Prior to 1996 and the Congolese wars, exploitative land policies pushed farmers in the eastern highlands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into a vulnerable position, with cattle manure sustaining intensive cultivation. This exposed households to a complete breakdown in mixed farming as cattle became targets of war. This study of villages in South Kivu offers an inside understanding...

Reconciling the aims of feeding an ever more demanding human population and conserving biodiversity is a difficult challenge. Here, we explore potential solutions by assessing whether land sparing (farming for high yield, potentially enabling the protection of non-farmland habitat), land sharing (lower yielding farming with more biodiversity within farmland) or a mixed strategy would result in ...

BACKGROUND With world food demand expected to double by 2050, identifying farming systems that benefit both agricultural production and biodiversity is a fundamentally important challenge for the 21(st) century, but this has to be achieved in a sustainable way. Livestock grazing management directly influences both economic outputs and biodiversity on upland farms while contributing to potential...

In 2001, the UK was hit by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) precipitating one of the biggest crises ever to affect the UK farming system. The crisis unfolded as a series of information and communication problems, from government to farmers and from farmers to farmers, with consequences for action in a time of crisis, social support, and the maintenance of community. What happens to a farming commun...

Sustainable supply of food and energy without posing any threat to environment is the current demand of our society in view of continuous increase in global human population and depletion of natural resources of energy. Cyanobacteria have recently emerged as potential candidates who can fulfill abovementioned needs due to their ability to efficiently harvest solar energy and convert it into bio...

In a modern globalised world, military and peace keeping forces often face situations which require very subtle and well planned operations taking into account cultural and social aspects of a given region and its population as well as dynamic psychological awareness related to recent events which can have impact on the attitude of the civilians. The goal of the EUSAS project is to develop a pr...

Most studies of respiratory disease from dust exposure in the agricultural workplace have focused on allergic diseases caused by inorganic dusts, specifically occupational asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Exposures to inorganic (mineral) dusts among farmers and farm workers may be substantial. Such exposures are most frequent in dry-climate farming regions. In such locations farming act...