Coastal aquatic ecosystems are increasingly affected by diffuse source nutrient water pollution from agricultural activities in coastal catchments, even though these ecosystems are important from a social, environmental and economic perspective. To warrant sustainable economic development of coastal regions, we need to balance marginal costs from coastal catchment water pollution abatement and ...

Cover crops are important components of sustainable agricultural systems. They increase surface residue and aid in the reduction of soil erosion. They improve the structure and water-holding capacity of the soil and thus increase the effectiveness of applied N fertilizer. Legume cover crops such as hairy vetch and crimson clover fix nitrogen and contribute to the nitrogen requirements of subseq...

Sufficient training data must be acquired to classify areas of interest using a supervised classification method and hyperspectral data. However, the relatively small size of agricultural plots in Japan means that there is no training area large enough to represent a feature of interest. In this study, a new method for identifying crops using hyperspectral remotely sensed data has been proposed...

This document reviews the safety assessment for Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) delta-endotoxin proteins that have been introduced into agricultural crops to provide protection against insect pests. Information is provided on the scientific basis for U.S. EPA approvals for the introduction of Bt proteins into agricultural crops. Relevant to these approvals is the extensive data base on Bt protein s...

This paper discusses the vulnerability and adaptation of the agricultural sector of China to global wanning. Based on a summarization of Chinese agricultural and general circulation model trends, adverse impacts on China's agriculture caused by a warming and drying climate were identified. Because of limited irrigation potential, the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture will be diffic...

Subsistence systems in insular Southeast Asia and the western Pacific are geographically patterned: from west to east, grain crops disappear while root and tree crops become more important, and south of the Torres Strait no crops are grown. Previous explanations for these patterns have assumed either a historical cause (the expansion of root and tree crops before grain crops) or some form of en...

We present a software system for automated projection of situational knowledge for disease outbreak in agriculture. The system supports farmers and agricultural advisers in obtaining and maintaining awareness of present and future disease outbreaks in crops grown at agricultural parcels. It models objects such as plant pathogens and agricultural parcel crops, and their relations, as entities in...

This paper suggests a simple explanation for the cross-section Kuznets curve: endowments of crops and germs that resulted in a permanent European minority settlement are associated with high inequality and intermediate income. Where there was no European settlement, both inequality and income were low. Where Europeans came to constitute the overwhelming majority of the population, income was hi...

Roger R.B. Leakey, Zac Tchoundjeu, Kate Schreckenberg, Sheona E. Shackleton and Charlie M. Shackleton Agroforestry and Novel Crops Unit, School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia; 2World Agroforestry Centre, BP 2067, Yaoundé, Cameroon; Overseas Development Institute, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD, England; Department of Envi...