Alpine dairy farming is shifted from an extensive activity based on pasture and low genetic merit cow to an intensive system with specialized breeds and increasing level of concentrate as a supplement in the diet. As a main consequence, a lower echo-compatibility could determine adverse externalities on environment and quality of dairy products. Considering 18 dairy farming located in the mount...

This paper presents a unified framework that will facilitate the implementation of future autonomous farming systems. It describes the coordination of information flow between what is called precision autonomous farming and Precision Agriculture. Precision Agriculture aims to fulfill the agronomical needs of the crop growth. Precision autonomous farming addresses the operation, guidance and con...

Farming systems for pest control, based on the stimulo-deterrent diversionary strategy or push-pull system, have become an important target for sustainable intensification of food production. A prominent example is push-pull developed in sub-Saharan Africa using a combination of companion plants delivering semiochemicals, as plant secondary metabolites, for smallholder farming cereal production...

Understanding how natural resources co-evolve with management practices is fundamental to all questions concerning their sustainable management. In the search for new pathways of sustainable development we seek to understand how comparable initial conditions in agro-ecosystems lead to fundamentally different resource conditions. Agro-ecosystems are characterized by a high diversity, path depend...

Livestock farming has recently come under close scrutiny, in response especially to environmental issues. Farmers are encouraged to redesign their livestock farming systems in depth to improve their sustainability. Assuming that modelling can be a relevant tool to address such systemic changes, we sought to answer the following question: 'How can livestock farming systems be modelled to help fa...

Conversion to organic agriculture describes the process of learning and implementation of changes on the farm towards a more sustainable and natural way of farming. The form the process takes depends on the local circumstances and the predisposition of the farmer or the community, and it varies from farm to farm. The more knowledge a farmer has about the concepts and practices of organic farmin...