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A compendium of current information on arid soils. Provides a comprehensive background of the various soils and biota of arid regions, as well as a detailed account of the current understanding of degradation processes, and includes methodologies for arid land maintenance and rehabilitation and for

"What Dr Samuel Johnson did for English, Professor Amir Kassam has done for Conservation Agriculture (CA). He is eminently well qualified and has enlisted more than a hundred battle-hardened champions to contribute 26 chapters amounting to over a thousand scholarly pages. The content is formidable. Volume one, Systems and Science, embraces: the need for CA; global developments; soil health and landscape management; the roles of minimum soil disturbance, mulch and cover crops; crops and croppin...

Agricultural research and development have profoundly increased the quantity and quality of food production in the twentieth century. As populations increase, however, and land and water resources become more scarce, we must improve productivity and efficiency to provide adequate food supplies. Issues such as the environment, genetic diversity, food safety, poverty, human health, animal rights, public versus private responsibilities, and the question of intellectual property rights further compl...

À l'aide d'exemples recueillis en Afrique, en Asie et en Amérique latine, cette publication montre comment les systèmes agricoles fondés sur l'écosystème aident les petits agriculteurs à améliorer les rendements des céréales, à renforcer leurs moyens d'existence , à réduire la pression exercée sur l'environnement et à accroître la résilience face au changement climatique.

Genetically engineered crops offer the potential for producing higher crop yields, crops that make less of an impact on the ecosystem, and crops that provide foods of higher quality and nutritional value. This book examines the use of biotechnology in crop plants. It covers both input and output traits in crop plants, applications aimed toward pharmaceutical and medical applications, and emerging technologies in genomics. Review chapters discussing biotechnology in the crop arena, consumer attit...

During the last thirty years, most increases in agricultural production were achieved through high input agrieulture in areas with fertile soils and sufficient water. Intensive methods of production with high levels of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides were often accompanied by environmental degradation and in some instances by pollution of the food supply. However, rapid population growth has also led to increasing use of marginal lands, where adverse soil and climatic eonditions are serious c...

Greengenetechnology(GGT),understoodasapartofmodernbiotechnology, has been on a steady, triumphal progression over the last ten years (ISAAA 2007, see thecontribution byEinsele in thisissue). This volume, jointly edited byProf. Fiechterandme,dealswithsomeactualscienti?candsocio-economic aspects with regard to genetically modi?ed plants (GMP). Worldwide more than 100 million hectares of agronomical land are covered by GMP. This - cludes some prominent industrialised Western countries like the USA...

There is much current controversy over whether the rights to seeds or plant genetic resources should be owned by the private sector or be common property. This book addresses the legal and policy aspects of the multilateral seed management regime. First, it studies in detail the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Treaty) in order to understand and identify its dysfunctions. Second, it proposes solutions - using recent developments of the "theory of the...

Part of a series studying catchment hydrology, this text covers the soil tracer techniques that have been shown useful for Australian situations. These techniques include those involving surface-applied tracers, historically-applied tracers and environmental soil tracers.