> | KB | > | Results |
Under future climate change, the northern reaches of the planet will become more suitable for farming, which could help us to feed a growing global population in decades to come. But, researchers warn, as agriculture inches into these new lands, it also threatens to release vast amounts of carbo ...
Farmland flora and fauna in the Netherlands have gone through substantial changes over the past century. Since 1900, plants on arable fields have declined by 35 percent; grassland butterflies by 80 percent, and characteristic birds of open farmland by 85 percent.
On a wintry afternoon, at her farm Navdanya in the Himalayan foothills, noted ecologist Vandana Shiva spoke on the future of the organic farming movement in India. Excerpts:
How should we stare down the challenges of a new decade? Where will we find hope and solutions? This is the first piece in a new series in which we ask prominent Australians to write about one thing they think could improve the nation in the 2020s
For organic farms, size matters: not so much the size of the farm itself, but the size of the neighboring fields.A large-scale analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Jan. 27 found that organic agriculture sites had 34% more biodiversity and 50% more profits ...
A ban on burning or extracting peat, auctioned contracts for tree planting, and an increase in crops grown for energy are just some of the ideas put forward by the government’s climate change advisors to bring about dramatic falls in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
Public awareness of the importance of forests to the environment is mounting, from the fires in the Amazon and Australia to Ethiopia’s planting of a record-breaking 350 million trees.
What can the study and management of Oregon’s vineyards contribute to a healthy ecosystem? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Conservation, biodiversity, and habitat connectivity are the keys. With more than 35,000 acres of Oregon farmland devoted to grapes, vineyards provide an excellent laboratory ...
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger and increase food security by 2030, governments and multilateral agencies are looking to open data to boost agriculture and farming
In a unique initiative to promote sustainable diet, the organizers in the World Economic Forum have decided to observe 'Future Food Wednesday' by offering tasty and delicious alternatives to meat at lunch on January 22, the second day of the event. The menus of four days WEF2020 have been design ...
Almost half of current food production is harmful to our planet – causing biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and water stress. But as world population continues to grow, can that last?
Biodiversity, which concerns the number of different kinds of of animals, plants and micro-organisms that populate vineyards, has become a bugbear in the global wine trade, as intensive farming is one of the key factors in the loss of species around the world. A recent report published by the Fo ...
Farmers in Ghana have been urged to adopt organic farming practices to increase and sustain agriculture production, ensure food security and protect the environment from pollution.
The UAE is crossbreeding bees to develop a resilient Queen that can endure the harsh desert climate and sustain crucial pollination rates crucial for the country’s food security, Gulf News can exclusively reveal.
The United Nations (U.N.) had many compelling reasons to declare 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). Consider just a few of them: Healthy plants are the foundation of all life on Earth. They make the oxygen we breathe and give us 80% of the food we eat. Plants sustain our live ...
As winter sets in over Punjab, one can hear the humdrum of hundreds of machines harvesting rice across lakhs of hectares of paddy fields. In Maharashtra, villages in Vidarbha lug their snowy cotton harvest to the market.
The intricate challenges of soil management have been intensified in recent years, with a rapid global descent into a more unstable climate and an increase in intensive farming methods.
Two years ago, Michael Gichangi launched a business he hopes will help his rural community better cope with climate change stresses: making puffed cereal from climate-hardy traditional grains. Using a $1,000 machine he bought, he pops millet—a drought-tolerant grain, but one not as widely eaten ...
There are a number of significant changes that are happening in Africa, the most important being that it is a continent with some of the fastest growing economies. Five of the world’s fastest growing economies are in Africa. This has resulted in increased wealth in a segment of the population, w ...
Our world is changing. The EU has just declared a climate emergency and stated that Europe must reach zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 - in the same year, our planet’s population is expected to hit 10 billion people. Global food production needs to prepare for an uncertain future and rising ...
We define it as investing in nature-based solutions, in sustainable economic models based on production from natural systems, whether from land or oceans. It covers sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries, as well as investments in conservation and biodiversity protection.
Earlier this year, the UK Government commissioned a review to underpin its first National Food Strategy in 75 years. Eating Better, an alliance of over 60 civil society organisations working together to catalyse shifts towards healthy and sustainable food and farming,
The world’s drylands are becoming hotter and drier. Expanding commercial agriculture and investing in sustainable land management practices are two ways in which governmentscan mitigate this form of land degradation, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Amon Andreas, who is responsible for issues of sustainable land management and biodiversity at the ministry, said unsustainable land use practices include forest clearing for agricultural purposes.
Battling drought, debt and ailments blamed on pesticides, rice farmers in northern Thailand have turned to eco-friendly growing methods despite powerful agribusiness interests in a country that is one of the top exporters of the grain in the world. Walking through a sea of green waist-high stalk ...
There are more than 28,000 species of butterflies throughout the world. These insects live and breed in diverse habitats such as the mangroves, salt marshes, lowland forested areas, wetlands, mountain zones, and in grasslands. Butterflies tend to be habitat-specific meaning that some of the spec ...
People have lived in Castro Laboreiro, where northern Portugal borders Spain, long enough to have built megaliths in the mountainous countryside and a pre-Romanesque church, from 1,100 years ago, in the village itself. But the old rural population has dwindled away, leaving behind mostly elders ...
There is an old custom among beekeepers: they must let their swarms know about important events, such as births, marriages or funerals. Failing to “tell the bees” is said to bring bad luck, less honey, deserted hives and even death. It may be folklore, but it is a reminder of the species’ critic ...
People have a right to define their own food system. This includes which seeds they use. Last week, farmers in Nakuru County, Kenya, celebrated the launch of “Ten rich, underutilized crops,” a publication and documentary that capture their efforts to promote and sustain the varieties they grow.
The Seed Savers Network is an organization safeguarding plant genetic materials for agro-biodiversity conservation. Through grassroots mobilization it advocates for food and seed sovereignty, encouraging farmers to boycott multinational seed companies. Commercial seeds are very expensive, and th ...
Soil’s contribution to climate change, through the oxidation of soil carbon, is important, and soils—and thus agriculture—can play a major role in mitigating climate change.
The use of pesticides in agriculture has been increasing with time as the demand for food production increases with the increase in population. Historically, pesticides have been known as economic poison and can be categorized into insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and plant-growth-regulators ...
Soil is a finite resource, meaning its loss and degradation is not recoverable within a human lifespan.As a core component of land resources, agricultural development and ecological sustainability, it is the basis for food, feed, fuel, and fiber production and for many critical ecosystem services.
Financing climate-smart rice production is key to global food security and urgently needed to avert social unrest
The Indian economy is largely agrarian, with around 55% of the population dependent for their livelihoods on agriculture and allied sectors that generate 15% Gross Value Added (GVA) (GoI, 2017a).
Margays (Leopardus wiedii), small wild cats living in forest areas fragmented by agriculture near Campinas and Botucatu in São Paulo State, Brazil, prey on animals inhabiting nearby sugarcane plantations, such as birds and small rodents.
Despite latest research showing Turkey lagging in overall food sustainability, progress in sustainable agriculture appears to be a bright spot in the country’s troubled agriculture industry.But local farming groups, NGOs and international bodies, while welcoming government efforts to promote sus ...
Decades after farmland was abandoned, plant biodiversity and productivity struggle to recover, according to new University of Minnesota research.
Coping with water scarcity is one of the fundamental global challenges we face in achieving sustainable development. This is not just a physical problem, it is also caused by institutional, economic, and infrastructure-related constraints and is linked to pressures that emanate from population g ...
There’s an assumption in the agricultural industry that the yields and prices of crops will vary according to local conditions as well as supply and demand in local and international markets. As a result, farmers understand that not every year will be profitable but over the long run, all things ...
This fall, Food Tank and The Crop Trust traveled throughout Appalachia to highlight and celebrate its unique food cultures and agricultural diversity. As part of a multi-year, multi-country #CropsInColor campaign, we focused on the role of apples, beans, corn, tomatoes, squash, and chili peppers ...
Common wasp species could be valuable at sustainably managing crop pests, finds a new UCL-led experimental study in Brazil.The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that social wasps are effective predators that can manage pests on two high-value crops, maize and sugarcane.
12-year-old Edelsin Linette Mendez lives with her siblings and parents on their small coffee farm in the beautiful highlands of Nicaragua. Coffee farming has supported the Mendez and thousands of other families for generations, with coffee accounting for 30% of the country’s exports.
Policy decisions over the next 12 months are crucial for Ireland’s rural landscapes. The development of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan for Ireland presents a rare opportunity to deliver high quality food outcomes and enhance farm livelihoods while mitigating our climate and ...
Social wasps are effective predators that can manage pests on two high-value crops, maize and sugarcane, a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B has found.
Pollinators are responsible for the production of many crops grown for human consumption, but their numbers are declining. To ensure food security, world leaders and agriculture authorities must act now to save these crucial species, says the Food and Health Organization of the United Nations.
Industrial farming has contributed to water pollution and loss of wildlife habitats. A promising project has helped improve salmon farming standards in Chile. How did ‘fundamentally different’ organisations make it work?
Around 20% of the UK’s farms account for 80% of the country’s total food production, and they do this on about half of all the farmed land there is. At least 80% of farms in the UK don’t produce very much at all.
Sophie Watts bites into an apple at a Nova Scotia orchard, then turns the fruit around to show off something unusual — its bright pink flesh. It is a Pink Pearl; "really crunchy," with "a great texture," and has been likened to "Jolly Ranchers and Lifesavers, a bit of a sweet candy taste," says ...
More than 20 years ago, Will Harris was a commodity cattle farmer who relied on common industrial tools like pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and antibiotics. Today, his 2,500-acre ranch in Bluffton, Georgia, is a holistically managed, no-waste operation with 10 species of livestock rotated to ...