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The Horn of Africa is at stake concerning climate change. The considerable population size of the Horn of Africa is a pastoral community living out of livestock and small farmers living in subsistence agricultural production. The loss of livestock and harvests resulting from a drought causes the deprivation of millions of citizens. The effect has triggered mass migration within and several offshore destinations. The question is, while Africa produces a low carbon emission, remains the primary victims of climate change. Africa lacks resources and technical expertise to respond to the devastating effects of climate change. This study aims to analyse the agency of climate change as a social and political process. Therefore, this paper seeks remedies on how to avert climate change threats by examining the collective responsibilities and different stakeholders. The article would conduct an inquiry on the responsibility of industrial nations vis-à-vis climate change. The paper employs a qualitative research method to explores how to mitigate climate change threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial markets are impacted by various seasonal anomalies. One of the best known of them is the Halloween effect. The Halloween effect means that the summer period (May-October) asset returns are lower compared to the winter period (November-April) asset returns. In the paper, price series of 20 major agricultural commodities over the 1980-2015-time period are tested for the presence of the Halloween effect. The data show that 15 out of the 20 commodities recorded a higher average winter period than summer period returns and in 10 cases, the differences are statistically significant. The data also show that out of the 5 commodities with higher summer period returns, only in the case of poultry the differences are statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maize is a culture of strategic importance for a country's agriculture. The productivity of the maize crop has significant fluctuations from year to year because of the climate variability, but mostly because of the occurrence of extreme weather events. The aim of this paper is to analyze and correlate the agro-climatic resources with the agrocultural production from the agricultural year 2011 - 2012, in the context of the present and predicted climate changes. The study area is the Central Bărăgan Plain. This area is located in a zone where dryness and drought phenomena are produced and are growing in frequency from the West and South-West to the East and North-East, in accordance with the degree of dryness. Taking into account the precipitation amounts, the agricultural year 2011 - 2012 was a year with a dry pluviometric regime. Therefore, the vegetation stage of the maize crop was medium and weak, in general, resulting an average maize production per hectare lower than in the previous years. Knowing the climate conditions and their impact on the main components of an agricultural system, of the level of yields and quality of the crops provides the possibility to reduce losses by respecting the adequate agricultural technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that closing the gender gap in land and other productive resources can provide a "triple dividend" of gender equality, food security and climate management, thereby offering a cost-effective approach to the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, climate change compounds the structural barriers to gender equality that women farmers face, rapidly shrinking the window of opportunity to realize this triple dividend. Yet climate policies largely overlook the gender gap in agriculture. The growing literature on the gender gap aims to better quantify its implications for agricultural productivity but does not provide a framework to prioritize policy responses. To complement these econometric efforts, this paper proposes a three-step methodology to assist policy-makers in developing countries in disentangling the opportunities and trade-offs of different policies and interventions to close the gender gap that impedes climate-smart agriculture (CSA) for women. Barrier and risk analyses are increasingly used to identify public instruments that can catalyze climate smart investments. Building on this proven methodology, the paper first develops a table that clusters barriers to CSA into nine independent risk categories. Second, it overlays a gender analysis upon this gender-neutral barrier and risk table to identify gender-differentiated risks and barriers to CSA. Third, it maps identified gender-neutral and differentiated investment risks against possible remedial public policy instruments. The analysis suggests that about half of identified CSA investment risks have a higher probability of occurrence for women farmers than for men farmers. Furthermore, women farmers might face additional gender-specific barriers, mostly linked to their disproportionate responsibility for unpaid domestic and care work, the risk of violence and unequal power relations with men in the household and community. Targeted interventions will be required to address these gender differentiated investment risks and ensure that CSA market transformation efforts benefit men and women farmers equally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically analyses the long run relationship between agricultural performance and the carbon dioxide emission in Turkey by using the annual data covering 1968-2010. The Bounds test approach for the co-integration and ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) method are employed to show the existence of long-term relationship between the carbon dioxide emission and its determinants in this country. The results consistent with the Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) hypothesis show that the real GDP has a significant positive impact on the carbon emission and its square has a significant negative impact on the carbon emission both in the short run and long run. The results also show that agriculture has a significant negative impact on the carbon dioxide emission level in both periods. Consequently, the findings suggest that the policies or reforms that are increasing or supporting agricultural production may help to decrease the carbon dioxide emission levels of the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over time, due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, several climatic changes have taken place: temperatures have risen, precipitation patterns have changed, glaciers have melted, sea and ocean levels have increased. The contemporary population needs irrigation systems adapted to the current environmental conditions. The introduction of monitoring solutions for smart agriculture represents a new way for implementation of an information system that can provide data on irrigation during all year. The need for a monitoring system for agriculture is argued by the market's interest in having access to fully automated solutions for energy-efficient and cost-effective crops. The advantages of system architecture: very low energy consumption, low management costs, scalability, forecasting functions, diagnosis, enlargement facility lead to an essential technical impact and high potential for marketing. This paper aims to use a monitoring system that will bring benefit to smart agriculture, considering energy efficiency criteria and the latest technologies available on the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shortage of water resources is the bottleneck that restricts China's economic and social development, especially the shortage of water in agriculture is even more serious. The intensification of industrial and domestic sewage discharges has led to the pollution of the water quality in all major water areas, and as a result, agriculture faces the serious challenge of water quality-induced water shortage. Within a long period of time, irrigation of farmlands with sewage is inevitable and there will be increase but no decrease. Though a lot of research has been done on the risk of environmental pollution caused by sewage irrigation, these studies do not have a deep and quantitative analysis of the degree of environmental risk caused by irrigation of farmlands with sewage. Based on the assumption that the degree of environmental risk caused by irrigation of farmlands with sewage can be correctly reflected, this paper studies the probability distribution of environmental risk caused by irrigation of farmlands with sewage through inference, calculus and non-parametric test, and by making use of the actual data, draws the conclusion through calculation that the probability distribution of the degree of environmental risk caused by irrigation of farmlands with sewage has normal distribution (0.275, 0.015). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated assessment is rapidly developing in the scientific as well as policy community. Different methods, techniques and procedures (i.e., tools) are used in these assessments. Often, the choice for using certain tools in an assessment is not well founded. This paper presents a framework that scientifically underpins the role of, and thus choice for, tools within an integrated assessment. The framework identifies four phases in an integrated assessment, which are derived from the complementarities between various forms of integrated assessments. Tasks have to be done within each of the four phases. Seven types of tools with similar characteristics are matched to those tasks. The tool framework is a theoretical construct, developed whilst keeping in mind perceptions and suggestions from eventual users. It is a first step in the development of an overarching framework for finding appropriate tools for different tasks in an assessment, and justifying the use of those tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the relationship among carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, agricultural labour productivity, agricultural land productivity and agricultural raw material exports using a time series for the period 1960-2015. In this article, some theroretical hypotheses are formulated, aiming to explain the bidirectional causality between agricultural productivity and climate change. These hypotheses are tested by using Vector Autoregression (VAR), Granger causality and Vector Error Correction Models (VECM). Results confirm revelant theoretical hypotheses between agricultural productivity and climate change and show that the variables used are stationary. Agricultural labour and land productivity as well as agricultural raw material exports are positively related to CO2 emissions, meaning that these variables stimulate environmental pollution. Empirical results presented in the paper might be of interest to the academic community and also to policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term Green Care includes therapeutic, social or educational interventions involving farming; farm animals; gardening or general contact with nature. Although Green Care can occur in any setting in which there is interaction with plants or animals, this review focuses on therapeutic practices occurring on farms. The efficacy of care farming is discussed and the broad utilization of care farming and farm care communities in Europe is reviewed. Though evidence from care farms in the United States is included in this review, the empirical evidence which could determine its efficacy is lacking. For example, the empirical evidence supporting or refuting the efficacy of therapeutic horseback riding in adults is minimal, while there is little non-equine care farming literature with children. The health care systems in Europe are also much different than those in the United States. In order for insurance companies to cover Green Care techniques in the United States, extensive research is necessary. This paper proposes community-based ways that Green Care methods can be utilized without insurance in the United States. Though Green Care can certainly be provided in urban areas, this paper focuses on ways rural areas can utilize existing farms to benefit the mental and physical health of their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient farming methods with yogic techniques are reported as the zero budget sustainable method for cultivation, seed germination, plant growth, and harvesting. It increases the crop yield resulting in enhanced production and improved soil fertility. The Brahma Kumaris' Raja Yoga Meditation (BKRYM) technique revived by Raja Yoga Education and Research Foundation (headquartered at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India) is scientifically proven not only for an enhanced quality of farm produce but also for the well-being of farmers who practice this meditation. An initiative was taken in the Indian Finance Budget (July 2019) to propose and introduce Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), which promotes sustainable yogic agriculture. Scientific Research of India, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and Union Agricultural Ministry are also promoting this concept of yogic farming, but the farmers and researchers are not much aware of this holistic concept, which needs to be acknowledged and adapted to the specific social-cultural settings. BKRYM based yogic agriculture is a unique method of farming which helps in the sustainable development of the agroecosystem. This paper is aimed to explore the various studies, which shows that yogic-farming technique (BKRYM + Organic farming) is much efficient and superior to standard organic farming and chemical-based farming in terms of enhancing seed germination, soil health, plant growth, nutritional values, profitability along with farmers' well being and reducing plant diseases, fungal and slug attacks and germination time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the results of changes in soil compaction after the passages of combine harvester. The research was done on the maize-stubble; the soil was the mold formed in the sand. The measured parameter was a penetration of resistance in range of depth 0-60 cm. The measurements were done in the ruts after the passages the front and rear wheel of combine harvester. During the experiment two levels of vertical load of wheels were applied - these levels were dependent on filling of grain tank of harvester. Moreover, the influence of the lateral tilt of harvester on the soil compaction was analyzed (the harvester was equipped with the leveling system which allowed to obtain the tilt). The obtained results shows that the increase in vertical load caused greater compaction in ruts. Furthermore, it was found that the passage of tilted harvester caused lower compaction than the harvester without tilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Conservation agriculture (CA) in the last decades has been spread in several parts of the world, especially in South and North America and Australia. In Italy, however, its adoption is often restrained by the risk to have a reduction in crop production in the early years of transition from conventional (CT) to CA. To quantify sufficient financial support to promote no-tillage and CA, a mini-review about main effects of CA was conducted. The effect on crop yield, soil fertility - especially as it is influenced by the chemical, physical and microbiological factors - on soil compaction, the economic balance of the farm and the cost of equipment for direct seeding, the influence of environment on soil erosion, water retention, emissions of greenhouse gases, and carbon sequestration are briefly treated. The paper reports findings from national and international scientific literature and some results from long-term experiments conducted in Southern Italy. The main conclusions are about the reduction of yield in the first years of transition from CT to CA (from -5 to-10%), an improvement of soil fertility (soil organic carbon increases in the upper layers), reduction of management cost (less machinery operations), improvement of soil C sequestration (in specific conditions), a reduction of greenhouse gases emission and soil erosion risk. The paper provides the scientific basis in order to justify and quantify the amount to be paid to the farmers who decide to adopt the model of CA, oriented to protect the agro-ecosystem and to promote the principle of subsidiarity. Finally, a proposal of public subsidy in cash and for machinery purchase has been described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of community-based organizations (CBOs) on the adoption of agricultural adaptations to climate change impacts. To this end, we first analyze farmers' perceptions on changes in local climatic condition, its impact and adaptations on agriculture based on information collected through a questionnaire survey of 720 farming households in six districts of Nepal. The findings reveal a widespread feeling of weather getting warmer, decreasing precipitation, and increasing weather unpredictability. It is found that climate change has adversely affected agriculture in Nepal, and farmers have adopted various adaptation practices to minimize the impacts. Second, we employ propensity score matching technique to examine the impact of CBOs on climate change adaptation. About 62% of the sampled farming households were associated with CBOs, and several socioeconomic factors influence such association. This study provides evidence supporting the argument that CBOs play important role in reducing the negative impacts of climate change by enhancing the adoption of adaptation strategies. It is also evident from the study the need of further strengthening and institutionalizing the informal farmers' groups and institutions for the successful adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Geoadria is the property of Geoadria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper deals with conceptual framework of contract farming and portrays Indian scenario especially after announcement of National Agricultural Policy (2000) which encouraged private participation through contract farming. The conception of contract farming is not new in India, but it gets momentum in the era of agricultural globalization, as an alternative method of farming. The study reveals that while contract farming can be effective in introducing new technologies and providing external inputs to farmers, danger lies in firms extending technologies that bring financial benefits in the short- term but result in negative long-term health and environmental impacts. Contract farming is not appropriate for all types of crops. To have a significant poverty impact, crops produced under contract farming should be labour-intensive rather than input-intensive and should be appropriate for production on small plots of land. Since the contracting company is financially stronger than individual farmers, the terms of the contract may go against the farmers. Herein the government will have to come forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies highlight a growing concern over the limited adoption of climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices despite their potential benefits on adaptation, mitigation and productivity. Literature indicates several factors behind the lack of adoption including socio-demographic and economic conditions, agro-ecological scales and the nature of the practices. This paper examines to what extent and under which conditions such factors influence the adoption of CSA practices at farm, household and community level across three study sites in different continents: Vietnam, Nicaragua and Uganda. While cost benefit analysis (CBA) is employed to assess the farm-level profitability of CSA practices, the aggregate community impact disaggregated by different groups of farmer typologies with specific socio-economic features is derived from the adoption rate estimated by the relative advantage of practices and the income level of each group. Our main findings show great variation of farm-profitability of CSA practices across scales. Similar practices could generate different profitability depending on crop typologies, input access and prices, household types and local context. Regarding the aggregate profitability of CSA practices at regional scale, we found that under particular conditions, relevant factors of adoption matter to the adoption pattern and thereby affects the ranking. Such conditions include (i) high income inequality, (ii) large profitability gap of prioritized CSA practices, and (iii) large proportion of cost and benefit of the practices in the level of income. This study contributes to enhancing the prioritization process of CSA practices and provides practical guidance for research and policy to tailor the investment to appropriate end-users to assure the greatest impact for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cotton cropping in Pakistan uses substantial quantities of resources and adversely affects the environment with pollutants from the inputs, particularly pesticides. A question remains regarding to what extent the reduction of such environmental impact is possible without compromising the farmers' income. This paper investigates the environmental, technical, and economic performances of selected irrigated cotton-cropping systems in Punjab to quantify the sustainability of cotton farming and reveal options for improvement. Using mostly primary data, our study quantifies the technical, cost, and environmental efficiencies of different farm sizes. A set of indicators has been computed to reflect these three domains of efficiency using the data envelopment analysis technique. The results indicate that farmers are broadly environmentally inefficient; which primarily results from poor technical inefficiency. Based on an improved input mix, the average potential environmental impact reduction for small, medium, and large farms is 9, 13, and 11 %, respectively, without compromising the economic return. Moreover, the differences in technical, cost, and environmental efficiencies between small and medium and small and large farm sizes were statistically significant. The second-stage regression analysis identifies that the entire farm size significantly affects the efficiencies, whereas exposure to extension and training has positive effects, and the sowing methods significantly affect the technical and environmental efficiencies. Paradoxically, the formal education level is determined to affect the efficiencies negatively. This paper discusses policy interventions that can improve the technical efficiency to ultimately increase the environmental efficiency and reduce the farmers' operating costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian & Latin American Economic History is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents an assessment of the potential trade-offs between social, economic and environmental objectives when upscaling and integrating climate-smart agriculture (CSA) with integrated catchment management (ICM) at landscape level, with a case study in Malawi. In a workshop, government and NGO representatives and experts assessed trade-offs between the goals of ICM and CSA under four different scenarios of climatic and economic changes. The paper presents a novel combination of scenarios and a trade-off matrix exercise to critically evaluate trade-offs between CSA and ICM and link these to policy challenges and interventions. Our analysis shows that the compatibility of CSA and ICM policies depends on future climatic and economic developments, with a higher prevalence of perceived trade-offs in futures with low economic growth and high climate change. CSA was expected to have limited effect on reducing inequalities and investment in literacy and skills development are critical to ensure that marginalised groups benefit from CSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, expected changes in the spatial and altitudinal distribution patterns of Holdridge life zone (HLZ) types are analysed to assess the possible ecological impacts of future climate change for the Carpathian Region, by using 11 bias-corrected regional climate model simulations of temperature and precipitation. The distribution patterns of HLZ types are characterized by the relative extent, the mean centre and the altitudinal range. According to the applied projections, the following conclusions can be drawn: (a) the altitudinal ranges are likely to expand in the future, (b) the lower and upper altitudinal limits as well as the altitudinal midpoints may move to higher altitudes, (c) a northward shift is expected for most HLZ types and (d) the magnitudes of these shifts can even be multiples of those observed in the last century. Related to the northward shifts, the HLZ types warm temperate thorn steppe and subtropical dry forest can also appear in the southern segment of the target area. However, a large uncertainty in the estimated changes of precipitation patterns was indicated by the following: (a) the expected change in the coverage of the HLZ type cool temperate steppe is extremely uncertain because there is no consensus among the projections even in terms of the sign of the change (high inter-model variability) and (b) a significant trend in the westward/eastward shift is simulated just for some HLZ types (high temporal variability). Finally, it is important to emphasize that the uncertainty of our results is further enhanced by the fact that some important aspects (e.g. seasonality of climate variables, direct CO effect, etc.) cannot be considered in the estimating process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating tillage effects on soil phosphorus (P) loss at the plot-scale has significant implication for developing best management practices (BMPs) to protect water quality and soil productivity management in agricultural watersheds. This paper aims to quantify P loss from tilled soils under different rainfall patterns in a Phaeozems-dominated agricultural watershed. Eleven rainfall events were monitored at three experimental sites growing corns with conventional till, conservational till, and no-till during a growing season from July to August in 2013. Mean event mean concentration of dissolved phosphorus was 0.130, 0.213 and 0.614 mg L-1 and mean particulate phosphorus transfer rate was 103.502, 33.359 and 27.127 g ha-1 hr-1, respectively for three tillage practices. Results showed that less tillage practices could significantly reduce sediment runoff and PP loss, accompanied with a moderate reduction of runoff yield. While the proportion of PP has been cut down, the proportion of DP could account for the majority. Hydrological factors, including antecedent soil moisture and rainfall variables, could exert various effects on DP, PP and sediment losses under different tillage conditions. Further, the results of this study imply that the soil P loss management and water quality protection in black soil region of Northeast China should take consideration of diverse effects of tillage on phosphorus loss and the dynamics of P between different forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining permanent coverage of the soil using crop residues is an important and commonly recommended practice in conservation agriculture. Measuring this practice is an essential step in improving knowledge about the adoption and impact of conservation agriculture. Different data collection methods can be implemented to capture the field level crop residue coverage for a given plot, each with its own implication on survey budget, implementation speed and respondent and interviewer burden. In this paper, six alternative methods of crop residue coverage measurement are tested among the same sample of rural households in Ethiopia. The relative accuracy of these methods are compared against a benchmark, the line-transect method. The alternative methods compared against the benchmark include: (i) interviewee (respondent) estimation; (ii) enumerator estimation visiting the field; (iii) interviewee with visual-aid without visiting the field; (iv) enumerator with visual-aid visiting the field; (v) field picture collected with a drone and analyzed with image-processing methods and (vi) satellite picture of the field analyzed with remote sensing methods. Results of the methodological experiment show that survey-based methods tend to underestimate field residue cover. When quantitative data on cover are needed, the best estimates are provided by visual-aid protocols. For categorical analysis (i.e., >30% cover or not), visual-aid protocols and remote sensing methods perform equally well. Among survey-based methods, the strongest correlates of measurement errors are total farm size, field size, distance, and slope. Results deliver a ranking of measurement options that can inform survey practitioners and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is the fourth largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, and agriculture is the largest national source of methane emissions in particular. Yet regulators have paid far less attention to emissions from agriculture than from transportation and electricity, the top two sources of GHG emissions nationally. This Article seeks to put the idea of a meat tax on the agenda of scholars and climate policymakers as a tool for reducing GHG emissions from agriculture. Drawing on scholarship and policy proposals from other jurisdictions, where discussions of taxing meat are further advanced, this Article identifies key issues that would need to be addressed to design a meat tax that could be implemented in the United States. It also recommends an iterative modelling process to devise concrete proposals for an equitable meat tax that would reduce agricultural GHG emissions. A meat tax could be one tool in a basket of policy measures designed to reduce emissions from agriculture. In addition, reducing human consumption of meat would have the ancillary benefits of improving human health and animal welfare, as well as the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment affects agriculture, via soils, weather, etc. and agriculture affects the environment locally at farm level and via its impact on climate change. Locating agriculture within its spatial environment is thus important for farmers and policy makers. Within the EU countries collect detailed farm data to understand the technical and financial performance of farms; the Farm Accountancy Data Network. However, knowledge of the spatial-environmental context of these farms is reported at gross scale. In this paper, Irish farm accounting data is geo-referenced using address matching to a national address database. An analysis of the geographic distribution of the survey farms, illustrated through a novel 2D ranked pair plot of the coordinates, compared to the national distribution of farms shows a trend in the location of survey farms that leads to a statistical difference in the climatic variables associated with the farm. The farms in the survey have significantly higher accumulated solar radiation values than the national average. As a result, the survey may not be representative spatially of the pattern of environment x farm system. This could have important considerations when using FADN data in modelling climate change impacts on agri-economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of whether or not the agricultural sector should be covered in a GHG ETS is prominent in policy debates surrounding the design and implementation of such proposed schemes in many developed nations. This paper identifies two key economic elements that determine both the costs and the benefits of mandating agriculture in an ETS. These are: the costs of reducing GHG emissions in agriculture, and the transactions costs pertinent to covering agriculture in an ETS. Published data on these elements is used to derive a likely range of the overall social costs of mandating the agricultural sector in a GHG ETS. Current indicators of those costs for agriculture, and for the other sectors of the economy, do not offer evidence that mandating agriculture in an ETS would be socially beneficial. Alternative approaches to engaging the agricultural sector in GHG emission reduction, e.g. through voluntary opt-in or through offsetting credits, are likely to be more beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production and consumption cause significant environmental burdens during the product life cycles. As a result of intensive development and the changing social attitudes and behaviors in the last century, the agrofood sector is the highest resource consumer after housing in the EU. This paper is part of an effort to estimate environmental impacts associated with life cycles of the agrofood chain, such as primary energy consumption, water exploitation, and global warming. Life cycle assessment is used to investigate the production of the following citrus-based products in Italy: essential oil, natural juice, and concentrated juice from oranges and lemons. The related process flowcharts, the relevant mass and energy flows, and the key environmental issues are identified for each product. This paper represents one of the first studies on the environmental impacts from cradle to gate for citrus products in order to suggest feasible strategies and actions to improve their environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper both introduces the special issue on the economics of tropical deforestation and land use and conducts a synthesis cross-country analysis of tropical agricultural land expansion. Agricultural development is the main factor determining land expansion, but institutional factors have an important influence. Income effects vary from region to region, and do not always display an EKC relationship. The case studies comprising this special issue provide further case study insights into tropical deforestation and land use, through spatial analysis of locational factors. CGE modeling of policy scenarios, assessing external market impacts on land clearing, and modelling state interventions and taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which the formulation and implementation of strategies of soil conservation in South Africa during the period 1930–1970 were powerfully influenced by racist attitudes and by the differential political and economic position of whites and blacks within the systems of segregation and apartheid. The paper traces and compares the evolution of state intervention in pursuit of soil conservation in relation to white farmlands and African reserves with a particular emphasis on processes in the Transvaal. The forms of state intervention that emerged provoked bitter resistance in many African communities while they unintentionally supported inefficient and destructive practices amongst many white farmers. The policies took different forms, changed over time and had diverse consequences. But they did achieve an overall uniformity of outcome – they failed to live up to the expectations of conservationists. The paper seeks to demonstrate that there were problems both with excessively coercive and excessively cooperative policy approaches, which suggests that a policy framework that strikes a balance between the two extremes is likely to be more successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth and climate change challenge our food and farming systems and provide arguments for an increased intensification of agriculture. A promising option is eco-functional intensification through organic farming, an approach based on using and enhancing internal natural resources and processes to secure and improve agricultural productivity, while minimizing negative environmental impacts. In this concept an active soil microbiota plays an important role for various soil based ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, erosion control and pest and disease regulation. Several studies have reported a positive effect of organic farming on soil health and quality including microbial community traits. However, so far no systematic quantification of whether organic farming systems comprise larger and more active soil microbial communities compared to conventional farming systems was performed on a global scale. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis on current literature to quantify possible differences in key indicators for soil microbial abundance and activity in organic and conventional cropping systems. All together we integrated data from 56 mainly peer-reviewed papers into our analysis, including 149 pairwise comparisons originating from different climatic zones and experimental duration ranging from 3 to more than 100 years. Overall, we found that organic systems had 32% to 84% greater microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, total phospholipid fatty-acids, and dehydrogenase, urease and protease activities than conventional systems. Exclusively the metabolic quotient as an indicator for stresses on microbial communities remained unaffected by the farming systems. Categorical subgroup analysis revealed that crop rotation, the inclusion of legumes in the crop rotation and organic inputs are important farming practices affecting soil microbial community size and activity. Furthermore, we show that differences in microbial size and activity between organic and conventional farming systems vary as a function of land use (arable, orchards, and grassland), plant life cycle (annual and perennial) and climatic zone. In summary, this study shows that overall organic farming enhances total microbial abundance and activity in agricultural soils on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Jurídica (0103-3506) is the property of Revista Juridica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper addresses the need of finding new ways of measuring the environmental and economic consequences of farming. The aim of this study is to inquire into the impacts that excessive intensification has on productivity and environmental costs in the long term and additionally, to explore empirically the trend of these two indicators over time. The contribution of this paper is to perform an empirical study of the trends of productivity and environmental costs of farming in the long-term. To this end, this paper performs a panel data analysis of productivity and environmental costs on a farm accounting database across European regions over the 1989–2009 period. The models proposed take (i) farm output per hectare as indicator of productivity, and (ii) expenditures on energy, pesticides and fertilisers per hectare as proxy indicators of environmental costs. Results provide empirical evidence that the regions under study have a negative trend of productivity and a positive trend of environmental costs over the time frame mentioned. These results correlate negatively with both, economic and environmental sustainability of farms. Arguably, this is aggravated in the latter due to hidden environmental costs valued at zero in traditional accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economics of Agriculture / Ekonomika Poljoprivrede is the property of Institute of Agricultural Economics (IAE) / Belgrade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As a main grain production area in China, Northeast China (NEC) is highly influenced by the higher warming trend than elsewhere in China or even the globe. As the warming trend goes on, scientific understanding of the changes of thermal conditions in NEC will be essential for taking agricultural adaptation measures. In this paper, the high-resolution (25 km) corrected outputs of PRECIS (Providing Regional Climates for Impacts Studies) under the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) scenario were used to analyze the changes of the agro-climatic thermal resources in NEC. Results showed that accumulated temperature ≥10 °C (AT10) could increase by 300–500 °C·day, 500–900 °C·day, and 750–1000 °C·day in 2011–2040 (2020s), 2041–2070 (2050s), and 2071–2100 (2080s), respectively, relative to the baseline period of 1961–1990. The potential growing season (PGS) would then be prolonged by 11–19 days, 23–35 days, and 25–37 days in 2020s, 2050s and 2080s, respectively, compared to baseline. The spatial features for the changes of thermal indices would show a large increase of AT10 and an extension of PGS and Frost-free period (FFP) in mountainous areas compared to plains; the increment of AT10 would be greater in southern NEC than that in the north, with over 1000 °C·day in the southern parts and 700–800 °C·day in the northern parts in the 2080s. Additionally, the three thermal indices would increase rapidly from 2020s to 2050s compared to the period from 2050s to the 2080s, coincides with the greenhouse gas concentrations peak around the mid-period of the 21st century, and the decline towards the end of the 21st century under RCP4.5 forcing. The results of this paper could act as a guide to taking advantage of increasing thermal resources in NEC, and would be helpful for local practitioners in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an application of integrated methodological approach for identifying cost-effective combinations of agri-environmental measures to achieve water quality targets. The methodological approach involves linking hydro-chemical modelling with economic costs of mitigation measures. The utility of the approach was explored for the River Dee catchment in North East Scotland, examining the cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) pollutants. In-stream nitrate concentration was modelled using the STREAM-N and phosphorus using INCA-P model. Both models were first run for baseline conditions and then their effectiveness for changes in land management was simulated. Costs were based on farm income foregone, capital and operational expenditures. The costs and effects data were integrated using ‘Risk Solver Platform’ optimization in excel to produce the most cost-effective combination of measures by which target nutrient reductions could be attained at a minimum economic cost. The analysis identified different combination of measures as most cost-effective for the two pollutants. An important aspect of this paper is integration of model-based effectiveness estimates with economic cost of measures for cost-effectiveness analysis of land and water management options. The methodological approach developed is not limited to the two pollutants and the selected agri-environmental measures considered in the paper; the approach can be adapted to the cost-effectiveness analysis of any catchment-scale environmental management options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has serious implications for the agricultural industry-both in terms of the need to adapt to a changing climate and to modify practices to mitigate for the impacts of climate change. In high-income countries where farming tends to be very intensive and large scale, it is important to understand farmers' beliefs and concerns about climate change in order to develop appropriate policies and communication strategies. Looking across six study sites-Scotland, Midwestern United States, California, Australia, and two locations in New Zealand-this paper finds that over half of farmers in each location believe that climate change is occurring. However, there is a wide range of beliefs regarding the anthropogenic nature of climate change; only in Australia do a majority of farmers believe that climate change is anthropogenic. In all locations, a majority of farmers believe that climate change is not a threat to local agriculture. The different policy contexts and existing impacts from climate change are discussed as possible reasons for the variation in beliefs. This study compared varying surveys from the different locations and concludes that survey research on farmers and climate change in diverse locations should strive to include common questions to facilitate comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable intensification (SI) is a multifaceted concept incorporating the ambition to increase or maintain the current level of agricultural yields while reduce negative ecological and environmental impacts. Decision-support systems (DSS) that use integrated analytical methods are often used to support decision making processes in agriculture. However, DSS often consist of set of values, objectives, and assumptions that may be inconsistent or in conflict with merits and objectives of SI. These potential conflicts will have consequences for adoption and up-take of agricultural research, technologies and related policies and regulations such as genetic technology in pursuit of SI. This perspective paper aimed at comparing a number of frequently used socio-economic DSS with respect to their capacity in incorporating various dimensions of SI, and discussing their application to analyzing farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) policies. The case of FAnGR policies was chosen because of its great potential in delivering merits of SI. It was concluded that flexible DSS, with great integration capacity with various natural and social sciences, are needed to provide guidance on feasibility, practicality, and policy implementation for SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tinbergen Rule has been used to criticise multi-target policy instruments for being inefficient. The aim of this paper is to clarify the role of multi-target policy instruments using the case of agri-environmental policy. Employing an analytical linear optimisation model, this paper demonstrates that there is no general contradiction between multi-target policy instruments and the Tinbergen Rule, if multi-target policy instruments are embedded in a policy-mix with a sufficient number of targeted instruments. We show that the relation between cost-effectiveness of the instruments, related to all policy targets, is the key determinant for an economically sound choice of policy instruments. If economies of scope with respect to achieving policy targets are realised, a higher cost-effectiveness of multi-target policy instruments can be achieved. Using the example of organic farming support policy, we discuss several reasons why economies of scope could be realised by multi-target agri-environmental policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the cost-effectiveness of a mixed policy in attempts to reduce the presence of three nitrogen pollutants: NO , N O, and NH . The policy under study combines a tax on nitrogen input and incentives promoting perennial crops assumed to require low input. We show that the mixed policy improves the cost-effectiveness of regulation with regard to nitrates, whereas no improvement occurs, except for a very low level of subsidy in some cases, for gas pollutants. A quantitative analysis provides an assessment of impacts in terms of land use, farmers' income, and nitrogen losses throughout France and at river-basin scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of some papers that deal with agriculture and the environment. `Regulating Nonpoint Source Pollution with Uncertain Policies,' by Brett W. House; `Measuring Social Costs of Inefficient Combination of Policy Instruments: The Case of the U.S. Agricultural Policy,' by David S. Bullock and Klauss Salhofer; `Protecting the Environment with Agricultural Nuisance Laws,' by William D. Walker.

This paper examines leakage from agricultural greenhouse gas reduction programs stimulated by reductions in regional commodity supply. This paper develops an extension of the leakage discount formula in Murray et al. (2004) that incorporates changes in input (land) usage rather than product output (crop or forest product quantity). Additionally the leakage discount developed here allows for land conversion and production replacement involving multiple alternative uses. In an empirical application in the Southeast Texas we compute leakage discounts of 14.8% for the conversion of rice to no-till sorghum and 14.9% for rice to pasture program. Most of the sources of GHG offset leakage come from conversions of cotton to rice and pasture to rice in the other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern agriculture is causing extensive environmental damage. Arguments have been put forward that a systemic change is needed in agriculture to address the major environmental challenges faced by mankind. This is a case study of a research farm whose aim is to form a farming system that has a minimal impact on carbon and nitrogen cycles while maintaining biodiversity. For the farm to minimise its impact on the global carbon cycle and associated climate change, it is important to reduce fossil energy use. The research farm has minimised all its inputs, but uses a diesel-run tractor. Agriculture's primary function is to provide food of adequate quality. The hypothesis of this study is that using biomass from arable land for tractor work on the farm would reduce the amount of food produced relative to using fossil fuel for tractor work. The objective of this paper was to develop scenarios for biomass-derived tractor work for the study farm chosen and to investigate their impact on food production. Food availability was measured by the number of people the farm could supply, denoted as Np. A farm nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) balance was also applied to the different scenarios. The investigated scenarios for replacing fossil fuel tractor work were draught horsepower combined with cold-pressed rape-seed oil in a tractor, ethanol from wheat produced in a conventional ethanol plant, and farm-made ethanol from potatoes. Using wheat and potato to produce ethanol reduced food production by 23% and 18% respectively, compared to using conventional diesel. Combining a draught horse and on-farm cold-pressed rapeseed oil only reduced the food production by 6%. N is maintained in all scenarios due to the nitrogen-fixing leys. P can be maintained in the fields if bones are recycled, but nutrients, especially K, are moved from meadow to field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European agri-environment programmes are based on the common principle that farmers deliver environmental services for which society pays. Due to the voluntary nature of agri-environment measures (AEM), the issue of farmers' motives or reasons for participation has been an important topic of investigation in past years. The present paper examines farmers' rationale for participation in AEM against the backdrop of continued debate over whether to develop relatively simple measures that can be readily applied by many farmers or give greater priority to measures that are more targeted – i.e. to the specific management requirement of particular habitats or species – but are often more complex. The paper draws on empirical material from a case study in the Dyle valley, Belgium, including in-depth interviews, expert consultations and a mail survey. It was sought not only to identify and quantify the importance of separate reasons for participation, but also to reveal how these reasons and other elements of relevance were logically interrelated in the explanation that farmers themselves give for their participation. As a result, six modes or styles of participation were identified: opportunistic, calculative, compensatory, optimising, catalysing and engaged. The analyses suggest that there were notable differences in that both separate reasons for and modes of participation do vary with the complexity of the measures' requirements. Overall, the study demonstrates that participation in AEM is not simply a matter of weighing the money against the effort for adoption. Whereas money is an important driver for participation (in particular, for those adopting complex AEM) it plays widely differing roles depending on the level of farmers' reasoning (farm enterprise, single practice or landscape feature) and the importance they give to other considerations (environmental effect, production potential of land, goodness of fit, etc.). Practical implications are drawn for both policy makers and programme managers who develop and make available tailor-made support. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses a study on the effects of agriculture on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which was presented at an invited paper session at the 2013 annual meeting of the Allied Social Sciences Association in San Diego, California. It presents an analysis of increases in livestock and crop productivity using a future agricultural resources model (FARM) across 15 global regions on GHG emissions.

Copyright of Journal of Central European Agriculture is the property of Journal of Central European Agriculture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Derecho del Estado is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Soils degraded by excessive moisture are characterized by the content on surface and in the mass of water which prevents normal function of plants and bring soil in poor condition of tillage and cultivation. A special case of excess water are the floods caused by overflowing rivers. The paper addresses a current topic both nationally and internationally, because often the effect of excess moisture in soil is neglected to be studied in detail, although it is mandatory to assess and monitor closely the phenomenon of soil degradation in European countries.The main objective of the paper is to present the influence of climatic conditions on excess moisture at surface and in soil from Someș Mic meadow. Using rainfall values recorded for the period 2011-2012 at the weather stations in Cluj-Napoca, Salatiu and Apahida could create a database necessary to achieve the mean annual precipitation map for Somes Mic floodplain between Cluj-Napoca and Dej, using GIS techniques. Making Geographical Information Systems, in order to elaborate decisions regarding the necessary hydro-ameliorative works in the studied area were based on storaging and editing geographical information and also analysing and studying other parameters measured and determined for the period 2011-2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hyper-eutrophicated Krishnagiri reservoir is situated in hot tropical and semiarid climate zone in South India. There are 16 villages in the command area, which are directly benefited by this reservoir, and water from the reservoir is used for irrigation, fish rearing, livestock rearing and recreation purposes. The reservoir is located in an agricultural watershed, and the rate of soil erosion in the catchment area is very high. Thus, the reservoir is severely affected by sedimentation, and half of its capacity was reduced. Previous studies in Krishnagiri reservoir clearly indicate the lack of information on the quality of sediments and dynamics of nutrient in the reservoir. Hence, the present study was conducted on bottom sediments, and it included the assessment of physicochemical characteristics and nutrients, such as composition, redox potential, moisture content, organic carbon, organic matter, total iron, manganese, calcium carbonate, different phosphorus fractions and total phosphorus. The increasing trend in organic matter and also the significant change from positive to high negative values of redox potential clearly indicate the inflow of high organic load which may result from the disposal of sewage and industrial waste water in the upstream catchment side. The high concentration of inorganic phosphorus fractions at the inflow point of the reservoir obviously implies that there was a significant input of nutrients into the reservoir. Hence, the study concludes that the rainfall, soil erosion and runoff are the major environmental factors for the input and accumulation of large quantities of nutrients in the bottom sediments of Krishnagiri reservoir during the study period. The present study clearly suggests for a careful investigation into sediment nutrients in Krishnagiri reservoir, and it is also necessary to assess the role of sediments in the phosphorus dynamics and its significant effect on eutrophication. This study demonstrates that the examination of physicochemical characteristics and nutrients in the bottom sediments is a helpful tool to identify the sources of nutrients to the reservoir. The baseline data provided in this paper will be helpful for the policy makers to frame better policies for the sustainable management of water quality in Krishnagiri reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]