Maria Alejandra Moreno-Pizani

The global food production sector is under immense pressure due to rapid population growth and climate change, demanding innovative solutions for food security and sustainability. This review explores innovative advancements in agriculture and food technology, from urban farming (e.g., vertical farming, aquaponics, and hydroponics) to regenerative agriculture and agroforestry practices that enhance soil health and biodiversity. We also examine food production in extreme environments, including desert agriculture and space agriculture, as well as advances in biotechnology, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology, that enable improved crop yields and nutrition. The transformative role of AI in precision farming, predictive analytics, and water management is highlighted, as well as the importance of bioproducts and eco-friendly innovations. Finally, we discuss the vital role of policy, regulation, and community-driven approaches in shaping a resilient global food system. Through the integration of technology with sustainable practices, this review aims to inspire research into solutions that ensure future food security while preserving our planet.

The global food production sector faces unprecedented challenges due to rapid population growth and escalating climate change impacts, necessitating innovative strategies to ensure food security and promote sustainability. This comprehensive review explores cutting-edge solutions across multiple domains of agriculture and food technology. We examine emerging agricultural frontiers, including urban farming technologies that leverage vertical farming, hydroponics, and smart sensors to maximize productivity in limited spaces. The review also delves into agroforestry and regenerative agriculture practices that enhance soil health and biodiversity while sequestering carbon. We investigate advancements in food production in extreme environments, such as desert agriculture and deep space food technologies, which push the boundaries of cultivation in resource-scarce conditions. The transformative potential of biotechnology is highlighted through discussions on plant engineering, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology for enhanced crop yields and nutritional content. Additionally, we explore the role of artificial intelligence in optimizing agricultural management, from precision farming to predictive analytics for crop health. Water management innovations are examined as critical components of food security, especially in water-stressed regions. The review also emphasizes the importance of bioproducts and eco-friendly technological innovations that support sustainable food systems. Furthermore, we discuss the crucial role of public policy, food regulation, and participatory community approaches in ensuring equitable food distribution and adoption of new technologies. By providing a multidisciplinary perspective, this review aims to catalyze further research that integrates emerging technologies with sustainable management practices. Our goal is to inspire the development of a resilient global food system capable of meeting the nutritional needs of current and future generations while preserving environmental integrity.

Water application to cultivated soil is often done without careful consideration in irrigated agriculture, leading to inefficient or suboptimal water usage. In many instances, the intricate relationship between soil, water, and plants, as well as the potential and limitations of irrigation systems, is overlooked. Sustainable irrigated agriculture necessitates the development of a soil moisture monitoring system that curtails water loss and enhances overall efficiency. This study aimed to develop and assess the efficiency of an intelligent system for monitoring soil moisture. The system comprises two stations: the first collects data on apparent soil moisture parameters using sensors, while the second transmits this data to a central processing station. The system precisely determines current soil moisture values, enabling estimation of the required irrigation water volume to meet the crop’s water demand based on field capacity. Results from the calibration curve of the sensors indicate that the system can measure current soil moisture precisely, aiding in irrigation management. For irrigated areas under unsaturated soil conditions, it is recommended to use tensiometers due to their higher reliability between field capacity and permanent wilting point, ensuring more accurate irrigation practices.

MODELO PARA ESTIMATIVA DO RENDIMENTO DE CULTURAS IRRIGADAS BASEADO NO BALANÇO HÍDRICO SEQUENCIAL: APRESENTAÇÃO E APLICAÇÃO MARCO ANTÔNIO JACOMAZZI¹; JOSÉ ANTONIO FRIZZONE²; ASDRUBAL JESUS FARIAS RAMIREZ³; MARIA ALEJANDRA MORENO-PIZANI⁴; FABIO TOMASELLA JOHANSSON⁵ E SERGIO NASCIMENTO DUARTE^{6   1-}Mestrado Profissional em Rede Nacional em Gestão e Regulação de Recursos Hídricos - ProfÁgua, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, 91501-970, Porto Alegre/RS, (19) 98156-4809, marcoantono@rasa.eng.br ² Departamento de Engenharia de Biossistemas, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Av. Pádua Dias nº11, Bairro São Dimas, Piracicaba – SP, Brasil, CEP: 13.418-900, frizzone@usp.br ³ RASA Engenharia, Edifício Racz Center, R. Alfredo Guedes nº 1949, sala 506, Higienópolis, Piracicaba- SP, cep: 13.419-080, Brasil, ajfara@gmail.com. ⁴ PECEGE, R. Alexandre Herculano, nº 120, T6, Vila Monteiro, Piracicaba – SP, cep: 13.418-455, Brasil, morenom76@gmail.com. ^5-Departamento de Engenharia de Biossistemas, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Av. Pádua Dias nº11, Bairro São Dimas, Piracicaba – SP, Brasil, CEP: 13.418-900, fabiojohansson@usp.br. ⁶ Departamento de Engenharia de Biossistemas, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Av. Pádua Dias nº11, Bairro São Dimas, Piracicaba – SP, Brasil, CEP: 13.418-900, snduarte@usp.br.     1 RESUMO   Agricultura moderna tem utilizado recursos computacionais para planejar o uso racional da água em sistemas irrigados. O constante avanço tecnológico destes recursos torna necessária a atualização dos softwares desenvolvidos para a área de irrigação, incorporando tecnologias mais recentes. O objetivo deste trabalho foi elaborar uma ferramenta computacional de fácil acesso, que permitisse ao usuário escolher critérios para as áreas irrigadas, e apresentar um exemplo de aplicação. Esse programa foi desenvolvido para auxiliar na tomada de decisão sobre o nível de manejo de irrigação suplementar a ser adotado, levando em consideração as chuvas a partir de uma série histórica de dados e a máxima produtividade esperada para a cultura. O aplicativo requer dados de parâmetros climáticos regionais, características da cultura irrigada, propriedades do solo e manejo de água adotado como entrada. Ele permite estimar a evapotranspiração de referência usando quatro métodos diferentes a partir dos dados climáticos disponíveis. Simulações realizadas para a região de Piracicaba - SP, onde o déficit hídrico não é acentuado, mostraram as diferenças no nível de depleção da água do solo adotado foram insignificantes. Entretanto, essas diferenças podem ser potencializadas para regiões mais áridas. Essa ferramenta pode ser útil para usuários de diferentes regiões climáticas no país. Keywords: Modelagem, Manejo da Irrigação, Irrigação Suplementar.     JACOMAZZI, M.A.; FRIZZONE, J.A.; RAMIREZ, A.J.F.; PIZZANI, M.A.M.; JOHANSSON, F.T.; DUARTE, S.N. MODEL TO ESTIMATE IRRIGATED CROP YIELD USING SEQUENTIAL WATER BALANCE: PRESENTATION AND APPLICATION   2 ABSTRACT   Modern agriculture has been using computer resources to plan the rational use of water in irrigated systems. Due to the constant advancement of these resources, it is necessary to update the software developed for the irrigation sector, incorporating newer technologies. The objective of this work was to develop a user-friendly computational tool that would allow the user to choose criteria for irrigated areas and provide an example of application. This program was developed to assist in the decision-making process regarding the level of supplementary irrigation management to be adopted, taking into consideration rainfall from a historical series of data and the maximum expected productivity for the crop. The application requires regional climatic parameter data, characteristics of the irrigated crop, soil properties, and water management adopted as input. It allows the estimation of reference evapotranspiration using four different methods based on available climatic data. Simulations conducted for the Piracicaba region in Brazil, where water deficit is not significant, showed that differences in the adopted soil water depletion level were insignificant. However, these differences may be amplified for more arid regions. This tool can be useful for users from different climatic regions in the country. Keywords: Modeling, Irrigation Management, Supplementary Irrigation.

Agricultural land drainage is an instrument for growing production and a tool for the conservation of land resources. The performance of land drainage systems is thus critical for achieving sustainable agricultural production Recently, many types of software have been developed in this field for modeling and simulating the performance of these systems. SISDRENA is a simulation model of the performance of underground drainage systems. The main objectives of this paper are to simulate different combination of depths and spaces between drains and to analyze their impact on potential sugarcane productivity in the western plains of Venezuela using a land drainage system model. Therefore, three climatic scenarios were defined by annual precipitation: dry years (25% below average), normal (mean) and humid (75% above average). The scenarios were implemented in three different soil types: sandy loam, loam and silt loam, with a hydraulic conductivity of 0.19, 0.26 and 0.04 m day⁻¹, respectively. The simulation of the yield related to soil deficit (YRD) and water stress (YRW) indicated that the highest yields were reached for the larger spacing between drains and the high conductivity hydraulic of soils. In relation to the average relative productivity (YT), it was shown that in soils with a greater water retention capacity there is an inversely proportional relationship between the spacing between drains and the productivity. We concluded that in order to reach the maximum sugarcane yield, the effect of hydraulic conductivity is more important than the changes in the precipitation pattern.

The availability of water resources has a direct impact on the economy of a country and the development of the main production processes, from agriculture, irrigation, and food production, to energy generation and water supply. The regional economic and social development is influenced by an adequate management of water resources because it stimulates the economy by expanding and ability to provide water for multiple uses, directly impacting on the generation of employment the improving the quality of life of the population. Venezuela has abundant surface water resources in the large basins. The northern part of Venezuela, where the highest percentage of the population and the main economic activities are based, face a severe water scarcity. Irrigation systems under public sector administration are characterized by large budgetary restrictions, with works for rehabilitation, operation, and maintenance generally carried out with inefficient results, due to lack of adequate technical supervision. There is a gap of official information that allows highlight the crisis that the agricultural sector has faced in the last decade. Another, very important aspect is Venezuela's severe energy crisis which began to present a deficit of electric power generation that has been alarmingly evident since 2009, which has worsened for more than a decade, causing the lack of electricity supply in large regions of the country for periods of time exceeding 100 h, contributing to aggravate the country's economic crisis. Due to the situation described, Venezuelan food systems have been seriously affected mainly by the advanced deterioration of irrigation infrastructure and the water availability on production processes. This paper explores and analyses the influence of water management on production Venezuelan economics and society, focus in three pillars representing the qualitative and quantitative relationships of water management and its impact on the system considering the aspects related to the sustainability of Venezuelan agri-food systems, analyzing the fundamental aspects for food production, main indicators related to the national economy, addressing the challenges to ensure food security.

A BNCC para Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental foi homologada em 2017 e, com os currículos locais, está sendo implantada nas escolas em 2020. Nossa pergunta principal é: quais os impactos da implantação de uma matriz única para a Educação Básica no contexto local piracicabano? No papel de colaborador externo, acompanhamos os debates promovidos pela Secretaria Municipal de Educação (SME) que culminaram na elaboração de um currículo para os quase trinta e sete mil alunos da rede. Os efeitos observados constituíram-se novos paradigmas na construção curricular, tendo o aluno (suas habilidades e atitudes) e a resolução de problemas (competências) como centralidade da ação educativa. Aos gestores cabe otimizar o processo de implantação com o uso de tecnologias, alocando recursos de forma eficiente e, principalmente, cuidando das pessoas, dos professores protagonistas que concretizarão tal currículo.

Carqueja (Baccharis crispa Spreng.) has been primarily used as a medicinal plant around the world. Commercially, the essential oil content of carqueja leaves is the most valuable crop productivity variable. We evaluated the effect of irrigation management in different growing seasons on the essential oil content of carqueja leaves using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse located in Southern Brazil, where the crop was cultivated for two years in different growing seasons under six irrigation regimes: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 125%, and 150% of the reference crop evapotranspiration (T25, T50, T75, T100, T125, and T150, respectively). A seasonal pattern was observed in the number of metabolites of sesquiterpenes and phenolics in the essential oil extracted from the biomass; this outcome was correlated with irrigation regimes and air temperature. Principal component and hierarchical cluster analyses were used to discriminate the influence of abiotic conditions on secondary metabolite profiles. Spathulenol was the most abundant compound in the essential oils (95.43%) collected during the summer (December–March) season during the third harvest (H3) at T150. The essential oil content was 8.84% ± 0.05% and 10.52% ± 0.10% in summer and winter (June–September), respectively, with T100 at 45 and 46 days after planting.