This work compares the effects of neoliberal and post-neoliberal land-use policies on forest cover along the Corredor Bioceánico of southeastern Bolivia to determine if rates of agriculturally driven forest clearance have changed since the Morales’ administration came to office in 2005. Satellite image analysis, supported by semi-structured interviews with farmers and representatives of key institutions, shows that deforestation for commercial agriculture in Santa Cruz continues and has increased in certain “hotspots”.

In an era of global climate change, the agricultural sector faces the challenge of increasing the production of safe and nutritious food supplies to meet a growing world population while safeguarding the environment. Farmers will adapt their agricultural practices to a changing climate to safeguard against loss of production and to take advantage of any positive climatic conditions.

The Argentine Pampas, one of the main agricultural areas in the world, recently has undergone significant changes in land use and structural characteristics of agricultural production systems. Concerns about the environmental and societal impacts of the changes motivated development of an agent-based model (ABM) to gain insight on processes underlying recent observed patterns. The model is described following a standard protocol (ODD).

Faced with the low success rates of protected areas in conserving natural forests and supporting rural development, the Malagasy government recently chose to transfer forest resource management to local communities. Feedback about the implementation of this new policy suggests that agriculture continues to drive deforestation. This article explores farmers' household livelihood strategies and land use changes in response to changing forest access rules arising from community-based land management.

Organic farming has risen in popularity with both farmers and consumers, with Australia having the largest area of certified organic land in the world. Australian governments have traditionally ignored the organic farming sector, while making policies that have hampered its further development. Although policies have become more favorable over time, recently, there has been a slight reversal in approach. Such a reversal in policy makes Australia unique when compared to the pro-organic policy developments in nearly all other developed countries.

This study investigates how sustainability and its inherent values figure into farmers' discourse, i.e., how farmers and members of farming communities talk about sustainability. We conducted qualitative interviews of various individuals in a single Iowa community to determine whether the visions guiding their land management choices resembled at all the ideals of a sustainable agriculture. Using Kenneth Burke's concepts of identification and division, we rhetorically analyzed the interview transcripts.

China is the most populated country in the world with slightly more than half of the population is still living in rural areas. In the past couple of decades, rapid urbanization and industrialization have significantly changed the land use/land cover (LULC) pattern in rural areas, particularly those around the big cities in eastern China. Shandong Peninsula, a traditional agriculture area, also has witnessed rapid urbanization and industrialization.

In response to climate change, research is being undertaken to understand the on-farm greenhouse gas emissions and water use for agricultural systems and investigate options farmers may have for mitigating or offsetting emissions. In the present study, a life cycle assessment framework is used to determine on-farm GHG emissions and water use, and the overall 'cradle-to-farm gate' GHG emissions and water use attributed to beef production.

Irrigated agriculture is widespread in the Central Asian drylands and important for food security of the region. However irrigation practices based on rules made for cotton production on large units do not provide adequate guidance for the now widespread small farms that produce cotton wheat and rice. Excessive unsustainable water use is the consequence. Land and water resource management practices were analysed in 2006 for the irrigated area (approx. 1885 ha) of a water users' association (WUA) as a case study.

Nitrate and pesticide leaching led to the designation of groundwater protection zones in Denmark. The protective measures in these zones often clash with local interests in agriculture. Scenarios were used to evaluate the development of a groundwater protection zone in a farming area. Stakeholders are accorded strong influence on the scenarios. Scenario inputs comprised land cover, land use and farmers' plans and preferences, as registered in interviews with farmers. Scenarios were evaluated regarding the effect on nitrate leaching, extent of pesticide-free area and farm income.

Agricultural crops and pasturelands cover 24–38% of the global land area, and thus the ecological services that agricultural systems provide are of utmost societal importance. An important determinant of ecosystem services provision from European farmland is the amount and spatial arrangement of trees, shrubs and woodlands that are integrated into the respective land-use systems.

Substantial differences in the size of landholdings among cocoa farmers in the Western Region – the last cocoa “frontier” in Ghana – are primarily a result of inheritance practices and the purchase of vast tracts of land by migrants in the initial period of the cocoa boom. Individual accumulation of land over the last decade has mainly taken place via inheritance (among indigenous farmers) without takeovers of land and dispossession of small-scale farmers outside the extended family. Land accumulation among migrant farmers is rare beyond the initial acquisition.