Aquaculture is a significant industry in food production, and its contribution to nutrition security well acknowledged. Zambia’s aquaculture production has continued increase significantly, thus playing key role supplying animal protein sources for human consumption. However, recent estimates show that 75% of the national comes from large-scale commercial producers despite being by far minority...

Promoting generalist predators in agriculture via habitat manipulation has gained much interest in biocontrol research. Straw shelters have been used by Chinese farmers for .2,000 yr to provide temporary spider refugia during cyclic farming disturbances. This method, however, has not been systematically investigated on larger scales in western-style agriculture. Our preliminary observations ind...

The alternative soil tillage technology plays an important role in the development of a sustainable agriculture. The use of traditional technology gives the farmers a positive expected income. With the use of an alternative soil tillage technology, the expected income considerably rises together with the income risk. Combinations of income and risk revealed that the use of traditional technolog...

Brazilian agriculture covers about one-third of the land area and is expected to expand further. We assessed the compliance of present Brazilian agriculture with environmental legislation and identified challenges for agricultural development connected to this legislation. We found (i) minor illegal land use in protected areas under public administration, (ii) a large deficit in legal reserves ...

In recent decades agriculture has undergone rapid technological and structural changes. This development has raised concerns about the sustainability of modern agriculture and motivated an interest in alternative and, perhaps, more sustainable agricultural systems. Agriculture involves both ecological and social systems, and research in agricultural systems therefore faces the dual challenge of...

This study presents analysis of the current status of energy demand of agriculture sector of Punjab, which is associated with agricultural inputs and farm operations. It also included past trends and future scenarios in order to reduce the future energy demand. A computer based software called Long Range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) is used to estimate total energy demand of agric...

BACKGROUND The use of highly hazardous pesticides by smallholder farmers constitutes a classic trans-sectoral 'wicked problem'. We share our program of research in potato and vegetable farming communities in the Andean highlands, working with partners from multiple sectors to confront this problem over several projects. METHODS We engaged in iterative cycles of mixed methods research around p...