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Challenges and opportunities in pear breeding
Although pear (Pyrus spp.) is an economically important fruit worldwide, pear cultivars and production practices have been among the slowest of the temperate fruits to change to meet modern consumer demands and labor-efficient orchard realities. In the United States, the majority of the pear orch...
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Human–robot collaboration in agricultural robots
Agricultural robots are being developed for many on-farm tasks; however, in practice, current working agricultural robotic systems are limited and fully robotized farms are not yet available. This chapter presents initial work carried out in the domain of human–robot collaboration in agriculture ...
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Advances in understanding fruit tree growth
Owing to the importance of photosynthesis to the efficient functioning of plants as solar energy collectors, scientists have been intensively studying the process of photosynthesis for more than 100 years, with the hope of increasing its efficiency. There is substantial evidence that fruit trees ...
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Advances and challenges in sustainable peach production
By adopting precise management techniques, growers can reduce the environmental impact of fruit growing, without sacrificing quality and yields, while maintaining income. This chapter discusses how improvements in sustainable peach production can be achieved by an interaction among quite varied d...
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Optimizing pest management in fruit cultivation
Tree fruit growers in temperate regions have faced challenges in managing the complex of arthropod pests present in these systems because of increasing pesticide regulatory restrictions, public concerns about food safety and environmental quality, and resistance to older pesticides by key pests. ...
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Global positioning systems (gps) for agriculture: an overview
The essence of a global positioning system is the ability to define a location anywhere on Earth in terms of three coordinates. The calculation is performed in terms of Cartesian axes including one through the poles, but the result is transformed into local coordinates that include height. This c...
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Advances in the development and utilization of fruit tree rootstocks: a case study for apple
In the previous century, apple rootstocks were chosen on the basis of suitability for climate, required degree of vigor, and plant availability. Thus, the rootstock decision in the past was usually quite simple, with only one or two choices available to growers. However, with the proliferation of...
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The use of agricultural robots in crop spraying/fertilizer applications
Spraying pesticides is a main element of agriculture worldwide, since 30% to 35% of crop losses can be prevented when harmful insects and diseases are eliminated by applying pesticides. A robotic sprayer can help reduce pesticide application while removing the human operator from the hazardous pe...
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Bioactive/nutraceutical compounds in fruit that optimize human health benefits
In the past decade, numerous reports demonstrate that high consumption of fruits and vegetables is beneficial for health, being associated with a reduced risk of degenerative diseases. This chapter provides a brief description of the chemistry of bioactive compounds (BCs) and their presence in te...
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The use of agricultural robots in weed management and control
Weed management and control are essential for the production of high-yielding and high-quality crops, and advances in weed control technology have had a huge impact on agricultural productivity. Any effective weed control technology needs to be both robust and adaptable. Robust weed control techn...
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Optimizing disease management in fruit cultivation
Sustainable management of plant diseases is a perennial challenge for pome fruit and stone fruit producers in humid regions throughout the world. Delayed orchard profitability, decreased orchard longevity, reduction in fruit quality and unsalable fruit caused by fungal and bacterial diseases of t...
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Advances in automating meat processing operations
Meat processing presents a particular challenge to robotics, as it deals with deformable biological products that lack uniformity: no two fish, sides of beef or chicken carcasses are exactly alike. Meat processing plants have many adept human practitioners, skilled with knives, and has proven ext...
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Advances in understanding reproductive development in fruit-bearing plants
In recent years, a physiological understanding of the reproductive development process in fruit trees has accumulated through numerous molecular and genetic studies. Although the physiological traits of perennial or woody fruit trees often hinder studies of the mechanisms driving their reproducti...
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Advances in fruit genetics
Sustainability of fruit production worldwide is heavily dependent on advances in fruit genetics. Changing environments, innovative production systems, increased pest and pathogen pressure and fluctuating consumer preferences are forcing fruit producers to adjust at a higher pace than ever before....
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Advances and challenges in sustainable raspberry/blackberry cultivation
Rubus crops are important for human health and for employment in rural communities. As demand for these berry crops increases at a time of changing climate and consumer awareness of real and/or perceived risks associated with traditional growing practices including inputs, new breeding strategies...
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Advances and challenges in blueberry breeding
Efforts have steadily increased towards understanding the biological processes underlying key physiological traits in blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). Studies have shown high levels of genetic diversity are present within this species, much of which remains to be harnessed. This chapter introduc...
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Advances and challenges in cherry breeding
Cherry breeding is currently carried out in many countries, by public and private programmes, and sweet cherry cultivars are continuously being released. However, classification into clear-cut groups of existing cultivars is difficult, because there is a vast continuum of morphological diversity ...
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Optimizing plant growth, yield and fruit quality with plant bioregulators
Plant bioregulators (PBRs) are used extensively in the tree fruit production industry. They influence many processes in a plant including shoot growth, branch angle, bud break, flower bud formation and fruit abscission, ripening, shape and finish, and as such can be used to optimize not only plan...
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An overview of machine vision technologies for agricultural robots and automation
As machine vision technology becomes ever more readily available it is of increasing value to agriculture. This chapter seeks to outline the principles that will endure as the technology changes and to point out areas in which it can be applied. After examining basic concepts of machine vision, t...
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Advances in actuation and control in agricultural robots
In recent years, agricultural robots have moved away from being pure sensor-carrying platforms for gathering data in the field into becoming action-delivering platforms providing physical interaction with the environment. In this chapter, the actuation methods that are most commonly used on intel...
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Advances and challenges in apple breeding
Breeding new apple varieties is a costly and time-consuming endeavour, often selecting for consumer-preference traits at the expense of other traits of agronomic importance. However, combining both sustainable cultivation with market acceptability is a goal that if achieved would benefit growers,...
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Advances and challenges in raspberry and blackberry breeding
Raspberries and blackberries (Rubus spp.) are important fruit crops that have gained substantial economic interest. Since 1996, berry production has been increasing. With the advent of economic and environmental constraints, sustainability is also becoming increasingly important. This chapter foc...
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Strawberries: a case study of how evolving market expectations impact sustainability
The strawberry industry is facing the reality that it has been built on an unsustainable foundation. with dependencies on fumigation, plastic, pesticides, fertilizers, diminishing groundwater, undocumented labour and fuel for transportation. This chapter offers a case study of the impact of that...
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Advances in automated in-field grading of harvested crops
Mechanical harvesting machines such as canopy and trunk shakers are widely used for yield collection from some crops; however, most fruits and vegetables produced for the fresh market have to be collected manually. This chapter reviews the current state of mechanized collection technology, such a...
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Optimizing fruit production efficiencies through mechanization
Many technological advances in farming have been adopted over the last century transforming various operations. However, some processes in fruit and vegetable production such as tree fruit and berry harvesting have not changed, and crops such as apples, cherries, peaches, blueberries, and strawbe...
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Advances and challenges in peach breeding
Peaches are found in diverse climates and growing regions, plus its relatively short juvenile period, self-pollinated fruitfulness, small genome size and important identified Mendelian traits have made peach a model fruit for breeding and genetics research. This chapter reviews the moderate chill...
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Sustainable sweet cherry cultivation: a case study for designing optimized orchard production systems
Sweet cherries are an inherently challenging crop to produce sustainably, subject to crop loss from climatic events, birds, insects, and diseases, and requiring extensive manual labor due to large tree canopies and small delicate fruits. Nevertheless, cherry production has increased dramatically ...
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Optimizing production of quality nursery plants for fruit tree cultivation
It is now possible to purchase specific nursery tree types that are more compatible with an intended training system, improving planting efficiency and encouraging early production. Although single axis, well-feathered scions suitable for high-density spindle training systems have dominated nurse...
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Optimizing precision in orchard irrigation and nutrient management
Precise water and nutrient management in fruit production systems has become a key area of study over recent years, not only due to the changing climate but also due to increased demand for fruit from a growing population as part of a healthy diet. Irrigated fruit production has been proven to be...
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Advances and challenges in strawberry genetic improvement
The commercial strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is a popular temperate fruit that is both nutritious and widely appreciated for flavour. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight some of the newest innovations in strawberry production with particular emphasis on genetic improvement of the crop....
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The use of intelligent/autonomous systems in crop irrigation
Climate change, combined with the need to feed an increasing population with decreasing arable land, requires to radically re-think the way water is delivered to crops to increase efficiency and minimize wasted water. This chapter examines how robotic and artificial intelligence can be used to im...
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The use of agricultural robots in orchard management
The use of robotic or automated machines in orchard operations is associated primarily with insufficient labour availability and rapidly increasing labour costs in tree fruit production and is critical for improving yield of high-quality fruit with minimal dependence on seasonal human labour. Thi...
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Advances in communication systems in agricultural robotics
Unmanned agricultural ground vehicles (UAGVs) represent substantial potential with their ability to optimize crop yields and increase sustainability, making them a high priority with many academic and corporate institutions. These systems need to be safe and robust while operating in suboptimal c...
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Advances in understanding tree fruit-rhizosphere microbiome relationships for enhanced plant health
Host–microbe interactions in the rhizosphere influence numerous processes that determine plant productivity and health. The rhizo-microbiome influences functions ranging from protection of the plant from pathogen attack to enhanced nutrient availability and uptake. This chapter examines the use o...
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Genome-wide association studies (gwas) in wheat
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have become a very popular method for dissecting the genetic basis of complex traits in plants, including wheat. The benefits of GWAS are a relatively detailed mapping resolution and that no population development is required. The surge of interest in GWAS h...
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Prerequisites, procedures and potential of hybrid breeding in wheat
Hybrid wheat breeding offers great potential to deal with increasing demands for food and feed of future generations. Wheat hybrids possess substantial heterosis for grain yield and can combine disease resistance and quality traits with higher grain yield compared to line cultivars. Moreover, hyb...
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Alien introgression and breeding of synthetic wheat
Wheat is a major food grain source of humans and genetic improvement has contributed significantly to its production. However, the genetic gain of wheat production has slowed in recent years due to its narrow genetic variability and draining of the gene pool in wheat breeding. This chapter elucid...
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Leveraging the qtlome to enhance climate change resilience in cereals
Global food security relies on the release of cultivars more resilient to the negative effects of abiotic stress caused by climate change. Attaining this daunting goal will require a substantial increase in selection gain achieved so far with conventional breeding. To this end, the identification...
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Doubled haploid production in wheat
A doubled haploid is a genotype formed from haploid (n) cells through random chromosome doubling or artificially induced chromosome doubling methods. In vitro haploid production followed by chromosome doubling greatly enhances the production of homozygous wheat lines in a single generation and in...
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Genome-wide association studies (gwas) in barley
In recent years, the limiting factors for Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) in barley have shifted from the number of markers to the number of individuals, and to the deepness of phenotyping, particularly in field experiments of required size. Recent advances in methodology provide an increa...
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Mapping and isolation of major resistance genes in cereals
Diseases caused by pathogenic viruses, bacteria, oomycetes, and fungi are a major threat to cereal production worldwide. However, cereal plants have evolved a plethora of disease resistance genes to combat such threats. This genetic resistance forms an essential component of plant protection and ...
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Marker-assisted trait introgression for wheat breeding and research
Trait introgression, the incorporation of a specific character, is a cornerstone of both wheat breeding and research allowing a specific line or variety to be improved for the character. Varieties can be improved by introgressing the trait of interest into their genetic background through backcro...
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Use of the secondary gene pool of barley in breeding improved varieties
Barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare L.) is an important crop species and breeding efforts over the past century have resulted in agronomically advanced cultivars. These efforts have also resulted in reduced genetic diversity of elite barley germplasm, hampering the ability of breeders to improve...
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Genomic prediction in crops: advantages and drawbacks
Genomic Selection evolved as a promising new method to support decision making for plant breeders. This chapter provides a short introduction to genomic prediction and its usefulness as a selection tool. In addition, the chapter highlights some of the most important factors to be considered when ...
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Site-directed genome modification
The principle of customized endonuclease-triggered genome modification offers unprecedented opportunities for the elucidation of gene functions and the improvement of crop plant performance. The advantage of this technology lies in the possibility of defining the genomic site where a modification...
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Non-invasive field phenotyping of cereal development
High throughput field phenotyping (HTFP) allows the selection of crops with unprecedented precision, and plays an important role to understand genotype-by-environment interaction. This chapter describes carrier systems for non-invasive field phenotyping, outlines the principles of envirotyping, a...
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Advances in statistical methods to handle large data sets for gwas in crop breeding
One of the most important statistical methods of handling large data sets for genome-wide association mapping (GWAS) is quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis. Two approaches to QTL analysis are linkage analysis (LA) and linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping. Even though association and linkage map...
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Doubled haploid (dh) production for barley
Current European barley breeding programs predominately rely on doubled haploid (DH) technology delivering several essential advantages, such as accelerated development of homozygous genotypes, early recognition of major recessive traits, enabling to select faster and much more robust, and facili...
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Theory and application of phenotyping in wheat for different target environments
Phenotyping serves both research and breeding purposes. For research, precise and often costly procedures are employed to phenotype strategic traits in order to gain a better understanding of how genotypes adapt to different environments. For breeding, both strategic and screening traits are cons...
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Challenges and developments in hybrid breeding of barley
Over a long period of more than a century, breeding and improvements in cropping systems have led to a constant increase in grain yield in barley. Due to its autogamous propagation, commercial barley varieties are normally true inbred lines or doubled haploid lines normally having completely homo...
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Nested association mapping in barley to identify extractable trait genes
Wild germplasm contains a wealth of alleles, which are useful in modern agriculture. Nested association mapping (NAM) makes use of wild germplasm by developing multi-parental populations after crossing a single elite cultivar to a number of exotic donors. The resulting NAM lines are subsequently ...
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Development of single nucleotide polymorphism (snp) markers for cereal breeding and crop research: current methods and future prospects
Modern cereal breeding and research increasingly relies upon the application of molecular genetics. This chapter provides an overview of the development of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for use in such breeding and research. Fluorescence detection methods are fully reviewed as this...
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Production of doubled haploid lines for hybrid breeding in maize
The production of genetically homozygous inbred lines is essential for hybrid maize breeding. There is a strong interest in the use of DH lines in research and maize breeding due to their many advantages compared to inbred lines produced by the traditional method of recurrent selfing. This chapte...
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Selection strategies in hybrid rye with special consideration of fungal disease resistances
Although winter rye is known for its high tolerance to biotic stress factors, several diseases are occurring in most rye-growing countries: snow mold, brown foot rot, powdery mildew, leaf rust, stem rust, Fusarium head blight, and ergot. For hybrid breeding, resistance selection is important due ...
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Sustainable production of willow for biofuel use
Intensively managed plantations of willow (Salix spp.) are gaining interest worldwide, mainly due to their efficient and sustainable land use along with an increasing demand for biofuel resources. Willows have traditionally been used as biofuel in the form of wood chips for direct combustion in h...
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Agroforestry for the cultivation of nuts
Row crop agriculture covers over 1.28 billion ha of land globally. Though extremely productive in terms of yield, annual cropping systems rely on external inputs of energy, nutrients and pesticides, leading to a suite of ecological consequences. This chapter focuses primarily on the opportunities...
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Agroforestry practices: windbreaks
Windbreaks, also known as vegetative environmental buffers (VEB) or shelterbelts, are a common feature of agricultural systems around the world. These strips of trees, shrubs, and other perennial or annual vegetation perform a number of functions, including providing protection from the wind for ...
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Agroforestry practices: riparian forest buffers and filter strips
Riparian forest buffers are planned combinations of trees, shrubs, grasses, forbs and bioengineered structures adjacent to or within a stream channel designed to mitigate the impact of land use on the stream or creek. At the landscape level, riparian forest buffers link the land and aquatic envir...
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Managing hedgerows to optimise ecosystem services in agroforestry systems
Hedgerows are composed of trees and/or shrubs and serve as natural fences, often between pastures and arable fields. This chapter discusses the importance of hedgerow management and maintenance to enhance multiple ecosystem services such as biomass production, wind and water protection, habitat p...
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Agroforestry for hardwood timber production
Managing hardwood trees for high-quality sawlogs within the agroforestry practices of alley cropping, silvopasture, forested riparian buffers and upland (windbreaks) buffers means intensively managing relatively wide-spaced trees and a ground cover as a companion crop on the same unit of land. Th...
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Tropical agroforestry and ecosystem services: trade-off analysis for better design strategies
A large body of research has documented a wide list of provisioning and regulating services from tropical agroforestry systems (AFS). This chapter offers an overview of ecosystem services delivered by tropical AFS and presents practical approaches for trade-off analysis between ecosystem services...
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Tropical tree domestication in agroforestry
Trees, whether occurring in wild stands or in agricultural landscapes, play a key role in the livelihoods of smallholders in the tropics. This chapter discusses tropical tree domestication in agroforestry, summarizing the authors’ contribution to the development of new tree crops in the tropics u...
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The role of biodiversity in agroforestry and other types of smallholder farming
Agricultural biodiversity, commonly referred to as agrobiodiversity, is a part of biodiversity that is conserved in agricultural habitats and food production landscapes. Adopting a multidimensional approach to their management is essential to increase sustainability of agricultural habitats. This...
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Agroforestry practices: silvopastoralism
Silvopastoralism is a traditional agroforestry practice that is still managed across the world for raising livestock in lands that often include a combination of grass understorey with a sparse cover of trees and/or shrubs. The woody component plays multiple roles such as forage resource, shading...
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Tree planting and management in agroforestry
Agroforestry seeks to increase the productivity of the farm and help create resilient landscapes. The pattern of tree planting and tree management play an important part in the sustainability of an agroforestry system, as they determine the intensity of competition between trees and crop and the ...
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A holistic approach to sustainable agriculture: trees, science and global society
Despite great advances in our understanding of the environmental, social and economic role of trees in farming systems, much remains to be done, especially regarding the wider adoption of agroforestry and its up- and out-scaling. This chapter explores the relationship between trees, science and g...
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Moving up the scale: challenges in tropical agroforestry
From its early beginnings, agroforestry has moved from a ‘technology in search of a problem’ to a principal solution to critical global agendas, including climate-smart agriculture, agroecological intensification, land rehabilitation and payment for ecosystem services. This chapter addresses the ...
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Agroforestry practices: forest farming
Forest farming is a relatively low-tech agroforestry practice for the cultivation of shade-tolerant non-timber forest products (NTFPs) such as medicinal plants, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, tree syrups and/or nursery stock. It is an ecologically sustainable way for forest owners to generate income, w...
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Agroforestry: a system for improving soil health
Introducing agroforestry into agroecosystems can be an important method to help promote soil health by its influence on soil physical, chemical and biological properties. This chapter highlights the benefits of agroforestry systems on soil properties important for soil health. These include criti...
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Advances in cultivation of almonds: effects of genotypes, environment and cultural techniques
The chapter is an overview of the recent research advances in almond scion and rootstock genotypes, orchard management, including irrigation and fertilization, emphasizing an integrated approach including the environment. The chapter looks ahead to areas for further research in almond tree eco-ph...
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Sweetpotato genetic resources: today and tomorrow
The sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is the sixth most important food crop on a global scale. While China accounts for about 80% of global production, Nigeria, Uganda, Indonesia and Tanzania are also large producers of sweetpotato. The chapter examines the origin and dispersal of sweetpota...
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Improving the environmental performance of horticultural production: fruits and vegetables
Horticultural crops (fruits and vegetables) are generally considered to have a relatively low environmental impact compared to other food types, yet there is huge diversity among crops and their impact. For fruit crops, the largest impacts occur at the farm level, most often related to machinery ...
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Advances in using robots in forestry operations
Forestry operations have a role to play in the supply of fossil-free raw material to present and future bio-economies. Advances in automation will enable forestry operations to be conducted in a more sustainable way, with better consideration of economic, ecological and ergonomic requirements. Th...
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Temperate alley cropping systems
The implementation of modern agricultural practices has largely excluded trees from the rural landscape, causing negative environmental impacts. Alley cropping, an agroforestry practice where agricultural crops are grown simultaneously with long-term tree crops, helps mitigate negative environmen...
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Advances in understanding vegetable physiology: root systems as the next frontier in improving sustainable vegetable production
Root systems are responsible for the uptake of water and nutrients needed to support crop growth and development, ameliorate the effects of other stressors and increase vegetable production. Roots are crucial for maintaining plant water status and meeting shoot transpirational demands as the leav...
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Modelling agroforestry systems
An agroforestry system is an interconnecting network of woody vegetation with crops and/or animals that work together. This chapter sets out to discuss how to model such systems, which can be highly complex in nature. In the first section, the authors look at the current state of agroforestry mod...
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Advances in robotic milking
In recent years, growth in the number of robotic milking installations on farms has been driven by the need for better labour management and also for improved quality of life for dairy producers. This chapter reviews published research on such robotic milking systems (RMS). Aspects related to bar...
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Agroforestry for fruit trees in europe and mediterranean north africa
Although fruit trees are considered as high value for agroforestry and are the primary driver of agroforestry adoption worldwide, they are still underrepresented in agroforestry systems in temperate regions compared to the tropics. This chapter illustrates the large diversity of fruit tree-based ...
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Advances and challenges in sustainable apple cultivation
Developing sustainable apple cultivation is based on both a better knowledge of tree architecture and physiology in relation to fruiting, and on how the tree interacts with its abiotic and biotic environments. Improving knowledge in these domains is crucial to take into account the societal deman...
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Modelling the environmental impacts of pesticides in agriculture
The active ingredients of pesticides, which are widely applied in agriculture worldwide, are important contributors to global human and ecological health burden. Modelling emissions and related human toxicity and ecotoxicity impacts of agricultural pesticides in environmental and life cycle asses...
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Pastoralism and organic animal farming: are they complementary?
A general absence of reliance on purchased inputs as well as a focus on natural pastures and free-ranging animals prompts comparison between pastoralism and organic farming. Pastoralism frequently occurs in the marginal lands that can be found where humans and herds of domesticated animals living...
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Organic beef farming: key characteristics, opportunities, advantages, and challenges
This chapter offers an overview of the current status of organic beef production systems and emphasizes the need for more data to better characterize this farm system. It also offers an overview of the course of farm conversion, together with the available resources and options to determine the c...
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Setting the scene: the continued drive to improve organic animal farming
All the elements of current global development – urbanization, industrialization, population growth, food insecurity, environmental degradation, climate change and other universal issues – call for more equitable and balanced agricultural systems, including new and innovative ways of keeping and ...
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Organic sheep and goat farming: opportunities and challenges
Organic goat and sheep farming is a highly diverse type of production throughout Europe and other continents. Current practices are geared to achieve a number of objectives, including sustainability and high standards of animal welfare. This chapter aims to characterize organic goat and sheep far...
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Biosecurity and safety for humans and animals in organic animal farming
‘Biosecurity’ describes methods of reducing the risk of disease spread. Two defining aspects of organic farming are the requirement to allow animals outside access and the aim to nurture animal health without reliance on veterinary medicines. These measures create differences in risks of disease ...
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Enhancing naturalness and human care in organic animal farming
Organic farming aims to produce food in a way that respects the environment, the people and the animals involved. These aims are covered by the principles of Health, Ecology, Fairness and Care. Naturalness and human care are integral components of welfare for farm animals that are managed under o...
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Smallholder integrated organic farming: how can it work in the tropics?
Organic animal farming in the tropics varies considerably across countries and regions, and comprises many different types of systems with significant variation in the degree to which animals are integrated into the systems. The chapter focuses on the issues associated with keeping animals on org...
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Organic pig farming: key characteristics, opportunities, advantages and challenges
Organic pig production strives to provide housing and management conditions that guarantee a high level of animal health and welfare, sustainability, a closed soil–plant–animal cycle and produce high-quality products. This chapter discusses how housing of organic pigs affects welfare and the envi...
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Organic and natural beekeeping, and caring for insect pollinators
The pollination of flowering plants is crucial for the maintenance of earth’s biodiversity, and most food crops depend upon insect pollinators. Unfortunately, conventional agricultural practices tend to diminish the numbers of wild insect pollinators while increasing our need for them. This chapt...
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The principles of organic livestock farming
Organic animal farming is guided by considerations of naturalness, systems thinking and sustainability, and the four IFOAM principles of health, ecology, fairness and care. The principle of health emphasises the connectedness of different parts of the system and seeks high animal health status th...
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Organic dairy farming: key characteristics, opportunities, advantages and challenges
As the organic dairy farming sector grows across Europe, it is necessary to continuously review its various merits and challenges within the organic sector and in comparison with conventional farming methods. Drawing together empirical findings from across the Europe, this chapter summarises some...
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The effects of organic management on greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency in livestock production
The central objectives of organic farming are reducing external inputs and increasing long-term sustainability. Whilst there may be local improvements in resource efficiency, the extent to which organic livestock systems contribute to net greenhouse gas mitigation and fossil energy efficiency gai...
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Integrated crop-livestock systems with agroforestry to improve organic animal farming
The International Federation of Organic Movements (IFOAM) has established four fundamental principles which underpin organic farming. One way of achieving these principles is the use of integrated crop-livestock systems, which is very common for well-balanced organic systems with animals. This ch...
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Organic poultry farming: opportunities and challenges
Poultry constitute a fascinating and diverse group of animals with huge potentials to adapt to many local conditions and to be integrated into a wide variety of organic farming systems throughout the world. Poultry herds fit into many different farm settings throughout the world, including the di...
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The development of organic aquaculture
This chapter offers a general overview of global aquaculture production, explaining some of the key drivers (such as environmental, health and welfare issues with intensive conventional aquaculture) which led to the development of organic aquaculture more than two decades ago. The chapter looks a...
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Improving organic animal farming for the future
This chapter reviews key issues and approaches in improving organic animal farming for the future. It emphasises the value of developing diverse solutions suited to local conditions as well as the importance of understanding and working in harmony with the natural resource base. The chapter highl...
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Rethinking and engaging with animal health in organic farming
The organic principle of health highlights ‘the wholeness and integrity of living systems’. It is not simply the absence of illness, but the maintenance of physical, mental, social and ecological well-being. We often articulate health as simply ‘disease freedom’. However, this chapter argues that...
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Identifying and managing plant health risks for key african crops: banana and plantain
Many smallholder farmers in humid sub-Saharan Africa rely on bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) as major staple food and income generating crops, with only a negligible portion traded internationally. Banana and plantain production is mainly threatened by various pathogens and pests. This chapter ...
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Conserving and exploiting biodiversity in crop cultivation in sub-saharan africa
Under relentless global population growth the key challenge is to increase agricultural production while preserving biodiversity and reducing the pressure on ecosystems and natural resources. As a first step, the development of sustainable agricultural practices requires thorough understanding of...
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Weeds affecting field crops and water bodies in sub-saharan africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, weeds are a serious challenge, undermining food security and economic development. Weeds interfere with various human activities. Despite the different classes of weeds based on habitat (terrestrial or aquatic), life cycle (annual or perennial) or morphology (dicots or mono...
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