The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the glob...

This work provides a description of the research conducted to assess methods for the discrimination between irrigated and rainfed open-tree canopies using advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) satellite imagery and discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) radiative transfer 3D simulation model. Summer and winter ASTER images were acquired over a study area...

EPTD Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results, and are circulated prior to a full peer review in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. It is expected that most Discussion Papers will eventually be published in some other form, and that their content may also be revised. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Susanne Neubert and John Pender for h...

Background: Cotton with coevolving pests has been grown in India more than 5000 years. Hybrid cotton was introduced in the 1970s with increases in fertilizer and in insecticide use against pink bollworm that caused outbreaks of bollworm. Hybrid Bt cotton, introduced in 2002 to control bollworm and other lepidopteran pests, is grown on more than 90 % of the cotton area. Despite initial declines,...

Eucalyptus plantations occupy almost 20 million ha worldwide and exceed 3.7 million ha in Brazil alone. Improved genetics and silviculture have led to as much as a three-fold increase in productivity in Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil and the large land area occupied by these highly productive ecosystems raises concern over their effect on local water supplies. As part of the Brazil Potential ...

grass pea (lathyrus sativus l.) has a high potential for forage production inboth rangelands and cultivated rainfed areas of iran. it is well adapted to semi-arid areas ofwest and north of country where annual rainfall is 250–350 mm. to study the seed and drymatter (dm) yield and agronomic traits, six genotypes of lathyrus sativus l. and twogenotypes of lathyrus inconspicuous l. were provided b...

cultivated area, yield and production trend of wheat (triticum aestivum l.), barley (hordeum vulgare l.), potato (solanum tuberosum l.), alfalfa (medicago sativa l.) and chickpea (cicer arietinum l.) as the main crops of kurdistan province were studied during 1983-2006 using time series analysis and the situation of future were predicted for 2006-2021 period. the results showed that the cultiva...

Rainfed agriculture occupies 68% of India’s cultivated area and supports 40% of the human and 60% of the livestock population. It produces 445 of the food requirement, thus has and will continue to play a critical role in India’s food security. However, aberrant behaviour of monsoon rainfall, eroded and degraded soils with multiple nutrient and water deficiencies, declining ground water table a...

Rainfed agriculture is practised on 80% of the world’s agricultural area and generates 60–70% of the world’s staple food1 (FAOSTAT, 2005). In semi-arid and dry subhumid zones, rainfed agriculture dominates food production systems, and water is a key limiting factor to crop growth (SEI, 2005). Since approximately 70% of the world’s poor are women, the importance of rainfed sources of food weighs...

Climate variability adversely impacts crop production and imposes a major constraint on farming planning, mostly under rainfed conditions, across the world. Considering the recent advances in climate science, many studies are trying to provide a reliable basis for climate, and subsequently agricultural production, forecasts. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon (ENSO) is one of the princ...