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Society has an enormous stake in fostering progress toward profitable, environmentally stable farming systems. Farming systems collapse or are forced to change when they become unprofitable to the farmer or when they impose on farm families, neighbors, rural communities, or perhaps even whole nations clearly excessive indirect costs or burdens. The world is tragically well-supplied these days with examples of clearly unsustainable farming practices. Drought, floods, deforestation, uncontrollable insect pest outbreaks, erosion, and economic calamity in food production systems threaten at least some farming regions in virtually all countries. The diversity of American agriculture makes it difficult to characterize briefly the consequences of a successful transition to sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agricultural practices on diversified farms would greatly facilitate further progress in erosion control by fostering rotations, cover crops, and efficient use of organic materials, such as crop residues and manure.

This chapter presents two reference points to provide a conceptual setting for the definition of sustainable agriculture and to show evolutionary trends in its development. The first reference point is placed in the early 1980s, with the emergence of the concepts of regenerative agriculture and the articulation of a sustainable agriculture. A second reference point is the increased use of the term sustainable, starting in 1987, to refer to a “stable” agriculture in the global sense, involving all facets of agriculture and its interaction with society. Agricultural evolution always has been guided by a perception of what should be, sometimes called the model, the goal, or even the ideology. The difference between that goal and agriculture as it exists presently is the development gap. US agriculture was in a major expansionist mode during the early 1900s. Agricultural development trends and breakthroughs up to and including the Green Revolution are interestingly summarized by Dahlberg.

The impact of agricultural practices on water quality has been of concern in developed countries for at least 25 years. Sustainability of agricultural practices in the United States (US) hinge on whether they are environmentally acceptable—or perceived by the public to be so. A remarkable examination of the basic foundations of modern agriculture in the US has taken place during the last decade. Sustainable agricultural systems in the US will be those that can meet future environmental criteria. Water quality problems suggest that one of the major constraints to sustainability of modern US agriculture will be its ability to meet society’s growing expectations for a clean environment. The major crop production systems in the US are described in terms of those components of the system most related to water quality: tillage, fertilizer management, pest management, livestock waste management, and irrigation management.

Agricultural sustainability was not a major issue in the 1960s and 1970s because food production resources did not appear threatened by overuse. In the 1960s, prevention of the mass starvation predicted by the doomsayers of that era was the primary concern. The emergence of knowledge about the so-called greenhouse effect brought with it the realization that the destruction of tropical forests through slash-and-burn agriculture was a major source of carbon dioxide. There are a couple of decisive factors that brought to a head the importance of agricultural sustainability. One of them is the population situation. The other is a realization that most unused land should not be cultivated, that people should not automatically move in and start cutting and burning forests as they have done before, even in the United States when it was first settled. Increased income generated by policy changes, improved agricultural technologies, and alternative economic endeavors enable people to improve their lives in several ways.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming (USDA) cited increasing concern among farmers, environmental groups, and the general public about the adverse effects of the US agricultural production system, particularly the intensive monoculture of cash grains and the extensive and often excessive use of agricultural chemicals, both fertilizers and pesticides. The USDA report found that many farmers had shifted away from conventional farming systems to a less intensive, low-input approach based primarily on sod-based rotations and mixed crop-livestock enterprises. Sustainable farming systems in the United States have developed and continue to perform remarkably well, despite a formidable array of specific policy disincentives and broad institutional and structural constraints. The heightened activity in sustainable agricultural research and education programs within the USDA/land grant community is beginning to address the urgent need for reliable and readily available information on low-input farming technologies and systems.

Landscape ecology focuses on the spatial and temporal interactions among habitats via exchanges of organisms and materials across the landscape, the influence of heterogeneity on biotic and abiotic processes, and the management of heterogeneity. Natural ecosystems are unsubsidized, solar-powered systems. Pesticides are used to control weeds and insects, fertilizers are applied to maintain soil fertility, and fossil fuels increasingly supply the energy needed to achieve management objectives. Landscape patterns and processes can be determined by cropping practices, landscape heterogeneity, and agroecosystem inputs and outputs. Changes in agriculture since the 1930s have had extensive impacts on patterns and processes in rural agricultural landscapes. Reduced landscape diversity also alters patterns of microclimate and crop-pest interactions. Regulation of crop pests using reduced inputs of pesticides will be promoted by greater landscape diversity within and among field crops.

Urbanisation is transforming human societies in many ways. Besides bringing benefits to people in cities, it also has negative impacts such as food security. One way to meet the challenge is urban agriculture; however, traditional agricultural practices are not suitable within urban areas due to limited availability of land. Therefore, the alternative option is to grow crops inside or on top of buildings, e.g. building integrated agriculture (BIA). But, there is limited research and information available for designers and planners to design such buildings. The presented research project bridges the gap between agriculture and architecture by proposing a building integrated agriculture information modelling tool in integration with Building information modelling. The plugin tool has data on plants’ requirements and automatic response to environmental factors. Environmental factors include temperature, light, water, nutrients, air, humidity, spacing and support. In this paper, seasonal tomato is selected as a reference crop, and the impact of environment (temperature, light, water, nutrients and spacing) on its health is discussed and simulated for germination stage. The undertaken project contributes to the concept of BIA and BIM maturity level, which would help to design an optimum environment building for plants.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enhance the adoption decision of farmers and observe the factors that affect the adoption decision of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) which is the major motivating force of Malaysian economy. The idea behind this study is to transfer knowledge to paddy farmers within regional areas of Malaysia and to comprehend their understanding of social innovation and sustainable agriculture engineering and their overall significance. The outcome of this research will suggest a strategic extensive plan to encourage the use of SAP and also help to develop SAP helping toward building a sustainable society. Design/methodology/approach This paper encompasses three phases: analyzing the process of SAP among Malaysian Paddy farmers, to agricultural industrialization, until the stage of SAP led by farmer’s co-operatives, discussing the relevant practice together with literature and historically evidencing that there is no better way to promote SAP among regional paddy farmers within Malaysia. Findings Initial objective of this paper is to establish a thoughtful approach to enable the society to bridge a gap between embracing sustainability. The second objective investigates the misconception among farmers about social innovation. Furthermore, the study builds the conceptual framework and examines the relationship among the relevant constructs, this framework is critically examining the literature within paddy farming context. Harmoniously, there has been limited empirical research performed on the decision of adoption toward SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia. Originality/value The clear worth of this research paper is the illustration from past reviews and practices to endorse SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia. Another literature review suggests that these countermeasures comprehensively, historically, and theoretically are proven result oriented. The information about SAP will be beneficial for farmers and policy maker who are interested in the advancement. This learning delivers a comparative summary of knowledge transfer influencing farmer’s intention and behavior of sustainable agriculture engineering to adopt green technology. In a future study, these construct will be empirically tested.

Science and innovation are important components underpinning the agricultural and agri-food system in Canada. Canada's vast geographical area presents diverse, regionally specific requirements in addition to the 21st century agricultural challenges facing the overall sector. As the broader needs of the agricultural landscape have evolved and will continue to do so in the next few decades, there is a trend in place to transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy, contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emission and our dependency on non-renewable resources. We highlight some of the key policy drivers on an overarching national scale and those specific to agricultural research and innovation that are critical to fostering a supportive environment for innovation and a sustainable bioeconomy. As well, we delineate some major challenges and opportunities facing agriculture in Canada, including climate change, sustainable agriculture, clean technologies, and agricultural productivity, and some scientific initiatives currently underway to tackle these challenges. The use of various technologies and scientific efforts, such as Next Generation Sequencing, metagenomics analysis, satellite image analysis and mapping of soil moisture, and value-added bioproduct development will accelerate scientific development and innovation and its contribution to a sustainable and prosperous bioeconomy.

There is considerable consensus that a key to addressing the serious socio-ecological crises facing the world is for organizations to implement innovations that foster sustainable development. Drawing from the sustainability, innovation, and Resource Based View literature, this paper aims to examine the organizational capabilities associated with promoting a particular sustainable innovation—Conservation Agriculture—among small-scale farmers in low-income countries. Findings suggest that a paradigm shift is needed to what we call Sustainable Innovation 2.0. Sustainable Innovation 2.0 is associated with a double bottom line approach to sustainability that seeks to enhance positive socio-ecological externalities while maintaining financially viable organizations (i.e., financial well-being is subservient to socio-ecological well-being). We describe how Sustainable Innovation 2.0 is associated with: i) making rare sustainable innovations commonplace; ii) making inimitable emerging sustainable innovations transferable; and iii) developing institutional infrastructures and bundles of resources that counteract the non-substitutability of sustainable innovations. We discuss the implications of these ideas for the associated literature and for future research.

Data management is a way for liaison librarians to support faculty research. American liaison librarians face new demands in data management due to expanding public access guidelines. This article ...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of community-based organizations (CBOs) on the adoption of agricultural adaptations to climate change impacts. To this end, we first analyze farmers’ perceptions on changes in local climatic condition, its impact and adaptations on agriculture based on information collected through a questionnaire survey of 720 farming households in six districts of Nepal. The findings reveal a widespread feeling of weather getting warmer, decreasing precipitation, and increasing weather unpredictability. It is found that climate change has adversely affected agriculture in Nepal, and farmers have adopted various adaptation practices to minimize the impacts. Second, we employ propensity score matching technique to examine the impact of CBOs on climate change adaptation. About 62% of the sampled farming households were associated with CBOs, and several socioeconomic factors influence such association. This study provides evidence supporting the argument that CBOs play important role in reducing the negative impacts of climate change by enhancing the adoption of adaptation strategies. It is also evident from the study the need of further strengthening and institutionalizing the informal farmers’ groups and institutions for the successful adaptation.

The ecovillage movement places emphasis on the holistic sustainability of living. This study undertakes a comparative analysis of two forms of ecovillage development: establishing new intentional communities and retrofitting existing traditional villages. This article describes the achievements and limitations of intentional communities, with a special reference to the Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, Crystal Waters in Australia, and Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI) in the US. For comparison purposes, this article introduces Mundang Ecovillage, a traditional village located in South Korea. The three intentional communities have given priority to building low-impact housing and relying on renewable energy sources. Mundang Ecovillage has strengths in the aspects of agricultural sustainability and social cohesion. This study posits that collective and cooperative communal work on organic farms generates social interactions and enhances integrity among community members. Thus, a great deal of synergy can be...

Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have emerged as a leading institutional approach for advancing sustainability globally. This paper examines three prominent MSIs that have developed sustainability metrics and a standard for US agriculture: Field to Market, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops and the National Sustainable Agricultural Standard Initiative. Using data from interviews and content analysis of initiative reports, two sets of analyses are presented. First, building on Paul Thompson's tri-partite theorization of sustainability, how each initiative is conceptualizing agricultural sustainability is analyzed. We find that two contrasting visions of sustainable agriculture for the USA have emerged from the three MSIs. One vision is a resource sufficiency approach focused on eco-efficiencies and the other vision is a functional integrity approach that emphasizes the maintenance of resilient agricultural and ecological systems. Second, we examine the governance practices of the MSIs to explain why such divergent conceptualizations of sustainability have been mapped out. We find that far from being a neutral forum, the internal dynamics of MSIs often reflect and reproduce existing power relationships among stakeholders. In concluding, we suggest that incremental improvements in sustainability can be achieved using MSIs, but more transformative changes may require other forms of governance.

The modern development of industrial associations is characterized by the use of such legal forms, which preserve the main characteristics of the family farm and at the same time create favorable conditions for the organization of production structures, adequate to large enterprises, family transfer farms. It is these trends in the formation of entrepreneurial activity in agriculture taking into account domestic realities should be taken into account in developments on the restructuring and transformation of domestic agricultural production. Typical farmer, even when he has a small family farm, combines investor, manager and manager in it. In somewhat larger structures, such as family farms, maybe also an accountant, an organizer of work, a specialist in the care of plants and animals, a mechanic, etc. On a successful business, in our view, we can say if: the enterprise has income to pay all necessary expenses; the company has additional income necessary to pay the loans that may be invested; the productive capacity of the enterprise and its potential are not diminished, but desirable – they are developing. Compliance with these conditions can be one of the important reasons for the successful development of entrepreneurial activity. Despite certain advantages or disadvantages of individual forms of entrepreneurial activity, it is necessary to develop various organizational and legal forms in agriculture in market competitive conditions. But it should be borne in mind that social changes affect the system of organizational-economic and legal relations in agriculture. Subjects of entrepreneurial activity who are managing today in agriculture, functioning on the basis of different forms of ownership, not only have the right to exist, but also, competing with each other, create conditions for the development of market relations, profitable agricultural production.

The paper discusses the key strategic challenges of the development of agriculture in Russia. The materials were not only statistical data, but also the results of expert interviews with heads of agricultural enterprises, farmers, and employees of local and regional administrations in several regions. The internal and external factors of the development of industry in Russia are assessed in the format of SWOT analysis. The following is identified among the key strategic challenges: the processes of intensification of agricultural production; overcoming the quantitative and skill deficit of human resources; adaptation of the development of the agrarian infrastructure to modern realities; preservation of the multistructural character of the industry. Each of these processes is considered in more detail at the regional level. An assessment is made of territorial differences in the intensity of modernization processes in agriculture and the renewal dynamics of the agricultural machinery fleet. The regional features of agricultural employment are singled out, and limiting factors of attracting qualified workers in agriculture are defined. The paper assesses the effectiveness of state support for agricultural production. Examples are given of the discrepancy between the distribution of federal subsidies and the real geography of production.

The aim of the present study was twofold; firstly, to understand the existing shifting agriculture practices and secondly, the responses to changing global environment scenario in time and space by traditional communities by way of changing species composition, policies and management practices. The result shows that traditional communities inhabiting mountain landscape in north eastern part of India are managing the landscape quite sustainably over several generations through crop composition, practices and change in policies. Very often, scientific communities and policy framers criticize traditional shifting agriculture as unsustainable form of agriculture without much research and understanding of underlying reality of practicing shifting agriculture. It is to be realized that, under the given situation, tradition communities are adapting themselves with changing global scenario sustainably. Further, it is recommended that the scientific communities need to understand as to how shifting agriculture remains indispensable form of agroecosystem and efforts should be made to improvise it by way of pragmatic suggestions.

Two major trends that have an effect on our planet: increase and urbanization. The anticipated increase for the primary one and half this century is discouraging. Betting on the estimate, there'll be nine to ten billion individuals by mid-century. This population is simply beneath seven billion that means that there'll be a couple of fifty percentage increases from the start to the center of this century. One could dialogue the relative accuracy of explicit models, however all of them agree that there'll be several, more mouths to enclose the approaching decades. IT has reworked several different aspects of human endeavor and has helped produce systems for responding to a good varies of social group wants. Indeed, transportation, communication, national security, and health systems square measure utterly dependent thereon to perform even basic functions. However, data, and its automatic technological embodiment, has not compact agriculture to identical level.

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a subject of growing debate. There are several types of research on urban and peri-urban agriculture, especially in the major cities. These studies usually consist of an analysis of cases that often have different definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local setting and mostly about the objectives of the study. (Thebo, et al., 2014). This lack of steadiness makes it difficult to quantify the scope of this practice on a global scale and presents a challenge for citizens, authorities and academic institutions to provide adequate structure for the transition from theory to the application of urban agriculture within cities. On the one hand, the design of policies that seek the development of regions is framed between two aspects that shape today's world: the global, as a growing economic, cultural and political integration. On the other side the local, as that trend towards Higher levels of self-determination, management, decentralization and development in communities. (Fuchs, et al., 2003). As a result, it is becoming easier for people to get involved in local politics by posing problems that directly affect neighborhoods. Local regulations become much more relevant to the daily life of a person trying to grow their food and feel that they can contribute positively to their community. On the other hand, Climate change and environmental impacts represent a real and grave threat, but there are many potential solutions to them. The present paper aims to analyze the potential of urban agriculture within our environment.

Sustainable food production is one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century in the era of global environmental problems such as climate change, increasing population and natural resource degradation including soil degradation and biodiversity loss. Climate change is among the greatest threats to agricultural systems. Green Revolution though multiplied agricultural production several folds but at the huge environmental cost including climate change. It jeopardized the ecological integrity of agroecosystems by intensive use of fossil fuels, natural resources, agrochemicals and machinery. Moreover, it threatened the age-old traditional agricultural practices. Agriculture is one of the largest sectors that sustain livelihood to maximum number of people and contribute to climate change. Therefore, a climate-smart approach to sustainable food production is the need of hour. Traditional agriculture is getting increased attention worldwide in context of sustainable food production in changing climate. The present article advocates traditional agriculture as a climate-smart approach for the sustainable food production and also deliberates the correlation between climate change and agriculture.

In the article, which is a theoretical and conceptual introduction for the Special Issue of Moravian Geographical Reports on ‘New trends and challenges of urban agriculture in the context of Europe’, the authors resume and review diverging issues of urban agriculture, exploring and discussing them from a geographical perspective and in a wider context of the transformation of urban and rural spaces, urban regeneration and renewal, agricultural restructuring, multifunctionality, ecosystem services, land-use conflicts and social responsibility. After the introduction that depicts a changing role of agriculture in the context of urban and rural transformations, the current research on urban agriculture in Europe is summarised and reviewed. Then the main trends and concepts of growing and expanding urban agriculture are presented and discussed with a special emphasis on the challenges these pose to geographers.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to synthesize the impacts of climate change on agriculture and assess the status of policies, programs and strategies to adapt small farm holders to climate change in South Asia. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected secondary information through a desktop review of policy documents, action plans and published reports. Face-to-face interviews with policy makers, agriculture and climate experts representing the government, non-governmental organizations, international development agencies and the private sector were also conducted to validate the secondary information. Findings The results revealed that agriculture is the dominant economic mainstay providing livelihood to over 70 per cent, employing 60 per cent of the labor force and contributing about 22 per cent of the regional gross domestic product. Climate impacts, such as floods, sea level rise and salt intrusion, increased frequency and intensity of storms, and pests combined with increasing water scarcity continue to reduce arable land, reduce yield of crops and threaten the food security of farmers. Adaptation efforts include using improved varieties of crop; changing cropping patterns and planting seasons; and water conservation techniques. However, progress remains low because of a lack of adequate technical knowledge and financial resources. Originality/value The amount of published literature on climate change and its impact on agriculture is increasing, but there is little effort to analyze and document impacts and strategies to adapt small farm holders to climate change at a landscape level, particularly in South Asia. This study fills in this gap and will serve as a valuable source of information for those wishing to conduct research or develop adaptation strategies for any of the four countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal.

As a part of the development process, India is currently going through a transformation from agriculture based economy to industry and service lead urbanized economy. However, no formal quantitative research has been done on this phenomenon. In this perspective, based on Matsuyama’s (1992. Agricultural productivity, comparative advantage and economic growth. Journal of Economic Theory, 58(2), 317–334. doi:10.1016/0022-0531(92)90057-O) theoretical framework and using panel data model, the impact of agricultural activities on urbanization in India is analyzed in this paper. For the analysis 15 major agricultural states of India are considered for the period of 1981–2015 by sourcing data from mainly Census of India and Ministry of agriculture, government of India. The results indicates that overall agricultural activities measured by share, growth rate and total agricultural production, amount of cultivated land area, amount of rainfall and rural male employment have a negative effect on urbanization...

The way in which economists perceive and interpret human behaviors directly translates into the tools of sustainable development policy (SDP). The efficacy of these tools, hence the possibility of attaining sustainable development (SD) goals depends on how precisely the background assumptions reflect mechanisms of human behaviors. Along with a maturation of sustainability concept it was becoming obvious for ecological economists that this condition is no longer fulfilled by neoclassical concept of homo oeconomicus. According to this path of thought the neoclassical model neither reflects the rules of sustainable society nor explains sustainable behaviors of individual actors. In consequence, ecological economists have been focused on the analysis and critique of homo oeconomicus model. They also started to search for a new concept which would be able to either complement or replace it. This article seeks to explain the vital points of critique of homo oeconomicus concept and, on this background, to describe new concepts introduced by the opponents of neoclassical approach.

Urban agriculture is a common strategy used by urban dwellers in their endeavor to pursue sustainable food security. This article analyzed the practice of urban agriculture by urban dwellers in the city of Gweru in Zimbabwe, with a specific focus on Mkoba suburb. This qualitative study sought as its objectives, to discuss factors that have contributed to the growth of urban agriculture; to analyze how urban agriculture contributes to the well-being of urban dwellers; to examine the legal framework governing urban agriculture in Zimbabwe; and, to ascertain challenges faced by urban farmers in pursuit of urban agriculture. Purposive sampling was used and data were gathered from 26 participants through interviews and focus group discussions. The findings were that the growth of urban agriculture is influenced by rapid population growth, high levels of poverty, high food prices, and high rate of unemployment. The study further found that urban agriculture promotes food security, provides employment and encourages savings. The Urban Councils Act Chapter 29:15; Regional Town Planning Act Chapter 29:12; Environmental Management Act Chapter 20:27; Public Health Act Chapter 15:09; Forestry Act Chapter 19:05; and, the Diary Act Chapter 18:08, all have a bearing on urban agriculture. These Acts do not support, but impede the practice of urban agriculture. There are also challenges that impede the practice of urban agriculture, including the absence of supportive legislation, lack of support from central and local governments, and lack of funding. The study concluded that urban agriculture is an important practice that cannot be dispensed with, as strengthens food security of urban dwellers. The study recommends enactment of supportive legislation, provision of small grants to urban farmers, and creation of farmers associations. Future research should focus on ways of improving the livelihoods of urban farmers. Urban farmers and key stakeholders are largely expected to benefit from the study.

Agribusiness offers promising opportunities to accelerate Africa’s agricultural sector development, increase food security, address poverty, youth employment and drive agriculture-led economic growth. This desk research offers a snapshot of the agribusiness activities in Africa with emphasis on the contribution of higher education institutions that are members of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and selected public universities in Ghana. Our review shows that agribusiness yet in its infancy is gaining traction and longer-term prospects are promising based on initial success and encouraging outcomes in some countries. Various initiatives are taking place in the region, including agribusiness incubation; capacity building, education, and agribusiness knowledge transfer programs at different levels. Partnerships among stakeholders such as government, international groups and private sectors are also growing to boost and encourage better value chain management for agriculture across the African continent. A few RUFORUM university members are setting up the pace in terms of investments to nurture agricultural entrepreneurs through curriculum enhancement; intellectual property and technology transfer policies, and technology commercialization models for conventional and modern technologies through business incubation parks and spin-off companies. Some of the successes and milestones in agribusiness development have yet to happen in many RUFORUM members and in public universities in Ghana. Drawing upon published reports, scholarly articles, and our primary analysis, we highlight several key actions and recommendations that can inform policy and practice to expand and sustain the growth trajectory of agribusiness as a new developmental platform for Africa

Problem, research strategy, and findings: We draw on a multidisciplinary body of research to consider how planning for urban agriculture can foster food justice by benefitting socioeconomically disadvantaged residents. The potential social benefits of urban agriculture include increased access to food, positive health impacts, skill building, community development, and connections to broader social change efforts. The literature suggests, however, caution in automatically conflating urban agriculture’s social benefits with the goals of food justice. Urban agriculture may reinforce and deepen societal inequities by benefitting better resourced organizations and the propertied class and contributing to the displacement of lower-income households. The precariousness of land access for urban agriculture is another limitation, particularly for disadvantaged communities. Planners have recently begun to pay increased attention to urban agriculture but should more explicitly support the goals of food justice in t...

Purpose- Agricultural production is under heavy pressure based upon increasing world population and significant changes in the climate. In this study, the concept of digital agriculture practices and their effects on agricultural productivity is discussed. An evaluation of current circumstance is made through the cases of Doktar Inc. and Tarla.io which are digital agriculture companies located in Turkey. Methodology- This study has utilized case method to evaluate the current circumstance of digital agriculture applications in Turkey. Since digital agriculture is an area that is still in early development stage in Turkey, case method is one of the most suitable methods. 11 open-ended questions and subsequent interviews sent to Doktor Inc and Tarla.io General Managers via e-mail and answers are evaluated with other collected data. Findings- Digital agriculture applications are in the early development stage in Turkey. The companies that are discussed in the paper have made meaningful progress regarding raising awareness of farmers and other involved parts of agriculture sector in Turkey. While the penetration of the two companies is currently not enough both as volume and quantity, the applications used for digital agriculture by them are parallel with the applications in developed countries. Conclusion- Digital agriculture practices in Turkey have yet to be implemented in very limited, but there are steps to be taken to acceleration. To develop digital farming in Turkey, supports of government have strategic priorities. In this context, the development of a digital agriculture action plan and supporting of this strategy with related policies and implementations, like in the EU countries and USA, will enable the expansion of agricultural production vision in Turkey. Technopolis and incubation centers of universities will be able to transform the accumulated scientific knowledge into initiatives and create a digital agriculture-focused ecosystem.

Climate variability and change threaten and impact negatively on biodiversity, agricultural sustainability, ecosystems, and economic and social structures – factors that are all vital for human resilience and wellbeing. To cope with these challenges, embracing sustainability in food production is therefore essential. Practising sustainable agriculture is one way of ensuring sustainability in pro-poor farming communities in low-income countries. Sustainable agricultural practices are those practices enabling farmers to meet current and future societal needs for food, fibre, ecosystem services and healthy lives. This study evaluates the dynamics of farm-level adoption of sustainable agriculture practices and their effects on maize productivity, crop income and food adequacy, using data from the Chinyanja Triangle in southern Africa. We apply joint estimation techniques to estimate consistently the impact of sustainable agriculture practices on maize productivity, crop income and food adequacy. We establishe...

Global climate change is anticipated to intensify the vulnerability of Bangladesh (a low-lying country formed by the alluvial plain of the Ganges-Brahmaputra river systems) to floods and waterlogging, and therefore, the country needs to be equipped with adequate adaptation strategies, particularly those based on traditional knowledge and locally available materials. In this paper, we present a systematic and in-depth review of existing literature to examine the possibilities of indigenous floating agriculture as a technique for climate change adaptation and sustainable community development in Bangladesh. Our review indicates that the indigenous floating agriculture holds enough potential to help farming communities in the flood prone regions of Bangladesh to sustain lives and livelihoods during floods and long-term waterlogged conditions. This technique has a unique quality of providing a wide range of agricultural, environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits, which ultimately render it as an environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially viable practice. Case studies on a number of promotional and experimental floating agriculture projects in different regions of Bangladesh revealed that the floating agriculture greatly supported farming communities to adapt to adverse waterlogged conditions by allowing vegetable production for daily consumption, income generation, community mobilization, and by increasing land-holding capacity. Along with providing food and nutrition security, this technique also strengthened the community capacity to grow and sustain agricultural practices in the subsequent floods and waterlogging conditions. Although this technique has a number of sustainability challenges as highlighted in this study, many of these are possible to overcome through proper planning and long-term management initiatives. We recommend policy implications and future research needs that could be effectively utilized to render this technique as a suitable tool for climate change adaptation and sustainable community development in Bangladesh.

The main purpose of the article is to assess the share of agriculture in the national economy of Russia and the designation of the main factors determining the development of agriculture in this country. The importance of agriculture in the Russian economy is relatively small, which is a characteristic feature of developed economies (about 4% of GDP). However, agriculture represents a significant share in the structure of the employed – 9.2%. The use of agriculture as a food self-sufficiency has become essential after imposing embargo on imported products. Russia as a country has a large area of land. The surface of the used agricultural land after the fall in the 90s has stabilised at the level of 800 thous. km2. At the same time intensified agricultural production has resulted in increase of performance and larger crops. A significant potential of the land, as well as a progressive technological movement is an opportunity for the development of agriculture in Russia.

Sustainable agriculture has the potential to address some of the fundamental challenges facing agricultural practices in Africa especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The agriculture sector plays an important role as the engine of economic growth in SSA. In this paper, we ask the following key question: can sustainable agriculture save Africa from poverty and food insecurity? To address this fundamental question, we examine and critique evidence of the benefits and challenges associated with the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in Africa. Improving agricultural sustainability is fundamental to food security and poverty reduction, particularly in achieving elements of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030, but it will not solve all these problems alone. In consort, African governments and the international community must increase their efforts in tackling problems such as conflicts, civil war, political instability, and disease. Therefore agricultural policy at the national, regional and local levels and institutional reforms must be designed to benefit food security, poverty reduction and income growth at the household level.

The article identifies and substantiates the challenges and prospects of agriculture under the climate change. Ukrainian agriculture serves as an important component of global food security, whose further development is dependent on natural resources, the environment and climate change. Agriculture is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, however, at the same time, it is suffering from the climate change itself. Although Ukraine is not included in the list of the most vulnerable to global warming regions on our planet, if no appropriate urgent action is taken, the climate change will continue to pressure on the agricultural ecosystems. The authors highlight positive (changed terms and conditions of harvesting, increased efficiency of fertilizers, etc.) and negative (deterioration of grain quality, increased frequency of droughts, etc.) effects of the climate change on agriculture; they identify and summarize the main measures to reduce the negative impact of agriculture on climate change and propose various basic adaptation measures that would mitigate the negative impact of the climate change on agriculture. Under the conditions of climate change, an important factor in improving the efficiency of agriculture is a rigorous distribution of arable lands between separate crops with regard to climate change. One of the important measures to improve the crop rotation pattern is including so called "niche" crops that have a significant potential for the diversification of the oilseed-and-grain pattern, which dominates in the crop rotations in southern Ukraine.

Can a city be sustainable? Good question. In its latest State of the World annual report on the progress towards a sustainable society, the Worldwatch Institute explores one of the biggest challeng...

One of the components of the state agricultural policy of Ukraine is to ensure sustainable rural development, which the international community recognized the existence of a strategy for the XXI century. The author found the essence of sustainable development in accordance with international law; analyzed the position in this sphere; proposed her own definition of sustainable rural development. A system analysis of legislation in the field of sustainable rural development suggests that it is in its infancy and needs improvement. The author concludes that the achievement of the basic principles of sustainable rural development is possible through the development and implementation of specific legal, economic and organizational arrangements which should based on diversification of rural areas, because it is could help to solve the major problems of rural areas.

Existing research on the economic sustainability of urban agriculture in the United States tends to emphasize a multifaceted conception of urban agriculture’s return on investment as a combination of revenue and less quantifiable positive external­ities. A more business-oriented advocacy literature, however, sees urban agriculture as a way to generate income for farmers and farm workers. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, we estimate the economic returns of urban farming in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, based on data obtained from urban farmers involved in market farming. Here our goal is to better understand the contribu­tion of market farming to the economic viability of urban agriculture. Second, we hope to improve understanding of how the farmers themselves perceive and navigate commensurabilities and tensions between predominantly market-oriented and more heavily social-service oriented forms of urban agriculture. Home to more than a dozen farms, Philadelphia is a suitable location for such an exploratory study of the financial sustainability of urban agriculture.

Despite of remarkable achievements in the past, China is also facing several major challenges, in particular on ensuring sustainable growth of agriculture, improving food security, increasing farmers' income. The paper reviews China's agricultural and food policy with specific focus on recent challenges, initial policy responses and their consequences, and re-adjusting in policies. The results show that the policy responses to the challenges of sustainable agriculture are strong and encouraging. Adjusting the national food security target in response to sustainable agriculture and major efforts to improve food security are significant. To increase farmer's income, China has shifted its policy regime from taxing to subsidizing and protecting agriculture in the past decade. However, the results of these efforts are mixture. Price interventions increased farmers' income, they also resulted in several serious problems. Good news is that some new efforts to solve these problems may bring China's market reform back to the right track though they still needs to be evaluated. The paper concludes that the previous experiences on agricultural development through institutional reform, technology change, market reform, and investment in agriculture should still be the keys for successfully ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture for China in the future.

Urban agriculture is an important source of food and income throughout Africa. The majority of cultivators on the continent are women who use urban agriculture to provide for their family. Much research on urban agriculture in Africa focuses on the material benefits of urban agriculture for women, but a smaller body of literature considers its social and psychological empowering effects. The present study seeks to contribute to this debate by looking at the ways in which urban agriculture empowers women on the Cape Flats, a region of Cape Town where urban agriculture is supported by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). Based on interviews with cultivators, the findings show that NGO-run urban agriculture projects not only aid food security, but also help women to develop supportive networks that unlock benefits across the personal, social and economic spectrum.

Epistemology of organic agriculture is logically and practically associated with the conventional farming practices. Organic agriculture can contribute in the social life of people by improving health and ecology. It is even more important for the preservation of natural resources. In relation to the importance of organic agriculture, the main objective of this study was to develop the sustainable model of organic agriculture. The study was based on the inductive approach; qualitative design. Study was conducted in 4 districts of Nepal among the 614 respondents. The result found that there was significant contribution made by the organic agriculture to improve the socio-economic status of farmers as well as to care the relationship between the human being and their environment. Family farming system is the fundamental base for changing trend of agriculture in worldwide practices. There is need to protect and enhance family farming through farmers’ cooperative for the sustainability of organic agriculture. The study developed the sustainable model covering the need of infrastructure development, policy improvement, and motivational factors for farmers and changing process of modern agriculture to organic agriculture. The roles of government, non-government, private sectors, individual farmers and consumers are equally important for the sustainability of organic agriculture. The model focuses on the collective effort of all responsible stakeholders. There is need to test the effectiveness of this model.