Kumulur, Trichy, Tamil Nadu. Subirrigation system spacing was arrived using Moody's equation calculated as 10 m. The experiment was laid out in spilt plot design with three replications. Four drain spacing levels (7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 m) were the main plot treatments and two levels of depth and diameter of drain pipes (75 cm, 60 cm & 75 mm, 63 mm) were the sub plot treatments. The highest volumetric water content was recorded in 7.5 m spacing + 45 cm soil depth + lower reach (S1T3T1). Capillary rise on water table management system under subirrigation mode was fixed as 33.5 cm and the average deep percolation loss was obtained in 0.3 cm/d at development stage of crop period. The highest maize yield (4.30 t/ha) was obtained in 7.5 m spacing + 60 cm drain depth + 75 mm diameter (S1D3). The highest water use efficiency of (0.86 kg/m3) was recorded in 7.5 m spacing + 60 cm drain depth + 75 mm drain diameter (S1D3). This subirrigation system could furnish water to plants due to upward flux and the same system also functioned efficiently under drainage modes and removed the waterlogging during wet periods.

The Apatani tribe inhabiting in the Ziro valley of Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh are one of the few ecological farming practicing communities of the world. The unique combination of Rice and Fish firming in the same field with distinguishing irrigation system makes the Apatanis unique in themselves. Along with the rice cum fish cultivation the terraces of Ziro valley produces lots of agricultural products, Kiwi is one of the many to mention. Agriculture sector worries the scientists because the amount food products produce per hectare would not be enough for the whole population to feed in the coming future. Scientist has come out with High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds to meets the needs of the population. This seeds are of better quality compare to the normal one and production is bit more than the normal seed. However, there are unique farming practices in different parts of the world which are sustainable and self-sufficient in nature. The agro-pisciculture is a very unique concept seen in the Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, situated in the Eastern Himalayan region of India.

Agricultural technologies are seen as an important route out of poverty in most of the developing countries. However, the rates of adoption of these technologies have remained low in most of these countries. This study aim at shedding some light on an evaluation of climate mitigation agricultural adoption technologies, and its contribution to rural livelihood outcomes in Gurawa district using cross sectional data collected from randomly selected 180 sample households during the 2016 crop production season. Multivariate probit and Propensity score matching was used to identify impacts of adoption technologies, and to identify factors affecting smallholder farmers’ multiple technology adoption decisions. The results showed that the probability of adoption of agricultural technologies are influenced by several factors: family size, economical active members, education level, age of the household head, social status, soil fertility status, distance from extension office, land holding, distance to markets and distance to weather road. The impact evaluation results indicated that on average, the participation household in soil conservation has increased food security status and asset accumulation nearly by 38% and 15%, respectively, however it decreases the rate of poverty nearly by 51 percent. Use of improved seeds increased food security status and decreased poverty rate nearly by 38% and 44%, respectively. On the other hand, use of irrigation technology increased food security status and asset accumulation nearly by 23% and 31.8%, respectively, whereas it decreases the rate of poverty nearly by 29 percent. Similarly, adoption of row planting methods increased food security status and asset accumulation nearly by 28.7% and 15.5%, respectively, whereas it decreases the rate of poverty nearly by 51.5 percent. Therefore, policy makers should give due emphasis to the aforementioned variables to increase adoption technologies and improve the livelihood of the rural households.

On the north-eastern slope of the Lesser Caucasus, within the boundaries of Shamkir administrative district, the most common soils in the Shamkirchay reservoir basin are gray-brown (chestnut) soils. Since the commissioning of the reservoir, these lands have been intensively used as new irrigated areas under agricultural production. To some extent, non-compliance with planting norms when using irrigation can lead to a decrease in soil fertility parameters, soil degradation, and an increased risk of salinization. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the current state of the main physicochemical and fertility indicators of soils in the basin and the relationship between them in the gray-brown (chestnut) soils spread within the basin boundaries of the reservoir. Diagnostic indicators, agrochemical properties and results of their analysis of soil plots placed in characteristic places were analyzed in tables and explanations. The main indicators are humus, total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, granulometric composition (sand, dust, silt and clay fractions), soil environmental reaction (pH) and carbonate content (CaCO3), statistical analysis. The article has covered studies in dark, conventional and light gray-brown (semi-brown) semi-soils in three sub-areas of gray-brown (chestnut) soils, mainly distributed in the Shamkirchay reservoir. In each of the three subclasses, profiles are set in specific locations. The practical part has been implemented in 2 stages. During the field studies, 9 profiles have been excavated, relevant samples have been taken, and analysis has been performed to determine the diagnostic performance. The results of the analyses have been presented in the respective tables and have been analyzed in detail. All analyses have been carried out on the basis of modern methods.

Tel Abu Antiq is located in an area that has borders with three governorates, which are Bebel from Altaleea Side, Alnajaf Alashraf nearby Alhurriya sub district and Alqadisiya Al mhannawiya sub district. It is around 50 km away to the south of the historic city of Babel. It is located western to the archeological city of Mard 15km away nearly. . The location is famous of agriculture like the date palms and rice in particular. The hill is penetrated by drainage 20m wide known as Al haffar or the Eastern Drainage. The Drainage located to the west of it is called Alqawsi. It was dug to dry up the marshes waters in 1994. The highest point in the hill reaches 20m above sea level. The lands surrounding the hill were plain, fertile and suitable for agriculture. Many decades ago the lands were immersed by waters of Ibn Najim Marsh; one of Alshamiya and Almishkhab marshes. This immersion led to disapearance of its features. It was forgotten by the Archeological inspectors who surveyed the agricultural lands within the farms especially those were subject to settlement of the land rights in the thirties of the last century. The state organization for archeology and heritage marked in their records and maps at that time two archeological hills connected by an old irrigation canal, they are at close distance from Abu Antiq hill. The 1st is known as (Zghaitan), it is to the south west of Abu Antiq. The second is known as (Jeghaiman) to the North West. Total area of both hills with Abu Antiq is 9 square kilometers. They all make mostly a settlement. The surface areas of Zghaitan hill indicates that it belongs to the aancient babylonic era.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Integration of remote sensing derived biophysical parameters with process based crop growth simulation model is an emerging technology with diversified application for crop insurance as well as precision farming. Basically the crop growth simulation models are point based which simulate crop growth and yield as a function of soil, weather and crop management factors at a daily time scale. The temporal dimension of the crop growth model is supplemented by the spatial information on crop coverage and condition generated from remote sensing satellite derived biophysical parameters. In the present study an attempt is made to simulate pixel wise rice crop growth, condition and yield using Sentinel1 SAR, AWiFS/Landsat8 OLI and MODIS data with CERES rice growth simulation model on DSSAT platform. Temporal SAR data provides pixel wise start of season for rice crop at a spatial resolution of 10&amp;thinsp;m. Spectral indices derived from Landsat8/AWiFS and MODIS optical images are used for characterisation of rice growth environment and at the same time these indices are used to generate crop management information like irrigation and sowing dates. Bhadrak district of Odisha in the eastern coast of India is selected as the study area based on the prevalence of diversified rice growing environments. Sufficient in season field data are collected for checking the accuracy of rice map as well as for calibration and validation of the crop growth model. In season rice growth is initialised using SAR derived staggered sowing dates along with daily weather data and soil inputs. As CERES crop growth models are running well on DSSAT environment, rice crop growth simulation is carried out using multi date SAR images on DSSAT platform. The output of this study is maps depicting the spatial variability in rice area, staggered sowing dates and irrigation in the study region. These in season information are crucial for decision making particularly for crop insurance related activities.</p>

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> A majority of Indians living in rural areas still primarily depend on agriculture for their sustenance. The water requirement is thus constantly high with groundwater being the most widely used source for domestic, agricultural and industrial use. More than 90% of the rural and nearly 30% of the urban populations depend on groundwater for meeting their drinking and domestic requirements causing an ever-rising demand for groundwater resources, resulting in an increase of the stress on these reservoirs and their consequent pollution. Water resources development occupies a key place in India because of its role in stabilizing the Indian agro-economy. Groundwater is a dynamic and replenishable natural resource but in hard rock terrain availability of groundwater is of limited extent.</p><p>This work attempts to present an overview of groundwater utilisation in the different blocks of Puruliya district, West Bengal and particularly within Puruliya Town (Municipality). Being a semi-arid district, Puruliya experiences hot and dry summers. Groundwater in the district occurs at shallow depths within the weathered mantle, fractural zones of hard rock, and narrow zones of unconsolidated sediments which are utilized by developing dug wells. During the peak of long and harsh summers, most of these openings dry out and there occurs a severe scarcity of water.</p><p> The objectives are:</p><ul><li>Block-wise assessment of groundwater fluctuation (recharge &amp;amp; utilization), types of irrigation structures and present utilization status.</li><li>To examine the groundwater abstraction and use in Puruliya town – the district headquarter.</li><li>Remote sensing studies for locating weak zones and for understanding factors influencing groundwater movement in different geomorphologic setup.</li><li>To highlight the problems associated with groundwater use and investigate possible solutions.</li></ul><p> The following study is mostly done based on secondary data collected from various Central and State Government offices. The various data used and their sources are as follows:</p><ol><li>District level groundwater reports from Central Groundwater Board, Eastern Region, Kolkata.</li><li>District and ward level administrative, land use and land cover, geomorphology and groundwater maps and statistics from Puruliya Town Municipality.</li><li>Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission Digital Elevation Model (SRTM DEM data for preparation of elevation and drainage maps along with Survey of India topographical maps (73E, 73I, 73J – R.F. – 1&amp;thinsp;:&amp;thinsp;250,000) for preparing several base maps.</li><li>Lineament extraction and mapping using SRTM DEM to show possible fracture zones that might be used for future groundwater abstraction.</li><li>Collating different reports together and preparing thematic maps to show the groundwater utilisation status of the different blocks in Puruliya district.</li></ol><p>The work analyzes the correlations between the physiography, geomorphology, geology, hydrogeology, soils, climate and land use &amp;ndash; land cover of the region with the groundwater zones. The present level of groundwater utilization in the district is mapped. Amount and quality of groundwater extracted, the levels of groundwater abstraction development block-wise are examined along with the different types of mechanical structures related to this. The nature of groundwater level fluctuation throughout the district at the Block level, in the Pre-Monsoon and Post-Monsoon season is also depicted and the long term terns of the peizometric surface behaviour analysed from these maps. The Block level utilisation as well the ward level utilisation of groundwater in the District Headquarter, Puruliya Town is mapped. A small attempt is also made to delineate some potential groundwater zones through lineament mapping and correlation with the earlier mapped variables. Problems faced in groundwater exploitation here and its ambient quality is also examined.</p>

AbstractIn many areas of south and south-eastern Asia, concentrations of As in ground water have been found to exceed the WHO maximum concentration limit of 10 μg/l. This is adversely affecting the health of millions of people and has grave current and future health implications. It has recently been suggested that extensive abstraction of ground water in these areas may accelerate the release of As to ground water. This study uses geochemical and isotopic data to assess this hypothesis. The area investigated in this study is in the Chakdaha block of the Nadia District, West Bengal. The ground water is predominantly of the Ca-Mg-HCO3 type, although some samples were found to contain elevated concentrations of Na, Cl and SO4. This is thought to reflect a greater degree of water-rock interaction at the locations of these particular samples. Arsenic concentrations exceeded the national limit of 50 μg/l in 13 of the 22 samples collected. Four of the 13 samples with high As were recovered from tubewells with depths of 60 m or more. Shallow ground water samples were found to have a stable isotopic composition which falls subparallel to the Global Meteoric Water Line. This probably represents a contribution of evaporated surface water to the ground water, possibly from surface ponds or re-infiltrating irrigation water. Deep ground water, conversely, was shown to have a composition that closely reflects that of meteoric water. The data presented in this study suggest that, whilst the drawdown of surface waters may drive As release in shallow ground waters, it is not responsible for driving As release in deep ground water. However, local abstraction may have resulted in changes in the ground water flow regime of the area, with contaminated shallow ground waters being drawn into previously uncontaminated deep aquifers.

В Северо-Восточной части Приволжского федерального округа традиционно выращивают вегетативно размножаемые формы лука. Период активной вегетации растений составляет 106–176 дней, а сумма температур выше 10 °C – 1600–2400, что ограничивает семенное размножение луковых культур. В последнее время растет спрос товаропроизводителей на посадочный материал шалота. Его возделывание по трудоемкости превышает обычный репчатый лук и требует определенных навыков в работе. По своим же пищевым показателям он всегда будет иметь спрос у потребителя. Цель работы – изучить вегетативный и семенной способы размножения лука шалота в условиях Кировской области. В статье обобщены результаты исследований с северной группой шалота за 2001–2020 годы, проведенные лабораторией северного овощеводства ВНИИО – филиала ФГБНУ ФНЦО в Кировской области. Опыты закладывали на дерново-подзолистой, хорошо окультуренной почве, овощного севооборота. Погодные условия были разнообразными: от типичных для зоны – по большинству лет исследований, до аномально теплых, жарких и засушливых (2007, 2010 годы) и холодных, с обилием осадков (2006, 2019 годы). Рассмотрены основные этапы технологии производства лука шалота при вегетативном и семенном способах размножения: выбор оптимального типа почвы, предшественника, подготовка почвы, сроки, схемы, нормы посева и посадки, орошение, защита от вредителей, болезней и сорняков, уборка, хранение, сорта шалота, внесенные Государственный реестр селекционных достижений и рекомендованные для выращивания в северных условиях. На Северо-Востоке Европейской части страны выборок шалота получают в трехлетней культуре по схеме: отбор и охлаждение маточников; весенняя посадка маточников, получение семян; получение севка из семян; получение лука выборка из севка. Для выращивания в Северо-Восточной части Приволжского федерального округа рекомендованы к выращиванию сорта лука шалота Зубаревский и Братский. In the North-Eastern part of the Volga Federal District, vegetatively propagated forms of onions are traditionally grown. The period of active vegetation of plants is 106–176 days, and the sum of temperatures above 10 °C is 1600–2400, which limits the seed propagation of onion crops. Recently, the demand of commodity producers for shallot planting material has been growing. Its cultivation is more labor-intensive than ordinary onions and requires certain skills in the work. According to its own nutritional indicators, it will always have a demand from the consumer. The aim of the work is to study the vegetative and seed methods of propagation of shallots in the conditions of the Kirov region. The article summarizes the results of studies of the Northern group of the shallots over the years 2001–2020 conducted by the laboratory of the Northern ARRIVG – branch of FSBSI FSVC in the Kirov region. The experiments were laid on sod-podzolic, well-cultivated soil, in vegetable crop rotations. Weather conditions were varied: from typical for the zone-according to most years of research, to abnormally warm, hot and dry (2007, 2010) and cold, with an abundance of precipitation (2006, 2019). The main stages of shallot production technology for vegetative and seed propagation methods are considered: selection of the optimal soil type, precursor, soil preparation, timing, schemes, sowing and planting rates, irrigation, protection from pests, diseases and weeds, harvesting, storage, shallot varieties included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements and recommended for cultivation in northern conditions. In the North-East of the European part of the country, shallot samples are obtained in a three-year culture according to the scheme: selection and cooling of queen bees; spring planting of queen bees, obtaining seeds; getting a seed crop; Getting an onion sample from the seed crop. For cultivation in the North-Eastern part of the Volga Federal District, the varieties of shallots Zubarevsky and Bratsky are recommended for cultivation.

The hydraenid genera Parhydraena Orchymont, 1937, Decarthrocerus Orchymont, 1948, Protozantaena Perkins, 1997, and Parhydraenopsis nomen novum are comprehensively revised, based on the study and databasing of 13,323 specimens. Decarthrocerus Orchymont is considered a valid genus, not a subgenus of Parhydraena. A new generic name, Parhydraenopsis nomen novum, is provided to replace Pseudhydraena Orchymont, 1947 (a junior homonym of Pseudhydraena Acloque, 1896). The genera are redescribed, and new species are described in Parhydraena (14), Protozantaena (4), Parhydraenopsis (2), and Decarthrocerus (3). Redescriptions are provided for Parhydraena brevipalpis (Régimbart), P. lancicula Perkins & Balfour-Browne, P. seriata Balfour-Browne, Protozantaena labrata Perkins, Parhydraenopsis cooperi (Orchymont), and Decarthrocerus jeanneli Orchymont. Selected morphological features of Pneuminion Perkins, and members of the tribe Hydraenidini, Hydraenida Germain and Parhydraenida Balfour-Browne, are illustrated and compared with those of members of Parhydraenini. Keys to the genera of Parhydraenini and keys to the species of the genera revised herein are given. Male genitalia, representative spermathecae, antennae, and elytra are illustrated. Scanning electron micrographs of external morphological characters are presented. High resolution digital images of the primary types of all species (except the holotypes of three species, which could not be found) are presented (online version in color), and geographical distributions are mapped. The tribe Parhydraenini has both fully aquatic and humicolous adapted species, and shows notable diversity in the lengths of the maxillary palpi and legs, reflecting the microhabitat type. Humicolous species have relatively short maxillary palpi and tarsi, and often have a specialized body form, as in the very differently shaped members of Discozantaena and Decarthrocerus. Parhydraena has both aquatic and humicolous species, the latter being broad-shouldered species with very short maxillary palpi and tarsi. Protozantaena has one aquatic species, the four other species in the genus being collected by sifting litter in humicolous microhabitats. Species of Decarthrocerus have only been collected by sifting litter; many of the specimens are from bamboo forests. As far as is known, members of Parhydraenopsis are fully aquatic, or found in wet streamside mosses. The following new species are described (type locality in South Africa unless otherwise given): Parhydraena ancylis (Western Cape Province, Heuningnes River), P. asperita (Western Cape Province, Knysna, Diepwalle), P. brahma (Mpumalanga Province, Uitsoek), P. brunovacca (Eastern Cape Province, Umtata, Nquadu Mt.), P. divisa (Sudan, Gilo), P. sebastiani (KwaZulu-Natal Province, Cathedral Peak), P. maculicollis (KwaZulu-Natal Province, Polela River, Himeville), P. maureenae (Western Cape Province, W. Wiedouw farm), P. mpumalanga (Mpumalanga Province, Fanie Botha Trail, Maritzbos Hut area, SW Sabie), P. namaqua (Western Cape Province, Van Rhyns Pass), P. ora (Western Cape Province, Cape Town), P. parva (Western Cape Province, George, Saasveld, Kaaimans River), P. semicostata (Mpumalanga Province, Soutpansberg, Entabeni), P. toro (Western Cape Province, Kirstenbosch, Table Mountain), Protozantaena ankaratra (Madagascar, Antananarivo, Ankaratra, Reserve Manjakatompo, M. Arirana, SE drainage River Ambodimangavo), P. grebennikovi (Tanzania, W. Usambara Mts., Lushoto district, Grant’s Lodge, Mkuzu river, 3–4 km upstream of Kifungilo), P. malagasica (Madagascar, Antsiranana, Parc National Montagne d’Ambre), P. palpalis (Madagascar, Antananarivo, Anjozorobe, Ravoandrina, left affluent of River Ampanakamonty), Parhydraenopsis alta (Ethiopia, Wolamo Province, Mt. Damota), P. simiensis (Ethiopia, Simien Mountains National Park, Jinbar Wenz), Decarthrocerus bambusicus (Democratic Republic of Congo, P. N. Virunga, Volcan Sabinyo, Chanya W., W. Sabinyo), D. mahalicus (Tanzania, Mahali Peninsula, Kungure), D. mbizi (Tanzania, Mt. Mbizi, 12 mi. NE Sumbawanga).

The Terai Plain of Morang District is underlain by thick alluvium deposits. Alternate sequence of gravel, sand and clay turn into multiaquifer system. Artesian conditions occur in some parts of the middle Terai. The area possesses rich groundwater potential which can be used for industrial and large scale irrigation. Over development of groundwater is suggested to reclaim the land under water-logging and marshy conditions in the middle Terai.

The study was conducted to analyze the socioeconomic factors and profitability of hybrid maize production in eastern Nepal. A household survey was conducted from March to April, 2017 in two districts Morang and Sunsari to collect information on socioeconomic characteristics and economics of maize production. The Structured questionnaire was administered to 98 randomly selected households from two districts i.e. 41 from Morang and 57 from Sunsari district. Descriptive and statistical tools including multiple regression model were used to analyze the data. The multiple regression model showed that larger the maize area, higher the education of household head and households who received maize farming related training were significant and positive towards maize output. Farmers of Morang district have higher maize production than Sunsari district. The benefit-cost ratio (1.7) indicates that hybrid maize farming was profitable with productivity of 6.9 ton per hectare. Despite the importance of maize crop to household income, many constraints were reported in its productivity including lack of irrigation, a high cost of inputs and the incidence of pests and diseases. Ensuring access to irrigation, training on maize farming, mechanization and efficient extension services were recommended to increase hybrid maize production in eastern Nepal.

Agriculture sector is one of the main sources of income in the North eastern and some of the North western parts of Sri Lanka. Over the past decade, many countries around the world have witnessed a growing scarcity and competition for water among different users. Since Agriculture is the major user of water, improving agricultural water management is essential to any irrigation management approach specially to apply the exact amount of water to the field in order to meet crop water requirement. This study aims to estimate water requirement of rice by using the model CROPWAT. According to the study, effective rainfall was found to be 601mm and 133 mm in Maha and Yala season respectively. Total crop water requirements are 349 mm and 436 mm in Maha and Yala season respectively. Irrigation scheduling carried out by CROPWAT revealed that, the gross irrigation requirement is 473 mm and net irrigation requirement is 331 mm. Net scheme irrigation requirements are 40, 106, 100 and 22 mm per month in May, June, July and August respectively. Further, flow of net scheme irrigation requirements is found to be 0.15, 0.41, 0.37 and 0.08 l/s/ha in May, June, July and August respectively. Therefore, the model for planning of irrigation water requirements of rice is very important for efficient utilization of water and to meet the possible change of climate in agricultural sector.

Abstract Background Production and productivity of potato in Ethiopia is far below the world average because of soil fertility problem, pest, disease, and agronomic factors. Nutrient depletion because of soil erosion is a serious problem in Ethiopian highlands. Annually, 122 kg ha−1 nitrogen, 13 kg ha−1 phosphorous and 82 kg ha−1 potasium were estimated to deplete from Ethiopia (Haileslassie et al. 2005). From the essential nutrients especially, nitrogen and phosphorus are the most important influential elements for production of potato but they are deficient in most Ethiopian soils and thus an application of these nutrients could increase significantly the crop yields. Therefore, the experiment was conducted at Sekota and Lasta Lalibela districts (Woleh and Kechin Abeba irrigation command areas) of eastern Amhara, Ethiopia to investigate the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers for yield and yield component of potato under irrigation condition. Methods Four rates of nitrogen (0, 46, 92, and 138 kg N kg ha−1) and phosphorus (0, 23, 46, and 69 Kg P2O5 kg ha−1) were combined with factorial arrangement and laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Results The result of the study revealed that nitrogen and phosphorus had a significant effect on plant height, marketable, and total yield of potato at Kechin Abeba. But phosphorus did not show a significant effect on plant height and unmarketable yield at Sekota district of Woleh irrigation command area. The highest yield 45.55 t ha−1 was obtained from combined application of 138 N and 23 P2O5 in Lalibela 17.12 and 16.99 t ha−1 were found from application of 138 N with 46 P2O5 kg ha−1 and 138 N with 23 P2O5 kg ha−1 from Sekota district of Woleh irrigation command area respectively. Conclusions The application of 138 kg ha−1 N with 23 kg ha−1 P2O5 is the appropriate rates for optimum productivity of potato at Lalibela (Kechin Abeba) and Sekota (Woleh) irrigation command areas and the same agro-ecology.

Sugarcane is one of the important commercial crops and plays a crucial role in the agro-industrial economy of India. The present study was undertaken on hundred farmers of sugarcane cultivation in Sant Kabir Nagar district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Based on the nature of data, Cobb-Douglas production function was used for estimation resource use efficiency of sugarcane cultivation. The results revealed that return to scale on marginal, small and medium farms were 0.812, 0.912 and 0.962 respectively which are less than unity. It means, sugarcane cultivation is characterized by decreasing return to scale and the Coefficient of multiple determinations (R2) were 82.50, 84.10 and 87.50 percent the variation of output by dependent variable viz. seed, irrigation, plant protection and manure and fertilizers. The marginal value productivity of seed, irrigation, plant protection and manure and fertilizers measure were considerably high on all size groups of farms except fertilizers and seed on marginal farms. It indicates that positive relation is further scope for increase in the investment to realize more return.

AbstractLand-use suitability assessment crucial is for coal mine rehabilitation planning, especially for the coal mines that have undergone varying degrees of mining subsidence. In this study, we present an assessment on the suitability of crop cultivation in the Dawu coal mining district in NW Jiangsu province, Eastern China. Distribution of local land subsidence is delineated with topographic analysis, and the weight-of-evidence (WoE) suitability assessment has encompassed various factors including the conditions of soil (e.g., acidity and porosity), groundwater level, irrigation and drainage, terrain slope, and land pollution. Consequently, the Dawu district is divided into four categories (high, moderate, low, very-low) of agricultural suitability. Collaborating with the local government agencies (e.g., Land and Resources Bureau and Agriculture Bureau), a land-use plan is proposed. In the plan, the highly suitable areas for agriculture (and the surrounding moderately suitable areas) are allocated as farmlands, whilst the other moderately to lowly suitable areas are allocated as ecological zones for restoring the ecosystem and ecological diversity. The barely suitable areas with severe subsidence are allocated as artificial lakes, which also serve as reservoirs for farmland irrigation and drainage. To protect these new farmlands from soil erosion, infrastructure such as embankment and windbreak are also included in our rehabilitation plan. Our study highlights the necessity of forward planning in coal mine rehabilitation.

Soils of the Bhilwara district are affected with different degree and extent of soluble salts. These soils are distributed in hot semi-arid agro-ecological sub region of Rajasthan. It is located between 25o 01' to 25o 58' N latitude and 74o 01' to 75o28' E longitude at an elevation between 380 and 500 meters above the mean sea level. The physico-chemical analysis of soils revealed the dominant cations such as sodium followed by calcium. Exchangeable sodium percentage was ranged 23.1 to 54.6, 17 to 38.5 and 7.1 to 20.0 in saline, sodic and saline-sodic soils, respectively. The Sodium Adsorption Ratio varied from 2.5 to 16.8, 3.2 to 9.4 and 3.8 to 12.6 in these problematic soils, respectively. Soil reaction was ranged from 7.6 to 8.4, 8.5 to 9.3 and 8.5 to 8.8 whereas electrical conductivity of saturation extract varied from 14.4 to 25.2, 1.0 to 5.6 and 2.4 to 13.6 dSm-1 in saline, sodic and saline-sodic soils, respectively. Area under saline and saline-sodic soils was moderately-well to well drained whereas sodic soils were imperfectly drained. Accumulation of calcium carbonate showed increasing trend with depth of profile in all three soils. Mean values of adjusted sodium adsorption ratio of irrigation water was 43.55, 41.88 and 36.74 for saline, saline-sodic and sodic soils. Use of low quality underground water for irrigation, aggravated the process of formation of the salt affected soils in eastern Rajasthan Uplands.

Paddy is an important cereal crop of the country and Uttar Pradesh, which is second largest producer of paddy in the country with 11.99 per cent share. The current study was conducted on primary data collected from 50 farmers from Mau district of Uttar Pradesh during the agricultural year 2017-18. The fixed and variable cost ratio in paddy seed production was 20:80. Human labour was the major cost component (42.21 per cent of total cost) followed by manures and fertilizers (11.85 per cent), bullock & machine labour (11.80 per cent), plant protection chemicals (4.53 per cent), irrigation (3.18 per cent) and seed (1.99 per cent). Total cost incurred in seed production of paddy was Rs. 51882 per hectare, while the net and gross returns were Rs. 28506 and Rs. 80388 per hectare respectively with the BC ratio 1.55. Total cost pertinent to paddy certified seed production was 11.36 per cent higher than grain production. The gross return was 18.92 per cent higher in seed production (Rs. 80388/ha) than grain production (Rs. 67600/ha). Net return from seed production of paddy was 35.66 per cent (Rs. 28506/ha) higher than grain production (Rs. 21012/ha). According to cost C2, cost of production of paddy grain and seed calculated to Rs. 1096 and Rs. 1231 per quintal. The return to the farmers on cost C2 was 45.07 and 55.0 per cent above cost of production for paddy grain and seed respectively. Similarly, cost of production according to cost A2 & FL (Family Labour) of paddy grain and seed calculated to Rs. 863 and Rs. 996 per quintal. The return to the farmers on cost A2 & FL was 84.24 and 91.57 per cent above cost of production for paddy grain and seed respectively. Production of paddy seed showed higher profitability to the farmers with encouraging net returns, which implies that the quality seed production area could be increased for higher income generation.

The present study was based on primary data collected from 50 farmers from Mau district of Uttar Pradesh during the agricultural year 2017-18. The analysis of data shows that the ratio of fixed and variable cost in Mung bean seed production was 18:82. Human labour was the major component of cost (39.69 per cent of total cost) followed by machine labour (15.31 per cent), manures and fertilizers (7.54 per cent), irrigation (6.23 per cent), seed (4.77 per cent), plant protection chemicals (4.54 per cent) and seed certification charges (1.53 per cent). The total cost in seed production of Mung bean was Rs. 38547 per hectare. The gross return and net return was Rs. 56175 and Rs. 17628 per hectare respectively. The BC ratio was 1.46. The total cost of cultivation in Mung bean certified seed production was around 31.29 per cent higher than grain production while, gross return was about 49.80 per cent higher in seed production than grain production. Consequently, net return from seed production of Mung bean was 116.56 per cent higher than grain production. According to cost C2, cost of production of Mung bean grain and seed estimated to Rs. 3915 and Rs. 4591 per quintal. The return to the farmers on cost C2 was 27.71 and 45.72 per cent above cost of production for Mung bean grain and seed, respectively. Similarly, cost of production according to cost A2 and FL (Family Labour) of Mung bean grain and seed was estimated to be Rs. 3089 and Rs. 3852 per quintal. The return to the farmers on cost A2 and FL was 61.86 and 73.68 per cent above cost of production for Mung bean grain and seed, respectively. Production of Mung bean seed has resulted in higher profitability proposition for the farmers. The net return from Mung bean seed production was encouraging and the same may be popularized among farmers to increase area under Mung bean seed production and thus to enhance profitability to the farmers and also to ensure increased availability of quality seed to the farmers.

AbstractAppraisal of groundwater fitness to drinking, agricultural, and domestic purposes was attempted within the Thiruvallur district of South India since groundwater is the significant sources for the above utilities. Groundwater samples collected from a sum of 110 locations have to be analyzed for major concentrations of which higher values of total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride (Cl−), and sodium (Na+) ions were noted during pre-monsoon (PRM) specifically besides the east along with the southeastern part of the study region and higher calcium (Ca2+) and nitrate (NO3−) values disseminated besides the central and eastern parts of the study region during the post-monsoon (POM) season. Suitability of water quality depends upon total dissolved solids; Water Quality Index (WQI) suggests 70% and 62% of the study area representing hard and sedimentary formations are appropriate for consumption utilities. Irrigation aptness of water for utility suggests the majority of study area is suitable in view of electrical conductance, sodium adsorption ratio, USSL plot, Na%, Wilcox’s plot, Kelly’s ratio, and Doneen’s plot. Dominant hydrochemical facies were observed to be Na-Cl, mixed Ca-Mg-Cl, and Ca-HCO3, and parameters like Na+, Ca2+, HCO3−, Cl−, and NO3− ions have been observed to be higher in the central region next to the east and may be appropriate to influence geogenic, anthropogenic, and seawater encroachment.

ABSTRACT This study sought to determine the economics of maize farmers in Amatole District, Eastern Cape. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select hundred and nine (109) smallholder farmers (homestead and irrigators). Descriptive statistics and gross margin analysis were used to determine the economics and profitability of maize in the study area. Findings indicated that majority (66 per cent) of them were men with an average age of 61 years old, majority (69 per cent) were married, with mean household size of 4 persons and household heads having some primary education. Moreover, majority (76 per cent) of the farmers depended on irrigation technology; majority (33 per cent) of the famers spent between 9 and 11 years of experience in farming; majority (89 per cent) of the respondents in the study area were dependent on farming as their major occupation and livelihood. Pertaining to land acquisition, majority (48%) of the farmers believed that the traditional or community leaders set rules and regulations regarding land acquisition. From the profitability analysis, smallholder farmer irrigators generated significantly higher yield, total revenues and gross margins more than the homestead gardeners at 5, 10 and 5 per cent levels, respectively. Moreover, homestead gardeners spent more money in purchase of inputs and this may have contributed to their low gross margins. On the other hand, smallholder-farmer irrigators who incur less input costs have higher chances of benefiting from price discounts and transport offer by input suppliers than the homestead gardeners. This results in smallholder farmer irrigators wielding more profits, thereby creating more income and wealth which is pivotal in the improvement of farmers' livelihoods. Keywords: Economics, profitability, Maize farmers, Extension service, Eastern Cape.

Energy Transfer Company (ETC) is proposing to construct the Orbit Pipeline Project (Project) located in Jefferson, Liberty, and Chambers counties, Texas. The Project consists of approximately 68.7 miles (mi) (110.6 kilometer [km]) of new 20.0-inch (in) (50.8-centimeter [cm]) diameter pipeline that will be used to transmit ethane and propane. The Project is located within the jurisdictional boundary of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - Galveston District. At the request of ETC, Perennial Environmental Services, LLC (Perennial) conducted an intensive Phase I cultural resources investigation for the proposed Project to comply with anticipated USACE permitting requirements. Archaeological investigations for the Project were conducted in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and Texas State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO) standards. Additionally, the Project traverses several discontinuous publicly-owned tracts that fall under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Code of Texas (Code). The results of survey investigations conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit (TAP) #8690 (issued December 17, 2018, and amended on August 30, 2019) across six discontinuous publicly -owned tracts are also presented herein. Consistent with USACE application requirements, and in accordance with Section 106 of the NHPA of 1966, as amended (36 CFR 800) and the Code, the proposed Project must make a reasonable and good faith effort to identify historic properties within the Project Area of Potential Effect (APE) and to take into account any potential effects, direct or indirect, the proposed undertaking could have on properties listed or considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or for designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL), as warranted. As the Project footprint was not finalized at the time of field investigations, survey efforts were concentrated within the vicinity of delineated wetland and waterbody features along the length of the route within a 300.0-foot- (ft-) (91.4-meter- [m-]) wide Environmental Survey Area (ESA). The anticipated depths of impact for the Project will range from 4.0 to 7.0 ft. (1.2 to 2.1 m) along the pipeline centerline, with limited deeper impacts at horizontal directional drill (HDD) and bore locations, including Cow Island Bayou, Hillebrandt Bayou, Lower Neches Valley River Authority canals, Nolte Canal, the Trinity River, Turtle Bayou, Whites Bayou, Willow Marsh Bayou, and public road crossings. The anticipated depths of impact for temporary workspace areas within the Project APE corridor would not exceed 0.6 to 1.0 ft. (0.1 to 0.3 m). The overall APE for direct effects for the Project measured 2307.19 acres (ac) (933.68 ha), while APE for Code-permitted tracts totaled 210.0 ac (85.06 ha). As presented herein, the Project ESA is coterminous with the Project APE, which is also referred to as the USACE permit areas. Only the areas adjacent to the USACE permit areas and the entirety of Code-permitted areas were surveyed for cultural resources. Jennifer Cochran served as the Principal Investigator, and field efforts were conducted by Sarah Boudreaux, Rafael Cortez, Wyatt Ellison, Rachel Kelley, William Kinkner, Colene Knaub, Jonathan Laird, Alejandro Martinez, and Thomas Ross across multiple field mobilizations between October 1, 2018, and November 12, 2019. Investigations included an archival background review and intensive pedestrian surveys augmented by shovel testing in the vicinity of delineated wetland and waterbody features. Archival research determined that there are no previously recorded sites within, or directly adjacent to the Project APE, and approximately 32.7% of the Project APE has been previously surveyed for cultural resources. However, many of these surveys are outdated and do not meet modern survey standards. Additionally, many of these previously surveys were conducted for USACE-permitted projects, and the entire Project was not surveyed for the presence of cultural resources. As such, all areas surrounding identified wetland and waterbody for this Project were surveyed. Perennial biologists delineated a total of 490 wetland areas. Of the 490 wetlands identified within the Project APE, 290 were characterized as palustrine emergent (PEM) wetlands, 106 were characterized as palustrine forested (PFO) wetlands, 4 were classified as PFO-Cypress wetlands, and 90 were characterized as palustrine scrub-shrub (PSS) wetlands. Perennial biologists also identified 270 waterbodies that ranged from perennial streams to ephemeral streams. Of the 270 waterbodies delineated, 36 were classified as having perennial flow, 66 were classified as having intermittent flow, and 148 were classified as ephemeral flow. Additionally, 20 open water features were delineated and classified as manmade ponds. Survey efforts were concentrated in the vicinity of these features where land access was voluntarily granted in accordance with a scope of work for the Project approved by the USACE on August 28, 2018, and the Texas Historical Commission (THC) on October 1, 2018. Following the approval of the scope of work, ETC extended the eastern terminus of the Project to the western bank of the Neches River, and other minor reroutes were also implemented. Perennial applied the approved survey methodology to all new Project components. For Code-permitted tracts, surveys were conducted across the entire length of the Project APE corridor in accordance with a stand-alone scope submitted to the THC on December 14, 2018, and amended August 30, 2019. Additionally, following the receipt of TAP#8690, the proposed Project was routed onto two additional publicly-owned tracts belonging to the Texas Department of Corrections (DOC) – Stiles Unit and Jefferson County. The TAP #8690 was revised and amended on August 30, 2019. Following this August 30, 2019 amendment, ETC added additional route options across the DOC – Stiles Unit tract. This additional mileage was surveyed using the same methods as stated in the previously presented revised TAP scope of work for this property. In all, the survey investigations included the excavation of a total of 1,250 shovel tests of which 1,171 shovel tests were excavated within the Project APE. The remaining 79 shovel tests were excavated outside of USACE permit areas but within the Project workspace. For the purposes of this report, only investigations within the Project APE will be discussed. Survey investigations within the Project APE resulted in entirely negative findings. No archeological sites were encountered within the survey areas reported herein. Additionally, no historic standing structures or landscape features such as historic-age canals were observed with any USACE permit areas. Overall, the surveys documented predominately inundated landscapes with a low probability for intact cultural resources. Numerous existing pipeline corridors and modern canal features are traversed by the Project. While some of the modern canals could be historic in nature or connected to a greater network of irrigation features used historically to supply agricultural crops with water, it is important to note that the majority of the waterways associated with these features will be bypassed via bore/HDD. As such, any impacts to these waterbodies as well as the associated canal structure will be entirely avoided. Additionally, all visual impacts from the proposed pipeline corridor will be temporary in nature. To date, field surveys have been completed for all accessible wetland and waterbody features along the pipeline route, as well as the total length of the Project survey corridor across all Codepermitted tracts. Prior to the beginning of November 2019, field surveys had not been conducted along the eastern banks and associated bottomlands of the Trinity River due to multiple flooding events that resulted in heavy inundation beginning in September 2018 which prevented access or survey investigations of any kind. Additionally, field surveys did not occur along portions of the Project containing denied landowner permissions. On November 6, 2019, a survey crew was able to access previously inaccessible areas associated with the Trinity River due to several months of normalized weather conditions throughout portions of Eastern Texas. Even under normal conditions, large portions of this area remain constantly inundated due to strong hydrological influences and the geomorphic position of the landscape. However, crews were able to traverse inundated areas by foot to access portions of the Project located immediately adjacent to the Trinity River. While the area located immediately adjacent to the Trinity River was not inundated at the time of survey, wetlands with strong hydrological indicators still dominate the landscape. Of the 760 delineated wetland and waterbody features, 74 features were originally not surveyed for cultural resources due to restricted land access including denied landowner permissions and significant inundation. Of these 74 features, 38 feature locations (27 streams and 42 wetlands) will be bypassed via horizontal directional drill (HDD) or bore trenchless construction methods resulting in no impacts to these features. The remaining five features (including multiple crossing locations of the same feature) are located along the eastern banks of the Trinity River. While these features were surveyed for cultural resources with negative findings, the presence of buried deposits exists within the vicinity of these features. However, access to these features with heavy machinery is not feasible due to the remote location and constant hydrological influences (e.g. inundation and saturation) associated with the floodplain setting of the Trinity River. As such, these five features are proposed to be monitored by a qualified Archeological Monitor during construction efforts. Appendix C provides each wetland and waterbody feature crossed by the Project with management recommendations and associated comments, while Appendix F provides a Cultural Monitoring Plan to evaluate the five features that will not be avoided during construction efforts. Appendix F also includes a table in response to a letter issued by the USACE Staff Archeologist, Mr. Jerry Androy, on May 17, 2019, indicating that the 74 aforementioned permit areas associated with the Project would require cultural resources investigations. The table lists each permit area, the reason surveys were not originally conducted, and justification for/against the need for monitoring. Based on the results of the survey effort reported here, no cultural resources will be affected by any construction activities within the Project APE. Aside from Cultural Monitoring at five features (including multiple crossing locations of the same feature) within the Trinity River floodplain, it is Perennial’s opinion that no further cultural resources investigations are warranted for the Project. Should archaeological remains be encountered during construction, work in the immediate area will cease, and a qualified archaeologist will be called upon to evaluate the remains and provide recommendations for how to manage the resources under the State’s Historic Preservation Plan.

IntroductionRegional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.The Tasmanian Midlands have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot (Australian Government), with a long history of Aboriginal cultural management disrupted by colonial invasion. Recent archaeological work in the Midlands, including the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project, has focused on the use of convict labour during the nineteenth century in opening up the Midlands for settler agriculture and transport. Now, the Midlands are placed under increasing pressure by changing agricultural practices such as large-scale irrigation. At the same time as this intensification of agricultural activity, significant progress has been made in protecting, preserving and restoring endemic ecologies. This progress has come through non-government conservation organisations, especially Greening Australia and their program Tasmanian Island Ark, and private landowners placing land under conservation covenants. These pressures and conservation activities give rise to research opportunities in the biological sciences, but also pose challenges in communicating the value of conservation and research outcomes to a wider public. The Species Hotel project, beginning in 2016, engaged with the aims of restoration ecology through speculative design while The Marathon Project, a multi-year curatorial art project based on a single property that contains both conservation and commercially farmed zones.This article questions the role of regionality in these three interconnected projects—Kerry Lodge, Species Hotel, and Marathon—sited in the Tasmanian Midlands: the three projects share a concern with the specificities of the region through engagement with specifics sites and their histories and ecologies, while also acknowledging the forces that shape these sites as far more mobile and global in scope. It also considers the interdisciplinary nature of these projects, in the crossover of art and design with ecological, archaeological and agricultural practices of measuring and intervening in the land, where communication and interpretation may be in tension with functionality. These projects suggest ways of working that connect the ecological and the cultural spheres; importantly, they see rural locations as sites of knowledge production; they test the value of small-scale and ephemeral interventions to explore the place of art and design as intervention within colonised landscape.Regions are also defined by overlapping circles of control, interest, and authority. We test the claim that these projects, which operate through cross-disciplinary collaboration and network with a range of stakeholders and community groups, successfully benefit the region in which they are placed. We are particularly interested in the challenges of working across institutions which both claim and enact connections to the region without being centred there. These projects are initiatives resulting from, or in collaboration with, University of Tasmania, an institution that has taken a recent turn towards explicitly identifying as place-based yet the placement of the Midlands as the gap between campuses risks attenuating the institution’s claim to be of this place. Paul Carter, in his discussion of a regional, site-specific collaboration in Alice Springs, flags how processes of creative place-making—operating through mythopoetic and story-based strategies—requires a concrete rather than imagined community that actively engages a plurality of voices on the ground. We identify similar concerns in these art and design projects and argue that iterative and long-term creative projects enable a deeper grappling with the complexities of shared regional place-making. The Midlands is aptly named: as a region, it is defined by its geographical constraints and relationships to urban centres. Heading south from the northern city of Launceston, travellers on the Midland Highway see scores of farming properties networking continuously for around 175 kilometres south to the outskirts of Brighton, the last major township before the Tasmanian capital city of Hobart. The town of Ross straddles latitude 42 degrees south—a line that has historically divided Tasmania into the divisions of North and South. The region is characterised by extensive agricultural usage and small remnant patches of relatively open dry sclerophyll forest and lowland grassland enabled by its lower attitude and relatively flatter terrain. The Midlands sit between the mountainous central highlands of the Great Western Tiers and the Eastern Tiers, a continuous range of dolerite hills lying south of Ben Lomond that slope coastward to the Tasman Sea. This area stretches far beyond the view of the main highway, reaching east in the Deddington and Fingal valleys. Campbell Town is the primary stopping point for travellers, superseding the bypassed towns, which have faced problems with lowering population and resulting loss of facilities.Image 1: Southern Midland Landscape, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.Predominantly under private ownership, the Tasmanian Midlands are a contested and fractured landscape existing in a state of ecological tension that has occurred with the dominance of western agriculture. For over 200 years, farmers have continually shaped the land and carved it up into small fragments for different agricultural agendas, and this has resulted in significant endemic species decline (Mitchell et al.). The open vegetation was the product of cultural management of land by Tasmanian Aboriginal communities (Gammage), attractive to settlers during their distribution of land grants prior to the 1830s and a focus for settler violence. As documented cartographically in the Centre for 21st Century Humanities’ Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930, the period 1820–1835, and particularly during the Black War, saw the Midlands as central to the violent dispossession of Aboriginal landowners. Clements argues that the culture of violence during this period also reflected the brutalisation that the penal system imposed upon its subjects. The cultivation of agricultural land throughout the Midlands was enabled by the provision of unfree convict labour (Dillon). Many of the properties granted and established during the colonial period have been held in multi-generational family ownership through to the present.Within this patchwork of private ownership, the tension between visibility and privacy of the Midlands pastures and farmlands challenges the capacity for people to understand what role the Midlands plays in the greater Tasmanian ecology. Although half of Tasmania’s land areas are protected as national parks and reserves, the Midlands remains largely unprotected due to private ownership. When measured against Tasmania’s wilderness values and reputation, the dry pasturelands of the Midland region fail to capture an equivalent level of visual and experiential imagination. Jamie Kirkpatrick describes misconceptions of the Midlands when he writes of “[f]latness, dead and dying eucalypts, gorse, brown pastures, salt—environmental devastation […]—these are the common impression of those who first travel between Spring Hill and Launceston on the Midland Highway” (45). However, Kirkpatrick also emphasises the unique intimate and intricate qualities of this landscape, and its underlying resilience. In the face of the loss of paddock trees and remnants to irrigation, change in species due to pasture enrichment and introduction of new plant species, conservation initiatives that not only protect but also restore habitat are vital. The Tasmanian Midlands, then, are pastoral landscapes whose seeming monotonous continuity glosses over the radical changes experienced in the processes of colonisation and intensification of agriculture.Underlying the Present: Archaeology and Landscape in the Kerry Lodge ProjectThe major marker of the Midlands is the highway that bisects it. Running from Hobart to Launceston, the construction of a “great macadamised highway” (Department of Main Roads 10) between 1820–1850, and its ongoing maintenance, was a significant colonial project. The macadam technique, a nineteenth century innovation in road building which involved the laying of small pieces of stone to create a surface that was relatively water and frost resistant, required considerable but unskilled labour. The construction of the bridge at Kerry Lodge, in 1834–35, was simultaneous with significant bridge buildings at other major water crossings on the highway, (Department of Main Roads 16) and, as the first water crossing south of Launceston, was a pinch-point through which travel of prisoners could be monitored and controlled. Following the completion of the bridge, the site was used to house up to 60 male convicts in a road gang undergoing secondary punishment (1835–44) and then in a labour camp and hiring depot until 1847. At the time of the La Trobe report (1847), the buildings were noted as being in bad condition (Brand 142–43). After the station was disbanded, the use of the buildings reverted to the landowners for use in accommodation and agricultural storage.Archaeological research at Kerry Lodge, directed by Eleanor Casella, investigated the spatial and disciplinary structures of smaller probation and hiring depots and the living and working conditions of supervisory staff. Across three seasons (2015, 2016, 2018), the emerging themes of discipline and control and as well as labour were borne out by excavations across the site, focusing on remnants of buildings close to the bridge. This first season also piloted the co-presence of a curatorial art project, which grew across the season to include eleven practitioners in visual art, theatre and poetry, and three exhibition outcomes. As a crucial process for the curatorial art project, creative practitioners spent time on site as participants and observers, which enabled the development of responses that interrogated the research processes of archaeological fieldwork as well as making connections to the wider historical and cultural context of the site. Immersed in the mundane tasks of archaeological fieldwork, the practitioners involved became simultaneously focused on repetitive actions while contemplating the deep time contained within earth. This experience then informed the development of creative works interrogating embodied processes as a language of site.The outcome from the first fieldwork season was earthspoke, an exhibition shown at Sawtooth, an artist-run initiative in Launceston in 2015, and later re-installed in Franklin House, a National Trust property in the southern suburbs of Launceston.Images 2 and 3: earthspoke, 2015, Installation View at Sawtooth ARI (top) and Franklin House (bottom). Image Credits: Melanie de Ruyter.This recontextualisation of the work, from contemporary ARI (artist run initiative) gallery to National Trust property enabled the project to reach different audiences but also raised questions about the emphases that these exhibition contexts placed on the work. Within the white cube space of the contemporary gallery, connections to site became more abstracted while the educational and heritage functions of the National Trust property added further context and unintended connotations to the art works.Image 4: Strata, 2017, Installation View. Image Credit: Karen Hall.The two subsequent exhibitions, Lines of Site (2016) and Strata (2017), continued to test the relationship between site and gallery, through works that rematerialised the absences on site and connected embodied experiences of convict and archaeological labour. The most recent iteration of the project, Strata, part of the Ten Days on the Island art festival in 2017, involved installing works at the site, marking with their presence the traces, fragments and voids that had been reburied when the landscape returned to agricultural use following the excavations. Here, the interpretive function of the works directly addressed the layered histories of the landscape and underscored the scope of the human interventions and changes over time within the pastoral landscape. The interpretative role of the artworks formed part of a wider, multidisciplinary approach to research and communication within the project. University of Manchester archaeology staff and postgraduate students directed the excavations, using volunteers from the Launceston Historical Society. Staff from Launceston’s Queen Victorian Museum and Art Gallery brought their archival and collection-based expertise to the site rather than simply receiving stored finds as a repository, supporting immediate interpretation and contextualisation of objects. In 2018, participation from the University of Tasmania School of Education enabled a larger number of on-site educational activities than afforded by previous open days. These multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational networks, drawn together provisionally in a shared time and place, provided rich opportunities for dialogue. However, the challenges of sustaining these exchanges have meant ongoing collaborations have become more sporadic, reflecting different institutional priorities and competing demands on participants. Even within long-term projects, continued engagement with stakeholders can be a challenge: while enabling an emerging and concrete sense of community, the time span gives greater vulnerability to external pressures. Making Home: Ecological Restoration and Community Engagement in the Species Hotel ProjectImages 5 and 6: Selected Species Hotels, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credits: Patrick Sutczak. The Species Hotels stand sentinel over a river of saplings, providing shelter for animal communities within close range of a small town. At the township of Ross in the Southern Midlands, work was initiated by restoration ecologists to address the lack of substantial animal shelter belts on a number of major properties in the area. The Tasmania Island Ark is a major Greening Australia restoration ecology initiative, connecting 6000 hectares of habitat across the Midlands. Linking larger forest areas in the Eastern Tiers and Central Highlands as well as isolated patches of remnant native vegetation, the Ark project is vital to the ongoing survival of local plant and animal species under pressure from human interventions and climate change. With fragmentation of bush and native grasslands in the Midland landscape resulting in vast open plains, the ability for animals to adapt to pasturelands without shelter has resulted in significant decline as animals such as the critically endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot struggle to feed, move, and avoid predators (Cranney). In 2014 mass plantings of native vegetation were undertaken along 16km of the serpentine Macquarie River as part of two habitat corridors designed to bring connectivity back to the region. While the plantings were being established a public art project was conceived that would merge design with practical application to assist animals in the area, and draw community and public attention to the work that was being done in re-establishing native forests. The Species Hotel project, which began in 2016, emerged from a collaboration between Greening Australia and the University of Tasmania’s School of Architecture and Design, the School of Land and Food, the Tasmanian College of the Arts and the ARC Centre for Forest Value, with funding from the Ian Potter Foundation. The initial focus of the project was the development of interventions in the landscape that could address the specific habitat needs of the insect, small mammal, and bird species that are under threat. First-year Architecture students were invited to design a series of structures with the brief that they would act as ‘Species Hotels’, and once created would be installed among the plantings as structures that could be inhabited or act as protection. After installation, the privately-owned land would be reconfigured so to allow public access and observation of the hotels, by residents and visitors alike. Early in the project’s development, a concern was raised during a Ross community communication and consultation event that the surrounding landscape and its vistas would be dramatically altered with the re-introduced forest. While momentary and resolved, a subtle yet obvious tension surfaced that questioned the re-writing of an established community’s visual landscape literacy by non-residents. Compact and picturesque, the architectural, historical and cultural qualities of Ross and its location were not only admired by residents, but established a regional identity. During the six-week intensive project, the community reach was expanded beyond the institution and involved over 100 people including landowners, artists, scientists and school children from the region (Wright), attempting to address and channel the concerns of residents about the changing landscape. The multiple timescales of this iterative project—from intensive moments of collaboration between stakeholders to the more-than-human time of tree growth—open spaces for regional identity to shift as both as place and community. Part of the design brief was the use of fully biodegradable materials: the Species Hotels are not expected to last forever. The actual installation of the Species Hotelson site took longer than planned due to weather conditions, but once on site they were weathering in, showing signs of insect and bird habitation. This animal activity created an opportunity for ongoing engagement. Further activities generated from the initial iteration of Species Hotel were the Species Hotel Day in 2017, held at the Ross Community Hall where presentations by scientists and designers provided feedback to the local community and presented opportunities for further design engagement in the production of ephemeral ‘species seed pies’ placed out in and around Ross. Architecture and Design students have gone on to develop more examples of ‘ecological furniture’ with a current focus on insect housing as well as extrapolating from the installation of the Species Hotels to generate a VR visualisation of the surrounding landscape, game design and participatory movement work that was presented as part of the Junction Arts Festival program in Launceston, 2017. The intersections of technologies and activities amplified the lived in and living qualities of the Species Hotels, not only adding to the connectivity of social and environmental actions on site and beyond, but also making a statement about the shared ownership this project enabled.Working Property: Collaboration and Dialogues in The Marathon Project The potential of iterative projects that engage with environmental concerns amid questions of access, stewardship and dialogue is also demonstrated in The Marathon Project, a collaborative art project that took place between 2015 and 2017. Situated in the Northern Midland region of Deddington alongside the banks of the Nile River the property of Marathon became the focal point for a small group of artists, ecologists and theorists to converge and engage with a pastoral landscape over time that was unfamiliar to many of them. Through a series of weekend camps and day trips, the participants were able to explore and follow their own creative and investigative agendas. The project was conceived by the landowners who share a passion for the history of the area, their land, and ideas of custodianship and ecological responsibility. The intentions of the project initially were to inspire creative work alongside access, engagement and dialogue about land, agriculture and Deddington itself. As a very small town on the Northern Midland fringe, Deddington is located toward the Eastern Tiers at the foothills of the Ben Lomond mountain ranges. Historically, Deddington is best known as the location of renowned 19th century landscape painter John Glover’s residence, Patterdale. After Glover’s death in 1849, the property steadily fell into disrepair and a recent private restoration effort of the home, studio and grounds has seen renewed interest in the cultural significance of the region. With that in mind, and with Marathon a neighbouring property, participants in the project were able to experience the area and research its past and present as a part of a network of working properties, but also encouraging conversation around the region as a contested and documented place of settlement and subsequent violence toward the Aboriginal people. Marathon is a working property, yet also a vital and fragile ecosystem. Marathon consists of 1430 hectares, of which around 300 lowland hectares are currently used for sheep grazing. The paddocks retain their productivity, function and potential to return to native grassland, while thickets of gorse are plentiful, an example of an invasive species difficult to control. The rest of the property comprises eucalypt woodlands and native grasslands that have been protected under a conservation covenant by the landowners since 2003. The Marathon creek and the Nile River mark the boundary between the functional paddocks and the uncultivated hills and are actively managed in the interface between native and introduced species of flora and fauna. This covenant aimed to preserve these landscapes, linking in with a wider pattern of organisations and landowners attempting to address significant ecological degradation and isolation of remnant bushland patches through restoration ecology. Measured against the visibility of Tasmania’s wilderness identity on the national and global stage, many of the ecological concerns affecting the Midlands go largely unnoticed. The Marathon Project was as much a project about visibility and communication as it was about art and landscape. Over the three years and with its 17 participants, The Marathon Project yielded three major exhibitions along with numerous public presentations and research outputs. The length of the project and the autonomy and perspectives of its participants allowed for connections to be formed, conversations initiated, and greater exposure to the productivity and sustainability complexities playing out on rural Midland properties. Like Kerry Lodge, the 2015 first year exhibition took place at Sawtooth ARI. The exhibition was a testing ground for artists, and a platform for audiences, to witness the cross-disciplinary outputs of work inspired by a single sheep grazing farm. The interest generated led to the rethinking of the 2016 exhibition and the need to broaden the scope of what the landowners and participants were trying to achieve. Image 7: Panel Discussion at Open Weekend, 2016. Image Credit: Ron Malor.In November 2016, The Marathon Project hosted an Open Weekend on the property encouraging audiences to visit, meet the artists, the landowners, and other invited guests from a number of restoration, conservation, and rehabilitation organisations. Titled Encounter, the event and accompanying exhibition displayed in the shearing shed, provided an opportunity for a rhizomatic effect with the public which was designed to inform and disseminate historical and contemporary perspectives of land and agriculture, access, ownership, visitation and interpretation. Concluding with a final exhibition in 2017 at the University of Tasmania’s Academy Gallery, The Marathon Project had built enough momentum to shape and inform the practice of its participants, the knowledge and imagination of the public who engaged with it, and make visible the precarity of the cultural and rural Midland identity.Image 8. Installation View of The Marathon Project Exhibition, 2017. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.ConclusionThe Marathon Project, Species Hotel and the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project all demonstrate the potential of site-based projects to articulate and address concerns that arise from the environmental and cultural conditions and histories of a region. Beyond the Midland fence line is a complex environment that needed to be experienced to be understood. Returning creative work to site, and opening up these intensified experiences of place to a public forms a key stage in all these projects. Beyond a commitment to site-specific practice and valuing the affective and didactic potential of on-site installation, these returns grapple with issues of access, visibility and absence that characterise the Midlands. Paul Carter describes his role in the convening of a “concretely self-realising creative community” in an initiative to construct a meeting-place in Alice Springs, a community defined and united in “its capacity to imagine change as a negotiation between past, present and future” (17). Within that regional context, storytelling, as an encounter between histories and cultures, became crucial in assembling a community that could in turn materialise story into place. In these Midlands projects, a looser assembly of participants with shared interests seek to engage with the intersections of plant, human and animal activities that constitute and negotiate the changing environment. The projects enabled moments of connection, of access, and of intervention: always informed by the complexities of belonging within regional locations.These projects also suggest the need to recognise the granularity of regionalism: the need to be attentive to the relations of site to bioregion, of private land to small town to regional centre. The numerous partnerships that allow such interconnect projects to flourish can be seen as a strength of regional areas, where proximity and scale can draw together sets of related institutions, organisations and individuals. However, the tensions and gaps within these projects reveal differing priorities, senses of ownership and even regional belonging. Questions of who will live with these project outcomes, who will access them, and on what terms, reveal inequalities of power. Negotiations of this uneven and uneasy terrain require a more nuanced account of projects that do not rely on the geographical labelling of regions to paper over the complexities and fractures within the social environment.These projects also share a commitment to the intersection of the social and natural environment. They recognise the inextricable entanglement of human and more than human agencies in shaping the landscape, and material consequences of colonialism and agricultural intensification. Through iteration and duration, the projects mobilise processes that are responsive and reflective while being anchored to the materiality of site. Warwick Mules suggests that “regions are a mixture of data and earth, historically made through the accumulation and condensation of material and informational configurations”. Cross-disciplinary exchanges enable all three projects to actively participate in data production, not interpretation or illustration afterwards. Mules’ call for ‘accumulation’ and ‘configuration’ as productive regional modes speaks directly to the practice-led methodologies employed by these projects. The Kerry Lodge and Marathon projects collect, arrange and transform material taken from each site to provisionally construct a regional material language, extended further in the dual presentation of the projects as off-site exhibitions and as interventions returning to site. The Species Hotel project shares that dual identity, where materials are chosen for their ability over time, habitation and decay to become incorporated into the site yet, through other iterations of the project, become digital presences that nonetheless invite an embodied engagement.These projects centre the Midlands as fertile ground for the production of knowledge and experiences that are distinctive and place-based, arising from the unique qualities of this place, its history and its ongoing challenges. Art and design practice enables connectivity to plant, animal and human communities, utilising cross-disciplinary collaborations to bring together further accumulations of the region’s intertwined cultural and ecological landscape.ReferencesAustralian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Biodiversity Conservation. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2018. 1 Apr. 2019 <http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/conservation>.Brand, Ian. The Convict Probation System: Van Diemen’s Land 1839–1854. Sandy Bay: Blubber Head Press, 1990.Carter, Paul. “Common Patterns: Narratives of ‘Mere Coincidence’ and the Production of Regions.” Creative Communities: Regional Inclusion & the Arts. Eds. Janet McDonald and Robert Mason. Bristol: Intellect, 2015. 13–30.Centre for 21st Century Humanities. Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930. 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