A griculture is the dominant sector in the Gambian economy, employing about 70% of the total work force and contributing, on average, 33% of GDP. It produces about 50% of the national food supplies with only about 60% of the country’s total arable land resources currently being utilized. The sector generates approximately 40% foreign exchange earnings and provides two-thirds of total household ...

Population growth combined with increasingly limited resources of arable land and fresh water has resulted in a need for alternative protein sources. Macroalgae (seaweed) and microalgae are examples of under-exploited "crops". Algae do not compete with traditional food crops for space and resources. This review details the characteristics of commonly consumed algae, as well as their potential f...

Man-made habitats in central Europe can be broadly divided into arable land with weed vegetation, and settlements and their surroundings, harbouring ruderal vegetation. The former is a predictable environment with frequent, regular and large-scale disturbances, while the latter is an unpredictable environment with irregular disturbances of varying spatial extent producing heterogeneous mosaics ...

Juha Helenius Department of Applied Biology, PO Box 27, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland, e-mail: [email protected] Jarmo K. Holopainen MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Plant Production Research, Plant Protection, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland. Current address: Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, University of Kuopio, PO Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland Erja Huusel...

Agriculture is the cornerstone of Rwanda’s economy. The authors review how the sector has changed and specifically what soil management practices are now being implemented to enhance coffee production. Coffee covers around 2.3% of total cultivated arable land, and is grown mainly by smallholder farmers on plots of less than one hectare. Rwanda produces high-quality speciality or fully washed co...

Field size distributions and their changes have not been studied over large areas as field size change datasets are not available. This study quantifies agricultural field size changes in a consistent manner using Landsat satellite data that also provide geographic context for the observed decadal scale changes. Growing season cloud-free Landsat 30 m resolution images acquired from 9 to 25 year...

Intercropping has a strong potential to counteract the severe degradation of arable land in the North China Plain (NCP). However, a rapid decline of intercropping can be observed in the last decades. The present paper investigates the reason for this development and suggests solutions on how to adjust intercropping systems to fit modern agriculture. Firstly, the developments of socioeconomic co...

For spatial decision support and regional (agro-)ecosystem modeling, land use data are of central importance and have to be available in a spatial data infrastructure for regional modeling. Usually, land use data are available, but they lack the desired information detail for many purposes. For example, in official land use maps, agricultural land use is generally differentiated between arable ...