Studies on land use change and food security in China have often neglected the regional variability of land use change and food production conditions. This study explores the various components of agricultural production in China in a spatially explicit way. Included are changes in agricultural area, multiple cropping index, input use, technical efficiency and technological change. Different re...

In 1973, Jim Hightower and his associates at the Agribusiness Accountability Project dropped a bombshell – HardTomatoes,HardTimes–onthe land-grantcollegeandagricultural scienceestablishments.Fromtheearly1970s until roughly 1990, Hightower-style criticism of and activism toward the public agricultural research system focusedonasetof closely interrelated themes: the tendencies for thepublicly sup...

One of humanity's major challenges of the 21st century will be meeting future food demands on an increasingly resource constrained-planet. Global food production will have to rise by 70 percent between 2000 and 2050 to meet effective demand which poses major challenges to food production systems. Doing so without compromising environmental integrity is an even greater challenge. This study look...

Functioning ecosystems offer multiple services for human well-being (e.g., food, freshwater, fiber). Agriculture provides several of these services but also can cause negative impacts. Thus, it is essential to derive up-to-date information about agricultural land use and its change. This paper describes the multi-temporal classification of agricultural land use based on high resolution spotligh...

A key challenge for land change science in general and research on swidden agriculture in particular, is linking land cover information to human-environment interactions over larger spatial areas. In Lao PDR, a country facing rapid and multi-level land change processes, this hinders informed policy- and decision-making. Crucial information on land use types and people involved is still lacking....

Global demand for agricultural products such as food, feed, and fuel is now a major driver of cropland and pasture expansion across much of the developing world. Whether these new agricultural lands replace forests, degraded forests, or grasslands greatly influences the environmental consequences of expansion. Although the general pattern is known, there still is no definitive quantification of...

Two contrasting strategies have been proposed for conserving biological diversity while meeting the increasing demand for agricultural products: land sparing and land sharing production systems. Land sparing involves increasing yield to reduce the amount of land needed for agriculture, whereas land-sharing agricultural practices incorporate elements of native ecosystems into the production syst...

Increasing rates of water extraction and regulation of hydrologic processes, coupled with destruction of natural vegetation, pollution and climate change, are jeopardizing the future persistence of wetlands and the ecological and socio-economic functions they support. Globally, it is estimated that 50% of wetlands have been lost since the 1900’s, with agricultural changes being the main cause. ...

China’s urbanization has resulted in significant changes in agricultural land use. However, understanding of the linkages between urbanization and fertilizer use intensity is limited. Using county-level panel data for Henan Province, 1995–2008 and panel econometric models, we investigate the impact of urbanization and other socioeconomic factors on fertilizer use intensity, with a focus on the ...