Malawi has exceptionally high rates of population growth (3.1%) and deforestation (2.4%), suggesting a Malthusian link between the two. The most important proximal cause of forest loss in Malawi has been the expansion of agricultural land. Population growth has been an important driver for this process, but is an insufficient explanation by itself. In Malawi’s case, it has been coupled with a l...

The aim of the research is to analyse the landscape structure changes from the end of the Soviet times in 1974– 1986 until 2005 when market economy existed in Lithuania. The changes of landscape structure were observed in 100 sample areas (squares) each of them having 2.5 km area and distributed in different landscape types. The changes in sample areas (squares) with determination of land cover...

Precision Agriculture (PA) is a whole-farm management approach using information technology, satellite positioning (GNSS) data, remote sensing and proximal data gathering. These technologies have the goal of optimising returns on inputs whilst potentially reducing environmental impacts. The state-of-the-art of PA on arable land, permanent crops and within dairy farming are reviewed, mainly in t...

Following multiple reports warning for threats posed by raising levels of atmospheric CO2, it is of paramount importance that human society rapidly evolves to be sustainable. Processes relying on photosynthetic microorganisms, converting CO2 and water into compounds of interest, fueled by light, are very pertinent, particularly if not directly competing for arable land. Here, we identify specif...

According to a UN Environment Programme survey, topsoil is eroding faster than it forms on about one third of the world’s cropland, causing an estimated 85 % of the world s land degradation from human activities. Erosion of soil, mainly by water, is also a problem in the Czech Republic where 54 % of arable land is endangered by water erosion. The topic of this article is to describe contemporar...

The role of land use on fate of metals in soils is poorly understood. In this work, we studied the incorporation of lead in two neighboring soils with comparable pedogenesis but under long-term different agricultural management. Distributions of anthropogenic Pb were assessed from concentrations and isotopic compositions determined on bulk horizon samples, systematical 5-10 cm increment samples...

Salinity in agricultural land is a major problem worldwide, placing a severe constraint on crop growth and productivity in many regions, and increased salinization of arable land is expected to have devastating global effects. Though plants vary in their sensitivity to salt stress, high salinity causes water deficit and ion toxicity in many plant species. Considerable efforts have therefore bee...

Fresh water and arable land are essential for agricultural production and food processing. However, managing conflicting demands over water and land can be challenging for business leaders, environmentalists and other stakeholders. This paper characterizes these challenges as wicked problems. Wicked problems are ill-formed, fuzzy, and messy, because they involve many clients and decisions maker...

This paper investigates the effects of changes in prices and wages, which may be caused by trade liberalization, on the micro behavior of farmers, in particular, on the use of agrochemicals and parttime farming. I demonstrate that a small decrease in the price of an agricultural product decreases the use of agrochemicals if there are no arable land rental transactions. On the other hand, if a c...