Digital technology has helped researchers and growers to embrace the uncertainties involved in different aspects of crop production via a sense-process-act paradigm that is referred to as Digital Agriculture. The ultimate objective of this concept is to optimize the food production process and increase efficiencies. To achieve this, a combination of methods, tools, and software is used to colle…
The book discusses scientific, technical, and sociological aspects of sustainable agricultural value chains, focusing on coffee and tea production. The book advocates a value-chain strategy and highlights the importance of tracking the effects of climate change. Increasing the amount of value-added products via irrigation is critical to combating climate change and achieving sustainable develop…
Due to the world’s increasing population, the demand for food is rapidly growing. There is a real concern that we are headed toward a food crisis. Land for farming is dwindling, leading to the need to develop alternative production methods. One of the most promising is soilless agriculture, which refers to growing crops, particularly horticultural crops, in different growing media or in subst…
Bestselling author Brett Markham’s new handbook gives us the mini farming basics along with in-depth tips on vegetable gardening, fermenting, composting, and self-sufficiency in a handy new format and design. Includes: Soil management and making your own fertilizer, Crop rotation and cover cropping, Composting, Seed starting and timing/planning, Raised beds and pest management, Pvc trellising…
The Permaculture Handbook is a step-by-step, beautifully illustrated guide to creating resilient and prosperous households and neighborhoods, complemented by extensive case studies of three successful farmsteads and market gardens. This comprehensive manual casts garden farming as both an economic opportunity and a strategy for living well with less money. It shows how, by mimicking the intelli…
This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive reference covering pest management in organic farming in major crops of the world. General introductory chapters explore the management of crops to prevent pest outbreaks, plant protection tools in organic farming, and natural enemies and pest control. The remaining chapters are crop-based and discuss geographic distribution, economic importance and …
This Research Topic focuses on the new opportunities arising from recent developments in technologies and data, to support enhanced monitoring, measurement and management of farming systems for more sustainable food production. There is considerable interest and investment in the information that can be derived from new technologies and data to improve food production efficiencies and reduce w…
Grassland farming in Europe was already established during the settlement of the rst farmers together with their domesticated animals after the last ice age. Since then, grassland provides the forage basis to feed ruminant animals for the p- duction of meat and milk. Depending on the ecological conditions and intensity of usage, various plant communities with different species developed, displa…
Organic farming aims to produce a number of crops, without the use of synthetic chemicals (pesticides) or fertilizers, while enhancing soil composition and promoting biodiversity. This is a traditional, more permanent type of farming that relies on ecosystem services to maintain the integrity of the landscape while still producing sufficient yields. In addition, conventional farming uses pestic…
Sustainable agriculture aims to achieve the goal of food security, also maximizing the socio-economic benefits, and minimizing environmental drawbacks. Farming systems mostly relying on ecological processes and the reduced application of external inputs (fertilizers and pesticides), such as organic farming and integrated farming, can even contribute to the mitigation of global warming and of th…