In face of climate change and other environmental challenges, inclusion of perennial forage shrubs in Australian agricultural systems has the potential to deliver multiple benefits: increased whole-farm profitability and improved natural resource management. The profitability of shrubs was...

Recent decades have witnessed substantial losses in biodiversity in Europe, principally driven by the ecological changes associated with intensification of agricultural production. These changes especially affected the biodiversity in the marginal areas, such as the uplands in UK, since the...

The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of clustering in the development of agriculture and rural communities in China. We shall examine in detail the food industry, which is the link in the food chain that propels the industrialization of agriculture, and identify instances of...

About 30 percent of the world’s soil carbon is stored in peat soils. Peatland’s functional principle of carbon storage greatly depends on management strategies. Therefore agricultural peatland use becomes a focal point of interest in the current debate on climate protection. Agricultural...

The Upper Guadiana basin, in Spain, presents important conflicts between the agricultural sector and the environment due to their competence for water resources. The high development of irrigation has led to the over-exploitation of the aquifers, which are the main source of water in the area,...

To promote multifunctional activity, it is crucial to clarify how jointness is formed in connection with farm structure. This paper examines the relationship between multifunctional activity and farm structure by focusing on the educational function of dairy farming, i.e., farming experience...

Global efforts to reduce deforestation rely heavily on protected areas and land use restrictions. The effect of these restrictions on local communities is currently the subject of heated debate among conservation and development experts. Measuring the social impacts of protected areas is...

In this paper we examine the multiple environmental effects of policies promoting biofuel production from agricultural crops. We develop theoretical and empirical frameworks and provide an integrated economic and ecological modelling approach: an economic model of farmers’ decision making is...

In arid countries worldwide, social conflicts between irrigation-based human development and the conservation of aquatic ecosystems are widespread and attract many public debates. This research focuses on the analysis of water and agricultural policies aimed to conserve groundwater resources and...

Agricultural trade is by far the largest vehicle to ‘move’ water virtually around the world. Observing that most countries import and export water embedded in the exchanged products, the objective of this study is to assess the virtual water ‘trade’ in Spain for the period 1997-2006. We...