The growing public concern about groundwater contamination, pesticide residues, soil erosion, and wildlife habitat runs parallel to “an emerging interest by many farmers for a more costeffective and environmentally benign agriculture” (USDA, 1990). But only a small number of farmers are using alternative farming systems (Board of Agriculture, 1989). The cause of the limited adoption of sustaina...

In this paper, I address the current process of redistribution of property rights on land and establishing of new economic relations in Ukrainian agricultural sector and assess opportunities for its sustainable development. While agriculture in the Ukraine should be and still has the potential to become an engine for economic growth, the combination of past exploitation and the slow pace of eco...

FAOSTAT 2002 Nitrogen is, with water, the greatest global constraints to agricultural productivity. Sustainable cropping systems throughout history have relied on combining cereals with nitrogen-fixing legumes. However, over last fifty years, cereals have dominated global agriculture, while legume cultivation areas and productivity have stagnated or even declined. Global agriculture is now at a...

Producing safe and high quality food is a prerequisite to ensure consumer health and successful domestic and international trade, and is critical to the sustainable development of national agricultural resources. Systems to trace food or feed products through specified stages of production, processing and distribution play a key role in assuring food safety. Such traceability systems are typica...

This issue of Research Bites looks at some important considerations in formulating a research question for quantitative research. Research originates with an idea about some general problem or question. This problem or question is narrowed down to a more specific research question, which then represents the central issue being addressed. First, it is important to distinguish between descriptive...

Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient. It is the nutrient that is most commonly deficient in soils, contributing to reduced agricultural yields throughout the world. Nitrogen can be supplied to crops by biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), a process which is becoming more important for not only reducing energy costs, but also in seeking more sustainable agricultural production. Nitrogen fixing...

This issue is written and edited by Changbo Bai and Teya Penniman . The Editor is Lynn Wagner . Director of IISD Reporting Services (including Sustainable Developments) is Langston James "Kimo" Goree VI . Funding for coverage of this meeting has been provided by the United Nations University. The authors can be contacted at t...

State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Virology and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China (Y.Z.); Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 (Y.Z., B.D., J.Q., B.Z., J.H.); Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China (B.D.); and Nanjing Agricultural Univ...

Perspectives The second of the new sustainable development goals commits Member States to " end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture ". Unifying the aspirations of the nutrition and sustainable agriculture communities into a single statement presents a unique opportunity to align the goals of these sectors in a common and even more ambitious c...