Author: Jagdish Chander Dagar
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811946027
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 824
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Book Description
This edited book opens up new vistas for sustainable intensification in agriculture to provide food to ever growing population as well as adapting to the risks of global environmental change. Diverting from conventional agriculture, the book explores new dimensions and concepts that have been identified for future research and development in sustaining agriculture in Asia and Africa regions. The chapters are written by leading researchers and practitioners in the field of agroforestry. The book demonstrates how agroforestry could be instrumental in bringing stability and sustainability in agricultural production. It offers sustainable solutions for the impending problems of climate change, ecosystem degradation, declining agricultural productivity, and uncertain food security. It is an essential resource for students in agroforestry courses, as well as a valuable introduction to the field for professionals in related areas.
Author: Jules N. Pretty
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136529276
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.
Author: Ingrid Oborn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317212010
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 418
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Book Description
Sustainable intensification has recently been developed and adopted as a key concept and driver for research and policy in sustainable agriculture. It includes ecological, economic and social dimensions, where food and nutrition security, gender and equity are crucial components. This book describes different aspects of systems research in agriculture in its broadest sense, where the focus is moved from farming systems to livelihoods systems and institutional innovation. Much of the work represents outputs of the three CGIAR Research Programs on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, Aquatic Agricultural Systems and Dryland Systems. The chapters are based around four themes: the conceptual underpinnings of systems research; sustainable intensification in practice; integrating nutrition, gender and equity in research for improved livelihoods; and systems and institutional innovation. While most of the case studies are from countries and agro-ecological zones in Africa, there are also some from Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Author: Florencia Montagnini
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319693719
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 509
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Book Description
Agroforestry systems (AFS) are becoming increasingly relevant worldwide as society has come to recognize their multiple roles and services: biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, adaptation and mitigation of climate change, restoration of degraded ecosystems, and tools for rural development. This book summarizes advances in agroforestry research and practice and raises questions as to the effectiveness of AFS to solve the development and environmental challenges the world presents us today. Currently AFS are considered to be a land use that can achieve a compromise among productive and environmental functions. Apparently, AFS can play a significant role in rural development even in the most challenging socioeconomic and ecological conditions, but still there is a lot of work to do to reach these goals. Considerable funding is spent in projects directed to enhancing productivity and sustainability of smallholders forestry and agroforestry practices. These projects and programs face many questions and challenges related to the integration of traditional knowledge to promote the most suitable systems for each situation; access to markets for AFS products, and scaling up of successful AFS. These complex questions need innovative approaches from varying perspectives and knowledge bases. This book gathers fresh and novel contributions from a set of Yale University researchers and associates who intend to provide alternative and sometimes departing insights into these pressing questions. The book focuses on the functions that AFS can provide when well designed and implemented: their role in rural development as they can improve food security and sovereignty and contribute to provision of energy needs to the smallholders; and their environmental functions: contribution to biodiversity conservation, to increased connectivity of fragmented landscapes, and adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The chapters present conceptual aspects and case studies ranging from traditional to more modern approaches, from tropical as well as from temperate regions of the world, with examples of the AFS functions mentioned above.
Author: P.K. Ramachandran Nair
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400746768
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 549
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Book Description
This volume contains a solid body of the current state of knowledge on the various themes and activities in agroforestry worldwide. It is organized into three sections: the Introduction section consists of the summaries of six keynote speeches at the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009; that is followed by two sections of peer-reviewed thematic chapters grouped as “Global Perspectives” (seven chapters) and “Regional Perspectives” (eleven chapters), authored by professional leaders in their respective agroforestry-related fields worldwide. A total of 130 professionals from institutions in 33 countries in both developing and the industrialized temperate regions of the world contributed to the book as chapter authors and/or reviewers. Thus, the book presents a comprehensive and authoritative account of the global picture of agroforestry today.
Author: Antonio Rigueiro-Rodríguez
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 140208272X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 455
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Book Description
Agroforestry has come of age during the past three decades. The age-old practice of growing trees and crops and sometimes animals in interacting combinations – that has been ignored in the single-commodity-oriented agricultural and forestry development paradigms – has been brought into the realm of modern land-use. Today agroforestry is well on its way to becoming a specialized science at a level similar to those of crop science and forestry science. To most land-use experts, however, agroforestry has a tropical connotation. They consider agroforestry as something that can and can only be identified with the tropics. That is a wrong perception. While it is true that the tropics, compared to the temperate regions, have a wider array of agroforestry systems and hold greater promise for potential agroforestry interventions, it is also true that agroforestry has several opportunities in the temperate regions too. Indeed, the role of agroforestry is now recognized in Europe as exemplified by this book, North America, and elsewhere in the temperate zone. Current interest in ecosystem management in industrialized countries strongly suggests that there is a need to embrace and apply agroforestry principles to help mitigate the environmental problems caused or exacerbated by commercial agricultural and forestry production enterprises.
Author: Jules Pretty
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317269845
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Sustainable intensification (SI) has emerged in recent years as a powerful new conceptualisation of agricultural sustainability and has been widely adopted in policy circles and debates. It is defined as a process or system where yields are increased without adverse environmental impact and without the cultivation of more land. Co-written by Jules Pretty, one of the pioneers of the concept and internationally known and respected authority on sustainable agriculture, this book sets out current thinking and debates around sustainable agriculture and intensification. It recognises that world population is increasing rapidly, so that yields must increase on finite land and other resources to maintain food security. It provides the first widely accessible overview of the concept of SI as an innovative approach to agriculture and as a key element in the transition to a green economy. It presents evidence from around the world to show how various innovations are improving yields, resilience and farm incomes, particularly for ‘resource constrained’ smallholders in developing countries, but also in the developed world. It shows how SI is a fundamental departure from previous models of agricultural intensification. It also highlights the particular role and potential of small-scale farmers and the fundamental importance of social and human capital in designing and spreading effective innovations.
Author: Zed Rengel
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119525403
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 468
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Book Description
Explore an in-depth and insightful collection of resources discussing various aspects of root structure and function in intensive agricultural systems The Root Systems in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification delivers a comprehensive treatment of state-of-the-art concepts in the theoretical and practical aspects of agricultural management to enhance root system architecture and function. The book emphasizes the agricultural measures that enhance root capacity to develop and function under a range of water and nutrient regimes to maximize food, feed, and fibre production, as well as minimize undesirable water and nutrient losses to the environment. This reference includes resources that discuss a variety of soil, plant, agronomy, farming system, breeding, molecular and modelling aspects to the subject. It also discusses strategies and mechanisms that underpin increased water- and nutrient-use efficiency and combines consideration of natural and agricultural systems to show the continuity of traits and mechanisms. Finally, the book explores issues related to the global economy as well as widespread social issues that arise from, or are underpinned by, agricultural intensification. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough introduction to sustainable intensification, including its meaning, the need for the technology, components, and the role of root systems Exploration of the dynamics of root systems in crop and pasture genotypes over the last 100 years Discussion of the interplay between root structure and function with soil microbiome in enhancing efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus acquisition Evaluation of water uptake in drying soil, including balancing supply and demand Perfect for agronomists, horticulturalists, plant and soil scientists, breeders, and soil microbiologists, The Root Systems in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification will also earn a place in the libraries of advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in this field who seek a one-stop reference in the area of root structure and function.
Author: Louise E. Buck
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781420049473
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 434
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Book Description
Agroforestry in Sustainable Agricultural Systems examines the environmental and social conditions that affect the roles and performance of trees in field- and forest-based agricultural production systems. Various types of ecological settings for agroforestry are analyzed within temperate and tropical regions. The roles of soil, water, light, nutrient and pest management in mixed, annual, woody perennial and livestock systems are discussed. Important new case studies from around the world offer innovative strategies that have been used successfully in raising forests and tree products on a sustainable basis for commercial harvesting and for providing other environmental services in land conservation and watershed management.
Author: Jean-Marc Boffa
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9789251043769
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
This document attempts to present the current state of knowledge on agroforestry parkland systems. These systems, which for many local populations are very important for food security, income generation and environmental protection, are found primarily in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones of West Africa. The document first provides a thorough description of their distribution and diversity and discusses different ways of classifying them. It also presents data on current trends in parkland development and assesses determining factors. The document then provides an in-depth analysis of biophysical tree-soil-crop interactions and the factors regulating them, and describes various improved parkland management techniques. It goes on to examine the strength and limitations of institutional arrangements as well as the constraints imposed by Sahelian forest policies on the sustainable management of parklands. The production, use and marketing of parkland products is reviewed with an emphasis on their contribution to food security, local and national income as well as social values. Overall costs and benefits of the practice of parkland agroforestry are evaluated. In conclusion, the document identifies crucial research needs and promising avenues for promoting sustainable management of parkland systems.
