Ancient Egypt was one of the earliest agrarian civilizations in the world. With the introduction of writing (about 3300 BC) institutions such as temples, the crown and others produced large amounts of documents dealing with agriculture, the organization of the agricultural workforce, the management of cultivated land, etc. Yet the very origins of these documents, as well as the vivid descriptio...

This paper discusses the main issues and driving forces of government policies in the area of risk management in agriculture, with particular emphasis on good policy practices and the international environment. Four main ideas are developed. First, good policy and good policy analysis requires a holistic approach. This is particularly so in this policy area because risks interact prominently wi...

A participatory environmental management plan was prepared for Tuzla Lake, Turkey. Fuzzy cognitive mapping approach was used to obtain stakeholder views and desires. Cognitive maps were prepared with 44 stakeholders (villagers, local decisionmakers, government and non-government organization (NGO) officials). Graph theory indices, statistical methods and "What-if" simulations were used in the a...

Machine to machine (M2M) communication networks consist of thousands of low cost, low energy, low computational power and memory sensors nodes. Due to the autonomous monitoring, self organization, low power consumptions and remote accessibility of sensors, M2M communication networks gain momentum in environmental monitoring, pollution detection, agriculture, disasters monitoring and many simila...

EX-ACT (EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool) is a tool developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It provides ex-ante measurements of the mitigation impact of agriculture and forestry development projects, estimating net C balance from GHG emissions and Carbon (C) sequestration. EX-ACT is a land-based accounting system, measuring C stocks, stock changes per unit of ...

The prospect that a global pollination crisis currently threatens agricultural productivity has drawn intense recent interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. To date, evidence for a global crisis has been drawn from regional or local declines in pollinators themselves or insufficient pollination for particular crops. In contrast, our analysis of Food and Agriculture Organ...