This article examines the process of agroecological research on beekeeping systems, developed jointly by the Temperate Agriculture Program of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (EMBRAPA), and the Institute of Sociology and Peasant Studies (ISEC), of the University of Córdoba. The investigation was carried out on different beekeeping experiences in southern Brazil: peasant family farms, settlements of agrarian reform, and Afro-descent quilombola and Guarani indigenous villages.

The fate of ecosystem services (ESS) in the United States depends on the actions of private landowners and operators (‘farmers’). This work uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative method to understand farmer knowledge of ESS and willingness to manage lands from an ESS perspective. Fourteen interviews were conducted to analyze farmer understanding of ESS within the context of conservation management.

Assessing factors influencing phosphorus (P) availability in soils is important in preventing its overexploitation and excessive application in agricultural systems. Despite high historical P applications in the federal state of Brandenburg (Germany), county data on soil test P (STP) reveal considerable disparities in soil available P. In addition, negative soil balances as a result of small mineral P and manure inputs have been observed, raising questions about the factors leading to this situation.

Protection and management of intellectual property rights over unique crop genetic resources, biodiversity, new cultivars in crops and unique products from crops attains significance in the back drops of globalisation and trade liberalisation. Members of WTO, including India are taking earnest efforts to protect the sovereign rights over crop genetic resources and biodiversity by enacting specific Acts. A deep knowledge about these Acts and their implications is essential for achieving their specific goals.

Policy-makers consider participatory reforestation and forest resource management to be the key to reducing the problems of deforestation and forest degradation. In this regard, the government of Ghana introduced a modified taungya system as a mechanism to restore degraded forest reserves under the National Forest Plantation Development Programme to allow landless farmers access to land for temporary crop production and secured tree tenure rights.

The dominant corporate structure of South Africa's agro-food system has led many to suggest there is limited value in redistributing land as a scarce economic resource, or in providing support to black small-scale farmers when large agribusinesses are capable of meeting food needs. Agrarian reform (land reform plus black small-scale farmer support) is not a necessary component of the existing economic system in South Africa. Yet it has tremendous political importance, especially in the context of a stagnant or declining job market.

Despite continued efforts to eradicate black‐backed jackals (Canis mesomelas), they are considered an abundant mesopredator on agricultural land across South Africa, resulting in ongoing human–wildlife conflict and concern for farmers and wildlife managers. We conducted a questionnaire survey and semi‐formal interviews with farmers throughout KwaZulu‐Natal, examining farmers’ livestock husbandry, land‐use changes and perspectives towards jackals as a perceived threat to livestock.

This study examines the causes and consequences of gully erosion, as perceived by the local people of Dangara area, Nigeria. The study particularly seeks to explore the local people’s perceptions of gully erosion and how it affects crop, settlement development, crop yields, land ownership and values, rural economics and private conservation investments in Dangara area of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory. It is based on analysis of data collected using questionnaires administered to 346 respondents in the area.

Karst rocky desertification (KRD) is a type of land degradation especially prominent in southwest China. This article analyzes the anthropogenic driving forces of KRD at two scales: rural locality and its macro socio‐economic circumstances. At the rural locality scale, the intensive human pressure on land because of a large and fast growing population and unsustainable land use are identified to be the reason for KRD. However, more radical driving forces lie in the farmers' disadvantages in social‐economic circumstances, which compel them to overuse rural land.

Silvopastoral systems (SPSs) in Uruguay have been developed in the context of a recently formed plantation forestry sector. Beef cattle farmers have long been adopting forestry mostly as woodlots or SPSs. In spite of the potential complementary relationship between forestry and cattle husbandry, research in temperate regions is scarce. The objectives of this study were to identify constraints for the inclusion of forestry in cattle farms and to assess expansion potential for this land use. A survey was conducted on a sample of 104 landowners with cattle farms larger than 100 ha.

This study assessed the socioecological resilience of family farms in three land reform settlements in Mato Grosso, Brazil, located in the ecologically threatened Cerrado biome. Using focus groups, a household survey, and analysis of soil samples we characterized farming systems and quantified indicators of resilience, which we contextualized with a qualitative analysis of distributions of power and access to rights and resources.

In a study of the traditional livelihoods of 12 Monpa and Brokpa villages in Arunachal Pradesh, India using social–ecological and participatory rural appraisal techniques, we found that the forest tree species paisang (Quercus griffithii, a species of oak) is vital to agroecosystem sustainability. Paisang trees are conserved both by individuals and through community governance, because their leaves play a crucial role in sustaining 11 traditional cropping systems of the Monpa peoples.