Agricultural production relies heavily on manmade chemicals used as fertilizers and pesticides, and to regulate plant growth. Pesticides are released intentionally into the environment to control insects, weeds, plant diseases and other pests that affect crop or animal production, as well as to control insects that spread human diseases. Pesticides have a well-established role in agriculture an...

In this paper, we consider the effect of increasing the area of agricultural land under organic practises. We assumed that organic agriculture does not have effective means of pathogen control. We model pathogen dispersal with a diffusive logistic equation in which the growth/death rate is spatially heterogeneous. We find that if the ratio of the organic plots to conventional plots is below a c...

Abstract Concurrent hot extremes and droughts undoubtedly aggravate the impacts of on agriculture, natural environment, human society. Recent studies mainly focus trends changes in frequency severity compound drought extreme events. However, relatively little attention has been paid to mean temperature during conditions. In this study, we investigated observed projected periods across China a c...

This Special Issue on Diversified Farming Systems is motivated by a desire to understand how agriculture designed according to whole systems, agroecological principles can contribute to creating a more sustainable, socially just, and secure global food system. We first define Diversified Farming Systems (DFS) as farming practices and landscapes that intentionally include functional biodiversity...

Multifunctional agriculture (MFA) has emerged as a key concept in science and politics with respect to the future of agriculture and rural development in the recent decade. Overall, MFA implies that in addition to their main function in production and support of rural livelihood, the agricultural activities have some other advantages for the environment including the conservation of water and s...

The potential of pastoral land use to create positive environmental, economic, and social outcomes is constrained by a “way seeing” people through the eyes Modernity mechanical determinism. That ontology compounded reinforced positivism, associated hierarchical dis-integrated epistemology around culture:nature nexus – including what seen as “objective” science technology driving practise. Both ...

Abstract Land use intensification through intensive agriculture or urbanization were shown to affect biodiversity of different taxonomic functional groups. We used deep amplicon sequencing environmental DNA investigate these effects on pond in an area intensely for agriculture, as well urban ponds. revealed a homogenization across ponds arable fields, grasslands, and forests the rural Uckermark...