The per capita availability of agricultural land was 0.43 ha in 1960 and declined to 0.26 ha in 1999. Significant per capita declines are projected in the availability of another essential natural resource for agriculture water. At the same time, the world must increase its food production by some 70% by 2050 to meet the needs of its growing population projected to reach 9.2 billion then [Bruin...

Pollinators provide an essential ecosystem service that contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and ensures the survival of pt species including crop pts. Furthermore, the reproductive success in pts is often pollinator limited. Most of the vegetable crops are cross-pollinated i.e. the flowers of these crops need conspecific foreign pollen for pollination and seed set. Insect pollinators...

Urbanization and agriculture are two of the most important threats to biodiversity worldwide. The intensities of these land-use phenomena, however, as well as levels of biodiversity itself, differ widely among regions. Thus, there is a need to develop a quick but rigorous method of identifying where high levels of human threats and biodiversity coincide. These areas are clear priorities for bio...