In 2005, few would have predicted the current revolution in global agriculture that is being driven by a sudden rise in the price of petroleum and a rapid expansion of global biofuel production from grain, sugar, and oilseed crops. The result has been a convergence of valuation between petroleum and agricultural commodities such that food prices are likely to rise substantially. While countries...

Perennial grain production will likely present unique challenges for managing diseases that affect the productivity and longevity of crops being considered. Typical cultural practices effective at reducing soiland residue-borne pathogens, such as annual crop rotations, delayed fall planting, and tillage, are not feasible in perennial systems. Consequently, soiland residue-borne pathogens, and p...

EPPO have since 1987 had an activity on creating guidelines for Good Plant Protection Practise with the overall aim of helping to minimze the risk from using pesticides. This has so fare lead to the creation of 18 specific guidelines on crops of major importance in the EPPO region. The wish is that these guidelines should be used to guide national authorities and advisory services on questions ...

Moving crops outside of their original centers of domestication was sometimes a challenging process. Because of its substantial heat requirements, moving rice agriculture outside of its homelands of domestication was not an easy process for farmers in the past. Using crop niche models, we examine the constraints faced by ancient farmers and foragers as they moved rice to its most northerly exte...

Since 2000, the southwestern Brazilian Amazon has undergone a rapid transformation from natural vegetation and pastures to row-crop agricultural with the potential to affect regional biogeochemistry. The goals of this research are to assess wavelet algorithms applied to MODIS time series to determine expansion of row-crops and intensification of the number of crops grown. MODIS provides data fr...

In the context of climate change, agricultural managers have the imperative to combine sufficient productivity with durability of the resources. Many studies have shown the interest of recent satellite missions as suitable tools for agricultural surveys. Nevertheless, they are not predictive methods. A system able to detect summer crops as early as possible is important in order to obtain valua...

This paper examines the effect of conflict on agricultural production of small-farmers. First, we develop an intertemporal model of agricultural production in which the impact of conflict is transmitted through two channels: violent shocks and uncertainty brought by conflict. The model shows how conflict induces sub-optimal agricultural decisions in terms of land use and investment. We test the...

A 40–60 million years before the advent of human agriculture, three insect lineages, termites, ants, and beetles, independently evolved the ability to grow fungi for food. Like humans, the insect farmers became dependent on cultivated crops for food and developed task-partitioned societies cooperating in gigantic agricultural enterprises. Agricultural life ultimately enabled all of these insect...

This article presents average agricultural yield data per hectare for key cereal, legume and root crops from 2001 until 2017. Data was obtained from the annual Agricultural Sample Surveys of the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia. We present data at national, regional (SNNPRS) and zonal (Wolaita) levels. The data shows that average yields for all crops, at all levels, show increasing t...

Farmland biodiversity is an important characteristic when assessing sustainability of agricultural practices and is of major international concern. Scientific data indicate that agricultural intensification and pesticide use are among the main drivers of biodiversity loss. The analysed data and experiences do not support statements that herbicide-resistant crops provide consistently better yiel...