Download or read book Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-07-25 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 20 years, there has been a remarkable emergence of innovations and technological advances that are generating promising changes and opportunities for sustainable agriculture, yet at the same time the agricultural sector worldwide faces numerous daunting challenges. Not only is the agricultural sector expected to produce adequate food, fiber, and feed, and contribute to biofuels to meet the needs of a rising global population, it is expected to do so under increasingly scarce natural resources and climate change. Growing awareness of the unintended impacts associated with some agricultural production practices has led to heightened societal expectations for improved environmental, community, labor, and animal welfare standards in agriculture. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century assesses the scientific evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different production, marketing, and policy approaches for improving and reducing the costs and unintended consequences of agricultural production. It discusses the principles underlying farming systems and practices that could improve the sustainability. It also explores how those lessons learned could be applied to agriculture in different regional and international settings, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on a systems approach to improving the sustainability of U.S. agriculture, this book can have a profound impact on the development and implementation of sustainable farming systems. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century serves as a valuable resource for policy makers, farmers, experts in food production and agribusiness, and federal regulatory agencies.
Download or read book Enhancing Soil Health to Mitigate Soil Degradation written by Douglas L. Karlen and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Enhancing Soil Health to Mitigate Soil Degradation" that was published in Sustainability
Download or read book Alternative Irrigation written by Christopher J Barrow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to runoff agriculture - a form of agricultural irrigation - this text describes how the use of surface and subsurface water, often overlooked and wasted, enables both small farmers and commercial agriculturists to improve yields and the security of harvest, even in harsh and remote environments. The text introduces the techniques and strategies, as well as the challenges and the potential of the crucial approach, which can contribute so much to reducing land degradation and improving conservation and sustainability.
Download or read book Soil Quality Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Security in Central and Eastern Europe written by M.J. Wilson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture is a crucial component of the economies of many of the countries in transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy and the sector is by no means immune to the environmental and socioeconomic problems confronting the countries as a whole. The concept of sustainable development provides a convenient framework for the formulation of government environmental policy for such countries, especially those of them that aspire to join the EU and would thus be expected to meet EU environmental standards. For agriculture, this inevitably involves appropriate strategies for balancing crop and animal production while protecting the quality of the national soil and water resources. There is thus an urgent need to compile, exchange and evaluate current information on the quality of soils in these countries, and to assess the potential impact of new management practices on the soil and on the wider environment.
Download or read book Conservation Agriculture written by L. García-Torres and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In large parts of the developed and developing worlds soil tillage by plough or hoe is the main cause of land degradation leading to stagnating or even declining production levels and increasing production cost. It causes the soil to become more dense and compacted, the organic matter content to be reduced and water runoff and soil erosion to increase. It also leads to droughts becoming more severe and the soil becoming less fertile and less responsive to fertiliser. This book brings together the key notes lectures and other outstanding contributions of the I World Congress on Conservation Agriculture and provides an updated view of the environment and economic advantages of CA and of its implementation in diferent areas of the World.
Download or read book Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Food Networks written by Eleftherios Iakovou and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary framework for managing sustainable agrifood supply chains Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Food Networks provides an up-to-date and interdisciplinary framework for designing and operating sustainable supply chains for agri-food products. Focus is given to decision-making procedures and methodologies enabling policy-makers, managers and practitioners to design and manage effectively sustainable agrifood supply chain networks. Authored by high profile researchers with global expertise in designing and operating sustainable supply chains in the agri-food industry, this book: Features the entire hierarchical decision-making process for managing sustainable agrifood supply chains. Covers knowledge-based farming, management of agricultural wastes, sustainability, green supply chain network design, safety, security and traceability, IT in agrifood supply chains, carbon footprint management, quality management, risk management and policy- making. Explores green supply chain management, sustainable knowledge-based farming, corporate social responsibility, environmental management and emerging trends in agri-food retail supply chain operations. Examines sustainable practices that are unique for agriculture as well as practices that already have been implemented in other industrial sectors such as green logistics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Food Networks provides a useful resource for researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, regulators and C-level executives that deal with strategic decision-making. Post-graduate students in the field of agriculture sciences, engineering, operations management, logistics and supply chain management will also benefit from this book.
Download or read book Evaluation and Performance of Permanent Raised Bed Cropping Systems in Asia Australia and Mexico written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Permanent raised bed cropping systems are being adopted under a wide range of irrigated and dryland farming conditions. ACIAR has supported research into permanent raised bed systems in Asia and Australia. Results from these projects and other research were presented at a workshop in 2005. The papers in this proceedings bring together the work that was presented at the workshop and provide a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners of permanent raised bed cropping systems"--Summary Web page.
Download or read book Understanding Game based Approaches for Improving Sustainable Water Governance written by Wietske Medema and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sustainable governance of water resources relies on processes of multi-stakeholder collaborations and interactions that facilitate knowledge co-creation and social learning. Governance systems are often fragmented, forming a barrier to adequately addressing the myriad of challenges affecting water resources, including climate change, increased urbanized populations, and pollution. Transitions towards sustainable water governance will likely require innovative learning partnerships between public, private, and civil society stakeholders. It is essential that such partnerships involve vertical and horizontal communication of ideas and knowledge, and an enabling and democratic environment characterized by informal and open discourse. There is increasing interest in learning-based transitions. Thus far, much scholarly thinking and, to a lesser degree, empirical research has gone into understanding the potential impact of social learning on multi-stakeholder settings. The question of whether such learning can be supported by forms of serious gaming has hardly been asked. This Special Issue critically explores the potential of serious games to support multi-stakeholder social learning and collaborations in the context of water governance. Serious games may involve simulations of real-world events and processes and are challenge players to solve contemporary societal problems; they, therefore, have a purpose beyond entertainment. They offer a largely untapped potential to support social learning and collaboration by facilitating access to and the exchange of knowledge and information, enhancing stakeholder interactions, empowering a wider audience to participate in decision making, and providing opportunities to test and analyze the outcomes of policies and management solutions. Little is known about how game-based approaches can be used in the context of collaborative water governance to maximize their potential for social learning. While several studies have reported examples of serious games, there is comparably less research about how to assess the impacts of serious games on social learning and transformative change.
Download or read book The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire written by Edward Gibbon and published by Wentworth Press. This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book The Soils of Chile written by Manuel Casanova and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-01-18 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended for students and soil scientists who want to know about the state of the art in soil sciences in Chile. The book merges a comprehensive bibliographical review of the soil surveys carried out throughout the length and breadth of Chilean territory during the past 40 years and more recent information obtained by the authors in a number of field studies. As its starting point the book presents a general overview of important features related to Chilean soils, such as geology and geomorphology, climate, land use and vegetation. In this long and narrow country different soil formation factors and processes have resulted in a broad variety of soil bodies, from the extremely arid Atacama desert to the Patagonian and Antarctic zones. This book provides a description and classification (mainly Soil Taxonomy) of the most important soil types. Particularly important are soils derived from volcanic materials, which cover extensive areas of Chile. The book also deals with soil management topics in relation to the chemical, physical and biological properties of Chilean soils and it includes a number of examples from throughout the country. Finally, the book shows how man has induced severe soil degradation problems in Chile, such as erosive soil degradation, non-erosive soil degradation and land desertification.
Download or read book Management of Clay Soils for Rainfed Lowland Rice based Cropping Systems written by G. Kirchhof and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ACIAR project 8938; Effects of soil puddling; Crop establishment; Dry season crops; International research on lowland rice-based cropping systems; Conclusion.
Download or read book Visual Soil Evaluation written by Bruce C. Ball and published by CABI. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visual Soil Evaluation (VSE) provides land users and environmental authorities with the tools to assess soil quality for crop performance. This book describes the assessment of the various structural conditions of soil, especially after quality degradation such as compaction, erosion or organic matter loss. Covering a broad range of land types from abandoned peats to prime arable land, this useful handbook assesses yield potential across a range of scales. It also appraises the use of VSE in determining the potential of different land types for carbon storage, greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient leaching, and for diagnosing and rectifying erosion and compaction in soils.
Download or read book Tillage written by P. S. Cornish and published by ISBS. This book was released on 1987 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Subsoil Compaction written by Rainer Horn and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teory; Modelling; Properties; Distribution; Methods.
Download or read book A manual of Budhism in its modern development written by Robert Spence Hardy and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1880.
Download or read book Advances in Soil Science written by and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of Advances in Soil Science is to provide a forum for leading scientists to analyze and summarize the available scientific information on a subject, assessing its importance and identifying additional research needs. A wide array of subjects has been addressed by authors from many countries in the initial ten volumes of the series. The quick acceptance of the series by both authors and readers has been very gratifying and confirms our perception that a need did exist for a medium to fill the gap between the scientific journals and the comprehensive reference books. This volume is the first of the series devoted entirely to a single topic soil degradation. Future volumes will include both single-topic volumes as well as volumes containing reviews of different topics of soil science, as in the case of the first ten volumes. There are increasing concern and attention about managing natural re sources, particularly soil and water. Soil degradation is clearly one of the most pressing problems facing mankind. Although the spotlight regarding soil degradation in recent years has focused on Africa, concern about the degradation of soil and water resources is worldwide. The widespread con cern about global environmental change is also being linked to severe problems of soil degradation. Therefore, we are indeed pleased that the first volume of the series devoted to a single topic addresses such an impor tant issue. The current volume is also the first of the series involving a guest editor.
Download or read book Climate Change and Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration in Central Asia written by Rattan Lal and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2007-08-02 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together current knowledge of terrestrial C sequestration in Central Asia. The themes treated include: biophysical environments, water resources, sustainable agriculture, soil degradation, the effects of irrigation schemes on secondary salinization, soil management and its relationship to carbon dynamics; the relationship between f