Spanish Journal of Rural Development

The Spanish Journal of Rural Development (SJRD) is a quarterly scientific journal published by the Galician Association of Researchers for Rural Development Asociación Gallega de Investigadores para el Desarrollo Rural (AGAIDERU).

Span. j. rural dev. is a multidisciplinary journal which publishes original research articles of practical application in the fields of forestry, agronomy, the environment, rural planning, international cooperation and socioeconomic issues. The overall focus is on the sustainable rural development of local populations, within identified Priority Lines

The journal also applies a policy of exchange with various scientific journals, at both national and international levels, and it is indexed in important scientific databases.

• Introduction

  Editor SJRD

  Intro Full Text Original language : Spanish

  On behalf of the Editorial Board of the journal "Spanish Journal of Rural Development (SJRD)" I present a new issue of the same, that also it gives continuity the number 1 of Volume II; by the way, which does not include a small introduction as usually we had been doing with all previously published numbers. But my personal opinion is that it is a good habit, always include a small "Introduction". Just as I comment on the earlier introduction of previous special issue, the publication of this issue 2 of Volume II, means, first, that SJRD begins to settle as an international scientific journal, we have published in less than two years of existence, a total of 9 numbers, adding the regulated and special and, on the other hand, we carry on with new projects (special issues of different themes related to rural development of the local population, monographic numbers, ...).
  
  This, also has involved to SJRD, make the hole bigger everyday at the end of the tunnel, this allowing us to glimpse a very promising horizon. Proof of this are the variety and quality of published papers in both regulated and special numbers, the increase in the number of subscriptions and agreements with different agencies / institutions, which has allowed the publication of several special numbers in the near future. But there is no doubt that the most important thing for us has been the recognition, as nationally as internationally for our magazine, which has been reflected in the inclusion of it in important databases. That group of "people which believed one day in the future of this project", and set up "Spanish Journal of Rural Development", thank God we were not wrong, we carry on, despite the demagoguery of certain people and, other unfortunate events, which are disqualified for themselves. And not only tread on solid ground, but we're starting to build the foundations of a wonderful project. "Don Quijote I am, and my profession is knight-errant. They are my laws, resolve conflicts, lavish the good and avoid evil. I flee of the easy life, ambition and hypocrisy, and look for my own glory the more narrow and difficult path". ("The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra).

• Prologue

  Laura Bouriaud

  Intro Full Text Original language : English

  Spanish Journal of Rural Development argues itself as a broad platform to improve the knowledge on rural development. I am pleased to write the Prologue of the current number that is successfully fulfilling this attempt. Issues relevant for rural development in various cultural environments and from different geographical regions are presented in this number. Topics cover major areas of rural activities such animal husbandry, tourism, food industry or forestry, and the analysis done paid attention to the sustainability matters.
  
  I would use the Prologue opportunity to remind that year 2011 is the International year of Forests and to argue here the importance of SJRD initiative on offering a frame to discuss forestry issues in the frame of rural development.
  
  Forests are part of landscape, source of public goods such biodiversity protection, carbon storage or watershed protection, but also a source of revenues (and costs) for forest owners. Due to the forest intrinsic complexity, several policies in Europe and in the global international processes are dealing with forest-related issue. How these global or EU forest-related policies would change the role of forests in rural areas? Nowadays one may see the increasing importance of forests, and particularly of small size private forests for the energy production, carbon storage and for the Natura 2000 implementation. Private landowners will face in the next future, at least in Europe, an increase demand for wood mobilization for the energetic uses, and in the same time an increase demand for afforestation and for nature protection. According to the ongoing researches (e.g. FP7 founded project MOTIVE – Models for adaptative forest management in Europe), forests will be also affected by an increasing risk related with biotic (insects, diseases) or abiotic risks (fire, storms, drought) and forest management should take into account these risks and choose the most adapted strategies to overcome them.
  
  Considering these challenges, a journal with a broad spectrum such SJRD would offer to researchers and to all other interested stakeholders a great opportunity for discussing forest-related issues that have the potential to really influence the rural landscape and activities in a near future.
   

• Tourism and rural development in national parks. The case of Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park (Cádiz-Málaga).

  Bel, C., Arranz, A.

  Intro Full Text Original language : Spanish

  
  In the last decades has been a remarkable development of tourism in nature, based on increased demand for recreational activities outdoors in natural areas, more especially in the natural parks. In Andalusia it is a sector with enormous growth potential for the quality and quantity of parks it has. A recent study on the typology of vacationers who visit the Natural Park Sierra de Grazalema (Cádiz-Málaga), lets you know the basics about the visits to this recognized protected area, highlighting the positive impact that these visits have on the socioeconomic development of rural land in a context of sustainable development based on planning and active management of tourism in protected natural areas.

• Early silviculture of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) plantations, between economics and stability: a case-study

  Patraucean, A., Nicolescu, V.N.

  Intro Full Text Original language : English

  The Norway spruce stands of Europe have been exposed to the undesired effects of snow and wind since a long time ago. Under such circumstances their resistance to the two factors has become a major preoccupation to foresters everywhere in Europe, two main solutions (i) wide spacing and (ii) high intensity silvicultural interventions especially cleaning-respacing -performed soon after the first canopy closure being envisaged. Taking into account these solutions as well as the high initial stocking of pure Norway spruce plantations in Romania (usually 5,000 plants per ha), the paper outlines the major outputs of a research project started back in 2004 and dealing with the effects of various intensity cleaning-respacing interventions on the stability of young cultures as follows: the best results in terms of increment of mean dbh were achieved in the plot with the lowest initial stand density; there is a significant positive correlation between the initial dbh and dbh increment; a significant positive correlation was also found between the dbh and mean crown diameter; the mean height increment was much less influenced by stand density than the mean dbh increment; the early started and high intensity cleaningrespacing had a positive effect on Norway spruce stand stability, the present level of slenderness index reflecting its high or medium resistance to possible snow damages.

• Territorial analysis and diagnosis of poplar in the region of Bierzo, León

  Seara, M.P., Fernández-Manso, A.

  Intro Full Text Original language : Spanish

  
  Poplar has been developed in recent decades in the region of El Bierzo as an alternative to traditional agricultural activities. Although both climate and soil are optimal for growing clones of poplar, primarily Populus x Euroamericana wood production is becoming less profitable. This paper provides an analysis and diagnosis of the current situation of poplar at municipal level. Therefore, we based our research work on previous studies that surveyed the poplar with similar objectives. Our territorial study used a quantitative technique of sociological research to obtain reliable data (with a confidence level of 95% and a sampling error of 10%). Results showed that dominant problems are mainly related to an important territorial fragmentation, an inadequate selviculture and the plague caused by Phloeomyzus passerinii.

• Effect of replacement of berseem hay by ensiled and dried sweet potato vines on performance of growing rabbits

  Gaafar, H.M.A., Abd El-Lateif, A.I.A., Abd El-Hady, S.B.

  Intro Full Text Original language : English

  Two experiments were done to study the effect of partial replacement of berseem hay by ensiled and dried sweet potato vines on the performance of growing rabbits. In the first one, 12 mature male New Zealand (NZW) rabbits with an average body weight of 2.5 kg and 8 months old were used to determine digestibility coefficients and nutritive values of berseem hay (BH), ensiled sweet potato vines (SPVS) and dried sweet potato vines (SPVH). In the second one, 50 NZW growing rabbits of 60 days of age were used in a complete randomized design experiment with five treatments. The first group fed commercial rabbit diet including 40% BH (control diet), while in the other groups fed diets contained 20% BH + 20% SPVS (group 2), 40% SPVS (group 3), and 20% BH + 20% SPVH (group 4) and 40% SPVH (group 4), throughout the 70 days of experiment. Results of the first experiment showed that the contents of crude protein (CP) and nitrogen free extract (NFE) of SPVS were nearly similar to that of BH. While, the contents of both extract (EE) and ash were higher and crude fiber (CF) content was lower in SPVS and SPVH and CP content was lower in SPVH compared to BH. The SPVS had significantly (P<0.05) the highest digestibility coefficients of all nutrients followed by SPVH, while BH had the lowest values. The total digestible nutrients (TDN) and digestible energy (DE) values of SPVS as higher significantly (P<0.05) than those of BH and SPVH, while digestible crude protein (DCP) value of BH and SPVS was higher significantly (P<0.05) than that of SPVH. In the second experiment, the contents of organic matter (OM) and CF tended to decrease, but the contents of NFE, EE and ash tended to increase in SPVS and SPVH diets compared with commercial diet. While, CP tend to decrease in SPVH diets than that of commercial diet and SPVS diets. Rabbits fed 40% SPVS diet showed significantly (P<0.05) the highest digestibility coefficients of all nutrients and subsequently nutritive values and total volatile fatty acid (TVFA's) concentration. While, rabbits fed commercial diet recorded the highest pH value and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) concentration (P<0.05). Rabbits fed 40% SPVS diet showed significantly (P<0.05) the highest final body weight, total and daily weight gain, total and net revenue and improvement, slaughter weight, carcass weight, dressing percentage, meat weight and percentage. Rabbits fed commercial diet showed the highest average daily and total dry matter (DM) intake and amount of DM/kg gain, feed cost and feed cost/kg gain. Rabbits fed 20% BH + 20% SPVS diet showed significantly (P<0.05) the highest DM and ash contents, while those fed 40% SPVS diet had the highest CP and EE contents.

• A study on the effect of heat treatments on composition and some properties of camel milk.

  Hattem, H. E., Naeim, M.A., Sakrand, H.S., Abouel-Einin, E.H.

  Intro Full Text Original language : English

  The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of different thermal treatments on the composition and chemical properties of camel's milk. The rennet clotting time of camel's milk was also investigated. Camel milk samples were thermal treated at 63, 80, 90oC for 30 min and 72 oC for 15 sec., whereas raw milk sample was served as a control. We found that the fat content was not affected by the applied treatments (3.2±0.189 %), but the protein contents average ± SD values were found to be 3.2±0.148, 3.4±0.136, 3.4±0.149, 3.3±0.049 and 3.1±0.157 % respectively. The ash contents were also affected by the thermal treatments and their average ± SD values were 0.70±0.065, 0.71±0.056, 0.73±0.052, 0.71±0.088 and 0.68±0.096 % respectively. The thermal treatments affected also the total solids in the samples; 10.0±1.168, 10.10±1.057, 10.16±1.089, 10.05±1.055 and 9.9±1.189 % respectively. The non protein nitrogen (NPN), non casein nitrogen (NCN) and whey protein nitrogen (WPN) gradually decreased in thermal treatments were increased but casein number and the percentage of denaturation were increased. Rennet clotting time in the presence of different concentrations of CaCl₂ (0 -20 mg /100 ml) was found to be increasing by raising temperature. However, increasing the amount of calcium chloride was found to be decreasing the rennet clotting time at all thermal treatment. Incubation of milk with yoghurt culture at 40^oC for 12 hours revealed a significant increase to the acidity level and a substantial decrease in the pH level at all the applied thermal treatments.

• Impact of feeding systems of dairy cows on characteristics of "ras" cheese.

  Hattem, H.E, Naeim, M.A., Saker, H.S.

  Intro Full Text Original language : English

  Milk samples were collected from dairy cows herd to study impact of three feeding systems on their suitability for making a good quality Ras cheese. The attained results revealed that the differences in TS, fat and protein contents of cheese milk due to the applied treatments were significant with the highest values in milk from treatment (I) followed by those from treatments (II) and (III) respectively. The corresponding values for the yield of fresh cheese were 14.49, 13.76 and 12.42% and for the ripened cheese were 12.32, 11.56 and 9.89% respectively. The six months old cheese from treatment (I) contained the highest values of moisture, fat/DM, protein/DM, salt/DM, TVFA, SN/TN and NPN/TN. These figures were accompanied by the highest scoring points for flavour (50.6 out of 60 points), body and texture (28.8 out of 30 points) and appearance (9.6 out of 10 points). Less scoring points were given for the sensorial properties of cheese of the same age from treatments (II) and (III) respectively.

• Sustainability criteria and indicators for rural tourism.

  Cardín-Pedrosa, M., Álvarez-López, C.J.

  Intro Full Text Original language : Spanish

  Currently, farm diversification in general involves a wide range of options, such as the evolution to ‘non-traditional’ products, the incorporation of product selling and/or processing on the farm, and the provision of tourism and leisure services. Tourism has been frequently the most strongly promoted rural employment alternative. In order to examine the evolution of tourism in the countryside, its current situation and potential for development, we have implemented a system of indicators that can be a useful decision-making tool. There are two main phases in indicators design: i. definition, i.e. determine the key factors that we should assess, and ii. their implementation and validation. In collaboration with Costa Rican researchers and authorities, we used participatory techniques with rural tourism stakeholders in that country to do the theoretical formulation of the indicators. To further demonstrate its applicability and sensibility, we proved their practical feasibility in Galicia (Spain), as the research group has detailed data about this region. The main results of the project were the definition of the dimensions and criteria to be assessed, and the application of indicators in different areas with sensitive results. The future challenge is to gather enough information in Costa Rica to implement the system there as well.

• The Market Livestock Service of the Republic Uzbekistan.

  Kulmamat, M.

  Intro Full Text Original language : English

  This article considers the formation of economic mechanisms of agroservice modernization module in stock raising branch and foundation of market of livestock service in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The offered project for further development of stock raising agricultural sector and implementation of market of livestock service in the Republic of Uzbekistan opens the new perspective to creation of the real competitive environment in this region.