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The agricultural sector, indispensable in meeting the increasing demand for food, is the main user of natural resources. Agricultural production breeds significant environmental impacts and problems both within and outside farms or agricultural holdings. This situation increases the sensitivity of the agriculture to the risks that can cause serious economic losses. Thus, unless measures are taken to solve the environmental problems arising from agricultural production, the sustainability of agricultural production and food supply even less the achievement of food and agriculture-related sustainable development goals can be seriously threatened. However, these risks and losses can be mitigated through policy reform, institutional and technological innovations. In West Africa, more than 40% of water and land resources are used for agricultural production. This makes agro- environment relations more important. This study has been carried out to reveal the major agro-environmental challenge in West Africa and to examine the current approaches and policies applied to solve these problems. In the study, data obtained from FAO agro-environmental indicators database were used as the main material. In this study, using a research methodology subdivided into two stages, the effects of agricultural activities on the environment were examined, analysed and interpreted by comparing the agro-environmental profiles of West African countries with other OECD countries based on agro-environmental indicators. Agro-environmental policies applied to resolve agro-environmental problems in West African countries were reviewed and recommendations for sustainable agro-environmental management and also a more efficient and environmentally friendly agricultural sector were formulated for sustainable agriculture and food supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A whole-farm model was used to investigate the interacting effects of precision agriculture technology and agro-environmental policy on the production choices of a representative grain farm. Although some precision agriculture technologies did increase efficiency of resource use, they also decreased the effectiveness of policy, especially policies that rely on economic incentives (e.g., emission taxes). Precision agriculture can lead to higher marginal abatement costs in the form of forgone profits, decreasing producers' responsiveness to those policies. Policy-makers targeting pollution reductions from agriculture should take into account the increasing use of precision agriculture techniques and their varying effects on agro-environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Increasing global demand for agricultural products will continue to affect biodiversity. Various strategies to address this tension, such as payments for ecosystem services, wildlife-friendly farming, and conservation-reserve planning, emphasize different aspects of the system and different policy approaches. We argue that the strategic approach must be matched to the region. That is, land-use policy and research agendas focusing on improving agronomic and ecological functioning need to be coordinated, and informed by integrated knowledge about the ecological, agronomic and socio-economic characteristics of a region. We trial the use of agricultural-production and biodiversity-conservation possibility sets as an integrating framework. We find two benefits. First, the process of developing production possibility frontiers enables researchers from different disciplines to jointly identify and debate the critical types and scales of interactions among production and biodiversity where there exist opportunities for improving the system. Second, we demonstrate how the shape of the biodiversity-production trade-off frontier, and where existing landscapes sit in relation to it, can determine the effectiveness of a policy in achieving production and conservation goals. Production possibility frontiers therefore provide a simple, flexible tool for a critical trans-disciplinary appraisal of policy, and can guide the choice of more sophisticated approaches to managing agricultural landscapes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]