Global food production needs to be increased by 60-110% between 2005 and 2050 to meet growing food and feed demand. Intensification and/or expansion of agriculture are the two main options available to meet the growing crop demands. Land conversion to expand cultivated land increases GHG emissions and impacts biodiversity and ecosystem services. Closing yield gaps to attain potential yields may...

Agricultural residues have been identified as a significant potential resource for bioenergy production, but serious questions remain about the sustainability of harvesting residues. Agricultural residues play an important role in limiting soil erosion from wind and water and in maintaining soil organic carbon. Because of this, multiple factors must be considered when assessing sustainable resi...

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 ...

Sustainable development is of great significance in rural areas of China, which are under coupled pressures of poverty reduction, environmental protection and economic development. In these areas, agriculture is the primary sector in supporting their economies, where a number of the relevant production and processing practices cause many adverse impacts on environment and ecosystem. This poses ...

Climate in its spatial and temporal inconsistency is one of the chief causes for determining agricultural productivity in a region. Climatic impacts should be kept into mind while developing long term agricultural policies. This study aimed at investigating the change in rice production in Pakistan from 1989-2009 using the GIS techniques and the impacts of climate change on rice production. Pak...

This interest is fueled by a growing niche market for agricultural commodities that are produced in an environmentally benign and socially responsible manner. This Note builds on the experience from World Bank/Global Environment Facility projects in Mexico, El Salvador, and Uganda to develop more sustainable coffee production (Box 1). Coffee, one of the most widely traded global commodities, is...

Background: Companioned by economic development, a dietary shift toward higher meat consumption is seen in developing countries and transitional economies, where the demand for livestock production has been increasing in response to such a dietary shift. In the Asian Dryland Belt, approaches to meet this demand have focused on grazing intensification, cropland conversion for animal feed, and su...

Cities are increasingly challenged in sustaining their growing populations with food. As fossil energy reserves are depleted, the sustainability of food production is highly dependent on the ability to yield more food relative to resource use. In preparing cities for peak oil, urban food systems are therefore needed that make better use of local and renewable resources, as opposed to imported a...

The question of sustainability of agricultural production and the use of natural resources has become a popular topic. Most scientists agree that current systems are generally non-sustainable. Current rates of resource extraction will lead us to a depleted earth in the future. Sustainability is defined in many ways. For this paper sustainability should be considered the overlap of what is wante...

As the processes facilitated by plant growth promoting microorganisms (PGPMs) become better characterized, it is evident that PGPMs may be critical for successful sustainable agricultural practices. Microbes enrich plant growth through various mechanisms, such as enhancing resistance to disease and drought, producing beneficial molecules, and supplying nutrients and trace metals to the plant rh...