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The present study analyses the effects of multifunctional areas (MA) for three years (2013–2015) on an intensive multi-crop farm in Portugal. The implementation of MA resulted in a wide range of enhancements in the insect community, such as significant effects as a reservoir, allowing an increase of 102.47% in the number of species and 97.64% of individuals. MA play an important role in conservation strategies and help increase the population of rare and threatened arthropod species.

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Certain potato cultivars such as native potato species (NPS) from the Andes are known to have resistances to different pests and diseases. Some accessions are also interesting from a nutritional and culinary perspective. A collection of 35 NPS and 11 old Spanish accessions were analysed for Streptomyces scabies, Rhizoctonia solani and Globodera rostochiensis, as well as dry matter, reducing sugars, minerals, glycoalkaloid concentrations, and total antioxidant capacity. A wide variability was found between and also within the species. Most accessions showed favourable characteristics, while high concentrations values of glycoalkaloids were observed in certain accessions. The results suggest that some NPS and old Spanish accessions have a great potential for exploitation in potato breeding programmes as a source of resistances and nutritional variability.

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The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most popular and widely consumed vegetables in the world, being also the most common vegetable within the Mediterranean diet. The last few years have seen the appearance on the market of several types of agricultural plastic developed to alter the spectrum of radiation that enters the greenhouse, sometimes filtering it and, in other cases, intensifying certain wavelength bands. The objective of this study was to evaluate the production of tomato cultivated under different covers and to analyze the profitability of the yield, under each of them. A study was carried out in six tunnel greenhouses, with an area of 100 m² each, to evaluate the effect of different types of plastic roof, with different radiation properties. The yield of tomatoes was recorded and valued economically as a function of the mean prices of the Consejería de Agricultura de la Región de Murcia (CARM) (Department of Agriculture of the Region of Murcia) of the last years and one survey of the wholesale markets network (Mercas) and farmers, in order to know the weekly prices according to the caliber. The production costs of each of the alternatives were determined and the net present value of the yield and the annualized value were obtained. The highest annualized value was obtained with the UVA100%e cover (€24,856.04 per year), followed by UV90%e and PeTc (€18,931.49 and €16,205.53 per year, respectively). The LDe and Anti NIR covers provided the poorest results (€3,954.93 and €10,480.40 per year, respectively).
 

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In recent years, the use of photoselective shading nets to mitigate the harmful high radiation caused by the increase in temperatures is growing. The objective of this work was to study the positive effects - in terms of yield and profitability of photoselective shade nets in two types of pepper: Lamuyo (cultivars Alcudia and Pompeo) and California (cultivars Bendigo and Cayetano). The weekly yields, classified into different calibre, were analysed over two years, and for the analysis of economic profitability, the Equivalent Annual Value (EAV) was used with an analysis of sensitivity. The yields obtained with the pearl-colored net giving 30% shading were superior to open cultivation (no netting), in all the studied cultivars; in particular, Cayetano and Pompeo had 136 and 86% greater yields, respectively. This same trend was observed for the red-colored net giving 30% shading, with 88 and 74% increase in yield in Cayetano and Pompeo, respectively. In economic terms, the EAV was superior with the use of the pearl net, especially for the cultivars Alcudia and Cayetano - being €14,864 and €13,326 ha^-1 yr^-1, respectively. The yield and profitability were better for the crops grown under the pearl-colored photoselective net, especially for cultivars Alcudia and Cayetano. The sensitivity analysis showed that the probability of obtaining negative returns was higher in the absence of netting, while under the shade nets it was below 10%.