The huge changes in agricultural activities, which may be amplified by the forthcoming Common Agriculture Policy reform, call the future of crop-livestock systems into question and hence the impact of these changes on landscapes and biodiversity. We analyzed relationships between agriculture, landscape and biodiversity in south-western France. The study area covered about 4,000 ha and included ...

Symbiotic associations can allow an organism to acquire novel traits by accessing the genetic repertoire of its partner. In the Dictyostelium discoideum farming symbiosis, certain amoebas (termed "farmers") stably associate with bacterial partners. Farmers can suffer a reproductive cost but also gain beneficial capabilities, such as carriage of bacterial food (proto-farming) and defense against...

In order to examine the impact of pure and mixed planting on the production of grasses and also the biological control of weeds an experiment was conducted in the research farm of Alashtar city of Lorestan province between the years 1391 and 1392. This experiment within the design of complete random blocks (RCBD) with 6 protections which included 100:0 (rouph pea pure planting) 0:100 (pure plan...

In order to examine the impact of pure and mixed planting on the production of grasses and also the biological control of weeds an experiment was conducted in the research farm of Alashtar city of Lorestan province between the years 1391 and 1392. This experiment within the design of complete random blocks (RCBD) with 6 protections which included 100:0 (rouph pea pure planting) 0:100 (pure plan...

OBJECTIVE To determine the risk of prostate cancer associated with farming by duration, recency and specific activities among African-Americans and Caucasians. METHODS This population-based case-control study had information on farming-related activities for 405 incident prostate cancer cases and 392 controls matched for age, race and region in South Carolina, USA, from 1999 to 2001. Cases wi...

This paper innovates as it tests two different hypotheses regarding climate impacts on agricultural markets in Brazil: farmers only observe the average climate conditions of their region when deciding the type and amount of crop/animal to grow/raise; and weather diversions from normal climate conditions deviate farmers from their optimal profits. Both hypotheses are not rejected by the data. Th...

Sahelian pastoralism is encountering difficult problems as population growth leads to the expansion of cropland at the expense of traditional pastures. Many analysts believe that pastoralism is bound to dis appear and is likely to be replaced by mixed crop–livestock farming systems, where livestock stay near the farms and provide milk, draft power, and manure for soil fertility (Boserup 1965; R...

Mixed crop-livestock systems, combining livestock and cash crops at farm level, are considered to be suitable for sustainable intensification of agriculture. Ensuring the survival of mixed crop-livestock systems is a challenge for European agriculture: the number of European mixed crop-livestock farms has been decreasing since 1970. Analysis of farming system dynamics may elucidate past changes...