Agriculture

Crop production varies spatially and temporally within the field boundaries depending on soil and environmental conditions. The major concern of variability for agronomic inputs addresses how best to intervene in the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity to improve the potential yield of crops and feedstock. This book addresses the important question of how large a role bioproduction and renewable energy can play in achieving sustainable agricultural practices in the present system of agricultural production. Agronomy is local, which brings the challenges to the remote optimisation of agricultural machinery operations for seeding, fertilising, crop protecting, and harvesting in the field level to adopt precise agriculture technologies. Cloud computing and big data analytics bring the potential about in machine optimisation and agronomy to enable the site-specific management. Understanding bioproduction engineering and development can help improve the efficiency of a sustainable agriculture system. With the aim of understanding this process, this book focuses on bioproduction and sustainability issues, covering sensors, agricultural decision-making systems and the relationship between bioproduction and sustainable practices of agriculture. The chapters are organised as follows: information oriented technology that can be implemented to address the variability of bioproduction systems, sensors and control systems, precision agricultural technology, decision support systems in agriculture, renewable energy resources and analytical hierarchy processes for agricultural management. The crop growth monitoring parameters like LAI and NDVI points were clarified in the pre-processing stage of images. The decisions and logistics that influence the market prices of agricultural products is emphasised within the revised edition of this book.

This is a comprehensive, encyclopedic guide for the small-scale family farmer, the hobby farmer, or the potential farmer. They explain the basics of farming from start to finish: from planting to harvesting and farrowing to marketing. With the authors' help, you'll learn how to grow crops, repair a fence, drive a tractor, keep livestock (from bees to cattle), and much more.

Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries presents research findings based on a series of commodity studies of significant economic importance to developing countries. First, the book sets the stage with background chapters and investigations of cross-cutting issues. Trade and domestic policy regimes affecting agricultural and food markets are described, and the resulting patterns of production and trade are assessed. The book follows with an analysis of product standards and costs of compliance and their effects on agricultural and food trade. An investigation of the impact of preferences given to selected countries and their effectiveness is next. The evidence on the attempts to decouple agricultural support from agricultural output is then reviewed. The last background chapter explores the robustness of the global gains of multilateral agricultural and food trade liberalization. Given this context, the book presents detailed commodity studies for coffee, cotton, dairy, fruits and vegetables, groundnuts, rice, seafood products, sugar, and wheat. These markets feature distorted policy regimes among industrial or middle-income countries.; The studies analyze current policy regimes in key producing and consuming countries document the magnitude of these distortions and estimates the distributional impacts -winners and losers- of trade and domestic policy reforms. By bringing the key issues and findings together in one place, Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries aids policy makers and researchers, both in their approach to global negotiations and in evaluating their domestic policies on agriculture. This book also complements the recently published Agriculture and the WTO that focuses primarily on the agricultural issues within the context of the WTO negotiations.

Agriculture that is, using and managing natural resources?has a long and complex history. For thousands of years, societies have relied on plants and animals for food and other items, making agriculture as vital to their survival as it is to ours. The cultivation of various crops and livestock over time and throughout the world are examined, revealing the history behind and importance of much of the food we eat today. Also covered are the techniques and equipment that have been developed over time to facilitate agricultural production.

Presents facts about the ongoing investigation into the decline of honey bees around the world from colony collapse disorder, as scientists look at the impact of such factors as pesticides, farmer transportation of bee hives, fungal infections, and climate change.

Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of writer, Rachel Carson.

Rachel Carson loved the ocean and wrote three books about its mysteries. But it was with her fourth book, Silent Spring, that this unassuming biologist transformed our relationship with the natural world. Silent Spring was a chilling indictment of DDT and other pesticides that until then had been hailed as safe and wondrously effective. It was Carson who sifted through all the evidence, documenting with alarming clarity the collateral damage to fish, birds, and other wildlife; revealing the effects of these new chemicals to be lasting, widespread, and lethal. Silent Spring shocked the public and forced the government to take action, despite a withering attack on Carson from the chemicals industry. It awakened the world to the heedless contamination of the environment and eventually led to the establishment of the EPA and to the banning of DDT. By drawing frightening parallels between dangerous chemicals and the then-pervasive fallout from nuclear testing, Carson opened a fault line between the gentle ideal of conservation and the more urgent new concept of environmentalism.
Elegantly written and meticulously researched, On a Farther Shore reveals a shy yet passionate woman more at home in the natural world than in the literary one that embraced her. William Souder also writes sensitively of Carson's romantic friendship with Dorothy Freeman, and of Carson's death from cancer in 1964. This extraordinary new biography captures the essence of one of the great reformers of the twentieth century.

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

This book examines the most up-to-date research in the agricultural field. The first chapter discusses strategies for the management and mitigation of herbicide-resistant weeds. Chapter Two revises the available information about the diversity and plant growth promotion abilities of bacterial endophytes isolated from legume nodules and from roots of different plants, focusing on their interest for crop biofertilization. Chapter Three presents process-related technological information for the synthesis and purification of bioactive peptides from soybean and their functional properties. Chapter Four focuses on the nutritional value of wheat germ-supplemented foods, for humans and animals alike, with a specific emphasis on the protein and essential amino acid content of these foods and its related health benefits. Chapter Five provides an overview of the importance of fatty acids (FA), fructans, lipids and lipopolysaccharides in determining some grain and malt composition. Chapter Six gives insights into the production and commercialization of transgenic wheat. Chapter Seven reviews the modification of barley by binary acrylic monomers and its applications.

This book compiles research summaries from a number of different focuses in the important field of environment and agriculture.

This book compiles research biographical sketches and research summaries from a number of different focuses in the important field of food science.

This book compiles research summaries from a number of different focuses in the important field of food science.

This book explores the developments, issues and research outlook of global agriculture. Topics discussed in this compilation include reviews of historical trends in Chinese corn yields in order to assess the potential for future growth; discussions on the impact that pre- and post-2004 reforms had on Public Distribution System (PDS) consumption and on rates of food insecurity; and studies on the growth in broiler meat exports to several major markets.

In this groundbreaking study of organic farming, Julie Guthman challenges accepted wisdom about organic food and agriculture in the Golden State. Many continue to believe that small-scale organic farming is the answer to our environmental and health problems, but Guthman refutes popular portrayals that pit "small organic" against "big organic" and offers an alternative analysis that underscores the limits of an organic label as a pathway to transforming agriculture. This second edition includes a thorough investigation of the federal organic program, a discussion of how the certification arena has continued to grow and change since its implementation, and an up-to-date guide to the structure of the organic farming sector. Agrarian Dreams delivers an indispensable examination of organic farming in California and will appeal to readers in a variety of areas, including food studies, agriculture, environmental studies, anthropology, sociology, geography, and history.

Discussions of food security usually focus on the question "Can we feed the world?" Providing enough food is a major challenge. To do so without unacceptable environmental impacts, so that food sufficiency is not compromised over time, is a deeper challenge that systemically links to other issues of sustainability, notably including climate change. This book discusses several challenges involved in providing food security. It also examines the role of biotechnologies and the implications for developing countries.

Google, Apple, Amazon, Uber: companies like these have come to embody innovation, efficiency, and success. How often is the environmental movement characterized in the same terms? Sadly, conservation is frequently seen as a losing battle, waged by well-meaning, but ultimately ineffective idealists. Joe Whitworth argues it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, it can't be this way if we are to maintain our economy, let alone our health or the planet's. In Quantified, Whitworth draws lessons from the world's most tech-savvy, high-impact organizations to show how we can make real gains for the environment. The principles of his approach, dubbed quantified conservation, will be familiar to any thriving entrepreneur: situational awareness, bold outcomes, innovation and technology, data and analytics, and gain-focused investment. This no-nonsense strategy builds on the inspirational environmental work begun in the 1970s, while recognizing that the next economy will demand new solutions. As President of The Freshwater Trust, Whitworth has put quantified conservation into practice, pioneering the model of a "do-tank" that is dramatically changing how rivers can get restored across the United States. The stories in Quantified highlight the most precious of resources--water--but they apply to any environmental effort. Whether in the realm of policy, agriculture, business, or philanthropy, Whitworth is charting a new course for conservation.

Climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the productivity and profitability of agriculture in North America. More variable weather, drought, and flooding create the most obvious damage, but hot summer nights, warmer winters, longer growing seasons, and other environmental changes have more subtle but far-reaching effects on plant and livestock growth and development. Resilient Agriculture recognizes the critical role that sustainable agriculture will play in the coming decades and beyond. The latest science on climate risk, resilience, and climate change adaptation is blended with the personal experience of farmers and ranchers to explore: The "strange changes" in weather recorded over the last decade The associated shifts in crop and livestock behavior The actions producers have taken to maintain productivity in a changing climate The climate change challenge is real and it is here now. To enjoy the sustained production of food, fiber, and fuel well into the twenty-first century, we must begin now to make changes that will enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience of North American agriculture. The rich knowledge base presented in Resilient Agriculture is poised to serve as the cornerstone of an evolving, climate-ready food system. Laura Lengnick is a researcher, policymaker, activist, educator, and farmer whose work explores the community-enhancing potential of agriculture and food systems. She directs the academic program in sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson College and was a lead author of the report Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.

Faced with a global threat to food security, it is perfectly possible that society will respond, not by a dystopian disintegration, but rather by reasserting co-operative traditions. This book, by a leading expert in urban agriculture, offers a genuine solution to today's global food crisis. By contributing more to feeding themselves, cities can allow breathing space for the rural sector to convert to more organic sustainable approaches.Biel's approach connects with current debates about agroecology and food sovereignty, asks key questions, and proposes lines of future research. He suggests that today's food insecurity – manifested in a regime of wildly fluctuating prices – reflects not just temporary stresses in the existing mode of production, but more profoundly the troubled process of generating a new one. He argues that the solution cannot be implemented at a merely technical or political level: the force of change can only be driven by the kind of social movements which are now daring to challenge the existing unsustainable order.Drawing on both his academic research and teaching, and 15 years'experience as a practicing urban farmer, Biel brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to this key global issue, creating a dialogue between the physical and social sciencesPraise for Sustainable Food Systems: The Role of the City'a thought-provoking discussion of the history of agriculture with an examination of the current sociopolitical challenges of agriculture and the need for radical change to achieve sustainability. … More than anything, the book highlights how complex the current food system is and asks the reader to consider why this system is in place and how it can be changed for the better.'Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems'Robert Biel's fascinating book on this topic is a breath of fresh air, taking, as it does, a strong and convincing political ecology argument into conversation with more scientific debates around food security in a way which manages to be both critical and constructive at the same time.'Journal of Political Ecology'We highly recommend Robert Biel's Sustainable Food Systems. It is an in-depth discussion of the theoretical foundations of sustainability, in particular with relation to food production, drawing on the metasciences of dialectics, complexity and self-organization theory, utilizing the concept of entropy.'Journal of Labor and Society‘a critical and constructive contribution to current discourses on food system issues.'International Journal of Urban and Regional Research‘an excellent resource for anyone interested in what unsustainable and sustainable food systems look like and the biological, socioeconomic and political complexities that support them. It is relevant reading for students, academics and practitioners as well as policymakers. Whilst it is possible to dip into its chapters independently, the greatest benefit is derived from reading the book as a whole.'Environment & Urbanization'This is an impressive book, weaving a convincing narrative about the potential future food system that could overcome many of the tensions in today's food regime.

Access to adequate food and nutrition is a fundamental human right. However, a significant population worldwide presently suffers from malnutrition and inadequate access to food. To meet the goal of zero hunger and malnutrition, agricultural production must maintain pace with increasing food demand. This goal is being challenged by rapidly changing socio-economic and environmental issues. Climate change, depleting soil and water resources, air, water and soil pollution are not only reducing productivity, but also pose a threat to food safety and nutrition. This book analyzes linkages between agriculture and environmental changes, major challenges and potential solutions to secure future food security. It covers, in detail, the impacts of major environmental changes including climate change and air pollution on crops and agricultural production. The potential solutions to address these challenges are also discussed. This book provides the reader with a broad view of interactions between agriculture and the environment, where agriculture is not only vulnerable but also acts as a contributor and offers mitigation options for some of the challenges in sustaining future food security. Agricultural sustainability in near and long-term future will depend on adapting crops and crop management practices based on emerging scientific knowledge of plant physiology and resource efficient technologies combined with focused socio-economic reforms to conserve food diversity and traditional practices. With the help of specific case studies, this book also highlights the significance of reforming small scale farming practices. Overall, this book provides the core idea of sustainable agriculture and food production in current and future scenarios, and is recommended for anyone interested in this topic.