In many cases, the public release of survey or census data at fine geographical resolution (for example, counties) may endanger the confidentiality of respondents. A strategy for such cases is to aggregate neighboring regions into larger units that satisfy confidentiality requirements. An aggregation procedure employed in a prototype system for the US National Agricultural Statistics Service is...

Recent scientific data indicate that nanotechnology has the potential to positively impact the agrifood sector, minimizing adverse problems of agricultural practices on environment and human health, improving food security and productivity (as required by the predicted rise in global population), while promoting social and economic equity. In this context, we select and report on recent trends ...

We all are surrounded by and exposed to many chemicals in our personal environment. These chemicals are either naturally occurring or man-made. Such exposures may have profound impact on our health, such as cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and abuse of illicit and legal drugs, or they may be necessary for our survival, such as nutrients, disinfectants, fertilizers and fuels. Ho...

Aquatic populations interact with the physico-chemical and biological factors in their habitat. Any change in the habitat can induce stress on the life forms. The major water bodies and rivers in Kerala are not free from the pollution stress of varying degrees due to the influx of effluents from nearby factories, pesticides and fertilizers from cultivating areas, besides urban and rural sewages...

In this Crystal Ball we describe the negative effects of the scheme of intensive agriculture of the green revolution technology. To recover the contaminated soils derived from intensive farming is necessary introduce new successful technologies to replace the use of chemical fertilizer and toxic pesticides by organic fertilizers and biological control agents. Our principal speculation is that i...

agroXML is a standardized language for data exchange in agriculture. It is based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) using XML Schema as its definition language. agroXML is used to submit data from farm management information systems to external partners, like e. g. product processing industries in the food supply chain or agricultural service providers. In addition, data about operating su...

Improper use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide poses not only threats to the environmental safety but also major public health issues globally. The adverse effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides forced agricultural scientist to look for safer methods such as organic farming. This study was aimed at assessing the knowledge and tendency towards organic foods use among people of living ...

Industrial or “Green Revolution” agriculture depends upon petroleum to manufacture and spread fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and to power irrigation systems that act upon crops selected to increase agricultural yield. It has been criticized on the grounds that it has favored mainly rich farmers and caused serious environmental pollution. Now a second “Green Revolution” is being proposed...

Regional agricultural projects based on water resource development have many potential impacts on social and natural environments. In this research, potential long-term environmental problems of the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP) related to water resources, land use, land degradation, agricultural pollution and demography are analysed from a systems perspective. The analysis focuses on th...