Irrigation is crucial to agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas and significantly contributes to crop development, food diversity and the sustainability of agro-ecosystems. For a specific crop, the separation of its irrigated and rainfed areas is difficult, because their phenology is similar and therefore less distinguishable, especially when there are phenology shifts due to various factors, ...

sustainable exploitation of land resources is directly affected by considering soil quality which finally will also conclude environmental protection. therefore, assessing different soil quality aspects which are sensitive to various land management practices seems too important. in this study, some selected soil quality indicators have been compared in five land use systems including untouched...

Data from runoff plots operated over a ®ve year period show that signi®cantly less overland ̄ow is generated with a seasonal no-till ridge system than with contour tillage or straight tillage systems. Seasonal no-till ridge is the optimum system for increasing the availability of water for rainfed agriculture on the dryland soils in the hilly area of Sichuan Province, China. # 2000 Published by...

This paper reviews the key constraints limiting the practice of CA in tropical rainfed agroecologies. It examines evidence from research, and from widespread indigenous practice, that indicates that successful CA systems for tropical smallholders would benefit substantially from the integration of trees. It argues that Conservation Agriculture with Trees (CAWT) addresses a number of the critica...

The livestock production system is considered equally sensitive to climate change as that of core agriculture system and at the same time livestock itself is also contributing to the phenomenon. The present paper attempts to analyze the sensitivity of livestock productivity in rainfed regions to climatic variability, significance of climate change with respect to Indian livestock and mitigation...

Altieri, M.A., 1992. Sustainable agricultural development in Latin America: exploring the possibilities. Agric. Ecosystems Environ., 39:!-2 I. This paper concentrates on what are perceived as critical issues which should be addressed if a productive and sustainable agriculture is to be achieved in Latin America. The attainment of such an agriculture is dependent on new technological innovations...

This study assesses the vulnerability of Bulgarian agriculture to drought using the WINISAREG model and seasonal standard precipitation index SPI(2) for the period 1951-2004. This model was previously validated for maize on soils of different water holding capacity (TAW) in various locations. Simulations are performed for Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Sofia. Results relative to Plovdiv show that in...

Perchlorate (Cl4-) reservoirs that accumulated in semiarid unsaturated zones, similar to chloride (Cl-), can contaminate underlying aquifers if they are mobilized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Cl)4- mobilization related to land-use change from natural to agricultural ecosystems in the southern High Plains (SHP, USA), where large ClO4- concentrations (< or =60 microg/L) are found in...