Submitted by Marilene Donadel (marilene.donadel@unioeste.br) on 2018-06-06T23:01:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila_Santos_2018.pdf: 1490357 bytes, checksum: 51ef5bf6ae6ed45d1e8d3337275493fb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-06T23:01:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila_Santos_2018.pdf: 1490357 bytes, checksum: 51ef5bf6ae6ed45d1e8d3337275493fb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In the conventional and hydroponic cultivation of lettuce, agricultural defensives and fertilizers are used, which presents concentrations of toxic elements in its composition and may alter the aliment’s quality. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate the content of the heavy metals Cd, Cr, Cu and Pb in soil, nutritive solution and lettuce leaves in the region of Toledo – PR. Samples of lettuce and its substrates were collected from five hydroponic and five conventional proprieties, which were submitted to nitroperchloric digestion for the determination of metal contents through spectrophotometry of atomic adsorption AAS/6300. The experimental delimitation was entirely randomized, with ten treatments and three repetitions, and the results were submitted to variance analysis and to Turkey’s test at 5% significance level; also, the Pearson’s correlation (r) was performed between the variables substrate and lettuce leaves. It was observed that the lettuce studied, in general, presented higher contents of Cd and Cr in the hydroponic cultivation - in which 5 of the hydroponic proprieties, 4 of them presented significantly superior than the conventional ones - according to the Turkey’s test; for the element Cu, significant difference also occurred between the farming methods, however there was significant variance in the cultivation of each property; and for Pb, it was observed that the majority of the samples collected presented higher concentrations than the tolerable limits established by ANVISA - whereas the conventional method presented itself statistically similar between each property, for the hydroponic method, two properties presented themselves significantly superior to the others, and statistically different between each other. When the metal concentrations in the lettuce leaves was compared with the substrate, in general, for both conventional and hydroponic methods the contents in the lettuce didn’t show correlation to the contents in the substrate, which indicate that the contamination may be occurring through the use of agrochemicals and agricultural inputs, used for the control of plagues and diseases, aside from inappropriate management. Thus, it is possible to conclude that the variation in metal concentrations in the same cultivation method is due to the fact that the use of different agrochemicals and fertilizes is allowed, which contain different compositions. Furthermore, the pulverization date previous to sampling of the lettuce may have caused some variations to the composition of the vegetable, as well as inappropriate handling of the aliment. / Nos cultivos de alface convencional e hidropônica são utilizados defensivos agrícolas e fertilizantes, que apresentam concentrações de elementos tóxicos em sua composição e podem alterar a qualidade do alimento. Dessa forma, o presente trabalho objetivou avaliar os teores dos metais pesados Cd, Cr, Cu e Pb em solo, solução nutritiva e folhas de alfaces na região de Toledo – PR. Foram coletadas amostras de alfaces e de seus substratos em cinco propriedades hidropônicas e cinco convencionais, cujas amostras foram submetidas à digestão nítrico-perclórica para determinação dos teores de metais por meio de espectrofotômetro de absorção atômica AAS/6300. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado, com dez tratamentos e três repetições e os resultados foram submetidos à análise de variância e ao teste Tukey ao nível de 5% de significância; ainda foi realizada a correlação de Pearson (r) entre as variáveis substrato e folhas de alface. Observou-se que as alfaces estudadas em geral apresentaram maiores concentrações de Cd e Cr no cultivo hidropônico, sendo que dos 5 cultivos hidropônicos, 4 deles mostraram-se significativamente superiores ao cultivo convencional pelo teste de Tukey; para o elemento Cu, também ocorreu diferença significativa entre os cultivos, no entanto houve uma grande variação entre as culturas e para o Pb, observou-se que a maioria das amostras coletadas apresentavam concentrações superiores ao limite tolerável estabelecido pela ANVISA, sendo que o cultivo convencional mostrou-se estatisticamente semelhante entre si; quanto aos cultivos hidropônicos, dois cultivos mostraram-se significativamente superiores aos demais, e estatisticamente diferentes entre si. Quando comparadas as concentrações de metais nas folhas de alface com o substrato, de forma geral, tanto para o cultivo convencional, quanto para o cultivo hidropônico os teores na alface não apresentaram correlação com os teores no substrato, o que indica que a contaminação pode estar ocorrendo através do uso de agrotóxicos e insumos utilizados para o controle de pragas e doenças, além do manejo inadequado. Assim, pode-se dizer que a variação nas concentrações de metais na mesma cultura deve-se ao fato de ser permitido o uso de diferentes agrotóxicos e fertilizantes, os quais possuem composições distintas. Além disso, a data de pulverização previamente à coleta das alfaces pode ter ocasionado algumas variações na composição da hortaliça, bem como o manejo inadequado do alimento.

The world is facing a food shortage as the world’s population increases and arable land decreases. Despite this, the food industry is wasteful, and 30% - 40% of all produced food is lost before reaching the end consumer. Emerging technologies aim to increase the amount of food that can be grown per m2 or allow the growing of food in climates or on lands previously impossible. Four main farming techniques utilising these emerging technologies are Controlled Environment Agriculture, Hydroponic Farming, Urban Farming and Vertical farming. When used together, these techniques form the basis for what can be called a Plant Factory. Despite the positive effects these technologies have on the production rate, few Plant Factories have managed to achieve profitability. By creating support for developing the post-harvesting system for a plant factory, this thesis aims to aid in the development of profitable plant factories. The thesis uses Design Research Methodology to achieve this aim in three parts. The first part identifies the underlying factors of the post-harvesting system affecting plant factory profitability. The second presents a set of support components that will aid the developers to improve key factors affecting profitability. The third part is a case study where the support components applicability at targeting the key factors are evaluated, and suggestions for further improvements and testing of the support is suggested.  Further, using Design Research Methodology, the methods used to develop support in this thesis are presented to easily be replicated by other researchers to aid them in developing support for other industries and circumstances. The suitability of the developed support was tested using the principles of an initial DS-II. The developed support proved very useful for the investigated case, and with its conditions, the application evaluation was considered a partial success. Two key factors were successfully improved and indicated that the intended support is ready for a comprehensive DS-II. A third support component needs more work to provide the intended support fully. Therefore a second  PS iteration is recommended before a comprehensive DS-II is done to increase its value.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, based on a comparative study in Sweden, how vertical hydroponic farms can be implemented in urban environments and to identify the challenges with the implementation. The study examines various companies that work with hydroponic farms in Sweden and how the government can help the companies with the implementation of the innovation. Urban hydroponic farms can be a significant solution for solving the growing global population demand for locally grown fresh food, which includes good quality and nutrients. Previous studies, from a sustainability perspective, show that Sweden would benefit in several different ways if more hydroponic farms were implemented in the urban cities. The theory that the report is based on is the implementation theory. With this in mind, the empirics were analyzed from three different found themes; economy, political priorities & local involvement. Empirical data was collected from previous studies as well as from a qualitative methodological approach. This empirical study was based on multiple interviews with companies in the hydroponic farms industry located in Sweden and observations, to be able to analyze the findings based on our chosen theme. In this study we found that the result indicates that there are both advantages and obstacles to the implementation of hydroponic farms in urban areas. On the other hand, the benefits are predominantly from a sustainable development perspective with new innovative solutions, such as solar systems and upgraded district heating and district cooling systems.

This paper examined how Change Management and Transformational Leadership can be effective tools in transitioning towards sustainable agriculture in Europe. This paper starts with providing empirical evidence for climate change and shows that Northern and Southern Europe are impacted differently by climate change. Then this paper examined how climate change affects farmers in the different parts of Europe and what Societal, Environmental, Leadership and Organisational changes have to be made to transition towards sustainable agriculture in Europe. The qualitative analysis shows that, according to farmer associations, there is a need for a variety of options, a lack of communication and insufficient involvement of farmers on a policy making level. This paper ends with explaining how Change Management and Transformational Leadership can be used as tools to improve communication between stakeholders and improve the involvement of farmers in the co-creation process. Therefore, this paper concludes that Change Management and Transformational leadership will help the European Union in realising sustainable agriculture in Europe.