Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
37,963
result(s) for
"AGRICULTURAL PLANNING"
Sort by:
Green Revolution research saved an estimated 18 to 27 million hectares from being brought into agricultural production
New estimates of the impacts of germplasm improvement in the major staple crops between 1965 and 2004 on global land-cover change are presented, based on simulations carried out using a global economic model (Global Trade Analysis Project Agro-Ecological Zone), a multicommodity, multiregional computable general equilibrium model linked to a global spatially explicit database on land use. We estimate the impact of removing the gains in cereal productivity attributed to the widespread adoption of improved varieties in developing countries. Here, several different effects—higher yields, lower prices, higher land rents, and trade effects—have been incorporated in a single model of the impact of Green Revolution research (and subsequent advances in yields from crop germplasm improvement) on land-cover change. Our results generally support the Borlaug hypothesis that increases in cereal yields as a result of widespread adoption of improved crop germplasm have saved natural ecosystems from being converted to agriculture. However, this relationship is complex, and the net effect is of a much smaller magnitude than Borlaug proposed. We estimate that the total crop area in 2004 would have been between 17.9 and 26.7 million hectares larger in a world that had not benefited from crop germplasm improvement since 1965. Of these hectares, 12.0-17.7 million would have been in developing countries, displacing pastures and resulting in an estimated 2 million hectares of additional deforestation. However, the negative impacts of higher food prices on poverty and hunger under this scenario would likely have dwarfed the welfare effects of agricultural expansion.
Journal Article
Assessment of walnut (Juglans regia L.) cultivation land suitability using a multiple-criteria decision-making method in Southeastern Turkey
Site selection for agricultural products is critical for agricultural planning, productivity, and farmers. Site selection is also critical for agricultural sustainability, as it helps ensure the efficient use of natural resources and avoids environmental degradation. This research proposes an evaluation model for walnut cultivation in the Savur (Mardin, Turkey) district in the Southeastern Anatolia region. Based on literature data, expert opinion, and local walnut producers’ perspectives, a spatial decision support system was developed using Geographic Information System (GIS)-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). This model provides farmers and stakeholders with a comprehensive evaluation of the different walnut-producing sites in the Savur district. It allows them to make informed decisions about the most suitable areas for walnut production. The land suitability assessment for walnut orchards included four primary evaluation aspects, ten main criteria, and forty-seven sub-criteria. Evaluation criteria were weighted using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A land suitability map was created using the weighted overlay method in overlap with the evaluation criteria. The results showed 442.56 ha of very highly suitable land, 9789.43 ha of highly suitable land, and 1140.76 ha of moderately suitable land in the Savur district. In order to determine the accuracy of the study model, ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis was conducted. As a result of the validation analysis, the constructed model had an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.911, which indicates an excellent fit between the model and reality; therefore, the model is acceptable. This study demonstrates that integrating AHP and GIS can aid agricultural land use planning and decision-making.
Journal Article
Suprarural : architectural atlas of rural protocols of the American Midwest and the Argentine Pampas
The Atlas of rural protocols in the American Midwest and the Argentine Pampas is structured along eight systems of organization: transport and infrastructure, land subdivision, agricultural production, water management, storage and maintenance, human habitation, animal management, land management. Each of these systems possesses a number of organizational types, material components, normative relationships, and spectra of performance, which become available through a manual of instructions for a Suprarural architectural environment. The research is based on a realistic-overriding ethics towards design that operates by abstracting and intensifying unexplored territorial phenomena.
Book
compatibility of agricultural intensification in a global hotspot of smallholder agrobiodiversity (Bolivia)
Integrating the conservation of biodiversity by smallholder farmers with agricultural intensification is increasingly recognized as a leading priority of sustainability and food security amid global environmental and socioeconomic change. An international research project investigated the smallholder agrobiodiversity of maize (corn) in a global hotspot (Bolivia) undergoing significant intensification. Peach-based intensification was pronounced (300–400%) and prolonged (2000–2010) in study areas. Intensification and maize agrobiodiversity were found to co-occur within smallholder landscapes. Interactions of these field systems did not trigger land-change tipping points leading to landrace extirpation. By 2010 maize landraces in the study areas still demonstrated high levels of taxonomic and ecological biodiversity and contributed significantly to this crop’s agrobiodiversity at national (31%) and hemispheric (3%) scales. Social and ecological resilience and in situ conservation of the maize agrobiodiversity by Bolivian smallholders was enabled through robust linkages to off-farm migration; resource access and asset capabilities among both traditional and nontraditional growers; landrace agroecology and food uses; and innovative knowledge and skills. The smallholders’ resilience resulting from these linkages was integral to the conditional success of the in situ conservation of maize agrobiodiversity. Environment–development interactions both enabled smallholders’ agrobiodiversity resilience and influenced the limits and vulnerability of agrobiodiversity. Scientific policy recommendations regarding land-use planning and sustainability analysis are targeted to specific Río+20 priorities for agrobiodiversity.
Journal Article
An Agro-Food Planning System: Democratic, Decentralized, Holistic, and Voluntary Participatory
In both capitalist and socialist economies, agricultural planning has been understood as the allocation of areas for planting of certain products; the production potential and ability to act rationally of farmers, the main productive actors, have been neglected. In addition, in both economic structures, the desired results have only been partially achieved by determining prices. These experiences reveal two important results. Firstly, agriculture can not be fully planned, but it cannot be continued without planning either. Secondly, it is necessary for agricultural products to have an exchange value, but price is a multifunctional phenomenon and how it is determined is important. The current equivalent of the claim that prices are determined through the market mechanism is to advocate that prices are determined by capitalist companies that have monopoly power in the markets. The increasingly severe problems and increasing fragility of agricultural food markets, which are already largely under the control of these institutions, already show that this structure is not a solution. On the other hand, it is no longer possible to provide food security by planning for primary agricultural products alone; agro-food production and distribution have acquired different structural characteristics, and it has become necessary to address food security within the framework of agro-food systems. Therefore, effective agricultural planning requires the planning of the agricultural food system as a whole. The e-nam system being popularized in India has achieved a certain success and shows not only that it is possible to organize and manage agricultural food markets after primary production but also that technological opportunities offer effective planning opportunities. In this study, based on historical and current experiences, the inadequacies of the market mechanism, the fact that agricultural production is carried out by using living things to produce living things, and the dependency of uncontrollable factors are taken into consideration in the development of a democratic mix of centralized and decentralized planning aimed at determining both the production quantities and prices by utilizing the capacity and conditions of farmers and technological opportunities to meet today’s needs. In accordance with this result, a basic planning proposal is presented.
Journal Article
Assessing the long-term fluctuations in dry-wet spells over Indian region using Markov model in GEE cloud platform
The long-term fluctuations in dry-wet spells were assessed at standard meteorological week (SMW) over India using Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) rainfall data. The weekly sum of rainfall was embedded in Markov Chain Probability Model in Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to compute initial and conditional probabilities of dry-wet spells during 2009-2020. An effective monsoon window (23rd SMW–39th SMW) was identified where initial probabilities (IPs) of dry (Pd) and wet (Pw) spells intersect at 50% probability level. Significant spatiotemporal variation of IPs was observed with initiation and withdrawal of monsoon over India. The analysis of co-efficient of variation (CV) showed low CV (<60%) in Pd and high CV (>60%) in Pw in semi-arid and arid regions whereas northern, central and eastern regions observed high CV (>60%) in Pd and low CV (<40%) in Pw. The drought prone and moisture sufficient zones were indentified based on the analysis of long-term frequency distribution of dry-wet spells and trend. Inter-comparison of IPs between CHIRPs with IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) and NOAA CPC (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Climate Prediction Centre) showed encouraging results. The study provides baseline reference for climate-resilient agricultural crop planning with respect to food security.
Journal Article
The 'Green Revolution' dwarfing genes play a role in disease resistance in Triticum aestivum and Hordeum vulgare
The Green Revolution dwarfing genes, Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b, encode mutant forms of DELLA proteins and are present in most modern wheat varieties. DELLA proteins have been implicated in the response to biotic stress in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Using defined wheat Rht near-isogenic lines and barley Sln1 gain of function (GoF) and loss of function (LoF) lines, the role of DELLA in response to biotic stress was investigated in pathosystems representing contrasting trophic styles (biotrophic, hemibiotrophic, and necrotrophic). GoF mutant alleles in wheat and barley confer a resistance trade-off with increased susceptibility to biotrophic pathogens and increased resistance to necrotrophic pathogens whilst the converse was conferred by a LoF mutant allele. The polyploid nature of the wheat genome buffered the effect of single Rht GoF mutations relative to barley (diploid), particularly in respect of increased susceptibility to biotrophic pathogens. A role for DELLA in controlling cell death responses is proposed. Similar to Arabidopsis, a resistance trade-off to pathogens with contrasting pathogenic lifestyles has been identified in monocotyledonous cereal species. Appreciation of the pleiotropic role of DELLA in biotic stress responses in cereals has implications for plant breeding.
Journal Article
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Feeding a growing world sustainably
In the coming years, continued population growth, rising incomes, increasing meat and dairy consumption and expanding biofuel use will place unprecedented demands on the world's agriculture and natural resources. Can we meet society's growing food needs while reducing agriculture's environmental harm? Here, an international team of environmental and agricultural scientists uses new geospatial data and models to identify four strategies that could double food production while reducing environmental impacts. First, halt agricultural expansion. Second, close 'yield gaps' on underperforming lands. Third, increase cropping efficiency. And finally, we need to change our diets and shift crop production away from livestock feed, bioenergy crops and other non-food applications.
Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agriculture and natural resources. Today, approximately a billion people are chronically malnourished while our agricultural systems are concurrently degrading land, water, biodiversity and climate on a global scale. To meet the world’s future food security and sustainability needs, food production must grow substantially while, at the same time, agriculture’s environmental footprint must shrink dramatically. Here we analyse solutions to this dilemma, showing that tremendous progress could be made by halting agricultural expansion, closing ‘yield gaps’ on underperforming lands, increasing cropping efficiency, shifting diets and reducing waste. Together, these strategies could double food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.
Journal Article