Breeding programs for livestock require economic weights for traits that reflect the most profitable animal in a given production system. Economic weights are commonly based on average conditions. In pasture based livestock production systems the cost of feed is an important profit driver, but...

Carbon footprinting can be used to characterise the greenhouse gas emissions profile of agricultural products, providing a baseline against which mitigation targets can be set and progress measured. Farm-level emissions vary in relation to local conditions and management choices. Carbon...

Climate change and on-going water policy reforms will likely contribute to on-farm and regional structural adjustment in Australia. This paper gathers empirical evidence of farm-level structural adjustments and integrates these with a regional equilibrium model to investigate sectoral and...

Rehabilitating disrupted nutrient cycles through organic residue recycling in agriculture may represent a win–win lever, particularly in urban–agricultural areas, with benefits at both ends of the food chain. It carries the promise of enhancing agriculture’s eco-efficiency and resilience...

In this study, a hybrid fuzzy-stochastic programming method is developed for planning water trading under uncertainties of randomness and fuzziness. The method can deal with recourse water allocation problems generated by randomness in water availability and, at the same time, tackle...

Deterioration of crop yields due to exploitive cropping systems (CS) is a worldwide problem reducing profitability for farmers, food availability for consumers and inducing poor utilisation of rainfall. Following a diagnostic approach, likely constraints were identified and corresponding...

This paper presents part of a study evaluating alternative management strategies to address effects of climatic variability on productivity and profitability in dryland sheep farming in New Zealand. The study included a field trial and the development and use of quantitative models of sheep...

This study assesses the productivity and efficiency of maize production under conservation agriculture (CA). The analysis is based on a three year (2008–2010) panel sample of small holder farming households across 15 rural districts in Zimbabwe. We make a comparison of CA with alternative...

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural land use account for 56% of German agricultural green house gas (GHG) emissions. It is assumed that this share will increase up to 60% by 2020. The realistic estimation of N2O emissions for GHG inventory and policy scenarios requires a model...

With an estimated surface area of 190Mha, inland valleys are common landscapes in Africa. Due to their general high agricultural production potential, based on relatively high and secure water availability and high soil fertility levels compared to the surrounding uplands, these landscapes could...