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Utilizing and Conserving Agrobiodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 121: 196-210
Abstract
A biodiversity-based paradigm for sustainable agriculture is a potential solution for many of the problems associated with intensive, high input agriculture, and for greater resilience to the environmental and socioeconomic risks that may occur in the uncertain future. The challenge is to understand the combined ecological and social functions of agrobiodiversity, determine its contribution to ecosystem goods and services and value for society at large, and evaluate options for the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity across the agricultural landscape. Agrobiodiversity is most likely to enhance agroecosystem functioning when assemblages of species are added whose presence results in unique or complementary effects on ecosystem functioning, e.g., by planting genotypes with genes for higher yield or pest resistance, mixing specific genotypes of crops, or including functional groups that increase nutrient inputs and cycling. Simply adding more species to most agroecosystems may have little effect on function, given the redundancy in many groups, especially for soil organisms. The adoption of biodiversity-based practices for agriculture, however, is only partially based on the provision of ecosystem goods and services, since individual farmers typically react to the private use value of biodiversity, not the ‘external’ benefits of conservation that accrue to the wider society. Evaluating the actual value associated with goods and services provided by agrobiodiversity requires better communication between ecologists and economists, and the realization of the consequences of either overrating its value based on ‘received wisdom’ about potential services, or underrating it by only acknowledging its future option or quasi-option value. Partnerships between researchers, farmers, and other stakeholders to integrate ecological and socioeconomic research help evaluate ecosystem services, the tradeoffs of different management scenarios, and the potential for recognition or rewards for provision of ecosystem services. This paper considers ways that scientists from different disciplines can collaborate to determine the functions and value of agrobiodiversity for agricultural production, but within the context of understanding how biodiversity can be conserved in landscape mosaics that contain mixtures of land use types.
... Agrobiodiversidade, ou biodiversidade na agricultura, inclui os diferentes componentes da diversidade biológica em uma propriedade rural, nativos, domesticados, semi domesticados ou cultivados, que sejam importantes para alimentação humana e animal porque compõem a dinâmica ecológica dos agroecossistemas, incluindo diferentes variedades de alimentos, forragens, pastagens e toda a diversidade genética dentro e entre estas (recursos genéticos), e que podem ser utilizadas em programas de melhoramento genético (BRASIL, 1992(BRASIL, , 1996JACKSON;PASCUAL;HODGKIN, 2007;FRISON;CHERFAS;HODGKIN, 2011;NODARI;GUERRA, 2015;BIONDO;BECKER, 2021). ...
... Agrobiodiversidade, ou biodiversidade na agricultura, inclui os diferentes componentes da diversidade biológica em uma propriedade rural, nativos, domesticados, semi domesticados ou cultivados, que sejam importantes para alimentação humana e animal porque compõem a dinâmica ecológica dos agroecossistemas, incluindo diferentes variedades de alimentos, forragens, pastagens e toda a diversidade genética dentro e entre estas (recursos genéticos), e que podem ser utilizadas em programas de melhoramento genético (BRASIL, 1992(BRASIL, , 1996JACKSON;PASCUAL;HODGKIN, 2007;FRISON;CHERFAS;HODGKIN, 2011;NODARI;GUERRA, 2015;BIONDO;BECKER, 2021). ...
... Agrobiodiversidade, ou biodiversidade na agricultura, inclui os diferentes componentes da diversidade biológica em uma propriedade rural, nativos, domesticados, semi domesticados ou cultivados, que sejam importantes para alimentação humana e animal porque compõem a dinâmica ecológica dos agroecossistemas, incluindo diferentes variedades de alimentos, forragens, pastagens e toda a diversidade genética dentro e entre estas (recursos genéticos), e que podem ser utilizadas em programas de melhoramento genético (BRASIL, 1992(BRASIL, , 1996JACKSON;PASCUAL;HODGKIN, 2007;FRISON;CHERFAS;HODGKIN, 2011;NODARI;GUERRA, 2015;BIONDO;BECKER, 2021). ...
Resumo: As plantas alimentícias não convencionais-PANC são apresentadas como uma estratégia para diversificação dos sistemas de produção, promoção de autonomia no campo e nas cidades e mitigação dos efeitos adversos das mudanças climáticas sobre a agricultura. Neste sentido, o presente trabalho propõe uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática sobre plantas alimentícias não convencionais e inovação, buscando quantificar informações existentes em periódicos científicos avaliados por pares, e fornecer subsídios para a inovação na área de Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos. A metodologia foi organizada através de séries históricas da rede CAFe do portal Periódicos CAPES, utilizando palavras-chave de interesse. Nos resultados foi verificado que a partir de 2019 os artigos começam a ter alto grau de impacto, e no ano de 2022 houve o maior número de publicações sobre esse assunto. Esses dados demonstram, que neste campo científico foram necessários praticamente 20 anos de desenvolvimento de pesquisas para as técnicas começarem o processo de consolidação. Sobre a inovação incorporada nas PANC, obteve-se a produção de alimentos baseados em vegetais, associado a embalagens sustentáveis, tendências fomentadas pelos consumidores preocupados com as mudanças climáticas, levando a indústria a realizar investimentos em diversas tecnologias. Portanto, concluímos que, ainda são necessários mais estudos e aplicações nesta área de conhecimento, pois a inovação é permanente, além disso é necessária a adoção de uma alimentação que garanta qualidade e amplie a segurança alimentar e nutricional, e respeite as memórias e a cultura local. Abstract: Unconventional food plants-PANC are presented as a strategy for diversifying production systems, promoting autonomy in the countryside and cities and mitigating the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture. In this sense, the present work proposes a systematic bibliographic review on non-conventional food plants and innovation, seeking to quantify existing information in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and provide subsidies for innovation in the area of Food Science and Technology. The methodology was organized through historical series from the CAFe network of the Periódicos CAPES portal, using keywords of interest. The results showed that from 2019 onwards, articles began to have a high degree of impact, and in 2022 there was the largest number of publications on this subject. These data demonstrate that in this scientific field it took practically 20 years of research development for the techniques to begin the consolidation process. Regarding the innovation incorporated in PANC, the production of plant-based foods was achieved, associated with sustainable packaging, trends encouraged by consumers concerned about climate change, leading the industry to invest in various technologies. Therefore, we conclude that more studies and applications are still needed in this area of knowledge, as innovation is permanent, and it is also necessary to adopt a diet that guarantees quality and expands food and nutritional security, and respects memories and culture. local.
... Mexico is the center of origin and domestication of more than 130 critical agricultural species, most of which are grown in traditional agricultural systems (TAS) [4]. Although TAS is not exempt from erosion, they are still territories that maintain agrobiodiversity to a greater or less extent. ...
... Ekuaros are typical TASs of this territory where animal and plant species cohabit. The milpa 3 is the most common system of cultivation in the ekuaros and contains various varieties of the genera: Zea mays, Agave, Cucurbita, Phaseolus, and a conglomerate of species that grow spontaneously at the milpa known as quelites 4 . Persea and Sechium varieties, of great commercial importance and for self-consumption, also stand out. ...
... obiodiversidadmx〉 3 Pre-hispanic intercropping system. 4 Quelites are seasonal edible green plants that are essential to the traditional rural Mexican diet and have recognized nutritional properties [7]. 5 The meaning of the name Patsari, in the Purépecha language, refers to the ancient practice of covering embers from the fire with dirt to keep them alive for generating a fire the next day. The use of this name refers to the stove's ability to retain heat, protect health, and preserve the forest. ...
... The ability of endophytic microbes to solubilize inorganic insoluble phosphate salts has been linked to their capability to synthesise organic acids in their growth environments. The organic acids cause a decrease in pH of the endophyte-inhabited soil niche, making the environment conducive for the transfer of the metallic component of the insoluble phosphates to either potassium or sodium, thus giving rise to the formation of soluble phosphate salts which are useful for plant growth [151]. The mechanism for phosphate solubilisation by endophytic microbes is identical to that of potassium [152]. ...
... First, government subsidies can be redirected to encourage the cultivation of nutrientdense crops like fruits, legumes, and tubers rather than monocultures, increasing local access to diverse foods and enhancing climate resilience, as seen in India's -National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture‖ [148][149][150]. Second, policies incentivizing sustainable practices such as agroforestry and integrated crop-livestock systems already promoted in parts of Africa can boost food security and dietary diversity while preserving ecological health [151][152][153]. Third, land use reforms and secure land tenure empower smallholder farmers to diversify their crops and invest in long-term sustainability, as demonstrated in Ethiopia and Malawi [154][155][156]. ...
Africa is confronted with an unprecedented food crisis, according to a new report launched on December 7, 2023 at Johannesburg by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Union Commission (AUC), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the World Food Programme (WFP). Nearly 282 million people in Africa (about 20 % of the population) are undernourished, an increase of 57 million people since the COVID–19 pandemic began. Africa remains off–track to meet the food security and nutrition targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and the Malabo targets of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2025. The deterioration of the food security situation and the lack of progress towards the WHO global nutrition targets make it imperative for countries to step up their efforts if they are to achieve a world without hunger and malnutrition by 20230.
The food security in Africa empowers individuals, communities and the continent as a whole by enhancing economic stability, promoting better health and nutrition, and fostering social and political stability. It improves living standards strengthens national economies, and contributes to overall progress and development. More importantly, food security is not just about having enough to eat; it’s about building a foundation for sustainable development and prosperity.
The Lafia Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research (LJSIR) is a young and thriving journal published by the Faculty of Science, Federal University of Lafia (FULafia), Nasarawa State. The journal was established in 2023, in an effort of providing credible platforms for publications of research outputs by researchers across the globe. LJSIR also publishes Book Series which accommodate contribution chapters that allow more space for reflection on bigger ideas than journal articles. The LJSIR Book Series Volumes 1 and 2 are entitled, ‘Agriculture and Life Sciences: The Power of Global Food Security’, and ‘Agriculture and Physical Sciences: Breaking the Barrier of Food Security’, respectively.
Agriculture, Life Sciences and Physical Sciences empower food security by enhancing food production, improving access to nutritious food, improving food safety and reducing post–harvest losses, enhancing food distribution and accessibility, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. This involves a multifaceted approach, including developing drought–resistant crop varieties, improving soil fertility, optimizing farming techniques, and utilizing biotechnology to improve yields and nutrition.
The two Volumes are dedicated volumes by honouring our amiable, indefatigable and digital Vice–Chancellor, Prof. Shehu Abdul Rahman, FNAAE, FHORTSON, FASI, FASN.
Prof. Shehu Abdul Rahman is a seasoned university administrator, the third and current Vice–Chancellor of Federal University of Lafia. Prof. Rahman was the pioneer and former Vice–Chancellor of Federal University, Ghasua, Yobe State, Nigeria. He was also a former Deputy Vice–Chancellor Administration, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, (NSUK) Nigeria. Prior to his appointment as DVC at NSUK, he was the Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, the position he held for two terms. During the period as a Dean, he served as the Chairman of Association of Deans of Agriculture in Nigerian Universities for two years. Shehu Abdul Rahman is a Professor of Agricultural Economics and he is widely published. Within the last four years as the Vice–Chancellor, he has transformed and taken FULafia to a greater height.
Prof. Matthew Olaleke Aremu
Editor–in–Chief, LJSIR
... In recent decades, global biodiversity has been degraded at an unprecedented rate (Ceballos et al., 2015) because of worldwide population growth and the increased consumption of natural resources (Jackson et al., 2007). The homogenization of agricultural production systems, chiefly due to intensification of practices, is one of the greatest causes of agrobiodiversity loss, predominantly through genetic erosion and increasing levels of genetic vulnerability for specialized livestock and crops (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2008). ...
... It is vitally important that interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are used to protect our agrobiodiversity and safeguard food security. The economic, socio-economic and cultural value of biodiversity must be considered when developing and modernizing agricultural practices (Jackson et al., 2007). Agrobiodiversity has been shaped by generations of farmers, and local and traditional knowledge and culture passed down in farming communities is central to the protection and management of agrobiodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2008). ...
... However, in recent years, the health of agricultural soils has been on the decline. This decline is largely due to a decrease in total factor productivity, inefficient nutrient use, and a significant gap between the supply and demand of essential nutrients [2][3][4]. Secondary macronutrients such as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S) are also increasingly deficient [5]. These deficiencies stem from the rapid turnover of nutrients within the soil-plant system and the imbalanced application of fertilizers. ...
... These deficiencies stem from the rapid turnover of nutrients within the soil-plant system and the imbalanced application of fertilizers. Additional challenges, such as nutrient leaching and fixation, further degrade soil quality and productivity [1,2]. ...
This study presents an innovative approach to enhancing nitrate detection in soil, a critical macronutrient for agriculture. We developed a novel electrochemical sensor using a nanocomposite of Zinc Oxide (ZnOx) and Polyaniline (PANI) on a Nickel foam electrode. The nanocomposite was synthesized through cyclic voltammetry and characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to analyze its morphological, elemental, and crystalline properties. The sensor's performance was evaluated using square wave voltammetry, revealing a direct linear relationship between the peak current and nitrate concentration. The sensor demonstrated high sensitivity (4.53 µA/µM) and a low detection limit (0.40 µM), confirming its potential for precise and sensitive nitrate analysis in soil samples.
... By reducing chemical inputs, millet farming promotes healthier soils, protects pollinators like bees, and decreases agricultural runoff, which is a major cause of water pollution. Additionally, because fewer external inputs are required, millet cultivation is more cost-effective for farmers, improving their economic sustainability (Jackson et al., 2007). ...
Millets, often regarded as "Nutri-Cereals," are an important group of small-seeded grains known for their superior nutritional value and environmental resilience. Rich in dietary fiber, essential amino acids, micronutrients, and antioxidants, millets offer significant health benefits, including improved digestive health, glycemic control, and cardiovascular protection. Furthermore, their ability to thrive in arid and semi-arid regions positions them as a key crop for promoting sustainable agriculture and enhancing food security amid climate change challenges. This chapter provides an overview of the nutritional composition, health-promoting properties, and agronomic significance of millets. It also discusses their potential role in combating malnutrition and fostering dietary diversity. By highlighting recent research and emerging trends, the chapter advocates for greater inclusion of millets in global food systems and public health initiatives.
... By reducing chemical inputs, millet farming promotes healthier soils, protects pollinators like bees, and decreases agricultural runoff, which is a major cause of water pollution. Additionally, because fewer external inputs are required, millet cultivation is more cost-effective for farmers, improving their economic sustainability (Jackson et al., 2007). ...
This chapter highlights the significance of millets as climate-resilient, nutrient-rich grains that support sustainable agriculture and food security. It explores their health benefits, environmental adaptability, and the impact of recent genetic advancements like CRISPR in improving yield and resilience. The chapter also emphasizes the need for policy support, awareness, and innovation to promote millet-based diets as a strategy for combating climate change and ensuring long-term nutritional security.
... Permaculture has been proven to foster diverse crop species growth without the need for synthetic inputs (Hirschfeld and Van Acker 2020;Guitart, Byrne, and Pickering 2015). Permaculture has been posited to lead to improvements in soil quality and to support increased biodiversity (Asbjornsen et al. 2014;Lin 2011;Jackson, Pascual, and Hodgkin 2007), but has been criticized for a lack of empirical evidence in support of its practices, presenting an opportunity for further research (Hirschfeld and Van Acker 2020). ...
This executive report presents a participatory framework for advancing sustainable food production systems in Southern Ontario, with broader relevance across Canada and globally. Grounded in a Theory of Change (ToC), the report identifies key social, ecological, and economic outcomes and proposes a suite of outcome metrics to guide transitions in agriculture. It highlights the limitations of top-down approaches and instead advocates for inclusive, community-driven initiatives that respect local knowledge, cultural traditions, and regional conditions. Major barriers—including the lack of standardized definitions, economic disincentives, and operational complexity—are addressed through a flexible, bottom-up strategy emphasizing collaboration among farmers, policymakers, supply chain actors, and civil society. The proposed framework offers a practical path toward institutionalizing sustainable practices while enhancing food security, soil health, and biodiversity.
... Similarly, the community forestry programme in Nepal integrates decentralized forest policy into local communities' needs, views and practices to restore and manage degraded forest areas (Ojha & Hall, 2023;Pandit & Bevilacqua, 2011). These maintain interrelationships between people and nature to support cultural values, sustainable production and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes (Jackson et al., 2007;LaCanne & Lundgren, 2018;Moroder & Kernecker, 2022;Norris, 2008;Rey Benayas & Bullock, 2012;Scherr & McNeely, 2008) and productive seascapes (De Schutter, 2012). Transformative actions include policies to establish agroecological and regenerative food systems 2 that empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities through food sovereignty initiatives (Borbee et al., 2023;Grenz & Armstrong, 2023;Huambachano, 2020;James et al., 2021). ...
Chapter 5 presents quantitative and qualitative insights on actions and instruments around
five strategies to bring about transformative change. Together these strategies address direct
and indirect drivers (including underlying causes) of biodiversity loss and nature’s decline
(Chapter 1) with explicit attention to overcoming the specific challenges to transformative
change (Chapter 4). The five strategies are: 1) conserving and regenerating places of value to
nature and people; 2) driving systemic change in the sectors most responsible for biodiversity
loss and nature’s decline; 3) transforming economic systems for nature and equity;
4) transforming governance systems to be inclusive, accountable and adaptive; and 5) shifting
societal views and values to recognize and prioritize the fundamental interconnections
between humans and nature. An assessment of the literature that includes works examining
deliberate transformative change for a just2 and sustainable world suggests that some of these
strategies are have been studied more and literature aligns among contexts while others have
more diverse or limited evidence behind them. Actions associated with the strategies serve as
entry points for a set of intertwined, diverse and emergent pathways informed by theories of
transformative change (Chapter 3) and guided by diverse visions for achieving the
2050 Vision for Biodiversity and other global sustainability goals (Chapter 2).
... It is due to multiple reasons, such as the higher resilience of agroecosystems to external influences and disturbances, such as climate change, diseases and pests. For example, the author's collective (Jackson et al., 2007), noted that systems with more incredible biodiversity show significantly higher resilience to various adverse factors. ...
CITE AS: Blagoev, A., Kabadzhova, M. (2025). Theoretical aspects of agroecological practices in Bulgaria, In: Economic Development and Policies: Realities and Prospects. European Integration, Convergence and Cohesion. Sofia: ERI at BAS, 334-338.
The policy implemented by the European community in agriculture aims to balance the relationship between agriculture and the environment. This interrelationship is a critical factor in the sustainable development of agroecological practices that both conserve natural resources and promote economic efficiency. There is a rich palette of applied agroecological practices that directly and indirectly impact the environment, such as organic fertilization, crop rotation, minimal tillage, and agroforestry. The widespread use and implementation of these practices would minimize the negative impacts of agriculture on climate, water resources and biodiversity while ensuring the long-term productivity of the agricultural sector. A comparative analysis of the measures aimed at agroecological activities from the Rural Development Program was prepared. It highlights the main points and differences in supported agroecological practices.
... However, despite the importance of these agroforestry practices in the semi-arid areas of the Dugda Dawa district, there is a significant research gap in understanding the specific role of these practices in conserving agrobiodiversity and ensuring sustainable food production in the region. Agrobiodiversity refers to the variety and variability of all living components within our study's agroforestry systems [31,32]. This includes the diversity of tree species, crop species livestock breeds, soil organisms, and other components within the system. ...
In response to the reduction in species diversity within agriculture and the pressing issue of food insecurity, farmers in the Dugda Dawa district have been practicing enset-based homegarden agroforestry (EBHAF) and parkland agroforestry (PAF). However, there is a limited understanding of its role in conserving agrobiodiversity and enhancing food production in the semi-arid areas. The present study, aimed to assess the role of EBHAF and PAF in conserving agrobiodiversity and ensuring food production in semi-arid areas of Dugda Dawa district, southern Ethiopia. A multistage sampling technique, involving stratification, purposeful selection, and random sampling was used for this study. A total of 124 households (63 EBHAF and 61 PAF) were interviewed about food production and income generation, and an inventory of plant species were done on the agroforestry farms of sampled household. A total of 25 plant species belonging to 15 families were recorded in the study area. The results showed that EBHAF had a higher number of plant species, with a total of 23 species from 15 families, compared to PAF, which had 11 species from 6 families. The EBHAF exhibited higher plant species richness (7.5 ± 0.26), and diversity (2.53), than PAF where the value of richness (4.9 ± 0.25) and diversity (1.59). In terms of livestock species, EBHAF had a higher species diversity compared to PAF. EBHAF showed significantly higher food production in Zea mays (811 ± 29 Kg), Phaseolus vulgaris (237 ± 24 Kg), milk (1928 ± 55 L), and livestock meat (105 ± 13.2 Kg) compared to PAF where the values were Zea mays (711 ± 29 Kg), Phaseolus vulgaris (165 ± 15.9 Kg), milk (1190 ± 9.3 L), and livestock meat (47 ± 3.9 Kg) respectively. The overall food production sustainability score for EBHAF was 0.751, which exceeds the satisfactory level of (0.75) as per organization for economic co-operation and development classification of Sustainability Indices, while PAF scored only 0.33, falling below that threshold. In conclusion, practicing EBHAF in Dugda Dawa district is more preferred compare to PAF in promoting agrobiodiversity and sustainable food production. Therefore, it is recommended for farmers to scale up EBHAF as it promotes agrobiodiversity and sustainable food production.
... The loss of agricultural land and fluctuations in vegetation cover can disrupt local ecosystems, reduce biodiversity, and affect the livelihoods of communities' dependent on agriculture. Studies such as those by Špulerová et al. (2017) and Jackson et al (2007) have emphasized the importance of preserving agricultural landscapes and natural habitats to ensure sustainable development and ecological stability. The findings from St. Martin Island reinforce the need for integrated land use planning that balances tourism development with environmental conservation. ...
St. Martin Island has changed over the past years, with booming tourism replacing agricultural land and altering landscapes. This study investigates the land use and land cover changes on the island, spanning the years from 2005 to 2023. Using Landsat 5, Landsat 8, and Sentinel 2 imagery alongside remote sensing and GIS technologies, landuse maps were generated for 2005, 2015, and 2023. Emphasizing the accuracy assessment and validation processes, the study reveals substantial transformations in this island's landscape. The key findings highlight a rapid expansion of built-up areas (17.73%), especially in the northern regions, driven by the increasing coastal tourism. Concurrently, agricultural land has dwindled (3.87%), reflecting changing land use practices and priorities. Vegetation exhibited dynamic fluctuations (increased by 3.17%), influenced by urbanization and reforestation. These changes have environmental implications. Including, potential habitat disruption and ecological consequences. Recommendations include sustainable tourism planning, agricultural preservation, vegetation restoration, careful infrastructure development, data monitoring, and community engagement. The proposed strategies aim to balance the island's economic development with ecological sustainability, ensuring St. Martin Island's long-term vitality.
... Ce dernier se positionne clairement pour l'étude des services non plus écosystémiques (ceux fournis par les écosystèmes et ceux fournis par l'agriculture pour les écosystèmes), mais environnementaux (les services rendus par l'agriculture pour les autres secteurs d'activités humaines : les externalités positives). De fait, un nouveau champ de recherche pour l'économiste apparaît, à savoir la mesure des services environnementaux rendus par l'agriculture, qu'il s'agisse de focus sur les méthodes d'évaluation, sur les indicateurs ou sur le rôle des scientifiques dans l'expertise (Kroeger et Casey, 2007 ;Dale et Polasky, 2007 ;Zhang et al., 2007 ;Jackson et al., 2007 ;Pascual et Perrings, 2007). ...
Conserver et valoriser les zones humides urbaines dans un contexte de pression citadine et de changement climatique est une équation difficile. La ville de Diourbel (Sénégal), à travers la vallée fossile du Sine qui la traverse, est aujourd’hui confrontée à ce défi qui invite à une réflexion sur la gestion durable de ce milieu à la fois fragile et porteur d’importants services écosystémiques. Les vulnérabilités y sont multiples du fait de l’extrême variabilité du climat (sécheresse, inondations…), de la dégradation de la qualité de l’eau et des sols par la salinisation et de la pollution par les déchets, de la pression et de la spéculation foncière afférente à l’étalement urbain. Ces fragilités et vulnérabilités se traduisent par des changements socio-environnementaux qui interrogent les potentialités et les stratégies d’adaptation pour une valorisation verte et bleue des zones humides de Diourbel. Ainsi, l’objectif principal de cet article est d’analyser la trajectoire des usages et des paysages des zones humides de cette cité et de confronter le couple vulnérabilité-aménité dans les espaces d’eau dans un contexte de multiples changements. Dès lors, la finalité est d’éclairer les permanences et les mutations qui les caractérisent, leur perception par les populations locales et d’envisager des stratégies de valorisation, actuelles ou futures, pour ces lieux d’eau.
... Agrobiodiversity is increasingly acknowledged as a critical factor in promoting ecosystem services that underpin sustainable agricultural production (Jackson, Pascual and Hodgkin, 2007;Foley et al., 2011). This diversity is crucial not only for crop resilience and productivity but also for enhancing the overall ecological health of agricultural systems (Swift, Izac and van Noordwijk, 2004;Tamburini et al., 2020). ...
This study explores how agrobiodiversity at both local and regional scales impacts farmland value across five Mediterranean countries in the EU. Previous literature has primarily addressed on-farm biodiversity and its effects on productivity and risk mitigation, yet the potential externalities of agrobiodiversity across neighboring farms remain underexplored. Using a cross-sectional Ricardian approach, we estimate the effects of agrobiodiversity, measured in terms of both crop richness and evenness, on long-term agricultural productivity. Our findings show significant non-linear relationships and substitution effects between local and regional agrobiodiversity, underscoring the need for regionally tailored biodiversity policies.
... According to research, agroforestry systems are among the best methods for attaining sustainable output without endangering the environment. Because of their complex relationships with ecosystem products and services, biological production is sustained through soil conservation and the adoption of biodiversity-based agroforestry agricultural practices [1][2][3]. The term "agroforestry" refers to a group of practices that are primarily used in tropical and subtropical areas. ...
... Current approaches are inadequate since land-sparing and conventional intensification methods both fail to consider the complexities of real-world agriculture, particularly the role of smallholder farmers in developing countries, and the true value of biodiversity for food production and ecosystem services (Tscharntke et al., 2012). Agrobiodiversity benefits agriculture most when it adds unique or complementary functions to the ecosystem, but simply adding more species might not be effective (Jackson et al., 2007). More research on agrobiodiversity and its ecological benefits is crucial to justify conservation and unlock the potential for sustainable agriculture. ...
The growing human population's demand for food and organic materials has a severe impact on the environment as conventional agriculture expands, destroying habitats and wildlife. This highlights the need to balance provision security with biodiversity conservation through new agricultural practices. This study investigates how different agricultural practices affect the plant diversity found in rose fields located in Kazanlak region, Bulgaria. We compared conventional and organic farming methods, while also looking at how the management of spaces between the rose rows by mowing or ploughing affects their plant diversity. Our results show that mowing management, as opposed to ploughing, leads to greater plant diversity and a higher vegetation total cover. Additionally, organic farming practices combined with mowing management were found to support plant communities with higher diversity, compared to conventional farming under mowing. We conclude that organic farming combined with mowing management is the most beneficial practice for promoting plant diversity in Bulgarian rose fields. Izvleček Naraščajoče povpraševanje človeške populacije po hrani in organskih materialih resno vpliva na okolje, saj se konvencionalno kmetijstvo širi in uničuje habitate in organizme. To izpostavlja potrebo po uravnoteženju varnosti oskrbe z dobrinami z ohranjanjem biotske raznolikosti preko novih kmetijskih praks. Ta študija predstavlja, kako različne kmetijske prakse vplivajo na raznolikost rastlin na poljih vrtnic v regiji Kazanlak v Bolgariji. Primerjali smo konvencionalni in ekološki način kmetovanja, pri tem pa ugotavljali tudi, kako upravljanje prostorov med zasaditvami vrtnic s košnjo ali oranjem vpliva na rastlinsko pestrost. Naši rezultati kažejo, da upravljanje s košnjo, v nasprotju z oranjem, vodi v večjo raznolikost rastlin in v večjo pokritost z vegetacijo. Poleg tega smo ugotovili, da prakse ekološkega kmetovanja v kombinaciji s košnjo podpirajo rastlinske združbe z večjo raznolikostjo v primerjavi s konvencionalnim kmetovanjem s košnjo. Ugotavljamo, da je ekološko kmetovanje v kombinaciji s košnjo najboljši način za spodbujanje rastlinske raznolikosti na bolgarskih poljih vrtnic.
... Intensive agriculture needs transformation towards greater sustainability worldwide, which may require a redesign of agricultural landscapes (Jackson et al., 2007;Landis, 2017). Agricultural landscapes provide multiple ecosystem services (ESs) to a range of stakeholders (O'Farrell and Anderson, 2010). ...
CONTEXT
Intensive agriculture is under pressure from changing demands from society, prompting the need to redesign agricultural landscapes to provide multiple ecosystem services (ESs). However, implementation of changed practices requires positive engagement from stakeholders. Therefore, their perspective on ecosystem services needs to be known.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigates stakeholders' perspectives on multiple ESs in Quzhou County, an area in the North China Plain used for intensified cereal production. We aim to elucidate perspectives within and across diverse stakeholder groups (farmers, companies, citizens, academics, village and township heads, and county government staff).
METHODS
Employing the Q methodology, we identified differences in perspectives within stakeholder groups and we compared the similarities and differences of those perspectives across stakeholder groups. We also investigated how farmers' personal and household characteristics were related to the perspectives they held.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Significant differences in preference emerged among stakeholder groups. Academics assigned higher importance to regulating and supporting services than other stakeholder groups and companies assigned less importance to cultural services. We identified 18 distinct perspectives across seven stakeholder groups. These perspectives showed a combination of preferences for at least two different ES categories. Most of the perspectives prioritize provisioning services whereas only few perspectives prioritize supporting services.
SIGNIFICANCE
This study exemplifies a bottom-up approach for systematically analyzing stakeholder perspectives on the relative importance of ESs derived from agricultural landscapes. The revealed differences and complexity of stakeholder perspectives can inform decision-making on the redesign of agricultural landscapes with stakeholder engagement. Recognizing areas of consensus and conflict can guide efforts to promote agroecologically sound practices and policies.
... Industrial agricultural practices, the expansion of monocultures, and the reduction in the number of crop varieties in production systems have accelerated this loss, putting global food security at risk (FAO, 1999). This biodiversity is key to maintaining a sustainable food system, capable of responding to future challenges such as climate change, the emergence of new pests and diseases, and fluctuations in the availability of natural resources ( Jackson et al., 2007;Zimmerer, 2014). ...
Agricultural biodiversity, also known as agrobiodiversity, encompasses the variety of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture. This diversity is the result of millennia of selection, management, and domestication of species, which has allowed societies to adapt to different environmental and cultural conditions. However, in recent decades, the loss of agrobiodiversity, accelerated by industrial agriculture, the expansion of monocultures, and the reduction of varieties, has put global food security at risk. This diversity is crucial to ensuring the resilience of agricultural systems in the
face of challenges such as climate change, emerging pests, and the depletion of natural resources. This paper examines the importance of conserving agricultural biodiversity from the perspective of food security. It emphasizes how agrobiodiversity not only contributes to the stability of food production but also improves human diets by diversifying crops and providing essential micronutrients.
... Farmers may economically benefit from the intensive use of land, but the costs paid by societies are high (pollution of water by pesticides, leaching of excess nutrients, habitat loss for native species. Thus, the total or social economic value of agro-biodiversity must include the value of ecological services that it can provide (Jackson et al., 2007). Organic farming is expected to sustain soil, ecosystems, and people. ...
Abstract: Ancient Olive Orchards (AOOs)
occupy most of the Palestinian lands and
represent a vital cultural heritage. This study
is aimed at assessing the impact of different
farming systems on flora biodiversity. Fields
with two different farming systems (organic-registered and traditional-managed) were
subjected to soil fertility, biodiversity indices, and a socio-economic analysis between
the years 2017-2018. The results showed a
higher percentage (1.74%) of total organic
matter in the organic-registered fields. Biodiversity indices (Shannon diversity index
(H`) and Margalef’s index (D)) recorded
higher values as well (3.27; 10.12, respectively), reflecting the impact of agricultural
practices on wild diversity. The same was
noted in ecological infrastructures where 330
different species in forty-eight families were
identified. Even so, both farming systems
were insignificantly different; and that might
be attributed to the similarity of practices between them in Palestine. From a socioeconomic point of view, these practices are of
a low cost and are economically wise while
adding quality to the products. In Misilyah,
AOOs were found to harbor plant biodiversity in synergic harmony. Thus, applying organic farming practices is recommended as
the best socio-economic approach for biodiversity sustainability. Such practices are also
potentially profitable through eco-tourism
and are symbolic and representative of the
national heritage of this area. Also, they can
provide an additional source of income for
the people of this area.
... Modern, intensive agriculture operates on a premise of diminishing agricultural biodiversity. This fundamental approach revolves around specialization, wherein farms focus on either livestock or crops, resulting in a decrease in the number of species in their operations [6] Furthermore, fields are enlarged, diminishing the presence of field margins and hedgerows that support diverse ecosystems [7]. Soil amendments are employed to promote soil uniformity, and monocultures of genetically identical individuals tend to dominate the landscape. ...
Sustainable agriculture and biodiversity have a significant impact on human well-being, ecological resilience, and food security. They are closely related aspects of the future of our planet.It promotes the stability and functioning of ecosystems, providing numerous ecosystem services vital for agriculture, including pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling, and genetic resources for crop breeding. Biodiversity provides ecosystem services strengthening agricultural productivity and resilience. For instance, pollinators like bees and butterflies facilitate the reproduction of many crops, while natural predators help control pest populations, reducing the need for chemical pesticides. Sustainable agriculture, on the other hand, seeks to meet current food needs without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. However, modern agricultural practices have often led to the degradation of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, and the erosion of genetic diversity in crops and livestock. These problems have been exacerbated by deforestation, overuse of agrochemicals, and monocropping. In the long term these practices harm the environment and endanger food security by reducing the system's ability to adapt to changing conditions. Sustainable agricultural practices, by enhancing farming methods such as crop rotation, agroforestry, and organic farming, can support and enhance biodiversity by preserving habitat diversity. Conservation of native species, implementation of agro-ecological practices, and support for small-scale farmers are important steps towards achieving a harmonious coexistence between agriculture and biodiversity. There is a need of collaboration across all sections of society from intergovernmental agreements down to local community action for tackling the biodiversity catastrophe. People may learn more about local ecosystems and develop a greater regard and appreciation for them by reestablishing a connection with nature and inspiring others to do the same. UNDP sustainable development goal-15 aims to protect the biodiversity by sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystem.
... Spatial arrangements and densities of component crops have been manipulated in order to enhance complementarity and to reduce competition between component crops so that physiological advantage from combining crop components is maximized (Olufajo and Singh, 2002). The need to maximize land productivity is becoming more evident in the semi-arid tropics because of high population pressure and other human activities competing with agriculture for the limited available land (Jackson et al., 2007). Vigna species, a diverse plant species which can grow under a wide range of climate and environment (Kharb et al., 1987) has been introduced worldwide. ...
The objective of the present study evaluates the effect of acetamiprid and profenofos to the two of the most important damage pests, Aphis gossypii (Glover Homoptera: Aphididae) and Pectinophora gossypiella (Saund. Lep.: Gelechiidae) on cotton plants intercropping with three cultivars of cowpea (qaha, kafr elsheikh and kareem) during successive seasons 2021 and 2022. The field experiments were performed at the farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt. The main plots were devoted for three components. The results recorded that all crop characteristics and the infestation levels by insect pests of cotton were difference when intercropping with cow pea varieties as compared with solid cotton. The percentage of reduction was higher when cotton is intercropping with cowpea varieties kareem compared with varieties Qaha and kafr elsheikh. Yield and yield components of were also significantly affected by the three components of cowpea cultivars. The yield of cotton with cowpea under first treatment components exceeded that with second treatment in the first and second seasons. The average reduction percentage in aphids population thought in the first and second seasons were had significantly different with 92.59 and 91.01 reduction percentage when using profenofos sprays applied to cotton+ cowpea varieties qaha compared to 82.21 and 84.90 reduction percentage for acetamiprid, respectively. Application of profenofos on P. gossypiella showed the highest reduction percentage was 85.06 and 79.27 % during 2021 and 2022 when used to cotton + cowpea varieties kareem and cultivars kafr elsheikh, respectively. While acetamiprid caused leas toxic was 48.01 and 52.55 reduction percentage during 1 st and 2 nd seasons when applied to cotton + cowpea cultivars kareem respectively. Found significantly different between of the two insecticides during studies seasons. The results, also indicated that yields and the infestation levels by insect pests of all cowpea cultivars were decreased under intercropping qaha cultivar surpassed the other cultivars (kafr elsheikh and kareem) in all treats except plant height but infestation levels was decreased. The first treatment components recorded the highest seed yield / fad and were significantly superior to those of second treatments.
... In particular, land use policies that formally recognise the opportunities to deliver nature enhancements (e.g. Defra, 2023) through land management practices (e.g.Jackson et al., 2007) at solar farms could drive strategic financial investments into natural capital and ecosystem services provision. Such investments could further enable compliance markets within biodiversity-enhancing public schemes (e.g. ...
Multi‐purpose land use is of great importance for sustainable development, particularly in the context of increasing pressures on land to provide ecosystem services (e.g. food, energy) and support biodiversity.
The recent global increase in land‐take for utility‐scale ground‐mounted solar farms (hereafter referred to as solar farms) to meet Net Zero targets presents an opportunity for enhanced delivery of ecosystem services, especially in temperate ecosystems where solar farm development often results in land use change away from comparatively intensive agricultural land management. Solar farms have long operational lifespans, experience low levels of disturbance during operation and can be managed for ecosystem services beyond low‐carbon electricity generation, including food production and biodiversity conservation.
Here, we briefly synthesise the mechanisms by which solar farm development and operation may impact natural capital and ecosystem services, and provide policy recommendations for policymakers and the solar farm sector.
Solar farms can deliver environmental benefits for hosting ecosystems while minimising negative impacts, with outcomes depending on location, construction techniques, and land management practices. However, the historical misalignment between climate, nature, and land use policies has hindered efforts to simultaneously address the climate and biodiversity crises through land use change for solar farms. For instance, existing public financial incentives in the UK that encourage landowners and developers to manage land for biodiversity largely exclude land with solar farms.
Policy implications: We call for public policymakers to identify appropriate opportunities to amend existing national laws that address climate and biodiversity separately to improve integration of multiple aspects of the climate‐nature‐land use nexus into policymaking by: (1) formulating ecological and socio‐economic indicators and metrics that are appropriate to underpin the development, implementation, and assessment of public policies; (2) adopting a cross‐sectoral and cross‐government approach to form public policies; (3) ensuring solar farms can access public financial incentives that encourage sustainable land use; (4) implementing land use policies that incentivise funding from non‐government sources (e.g. private sector) into nascent nature markets; (5) embedding solar farms in biodiversity‐inclusive spatial planning policies and decision‐making; and (6) building equity and clarity into responsibilities and benefits for all actors involved.
... Los sistemas tradicionales de semillas probablemente surgieron cuando las y los agricultores desarrollaron y se adhirieron a normas culturales en torno al intercambio de semillas, que se producía sobre la base de redes sociales confiables entre vecindarios, parientes y/o personas extrañas distantes (Pautasso et al. 2013). Las y los agricultores valoran cualidades de los cultivos que se subestiman en los sistemas formales de semillas, como el sabor, la herencia cultural y la tolerancia al estrés (Jackson et al. 2007, Graddy 2013. En consecuencia, las y los agricultores que viven en zonas marginales de cultivo de temporal, áridas o salinas a menudo prefieren las variedades locales a las VAR por su tolerancia al estrés ambiental (Ficiciyan et al. 2018). ...
Societal Impact Statement
Agricultural sustainability depends on the adaptation of crops to their local environment. Smallholder farmers who save seed provide an essential “evosystem” service by growing locally adapted seed varieties that can recruit biodiversity to enhance their growth and defense. While professional plant breeding has diverted evolutionary processes away from local adaptation, smallholder farmers, particularly those in centers of origin for crops, benefit society by selecting and propagating diverse crop varieties that allow local adaptation processes to perpetuate. Given that smallholders support society through the generation of evosystem services, changes in policy and practice are needed to support the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in ways that mitigate risk and recognize their important contributions to agricultural sustainability. To enhance the reach of this work, a Spanish language version of the paper is available in the Supporting Information (see Translation_ES). [Correction added on 18 June 2024, after first online publication: The preceding sentence has been added in this version.]
Summary
Long‐term food security and agricultural sustainability depend on protecting the eco‐evolutionary processes that select for local adaptation in crops. Since seed systems structure how people acquire seed, institutional and social changes influence evolutionary processes within agroecosystems. Since World War II, the rise of professional breeding has bifurcated seed systems into traditional and formal systems, which has negatively affected agrobiodiversity, crop evolution, and agricultural sustainability. In traditional seed systems, farmers often save seed from plants that best provide desired qualities, selecting landrace crop varieties to adapt to local environmental conditions. In formal or centralized seed systems, farmers buy seeds bred primarily for maximizing yield under ideal conditions. When farmers source seeds externally, evolutionary processes underlying local adaptation are disrupted. Here, we argue that traditional seed systems provide important evosystem services, or the evolutionary processes resulting from the maintenance and use of genetic diversity that benefit society. We present a framework on how seed systems influence the evolutionary processes that enable local adaptation, which is necessary for sustainable agriculture. We discuss how changes in human values underlying traditional and formal seed systems can alter evolutionary processes that underlie local adaptation. We conclude that developing policies that support people in managing ecological and evolutionary processes within seed systems is needed to address current and future challenges of global food security and agricultural sustainability.
... Algunos paisajes agrícolas mantienen una buena parte de la biodiversidad del planeta, indispensable para la supervivencia humana, según la Convención en Diversidad Biológica (CBD, 2000). La diversidad biológica agrícola o agrobiodiversidad incluye los componentes de la biodiversidad que son importantes para la alimentación y la agricultura, involucrados en la producción de bienes y servicios (CBD, 2000;Jarvis et al., 2007); así mismo, esta biodiversidad desempeña diferentes funciones ecológicas y proporciona servicios ecosistémicos necesarios para el desarrollo de la agricultura (Jackson et al., 2007). Además, es parte fundamental del patrimonio biocultural de la región en la que se ubica (Casas, 2019). ...
... The ecosystem services provided by pollinators extend beyond direct food production. They are essential for the conservation of biodiversity, contributing to the genetic and species diversity of the agricultural landscape (Jackson et al., 2007). This diversity, in turn, supports healthy ecosystems that provide additional services such as soil formation and protection, water cycle regulation, and disease regulation, all of which are vital for agricultural productivity and sustainability. ...
In India's agricultural and ecological landscape, pollinators emerge as pivotal
characters, orchestrating the pollination essential for sustaining biodiversity,
enhancing crop yields, and ensuring food security. The journey toward robust
pollinator conservation is rife with challenges, including habitat destruction,
pesticide use, climate change, and the pressing need for policy reform and
community engagement. Addressing these issues demands a comprehensive and
nuanced approach, integrating habitat restoration, innovative agroecological
practices, and landscape management strategies that underscore the symbiotic
relationship between pollinators and productive agricultural ecosystems. The path
forward also hinges on filling critical research gaps through long-term monitoring,
embracing cutting-edge technologies, and fostering a deeper understanding of
pollinator dynamics. Equally vital is the engagement of communities and
stakeholders in a collaborative effort to elevate the importance of pollinators,
translating awareness into action through education, participatory conservation
initiatives, and policy advocacy. India's rich biodiversity and agricultural heritage
offer a unique opportunity to pioneer conservation strategies that can serve as a
model for global efforts. The success of these endeavors will not only secure the
future of pollinators but also enhance ecological resilience, bolster food production
systems, and support the livelihoods of millions. As India navigates this complex
terrain, the collective commitment of its people, policymakers, and the international
community will be instrumental in weaving a future where pollinators thrive,
underscoring the interdependence of human well-being and environmental health.
Through concerted efforts, innovative solutions, and a shared vision, India can lead
the way in pollinator conservation, ensuring that these vital creatures continue to
sustain the natural processes upon which life on Earth depends.
... However, these evaluations only consider the monetizable aspects of land and resources while often neglecting non-monetary forms of value such as social and cultural significance [30][31][32][33]. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate dimensions of social value or non-economic valuation that encompass intrinsic human worth [34][35][36]. The focus of this study lies in quantitatively evaluating landscape services from the perspective of users and optimizing multifunctional landscapes. ...
In the context of urban renewal, residents have presented elevated expectations for the quality of urban parks, necessitating the optimization of parks’ multifunctional landscapes. Transforming residents’ preferences for landscape services into a prioritized index for multifunctional landscape renewal poses a significant challenge. This study addresses this research gap by integrating importance–performance analysis (IPA) with residents’ perception evaluations of landscape services. We establish an index system to evaluate perceptions of urban park landscape services. By employing the importance–performance analysis framework, we identify landscape service types that exhibit high importance but low satisfaction levels, thereby establishing priorities for multifunctional landscape renewal. Using Guangzhou’s urban parks as a case study, our findings reveal variations in users’ demands for different landscape services and differences in demand among various user groups for similar services. Users assign utmost importance to safety services while expressing the highest satisfaction with physical and mental health or microclimate regulation services. Significant disparities exist between middle-aged/elderly groups and young people regarding perceptions of social interaction, waste disposal, and sense of belonging services. Our results demonstrate that IPA analysis can elucidate priorities for multifunctional landscape renewal, facilitate public participation in improving urban park landscapes, and provide decision-making support for optimizing these landscapes.
... Algunos paisajes agrícolas mantienen una buena parte de la biodiversidad del planeta, indispensable para la supervivencia humana, según la Convención en Diversidad Biológica (CBD, 2000). La diversidad biológica agrícola o agrobiodiversidad incluye los componentes de la biodiversidad que son importantes para la alimentación y la agricultura, involucrados en la producción de bienes y servicios (CBD, 2000;Jarvis et al., 2007); así mismo, esta biodiversidad desempeña diferentes funciones ecológicas y proporciona servicios ecosistémicos necesarios para el desarrollo de la agricultura (Jackson et al., 2007). Además, es parte fundamental del patrimonio biocultural de la región en la que se ubica (Casas, 2019). ...
En este capítulo se hace una reflexión sobre los desafíos y oportunidades que se presentan al cultivo de cacao y nos da luz sobre lo que podemos hacer para conservar este legado ancestral del cual todo tabasqueño debe estar orgulloso.
... Algunos paisajes agrícolas mantienen una buena parte de la biodiversidad del planeta, indispensable para la supervivencia humana, según la Convención en Diversidad Biológica (CBD, 2000). La diversidad biológica agrícola o agrobiodiversidad incluye los componentes de la biodiversidad que son importantes para la alimentación y la agricultura, involucrados en la producción de bienes y servicios (CBD, 2000;Jarvis et al., 2007); así mismo, esta biodiversidad desempeña diferentes funciones ecológicas y proporciona servicios ecosistémicos necesarios para el desarrollo de la agricultura (Jackson et al., 2007). Además, es parte fundamental del patrimonio biocultural de la región en la que se ubica (Casas, 2019). ...
Este capítulo describe los diferentes eslabones que conforman la cadena productiva del cultivo de cacao en el estado de Tabasco, México.
... In addition to pesticides, the loss of habitat within individual crop fields and across entire landscapes has also been linked to shifting patterns of insect life. For example, farming regions in the United States have become spatially homogenous, with large areas of monocropped fields (White and Roy 2015), low levels of planned and associated agrobiodiversity (Jackson et al. 2007;Aguilar et al. 2015;Crossley et al. 2020), and little retention of natural, semi-natural, or other non-crop vegetation (Yu and Lu 2018;Lark et al. 2020). Such land use changes have been implicated as major drivers of precipitous declines in the abundance and diversity of insects in many parts of the world (Wagner 2020;Goulson 2021;Wagner et al. 2021). ...
Agriculture has long struggled to reconcile production with biodiversity conservation. Industrial farming practices that erode structural complexity within crop fields and across entire landscapes, as well as widespread pesticide use, have resulted in declining insect abundance and diversity globally. Recognition of socio-environmental consequences have spurred alternative pest management paradigms such as integrated pest management (IPM) and conservation biological control (CBC), which emphasize ecology as the scientific foundation for a sustainable agriculture. However, adoption of these approaches at scales large enough to impact biodiversity has been slow, particularly in industrialized countries. Landscape-scale management is an integral component of ecological agriculture, making pest control and biodiversity conservation collective problems that require coordination among multiple stakeholders. The extent to which farmers recognize and act upon this perspective is not well studied. Through literature synthesis and a case study of Southern Wisconsin, I analyze factors shaping farmer adoption of insect and landscape management practices through the lens of constrained choice. I argue that multiple overlapping institutions (social networks, market forces, science and technology, and political-legal systems) co-produce farmer behaviors and landscape structure, largely to the detriment of ecological pest control and biodiversity. Wisconsin farmers' entomological concerns largely overlook beneficial insect species and eschew landscape thinking. Ultimately, slowing agricultural drivers of insect biodiversity declines will likely require large-scale coordination and political-economic change.
... Urban pressure not only affects the potential productivity of agricultural areas, but also the ecosystem services associated, which provide important supporting and regulating services, such as maintenance of agrobiodiversity conservation, soil fertility, wildlife protection, cultural heritage, rural landscapes, and maintenance of recreational areas for tourism [5][6][7][8][9][10]. ...
Peri-urban regions, especially in the Mediterranean, face challenges like farmland loss due to urban pressure. This study emphasizes retail stores as strategic focal points for evaluating societal, economic, and production systems. It hypothesizes that analyzing retail stores in agricultural areas provides insights into traded and cultivated agrobiodiversity. Using the Baix Llobregat Agrarian Park (Catalonia, NE Iberian Peninsula) as a case study, this research examines different food retailers from short and conventional food supply chains. Results indicate variations in plant diversity, origin, and seasonality among different retail stores. Farmers’ markets exhibit higher intraspecific diversity, contributing to local agrobiodiversity conservation. This study observes temporal changes in farmers’ markets, highlighting shifts influenced by socioeconomic factors and climate change perceptions. Finally, this research underscores certain strategies to promote sustainable peri-urban local food systems and preserve agrobiodiversity, offering valuable insights into food supply chain dynamics in peri-urban agricultural regions.
... A paradigm based on biodiversity management for sustainable agriculture represents enormous potential to face many of the current agricultural challenges because it could increase environmental and socioeconomic resilience (Jackson et al., 2007) of production systems and agricultural territories. This paradigm considers biodiversity management as creative, pragmatic, and planned but mostly as a key component of the agro-productive designing processes. ...
Given the need for agricultural system management under sustainability principles, identification and quantification of the landscape structure surrounding production systems is a tool that allows farmers to make their agroecological transition processes more appropriate. An ACI with eight indicators was proposed for farm assessment. This ACI is focused on functional connectivity both at farm and landscape levels. Two Colombian farms with different connectivity characteristics were evaluated under the index. Tosoly presented a stronger ecological structure and higher connectivity and diversity. Villa Alicia showed a weak ecological structure and low connectivity and complexity. From a systemic approach, the ACI allows an analysis of landscape structural conditions that promote ecological functions of pollination and biological controllers. With landscape structural conditions, it is possible to analyze the quantity and quality of the habitat for designing agroecological transition programs focused on obtaining productive agroecosystems that simultaneously comply with conservation strategies.
... Restoration of biodiversity through growing of different crops and adoption of farming systems that result in the efficient exploitation of available resources is important for sustaining farm output. 5,13 The modern agriculture has assured enhancement in production and productivity, but simultaneously brought uncertainty in farming with a threat to agricultural sustainability. 15,7 In this search for eco-friendly and farmer-friendly alternate farming systems, viz., organic farming and Natural Farming system is increasingly becoming popular among the farming community. ...
The field experiment on comparative studies of different farming methods for their efficiency and productivity in maize + redgram intercropping system was conducted at zonal agricultural and horticultural research station, Bhavikere during Kharif season. Among the different farming types, growth and yield parameters of maize viz. plant height (204.18 cm) number of leaves/ plant (17.20), cob length (15.94cm), straw yield (19.35 t/ ha) grain yield (81.36 q/ ha) and red gram Grain yield (4.36 q/ ha) and straw yield (11.19 q/ ha) were significantly higher with treatment received nutrients as per package of practices as compared to natural farming and organic farming treatments. Similar trend was observed with maize equivalent yield (95.50 q/ ha). On the other hand, highest dehydrogenase (14.32, 28.65, 24.19 and 16.23 µg TPF/ g soil/ day) and urease (4.12, 12.65, 7.14 and 3.32 µg NH4-N/ g / soil/ 2 hrs) enzyme activity was observed in organic farming treatment at 30, 60, 90 DAS and at harvest, respectively followed by natural farming treatment and least enzyme activity was noticed in farmers practice. Same trend was observed in acid and alkaline phosphatase enzyme activities. There was no much variation in physical properties i.e., bulk density, particle density, maximum water holding capacity and porosity by the different treatments and also no significant difference occurs in the pH and EC, however higher nitrogen (315.27) phosphorus (73.48) and potassium (271.28) was observed in the organic farming treatment and it was followed with the farmer’s practice treatment. The lowest was recorded in the natural farming treatment (215.47, 33.47 and 220.47 at the harvest stage).
... Some managed areas can support more species than was previously thought . Agrobiodiversity includes all of the organisms that live in agricultural landscapes (Jackson et al., 2007), and it is therefore a special fraction of biodiversity that can be preserved in agricultural landscapes. ...
The tropical region of Hopelchén, southeastern Mexico, is a place of high contrasts in terms of the agricultural intensity of production systems and landscape configuration: It presents enormous areas of conserved forest and at the same time the highest rate of deforestation in Mexico. The consequences of agricultural intensification in this region are the subject of our research. We surveyed 80 farmers, whom we grouped into seven types, and developed an index of agricultural intensity based on sowing intensity, frequency of pesticide application and frequency of tractor use. We evaluated the economic potential and added value for farmers, such as food security and self-sufficiency, as well as bee diversity in the agricultural intensification gradient. Our results show that agricultural intensification generates higher added value, but not economic potential, and does not necessarily lead to higher food security. However, it does negatively affect bee diversity and pollination potential, which compromises the sustainable development of the region.
Low-carbon agricultural technologies (LCATs) have been considered as an important approach to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture. However, previous studies have explored farmers' adoption behavioral intention from their socio and economic perspectives, few of them are done from the perspective of farmer’s environmental literacy on their adoption intensity in China. Based on the survey data from 797 farmers in Jianghan Plain, China, this study analyzes the effect of environmental literacy on farmers' LCATs adoption by using the structural equation model (SEM). The results indicate: (1) The LCATs adoption intensity among farmers is only 0.227 on a scale of 0 to 1. (2) Farmers' environmental cognition and skills significantly enhance their LCATs adoption intensity. (3) Farmers' environmental responsibility impose a positively impact on their LCATs adoption, though the effect is not statistically significant. Therefore, the government should introduce policies to enhance farmers' LCATs adoption rates by raising public awareness of environmental protection and promoting environmental moral education. These efforts will help improve the quality of farmland, reduce soil erosion and protect the local agricultural ecosystem.
Background
Achieving sustainable landscape management in complex social-ecological systems necessitates a holistic evaluation and a participatory approach. Agroforestry is broadly believed to be a sustainable land-use practice. However, the existence of agroforestry systems remains uncertain, as it is influenced by socio-economic factors that depend on farmers as landowners.
Objectives
This study evaluated (1) chosen land use (LU) systems by agroforestry and crop farmers, (2) the consistency of LU choice, and (3) social factors influencing the relationship and leader role on the farmer decision-making process using a serious game.
Methods
We adapted the RESORTES board game to test applicability to the Indonesian landscape and implement the game as a research tool in the Malang context, Indonesia. Three game sessions were conducted involving the representatives of agroforestry and crop farmers of various ages, including the societal leader figure in two villages. All participants choices and (social) interactions during the session were recorded and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.
Results
The RESORTES game was played appropriately in all sessions with a minor adjustment to the game, attributed to better matching the local relevance. The result showed that farmers’ preference for LU choices represented their real-life practices. Approximately 70% of plots selected by farmers in both villages were tree-based LU (agroforestry), with relatively high consistency across game rounds. Younger farmers tended to choose crop-based LU due to more economic benefits provided by the system. Older farmers were more firm on tree-based (agroforestry) systems to fulfil their daily needs; they also benefitted from less labour and the low operational costs needed by agroforestry systems.
Discussion
The relations (relatedness index) among farmers and the role of the leader (respected figure) became important factors in building good communications and trust, which influenced farmers’ decision-making on collaborating to maintain or change their LU. These key factors could be useful for community-based LU planning in the future, which takes into account local preferences.
Agricultural landscapes generally fulfill partially contradictory objectives: ensuring agricultural production (social and economic interests) and providing ecosystem functions (ecological interests). On one hand, maximizing production has led to highly
intensive agricultural management. On the other hand, this intensification has caused numerous changes in key aspects of agricultural systems that likely affected the resilience, in particular loss of (agro)biodiversity, loss of landscape heterogeneity, loss of social diversity (fewer farmers, less knowledge), and sharp decline in ecosystem services. The concept of agroecological resilience considers the capacity
of the holistic agroecosystem (including practical, social, and economic aspects) to respond continuously and dynamically to external and internal disturbances, such as drought and landscape-related management. Agroecological resilience therefore has the potential to consider interdependencies between humans and ecosystems and provide transformation paths in view of today’s obstacles in agricultural production. To develop an approach for a holistic assessment of resilience in agroecosystems, we did a comprehensive literature search on recently published assessments of agroecological resilience. The systematically reviewed studies (n = 42) were
classified into two clusters using a hierarchical cluster analysis. The first cluster represents quantitative modeling approaches combined with case studies and GIS-based or remote-sensing-based spatial analysis (quantitative cluster). The second cluster represents qualitative approaches (e.g., questionnaires, interviews) in combination with case-study approaches (qualitative cluster). The quantitative studies, modeling agricultural landscapes for a representation of agroecological resilience, could include a greater representation of social aspects (e.g., stakeholder opinion on management decisions). Qualitative studies, on the other hand, assessed agroecological resilience more holistically, in particular by including social resilience. Generally, robustness was frequently studied in contrast to transformability and adaptability. Overall, our study calls for combining quantitative modeling with qualitative assessment of local stakeholders’ needs. This allows for assessing agroecological resilience holistically by taking into account locally driven social factors and may initiate a research-led transformation process toward more resilient agroecosystems.
Key Words: agriculture; agro-ecosystem functions; biodiversity; social-ecological systems; transformation
Agrobiodiversity is widely recognized as essential for smallholder agriculture, particularly for enhancing resilience to disruptions which are increasingly frequent and intense. However, whether agricultural policies support or hinder agrobiodiversity in these systems remains debated. A deeper understanding of how policies intersect with other change drivers and local practices is crucial to improving decision-making. Using a case study from northwest Morocco, this research explores the complex interplay between public policies and other factors affecting local agrobiodiversity management. This study is based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 48 farmers documenting the changes in their farm and agrobiodiversity management system, and comparing it with that of their parents, as well as the perceived drivers of these changes. The results of this analysis were cross-checked with literature on agricultural policies. Our results show that major changes in agrobiodiversity management systems occurred at three levels: (i) seeds and varieties of annual crops; (ii) farming activities (i.e., crop species and livestock); and (iii) associated agricultural practices from plot to landscape. Public policies were found to be important drivers of these changes but interacted with other drivers such as climate change, rural exodus and other societal and economic shifts. Nevertheless, our research also highlights the persistence of local practices and motivations that sustain agrobiodiversity despite strong pressures, particularly through culinary practices, crop rotation, and agroforestry. This study underscores the complex, context-specific interactions that shape local agrobiodiversity management systems. It discusses the implications of changes in agrobiodiversity management systems on the resilience of farm livelihoods, and emphasizes the need to recognize local distinctiveness in adapting these systems to global change.
Background & Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the species and genetic diversity of agricultural ecosystems in Afghanistan. Materials and Methods: In order to carryout this research, countrywide data set was collected. The required data were extracted through collected questionnaires from 388 counties in 34 provinces. For this purpose, all provinces and at least 10% of the counties located in each province were selected and biodiversity criteria (such as species richness, diversity and evenness) were evaluated. Results: Based on the findings of this reserch, Takhar, Herat, Badakhshan, and Baghlan provinces had the highest species richness with 21, 20, 19, and 19 species, respectively, and Paktia and Nuristan provinces had the lowest richness with 9 species. The highest value of Shannon's index related to cereals, pulses, vegetables and industrial crops was 1.11, 1.53, 1.33 and 1.30, respectively, and the lowest value for these crops was 0.06, 0.09, 0.03 and 0.01 respectively. The highest species evennes index of cereals belongs to Nimroz province (0.86), pulse belongs to Jawzjan and Laghman provinces (0.95), vegetables belonges to Khost and Laghman provinces (0.99), and industrial plants belongs to Kandahar province (0.99). The study of genetic diversity and cultivar richness showed that wheat with 52 varieties (30 improved cultivars and 22 local landraces) has the highest number of cultivars among all crops in Afghanistan, and Herat province has more richness with 27 cultivars. Conclusion: In terms of species richness, according to different climatic conditions, it seems that crops species in provinces of Afghanistan have different richness. In addition, Shannon and Simpson indices are low in most provinces and crops of Afghanistan.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Introduction: Intensive agricultural systems are mainly monocultures with low sustainability because they neglect the mutual relationships between living organisms and the environment. Intensification in spatiotemporal dimensions and uncontrolled use of external inputs have created ecosystems with less diversity and greater vulnerability. Afghanistan has an agricultural-based economy and the food security of people is mostly dependent on national agricultural production. However, in recent years food production in the country has been threatened due to complicated political conditions. Proper use of biodiversity could enhance crop production in low-input systems. However, so far, no published information is available on this important issue. This study was conducted to evaluate the diversity of Afghanistan's agricultural production at the agroecosystem level.
Material and Methods: In order to carry out this research, a countrywide data set was collected. In this research, the required data were extracted through collected questionnaires from 388 counties in 34 provinces of Afghanistan. For this purpose, all provinces and at least 10% of the counties located in each province were selected and evaluated based on the cultivated area of crop species across the provinces. In addition, the national registered information and the data available in the agricultural management centers of the provinces were also used. The existing production systems were differentiated using cluster analysis. The common crop rotations in different provinces were also extracted from the questionnaires and included in the relevant table.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that the provinces of Afghanistan are very similar in terms of the proportion of land allocated for cereal crop production. Cluster analysis indicated that the cereals cropping system is practiced across the country. According to the cluster analysis, since cereals have been allocated between a minimum of 41.2% (Maidan Wardak Province) and a maximum of 96.70% (Konar Province) and the agricultural system of Afghanistan is based on the cultivation of cereals especially wheat. Pulse, vegetables, industrial plants and forage crops respectively formed a maximum equal to 14.2%, 55.5%, 33.4%, and 38.2% of the cultivated area of other major agricultural products, respectively in Daikundi, Nimroz, Balkh and Logar provinces. The study of crop rotations showed that in most of the provinces, cereals are the dominant crops and other crops such as pulse, vegetables, industrial plants and forage crops are alternated as second crops along with cereals. Common crop rotations in the country are mainly based on wheat cultivation and do not have much variation among provinces. In addition to irrigated agriculture, dryland farming is also prevalent in this country, which includes 32% of all cultivated lands.
Conclusion: The results showed that the agroecosystems of Afghanistan are very similar to the neighboring countries, including Iran, and have been developed based on wheat cultivation. Also, the diversity is relatively poor at the level of agroecosystems, and their management is designed for the development of uniform irrigated agriculture in short-term crop rotations. Also, due to economic problems, agricultural production is managed in the form of low-input systems. Therefore, the most logical solution for poor farmers who do not have access to resources is to increase the level of species and genetic diversity in order to increase production without the need for external inputs.
One of the earliest areas of agricultural civilization, the Himalayan region is a treasure trove of food and agricultural products, including rice, wheat, maize, pulses, oilseeds, fibres, and other crop species with significant economic potential. These native crops have a high nutritional content and are essential to the long-term nutritional security of the local population. Using their ancestors’ knowledge systems, indigenous people maintain the regional crop varieties and landraces, taking into consideration socio-cultural traditions related to seed selection, production, and dietary habits. Accordingly, this chapter focuses on traditional agricultural and horticultural crops, farming practices and conservation in the Himalayan region. In the region, farmers often opt for traditional cultivation practices from sowing to reaping. The impact of climate change leads to crop failure, pests, surface runoff, and disease to mitigate the consequences, multiple or mixed cropping system is highly helpful in this region. In order to maintain good crop health, farmers choose cost effective, eco-friendly measures. In addition, farmers are interested in raising animals and poultry for their financial growth. Organic farming promotes ecologically sound techniques that provide ecosystem services and improve biodiversity, soil health, and water quality in this region. Commercial/cash crops cultivation leads the changing the fate of hill economy and lifestyle. Landraces are currently only found in a few isolated rural and tribal areas, but even there, their numbers are declining due to inadequate protection. Conventional wisdom regarding the proper cultivation of plants and the preservation of seeds is also disappearing. In a co-evolutionary form, management expertise and knowledge associated with these traditional genetic resources are also safeguarded. It is crucial to identify, characterize, evaluate, document, and conserve.
Traditional knowledge encompasses community-based systems that rely on the management and utilisation of natural resources. It is about the cultural heritage of indigenous communities, and how they have coped with food security and resource scarcity over generations. Such knowledge evolves with an intimate understanding of natural cycles, resource availability and is linked to the biogeographic conditions that communities have occupied over generations. Social scientists believe that such customs and practices can offer valuable lessons in resource use, land management, conservation, and scientific research.
Introduction
Among the approaches that have received attention in recent years to sustain agroecosystems is the identification and employment of traditional/indigenous/local knowledge and strategies of smallholder farmers around the world to solve the basic challenges of these ecosystems regarding food production. In this regard, the
role and function of biodiversity as the main component of indigenous knowledge is of particular importance. At the same time, with the expansion of new agricultural solutions, the use of these farmers' approaches has decreased over time and, in some cases, has completely disappeared. Therefore, this study was conducted with
the aim of identifying the indigenous methods used in the agricultural ecosystems of the Sabzevar region and their role in increasing biodiversity. Biodiversity loss has been a major concern to humans, especially during the last quarter of the previous century. Nowadays, various efforts to protect agricultural biodiversity are emerging
that seem not enough. Biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems causes effective control of weeds, pests and diseases and greater resistance to changing environmental conditions and leads to better management of agricultural systems and increased food security. Additionally, biodiversity is carefully managed and nurtured to interface with hydrological and nutrient cycling to provide for ecosystem resilience, food security and diversity, and risk minimization. Although potentially less important in the short term, biodiversity, encompassing variation from within species to across landscapes, may be crucial for the longer-term resilience of ecosystem functions and the services that they underpin. Accordingly, in this research, the methods employed by local farmers to increase biodiversity were investigated.
Materials and Methods
In order to evaluate the usefulness of indigenous knowledge for assessing trends in biodiversity, a case study was undertaken in two counties, Sheshtamad and Sabzevar, in Razavi Khorasan province. This involved the use of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques, including semi-structured interviews and transect walks. To study local methods employed by farmers, 453 farmers were interviewed and questions were asked to the farmers about the number of crop species and the amount of use of methods to increase biodiversity such as rotation, fallow, mixed cropping, etc.
Results and Discussion
The results showed that agricultural systems in these areas have shifted from livelihood systems to market-based systems. Local farmers in these areas used a variety of methods such as using different crops from different families, intercropping, rotation, fallow, seed exchange, integration of livestock with cropping and horticulture to increase diversity in their farms. The main common products in these two cities were plants such as wheat, barley, cotton, alfalfa and pistachios. Most of the plants used in the cultivation pattern of farmers in these cities were related to plant families such as Poaceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Amaranthaceae and Rosaceae, which had a different contribution in the cultivation pattern of the studied villages. There was a significant difference between the villages, districts and two counties in terms of the plant species and plant families used. In all the studied villages, farmers employed more than one method to increase the diversity of their farms. The fosterage of livestock and horticulture plus to cropping in these agroecosystems led to greater economic security for farmers, in particular in adverse weather conditions. In general, the results showed that rural development has led to a reduction in the use of traditional knowledge/local methods only in limited cases, and the employing of local methods in some cases has increased the net income of farmers from wheat farming systems.
Conclusion
The results approved that the farmers in these areas used different crops from different families and groups and also used methods such as intercropping, rotation, integration of livestock with cropping, fallow and seed exchange to increase the biodiversity in the three levels of species, function and ecosystem in the agroecosystems of these regions. Increasing biodiversity in agroecosystems is very important and significant issue, especially in arid and semiarid areas, because improved biodiversity in these areas can increase food and economic security to some extent. Diversification could become an essential tool for sustaining production and ecosystem services in croplands, rangelands and production forests.
Humanity is currently dealing with a slew of fundamental issues all over the world. These include climate change, economic turmoil, environmental deterioration and food security. In the centre of all these roadblocks is agriculture which occupies a prominent place. None of the humanitarian goals is more important than feeding the world’s growing population. Because natural resources are already depleting due to population growth and rising living standards has brought agriculture in under constant pressure to expand and intensify production for various economic fronts. While governments and bilateral agencies around the world are devoting significant resources to increasing agricultural yield, less emphasis is placed on making agriculture environmentally sustainable. Agriculture is the primary source of greenhouse gases (GHGs), accounting for 20–25% of total global emissions from food, feed and biofuel production, as well as agriculture-driven land use changes. Nonetheless, the green revolution has greatly increased food production while jeopardizing the environmental integrity of agroecosystems and threatening age-old traditional agricultural practices. As a result, developing a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) strategy for sustainable crop cultivation is critical. Traditional agricultural practises are gaining popularity around the world as a result of fluctuations in climatic conditions. The present work examines the relationship between altered environmental conditions and agroeconomic practises in use, and it suggests using traditional agricultural practises as a CSA for crop cultivation in a sustainable manner.
Dr. Sameer Daniel holds a Ph.D. in agroforestry from Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences in Allahabad and a Post Graduate degree with gold medal from A.A.I.-D.U. Allahabad. He has been involved in extension education, research, and teaching in the fields of allied subjects and agroforestry for around seventeen years. He is currently employed as an assistant professor at Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, in the Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, College of Forestry. Over sixty research articles in both national and international publications have been published by him. Apart from authoring several research articles and book chapters, he is also the author of many books related to agriculture and forestry, he has served as an editorial board member for numerous research papers, evaluated numerous research publications, and is a life member of numerous societies. K. Naga Durga Sai Prasanna Kumar Dora, presently pursuing his Ph.D in Forestry (Silviculture and Agroforestry) at Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences. Prayagraj,Uttarpradesh. He Completed his M.Sc.Agro-forestry in SHUATS and He has completed B.sc. (Hons) in Agriculture, Annamalai University Chidambaram,Tamilnadu He has Worked as Farm
Soil is a critical component of terrestrial ecosystems, playing an invaluable role in supporting plant growth, regulating water and nutrient cycles, filtering pollutants, and providing habitat for soil organisms. However, increasing pressures from human activities, including intensive agriculture, deforestation, urbanization, and climate change are degrading soils across the world. Therefore, sustainable management of soil resources is imperative to ensure continued provisioning of ecosystem services, promote sustainable development outcomes, and help us to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper reviews literature across multiple disciplines to examine the vital links between soil and realization of the SDGs. Soil properties influence productivity and food security, water availability and quality, climate regulation through carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, and human health. Degraded soils undermine these ecosystem services, exacerbating poverty, hunger, and inequality. Research shows ecosystem-based approaches that prioritize soil health, including conservation agriculture, agroecology, and regenerative systems, can sustainably intensify agriculture while restoring multi-functionality. Additionally, nature-based solutions utilizing plant-soil interactions for restoration have demonstrated cost-effectiveness. Achieving land degradation neutrality is now an explicit target under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), emphasizing the need to scale soil-focused initiatives within the SDG framework. Therefore, protecting and restoring global soil assets can serve as a nexus in policy frameworks to simultaneously advance progress across multiple SDGs.
This study aimed to determine how much rice field land is converted and how much rice is needed in Dabun Gelang Sub-District, Gayo Lues Regency, Aceh Province. Use ArcGIS apps and 2011 and 2019 Land Use Maps. To see the change in the conversion of rice fields to non-rice fields using the overlay technique between the two maps to obtain a map of changes in rice fields and the extent of changes. Furthermore, the rice demand in Dabun Gelang District was produced by comparing the projected number of residents in 2023, 2025, 2030, and 2033. The results showed that during the period between 2011 and 2019, there was a conversion of rice fields to settlements covering an area of 41.80 Ha (5.06%), rice fields to thickets covering an area of 0.0003 Ha (0.00%), rice fields to plantation forests covering an area of 32.25 Ha (3.91%) and rice fields to dryland agriculture covering an area of 0.001 Ha (0.00%). The projected rice demand in Dabun Gelang District in 2023 is 2,256,320 kg/person/year. In 2025, it is 2,326,400 kg/person/year. In 2030, it will be 2,501,120 kg/person/year; in 2033, it will be 2,606,080 kg/person/year.
California's rich agricultural productivity is founded on its biological diversity, both native and exotic. Native species contribute genetic resources and play a vital part in preserving land, air and water quality. Exotic species introduced from around the globe provide the raw genetic material for nearly all of California's agricultural commodities. Through generations of selective breeding, native and exotic biodiversity have been used to solve agricultural problems. Such biodiversity — termed “agrobiodiversity” — includes not only crops, livestock and their wild relatives, but the species that interact with and support them: pollinators, symbionts, competitors, pests, parasites, predators and biological control agents. Long-term security and flexibility of California agricultural production requires conservation of both exotic genetic resources and native California habitats.
Riparian corridors possess an unusually diverse array of species and environmental processes. This @'ecological@' diversity is related to variable flood regimes, geomorphic channel processes, altitudinal climate shifts, and upland influences on the fluvial corridor. This dynamic environment results in a variety of life history strategies, and a diversity of biogeochemical cycles and rates, as organisms adapt to disturbance regimes over broad spatio-temporal scales. These facts suggest that effective riparian management could ameliorate many ecological issues related to land use and environmental quality. We contend that riparian corridors should play an essential role in water and landscape planning, in the restoration of aquatic systems, and in catalyzing institutional and societal cooperation for these efforts.
This book focuses on the previously neglected interface between the conservation of plant genetic resources and their utilization. Only through utilization can the potential value of conserved genetic resources be realized. However, as this book shows, much conserved germplasm has to be subjected to long-term pre-breeding and genetic enhancement before it can be used in plant breeding programmes. The authors explore the rationale and approaches for such pre-breeding efforts as the basis for broadening the genetic base of crop production. Examples from a range of major food crops (pearl millet, maize, potatoes, cassava and Musa ) are presented and issues analysed by leading authorities from around the world. Twenty-seven papers are presented in 4 sections: general principles (7 papers), crop case studies (5 papers), population management (8 papers), and other approaches to broadening the genetic base of crops (7 papers). The book is aimed at plant breeders, genetic resource conservation scientists and research managers in agriculture and biodiversity.
Old-growth forest of the Hoh River Valley, Olympic National Park, Washington (U.S.A.). For decades the U.S. Pacific Norwest has been a center of controversy over logging and endangered species. This special section explores progress made by the Northwest Forest Plan?a global example of land-use planning?a decade after it was established to end the stalemate over logging and endangered species. Authors include some of the key architects involved in its creation and implementation. Photo by Kevin Schafer.
We identify the basic types of interactions between vascular plants and soil biota; describe the sensitivity of each type to changes in species composition; and, within this framework, evaluate the potential consequences of Global Change drivers on ecosystem processes.
In agricultural systems, optimization of carbon and nitrogen cycling
through soil organic matter can improve soil fertility and yields while
reducing negative environmental impact. A basic tenet that has guided
the management of soil organic matter for decades has been that
equilibrium levels of carbon and nitrogen are controlled by their net
input and that qualitative differences in these inputs are relatively
unimportant. This contrasts with natural ecosystems in which there are
significant effects of species composition and litter quality on carbon
and nitrogen cycling,. Here we report the net balances of carbon and
nitrogen from a 15-year study in which three distinct maize/soybean
agroecosystems are compared. Quantitative differences in net primary
productivity and nitrogen balance across agroecosystems do not account
for the observed changes in soil carbon and nitrogen. We suggest that
the use of low carbon-to-nitrogen organic residues to maintain soil
fertility, combined with greater temporal diversity in cropping
sequences, significantly increases the retention of soil carbon and
nitrogen, which has important implications for regional and global
carbon and nitrogen budgets, sustained production, and environmental
quality.
Agriculture meets a major human need and both affects and depends on all other life support systems. Current trends point to continued human population growth and ever higher levels of consumption as the global economy expands. This will stress the capacity of agriculture to meet food needs without further sacrificing the environmental integrity of local landscapes and the global environment. Agriculture's main challenge for the coming decades will be to produce sufficient food and fiber for a growing global population at an acceptable environmental cost. This challenge requires an ecological approach to agriculture that is largely missing from current management and research portfolios. Crop and livestock production systems must be managed as ecosystems, with management decisions fully informed of environmental costs and benefits. Currently, too little is known about important ecological interactions in major agricultural systems and landscapes and about the economic value of the ecosystem services associated with agriculture. To create agricultural landscapes that are managed for multiple services in addition to food and fiber will require integrative research, both ecological and socioeconomic, as well as policy innovation and public education.
With the advent of Agenda 21, the blueprint for the transition to sustainable development for every nation on the globe, the issue of what exactly is sustainable agriculture is now being addressed, certainly throughout Europe. The food chain as a whole is the ultimate framework for a scrutiny of sustainability. However, this review looks only at the changing policy setting for seeking to define and implement sustainable agricultural practice in the UK. It analyses the key documents, reviews the state of science and assesses policy developments in wildlife/habitat management and the enhancement of scenery, from individual farms to whole landscapes. It concludes that there is neither the scientific understanding nor the economic tools to define and justify self-reliant agriculture on a farm-by-farm basis. Rather, it is more advantageous to devise integrated agricultural management arrangements for whole landscapes, crossing the borders of individual holdings. To do this, it is necessary to involve key stakeholders in the determination of the final landscape design. Then there is the tricky issue of how this may be implemented. That will be a sign that a policy for sustainable agriculture has come of age.
The importance of crop germplasm found in landraces is well established, and a comprehensive international program exists to conserve this resource ex situ in gene banks and botanical gardens. Landraces are still cultivated in regions of crop domestication and diversity. In situ maintenance has been neglected by genetic resource conservation programs in part because of misconceptions about farming systems that produce landraces. This paper presents three cases of on-going maintenance of landraces by farmers who have also adopted high-input technology, including high yielding crop cultivars. These cases are potatoes (Solanum spp.) in the Andes of Peru, maize (Zea mays L.) in southern Mexico, and wheat (Triticum spp.) in western Turkey. These cases suggest that on-farm conservation of landraces can be decoupled from traditional farming practices. Factors that promote in situ conservation are the fragmentation of land holdings, marginal agricultural conditions associated with hill lands and heterogeneous soils, economic isolation, and cultural values and preference for diversity. Landraces are likely to persist in patches and islands of farming systems in regions of crop domestication and diversity, and these patches provide potential sites for conservation programs. In situ conservation may be a valuable complement to ex situ methods because it can preserve the biological and social processes of crop evolution. Research is needed on the biogeography and conservation biology of remaining landrace populations in order to plan in situ conservation
These proceedings covers topics on managing plant genetic diversity i.e. applications of genomic sciences for better understanding of gene pools; technologies and strategies for ex situ conservation; the deployment and management of genetic diversity in agroecosystems; the role of bioinformatics in conservation and use; in situ conservation of wild species; indicators for sustainable management of genetic resources; germplasm enhancement and pre-breeding; exploring underused species - diverse options; implications of gene transformation techniques for ex situ conservation choices; geographic information system applications for genetic resources management; and the economics of managing genetic resources and the role of private and public sectors.
Biological diversity appears to enhance the resilience of desirable ecosystem states, which is required to secure the production of essential ecosystem services. The diversity of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the same ecosystem function, which we call response diversity, is critical to resilience. Response diversity is particularly important for ecosystem renewal and reorganization following change. Here we present examples of response diversity from both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and across temporal and spatial scales. Response diversity provides adaptive capacity in a world of complex systems, uncertainty, and human-dominated environments. We should pay special attention to response diversity when planning ecosystem management and restoration, since it may contribute considerably to the resilience of desired ecosystem states against disturbance, mismanagement, and degradation.
This book reviews "participatory" or "collaborative" plant breeding and presents case studies. It also addresses three key issues: (1) what is the nature of plant breeding knowledge, in theory and practice?; (2) in what ways are farmers' and plant breeders' knowledge similar or different?; and (3) what are the implications for successful plant breeding initiatives? The purpose of this book is to examine the nature of and relationship between the knowledge of farmers and of scientists, and how these can be best integrated in plant breeding. In the past, farmers' knowledge of local biodiversity has often been underutilized, but currently there is an increased recognition of the importance of farmer participation or collaboration. It is divided into two sections, farmer plant breeders and collaboration (5 chapters) and scientific plant breeders and collaboration (6 papers).
This book reviews "participatory" or "collaborative" plant breeding and presents case studies. It also addresses three key issues: (1) what is the nature of plant breeding knowledge, in theory and practice?; (2) in what ways are farmers' and plant breeders' knowledge similar or different?; and (3) what are the implications for successful plant breeding initiatives? The purpose of this book is to examine the nature of and relationship between the knowledge of farmers and of scientists, and how these can be best integrated in plant breeding. In the past, farmers' knowledge of local biodiversity has often been underutilized, but currently there is an increased recognition of the importance of farmer participation or collaboration. It is divided into two sections, farmer plant breeders and collaboration (5 chapters) and scientific plant breeders and collaboration (6 papers).
Biodiversity is declining worldwide, and the costs of biodiversity losses are increasingly being recognized by economists. In this article, we first review the multiple meanings of biodiversity, moving from species richness and simple abundance-weighted species counts to more complex measures that take account of taxonomic distance and functionality. We then explain the ways in which protecting biodiversity generates economic benefits in terms of direct and indirect values. Empirical approaches to estimating direct and indirect values are presented, along with a selection of recent evidence on how substantial these values are. The use of asset accounting approaches to track biodiversity values over time is discussed, in the context of sustainable development paths. Finally, we review some important challenges in valuing biodiversity that remain to be solved.
Depending on definition, as much as 90% of the terrestrial surface of the earth is estimated to be maintained in some sort of managed state, usually forestry or agriculture (Western and Pearl 1989). This very abundance should be sufficient to place managed ecosystems at the centre of the analysis of biodiversity and ecosystem function, and indeed a large literature has emerged on this topic in agricultural and forestry ecosystems (Pimentel et al. 1992; Paoletti et al. 1993; Collins and Qualset 1999). In this chapter, we first cast the major questions about biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the context of managed systems, introducing the ideas of planned versus associated biodiversity and the intensification gradient, concepts that are unique to managed systems.
This book examines the challenges faced by farmers trying to maintain crop biodiversity in developing and transitional economies. Using a collection of empirical case studies of farmers and crop scientists across a range of agricultural economies and income levels, it presents economic tools and methods for valuing and managing crop biodiversity. It discusses the economic benefits of crop biodiversity for farmers and suggests ways in which crop biodiversity can be supported by national policies. The book provides an indispensable 'tool kit' for all those concerned with the development of strategies to facilitate sustainable management and conservation of crop genetic diversity for future generations.
Biological diversity is as crucial in agriculture as it is in nature, and it is equally important to the economic health of both industrial and nonindustrial societies. This book offers a sweeping assessment of crop diversity and the potential for its preservation. Stephen B. Brush develops a framework for investigating biological diversity in agriculture that focuses on the knowledge and practice of farmers, and he shows how this human ecology perspective can be applied to three global issues that affect crop resources. Brush defines the dimensions of crop diversity and outlines the essential questions surrounding it. He describes the techniques used to maintain diversity in major crops of three cradles of agriculture in which he has worked: Potatoes in the Peruvian Andes, maize in Mexico, and wheat in Turkey. Finally, he explores the policy issues surrounding genetic erosion of crop varieties, conservation of crop diversity, and ownership of genetic resources.
Vegetation texture (i.e., plant density, species diversity, and structural complexity) may influence the abundance of a herbivore by affecting its movement, altering the suitability of host plants, and by changing the herbivore's vulnerability to attack by natural enemies. We investigated these effects on the Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis) on snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) growing in high and low-density monocultures and intercropped with short (0.5 m) or tall (1.2 m) com plants (Zea mays). Beetle populations consistently reached higher densities on beans in monocultures than on beans intercropped with tall com. Neither bean plant density nor plant species diversity alone significantly affected beetle abundance. Instead, the presence of tall com plants contributed most to lower bean beetle density in the tall corn-bean intercrop, primarily by reducing adult colonization. However, the tall com also increased the suitability of intercropped bean plants to the beetles because adults preferred to feed on and larvae developed faster on beans in the tall com-bean habitat. Host plant effects were independent of the influence of microclimate and risk of predation. Abundance of natural enemies of the bean beetle was low, and overall, predator density and bean beetle larval survival did not differ significantly among habitats. However, it is difficult to predict the effect of mortality factors, such as natural enemies, on bean beetle populations because larval mortality over time was affected by habitat type (i.e., there was a significant interaction between habitat type and time). Our results were partially consistent with the resource concentration hypothesis. Whereas Mexican bean beetles colonized bean monocultures more readily than they did tall corn-bean diculture, the presence of more suitable host plants in the diculture acted to increase, rather than decrease, bean beetle density in the tall com-bean habitat. However, higher adult feeding preference and faster larval development on beans in the tall corn-bean habitat did not offset lower adult colonization in this habitat.
Abstract? Biodiversity, a central component of Earth's life support systems, is directly relevant to human societies. We examine the dimensions and nature of the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity and review the scientific facts concerning the rate of loss of biodiversity and the drivers of this loss. The estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotic organisms possible lies in the 5?15 million range, with a best guess of ?7 million. Species diversity is unevenly distributed; the highest concentrations are in tropical ecosystems. Endemisms are concentrated in a few hotspots, which are in turn seriously threatened by habitat destruction?the most prominent driver of biodiversity loss. For the past 300 years, recorded extinctions for a few groups of organisms reveal rates of extinction at least several hundred times the rate expected on the basis of the geological record. The loss of biodiversity is the only truly irreversible global environmental change the Earth faces today.
We highlight the complexity of land-use/cover change and propose a framework for a more general understanding of the issue, with emphasis on tropical regions. The review summarizes recent estimates on changes in cropland, agricultural intensification, tropical deforestation, pasture expansion, and urbanization and identifies the still unmeasured land-cover changes. Climate-driven land-cover modifications interact with land-use changes. Land-use change is driven by synergetic factor combinations of resource scarcity leading to an increase in the pressure of production on resources, changing opportunities created by markets, outside policy intervention, loss of adaptive capacity, and changes in social organization and attitudes. The changes in ecosystem goods and services that result from land-use change feed back on the drivers of land-use change. A restricted set of dominant pathways of land-use change is identified. Land-use change can be understood using the concepts of complex adaptive systems and transitions. Integrated, place-based research on land-use/land-cover change requires a combination of the agent-based systems and narrative perspectives of understanding. We argue in this paper that a systematic analysis of local-scale land-use change studies, conducted over a range of timescales, helps to uncover general principles that provide an explanation and prediction of new land-use changes.
This paper offers a framework for analysing the economic drivers and effects of agrobiodiversity loss, focusing on in-situ conservation at both farm and landscape levels. We distinguish between the proximate and fundamental causes of biodiversity loss in terms of the decentralised (microeconomic) behaviour of farming households. Special attention is paid to the interplay between micro-economic decisions and the meso-economic factors (i.e., institutional and market conditions) that determine the effects of government policies. We interpret agricultural landscape changes as the product of explicit or implicit decentralised farm-level decisions to (dis)invest in biodiversity as a strategic asset that provides flows of ecological services on-and off-farm. Several case studies are used to illustrate how 'downstream' or 'forward' effects feed back into agricultural production and stability ('backward effect'). This framework can be used to assess the effectiveness of policies to address underprovision of agrobiodiversity-supported ecological services that are socially (locally and globally) welfare enhancing.
This paper considers the significance of biological diversity in relation to large-scale processes in complex and dynamic ecological-economic systems. It focuses on functional diversity, and its relation to production and maintenance of ecological services that underpin human societies. Within functional groups of organisms two important categories of species are identified: keystone process species and those essential for ecosystem resilience. The latter group represents ''natural insurance capital.'' In addition to basic research on the interplay among biological diversity, functional performance, and resilience in complex self-organizing systems, we suggest that a functional approach has two main implications for a strategy for biodiversity conservation: (1) Biodiversity conservation to assure the resilience of ecosystems is required for all systems, no matter how heavily impacted they are. It should not be limited to protected areas. (2) The social, cultural, and economic driving forces in society that cause biodiversity loss need to be addressed directly. Specifically, (a) differences between the value of biological diversity to the private individual and its fundamental value to society as a whole need to be removed; (b) social and economic policies that encourage biodiversity loss should be reformed, especially where there is a risk of irreversible damage to ecosystems and diversity; and (c) institutions that are adaptive and work in synergy with ecosystem processes and functions are critical and should be created at all levels.
This paper reviews two aspects of agricultural biodiversity. 1. The ways in which agricultural biodiversity may be increased to favour pest management are examined. At the simplest level, the structure within a monoculture may be altered by changing management practices to benefit natural enemies. At the other extreme, annual and perennial non-crop vegetation may be integrated with cropping, and biodiversity increased at the landscape level. 2. The existence of a hierarchy for the types of benefits of increased biodiversity is discussed. Vegetational diversity can lead to suppression of pests via 'top-down' enhancement of natural enemy populations and by resource concentration and other 'bottom-up' effects acting directly on pests. Whilst such low-input pest management mechanisms are attractive in their own right, other (non-pest management related) benefits may simultaneously apply. These range from short-term benefits in crop yield or quality, longer term benefits for sustainability of the farming system and, ultimately, broad societal benefits including aesthetics, recreation and the conservation of flora and fauna. Examples are given of such multi-function agricultural biodiversity.
Crop heterogeneity is a possible solution to the vulnerability of monocultured crops to disease1-3. Both theory4 and observation2, 3 indicate that genetic heterogeneity provides greater disease suppression when used over large areas, though experimental data are lacking. Here we report a unique cooperation among farmers, researchers and extension personnel in Yunnan Province, China—genetically diversified rice crops were planted in all the rice fields in five townships in 1998 and ten townships in 1999. Control plots of monocultured crops allowed us to calculate the effect of diversity on the severity of rice blast, the major disease of rice5. Disease-susceptible rice varieties planted in mixtures with resistant varieties had 89% greater yield and blast was 94% less severe than when they were grown in monoculture. The experiment was so successful that fungicidal sprays were no longer applied by the end of the two-year programme. Our results support the view that intraspecific crop diversification provides an ecological approach to disease control that can be highly effective over a large area and contribute to the sustainability of crop production.Many ecological processes are strongly influenced by spatial scale6-9, causing a major dilemma for experimental biologists, as large-scale field experiments are often prohibitively expensive. For example, there have been increasing calls for ecological approaches to counter the negative environmental impacts of modern agricultural systems10, 11. One such approach, the use of within-field crop genetic diversity, has been shown to reduce disease severity in experimental plots and has been used commercially in some cases1-4. However, experimental procedure and the nature of pathogen dispersal can cause substantial underestimation of the impact of increased diversity on disease in small-scale experimental plots2-4. On the other hand, observations at larger spatial scale are few4, and do not allow for unambiguous determination of causal relationships between diversity and disease occurrence.
Our experimental system was blast disease in rice (Oryzae sativa). Rice is the staple crop for about half of the population of the world12. The fungus that causes blast disease, Magnaporthe grisea, spreads through multiple cycles of asexual conidiospore production during the cropping season, causing necrotic spots on leaves and necrosis of panicles. M. grisea interacts on a gene-for-gene basis13, 14 with its host and has a very varied pathogenesis15. It exists as a mixture of pathogenic races, that is, genetic variants that attack host genotypes with different resistance genes. Thus, host resistance genes often remain effective for only a few years in agricultural production before succumbing to new pathogenic races16, 17.
Our experimental site (Yunnan Province, China) favours the development of rice blast epidemics because of its cool, wet climate. Farmers commonly make multiple foliar fungicide applications to control blast. Glutinous or 'sticky' rice varieties are used for confections and other speciality dishes and have higher market value than other rice types, but have lower yields and are highly susceptible to blast. Non-glutinous, hybrid rice varieties are less susceptible to rice blast and are attacked by a different spectrum of M. grisea races. Before 1998, 98% of rice fields in the study area were sown with monocultures of the hybrid rice varieties Shanyuo22 and Shanyuo63. The desirable glutinous varieties were planted in small amounts because of their low yields and vulnerability to blast in this environment. We conducted large-scale tests, made possible through the cooperation of thousands of rice farmers, to determine how the occurrence of rice blast is affected by within-field varietal diversification using mixtures of commonly grown glutinous and hybrid rice varieties. Our approach was based on an observed farmer practice of dispersing single rows of glutinous rice between groups of four rows of hybrid rice at a rate sufficient to meet local demand for glutinous rice ( Fig. 1).
Figure 1 Planting arrangements in rice variety mixture and monoculture survey plots in 1999 and patterned after those used by farmers in Yunnan Province. Each symbol represents a hill of susceptible (O) or resistant (X) rice. Distances between hills within rows were 15 cm for glutinous monocultures, 30 cm for hybrid monocultures and 30 cm for mixtures. Spacings and arrangements were the same in 1998, except that the distance between rows of glutinous rice in monoculture was 13 cm.
In the first year of the experiment, four different mixtures of varieties (Fig. 2) were planted in a 812-ha area consisting of all rice fields in five townships of Shiping County, Yunnan Province. Because of the excellent blast control provided by the variety mixtures, only one foliar fungicide spray was applied. Mixtures were compared to monoculture control plots at 15 survey sites. Unlike standard experiment station fields, control plots of monocultures were small relative to the total area of mixtures planted by farmers in the surrounding area, reducing the potential impact of spore dispersal from the more heavily infected monocultures to the mixture plots2-4. The study was expanded to 3,342 ha of rice fields in 1999. This area consisted of all rice fields in 10 townships that spanned Jianshui and Shiping Counties, with five participating townships and 15 survey sites per county. Procedures were the same as in 1998, except that no foliar fungicide applications were made. In addition, some farmers chose to plant mixtures in a ratio of 1 glutinous: 6 hybrid rows, rather than 1:4.
Figure 2 Panicle blast severity (mean percentage of panicle branches that were necrotic due to infection by Magnaporthe grisea) of rice varieties planted in monocultures and mixtures. a, The susceptible, glutinous varieties Huangkenuo and Zinuo. b, The resistant, hybrid varieties Shanyuo22 and Shanyuo63. S98, Shiping County, 1998; S99, Shiping County, 1999; J99, Jianshui County, 1999; open bar, blast severity for a variety grown in monoculture control plots; black bar, blast severity of the same variety when grown in mixed culture plots in the same fields. Error bars are one s.e.m.; n, number of plot means that contribute to individual bars for each of the four combinations of susceptible and resistant variety. All differences between pairs of monoculture and mixture bars are significant at P < 0.01 based on a one-tailed t-test, unless indicated by 0.05 (significant at P < 0.05), 0.10 (significant at P < 0.10) or n.s. (not significant at P = 0.10).
Diversification had a substantial impact on rice blast severity (Fig. 2). In 1998, panicle blast severity on the glutinous varieties averaged 20% in monocultures, but was reduced to 1% when dispersed within the mixed populations (Fig. 2a). Panicle blast severity on the hybrid varieties averaged 1.2% in monoculture and was reduced to varying degrees in mixed plots, though only the larger differences were statistically significant (Fig. 2b). Results from 1999 were very similar to the 1998 season for panicle blast severity on the susceptible varieties (Fig. 2a), showing that the effect of diversification was very robust among mixtures and between seasons and counties. In contrast, effects of crop diversification on blast severity of the hybrid varieties were larger in 1999 than in 1998. Panicle blast severity on these varieties averaged 2.3% in monoculture and was reduced to 1.0% in mixed populations (Fig. 2b), despite the fact that hybrids were planted at the same density in both mixture and monoculture survey plots.
Several mechanisms may reduce disease severity in genetically diverse plant populations2, 4, 18. Increased distance between plant genotypes, which dilutes inoculum of a given pathogenic race as it is dispersed between compatible host varieties, has been considered the most important mechanism contributing to disease reduction in variety mixtures2. Such dilution effects almost certainly had a role in reducing blast disease on the susceptible, glutinous varieties in this study. In addition, canopy microclimate data collected at one survey site in 1999 indicate that height differences between the taller glutinous and shorter hybrid varieties resulted in temperature, humidity and light conditions that were less conducive for blast on glutinous varieties in the mixtures than in the monocultures. Disease reductions on hybrid varieties in the mixtures are more difficult to explain. Dilution and microenvironmental modifications are unlikely mechanisms, as the hybrids were planted at the same density in mixtures and monocultures ( Fig. 1). The taller glutinous varieties may physically have blocked spore dispersal and/or altered wind patterns compared with the hybrid monocultures. In addition, induced resistance may have some contribution to disease suppression in the hybrids. Induced resistance occurs when inoculation with avirulent pathogen race(s) induces a plant defence response that is effective against pathogen races that would normally be virulent on that host genotype. This has made significant contributions to disease reductions in variety mixtures of other small grain crops19, 20.
In 1999, we determined the genetic composition of the pathogen populations derived from inter-planting and monoculture fields using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fingerprinting21 of pathogen isolates. Preliminary results indicate that fields with mixtures supported diverse pathogen populations with no single dominant strain. In contrast, pathogen populations from monoculture fields were dominated by one or a few strains. The more diverse pathogen population from the mixed stands may have contributed to greater induced resistance from incompatible interactions. In the longer term, this increased pathogen diversity may also slow adaptation of the pathogen to resistance genes functioning within a given mixture. Clarifying the mechanisms by which host diversity influenced disease in our study will be helpful in extending these results to other agro-ecosystems. These mechanistic studies are currently underway.
Table 1 -Grain Yields and Monetary Values for Rice Varieties
Grain yield ± s.e.m. Crop value
(Mg per ha) (US per kg for hybrid varieties and 0.35 US$ per kg for glutinous varieties. Italicized values of hills m-2, grain yield, and crop value are for individual varieties within mixtures. Bold values in parentheses are per- hill yields of varieties in mixture expresses as a percentage of per-hill yield of the saem variety in monoculture.
* See also Fig.1
§ In 1998, density of glutinous varieties in monoculture was 40.4 hill m-2
Grain production per hill of glutinous varieties in mixtures averaged 89% greater than that in monoculture (Table 1). As a result, glutinous rice in mixtures produced 18.2% of monoculture yield, on average, though it was planted at rates of only 9.2 and 9.7% that of monoculture in 1998 and 1999, respectively (see also Fig. 1). Reduced disease severity certainly had a role in this yield response, though other factors (for example, improved light interception) may also have had an influence. Despite the increased overall plant density in mixtures (see Fig. 1, bottom), grain yields per hectare of the hybrids in mixture were nearly equal to the corresponding monocultures. Thus, mixed populations produced more total grain per hectare than their corresponding monocultures in all cases (Table 1). Land equivalent ratios22, which estimate the ecological efficiency of mixed populations, indicate that an average of 1.18 ha of monoculture crop land would need to be planted to provide the same amounts of hybrid and glutinous rice as were produced in 1 ha of a mixture (Table 2). After accounting for the differing market values of the two rice types, the gross value per hectare of the mixtures was 14% greater than hybrid monocultures and 40% greater than glutinous monocultures (Table 1).
Table 2 - Land Equivalent Ratios for Rice Yield Produced in Variety Mixtures
County and year .
Mixture Shipping Shipping Jianshui
1998 1999 1999
Huangkenuo/Shanyuo63 116 128 117
Huangkenuo/Shanyuo22 113 116 118
Zinuo/Shanyuo63 115 121 117
Zinuo/Shayuo22 114 119 118
Though disease reductions are theoretically maximized in random mixtures of plants23, row mixtures provided the most practical approach in our specific application. As rice is hand-harvested in Yunnan Province, farmers can easily separate the hybrid and glutinous grains, which are used for different purposes. However, many other approaches can be used to attain within-field genetic diversity of crops3, 24. For example, wheat (Triticum aestivum) mixtures are grown in the Pacific Northwest of the USA under highly mechanized conditions4. In this case, varieties are chosen to be similar in height, maturity and market quality, planted as random mixtures, and harvested and marketed as bulk populations3.
Commercial-scale use of crop diversity has provided observational support for the disease-suppressive effects of crop diversity in a limited number of cases4, 25, 26, most notably the control of barley (Hordeum vulgare) powdery mildew (caused by Erysiphe graminis) in the former East Germany26. However, the varietal diversification program in Yunnan Province provided an unusual opportunity to determine causal relationships between crop diversity and disease, as replicated monoculture controls were available for comparison within a substantial expanse of mixed culture. The impact of crop diversification on blast severity in this study was greater than that reported from small-scale experimental plots with this disease3, although we do not have proof that this difference is due only to the spatial scale. By the second year of the project, no foliar fungicides were needed for blast control in the diversified area, though this may not be possible in all seasons. The Yunnan diversification program has resulted in great interest by farmers, and the practice has expanded to more than 40,000 ha in 2000.
The 'Green Revolution' has provided remarkable increases in crop productivity over the past four decades27. However, this agricultural transformation has also resulted in problems, including loss of crop genetic diversity11. The current world population of over six billion does not allow us to return to agricultural production practices of the past. Rather, we need to maintain the benefits of modern agriculture while addressing its drawbacks. In this regard, it is significant that the diversification program described here is being conducted in a cropping system with grain yields approaching 10 Mg ha-1, among the highest in the world. The value of diversity for disease control is well established experimentally and diversity is increasingly being used against wind-dispersed pathogens of small grain cereals4. Recent experimental results indicate other applications of diversity, for example, against soil-borne pathogens and for tree crops4. The effect of varietal diversification will vary among diseases and agro-ecosystems4. Further, one can not expect all variety mixtures to provide functional diversity to a given plant pathogen population24, 28, nor can one predict the time for which they may remain effective. Indeed, we have identified variety combinations that provide little or no blast control in Yunnan Province. Nonetheless, our results demonstrate that a simple, ecological approach to disease control can be used effectively at large spatial scale to attain environmentally sound disease control.
Methods
Study sites In 1998, townships participating in the diversification experiment were Baxing, Baoxiu, Songchun, Maohe and Xincheng of Shiping County. These townships are contiguous, and all rice fields in the five townships were involved in the diversification program. In 1999, the study area consisted of all rice fields in ten contiguous townships: Chenguang, Dongba, Mianding, Nanzhuang and Xizhuang in Jianshui County; and Baxing, Baoxiu, Songchun, Maohe and Yafanzi in Shiping County.
Disease assessments
To monitor disease, survey plots were established at 15 sites per county, three in each of the five townships participating in the diversification program (15 sites in 1998, 30 sites in 1999). Seedlings were transplanted into the field in April or May in hills of 4–5 plants for glutinous varieties and 1 plant per hill for the hybrid varieties, which produce a greater number of tillers per plant. All plots were managed by farmers and treated in the same manner as the surrounding mixed variety plantings, including fungicide application. In each of the survey sites, a field was divided into three plots. One plot was planted with the mixture grown most commonly by local farmers, and the remaining two plots were monocultures of the glutinous and hybrid variety included in that mixture. For mixtures, the same row spacing of hybrid rice was used as in monoculture, but one row of glutinous rice was added between each group of four rows of hybrid rice, in an 'addition' approach (Fig. 1 ). Each of the four mixtures was evaluated for disease severity in 3–5 of the 15 survey sites in each county, depending on the popularity of a given mixture with farmers. Plots ranged from 100 to 450 m 2 each, depending on field size.
Survey plots were assessed in late August for the severity of blast symptoms, expressed as the percentage of panicle branches that were necrotic due to the effects of M. grisea. Disease was assessed at five sampling points in each plot, distributed in a uniform pattern. Twenty hills resulting from the transplanting process were evaluated at each sampling point, with each hill containing about 10 panicles per hill, to give a total of approximately 1,000 panicles evaluated per plot. Each sampled panicle was visually examined by experienced personnel to estimate the percentage of branches that were necrotic due to infection by M. grisea. Each panicle was given a rating29 from 0 to 5, where 0 is no disease; 1 is less than 5% of panicle branches necrotic; 2 is 5–30% necrotic; 3 is 30–50% necrotic; 4 is greater than 50% necrotic; and 5 is 100% necrotic. Disease severity was summarized within each plot as ([(n11) ± (n22) ± (n33) ± (n44) ± ( n55)]/Sn0... n5} 100, where n0... n5 is the number of culms in each of the respective disease categories. Thus, a disease severity of 0% would indicate no disease and 100% would indicate that 100% of panicle branches were necrotic.
Yield evaluation Plots were hand-harvested, threshed and weighed to determine grain yield. Individual varieties were evaluated separately in mixtures. Land equivalent ratios22 were calculated as (yield ha-1 of variety A in mixture/yield ha-1of variety A in monoculture) + (yield ha-1 of variety B in mixture/yield ha-1 of variety B in monoculture).
Statistical analyses Each survey plot was considered to be an experimental unit, and analyses were based on mean disease severities and grain yield for each plot. Statistical analyses were conducted separately by year and county owing to differences in disease level. One-tailed t -tests were used to determine if blast severity for each of the two varieties in each of the four mixtures differed significantly from its corresponding monoculture control.
Received 18 April 2000; accepted 30 June 2000
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Acknowledgements.
This work was supported by the Asian Development Bank, the Yunnan Province Government, The Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and a scientific agreement between IRRI and Oregon State University. We thank the personnel of the provincial and county Plant Protection Stations and participating farmers for their contributions to this project, and M. Hoffer for computer assistance and graphics.
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Under rainfed conditions in the semi-arid highlands of Mexico, time to first flower and to maturity of some cultivars of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is strongly reduced with late plantings. Consideration of rainfall patterns in the region suggested that this response might be an adaptation to growing seasons of variable length, where length is determined by time of onset of summer rains and by risk of water deficit or low temperatures at the end of the season. Analysis of weather patterns at two sites in the highlands suggested that when rains commenced in early June, there was a high probability of adequate precipitation during the season. When rains commenced in mid- to late-July, total precipitation was lower. For a third site, total precipitation showed no relation with date of onset of rains. Evaluations of 20 bean genotypes planted at five dates each in 2 yr at Pabellon, Aguascalientes, (20° 11' N latitude, elevation 1910 m) demonstrated large differences in plasticity of the pre-flowering and reproductive periods. Cultivars Garbancillo Zarco and Tlaxcala-475 were late to flower and mature under early plantings, but were similar to other genotypes in late plantings. Other genotypes of highland origin showed little or no plasticity, suggesting that this trait is not universal among cultivars currently grown there. Furthermore, cultivars and breeding lines from other regions showed no plasticity. Marked phenological plasticity occurred only in genotypes from the highlands which were highly photoperiod sensitive, but several highly sensitive genotypes showed no or little plasticity. Similar patterns were noted in a survey of 81 genotypes that included a wider range of highland germplasm
For centuries, traditional farmers have developed diverse and locally adapted agricultural systems, managing them with ingenious practices that often result in both community food security and the conservation of agrobiodiversity. This strategy of minimizing risk stabilizes yields, promotes dietary diversity, and maximizes returns using low levels of technology and limited resources. These microcosms of agricultural heritage still cover no less than 10 million ha worldwide, providing cultural and ecological services not only to rural inhabitants, but to mankind generally. These services include the preservation of traditional farming knowledge, local crop and animal varieties, and native forms of sociocultural organization. By studying these systems, ecologists can enhance their knowledge of the dynamics of complex systems, especially the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function and practical principles for the design of more sustainable agroecosystems appropriate to small farmers. Novel agroecosystem designs have already been modeled on successful traditional farming systems.
This paper offers an overview for a special issue on agroindustrialization, globalization, and international development. It sets out a conceptual framework for understanding the links among these three broad phenomena and then discusses emerging issues and evidence concerning the factors conditioning agroindustrialization in developing countries and the subsequent effects on employment, poverty, and the natural environment. We conclude with a research agenda.
One of the most important functions of riparian zones is their ability to improve water quality by trapping sediment leaving agricultural fields and other disturbed areas. However, few data exist quantifying the impacts of sediment deposition from anthropogenic disturbance on belowground processes within these ecosystems. This study was conducted at Ft. Benning, GA, where disturbance caused by military training has generated a range of sedimentation levels in riparian forests near ephemeral streams. Nine ephemeral streams, exhibiting different levels of sediment deposition, were selected for study. Two paired treatment plots (upper and lower) were established along each catchment to represent potentially disturbed and control conditions, respectively. On highly and moderately disturbed catchments, upper plots had received varying rates of sediment from erosion along unpaved roads. Biomass, turnover, productivity, and nutrient contents of fine roots were compared within and across catchments. Temporal fluctuations in biomass of live and dead fine roots were observed for both treatments in the three disturbance categories, except for upper plots of highly disturbed catchments, where biomass remained fairly low and constant throughout the study. Fine root productivity declined sharply with sediment rates as low as 0.3 cm yr(-1). Nutrient contents of live and dead fine roots followed a similar trend to that of root biomass. These data suggest that fine root dynamics may be affected by sediment deposition rates commonly occurring in some wetland forests, and the water filtration function performed by these ecosystems may be at risk.