Agricultural productivity in the highlands of Ethiopia is threatened by severe land degradation, resulting in significant reductions in agricultural GDP. In order to mitigate ongoing erosion and soil nutrient loss in the productive agricultural highlands of the country, the government of Ethiopia initiated a Sustainable Land Management Program (SLMP) targeting 209 woredas (districts) in six regions of the country. This study evaluates the impact of SLMP on the value of agricultural production in select woredas by using a panel survey from 2010 to 2014.

Agricultural productivity in Ethiopia’s highlands, the country’s breadbasket, is threatened by severe land degradation. To mitigate ongoing soil erosion and soil nutrient loss, the government of Ethiopia initiated the Sustainable Land Management Program (SLMP). We evaluated the program’s impact on the value of agricultural production in select kebeles (administrative sub-districts) in which it was implemented using a two-round survey of farm households.

Existing approaches and methodologies that investigate effects of land degradation on food security vary greatly. Although a relatively rich body of literature that investigates localized experiences, geophysical and socioeconomic drivers of land degradation, and the costs and benefits of avoiding land degradation already exists, less rigorously explored are the global effects of restoring degraded landscapes.

Land degradation is a large problem worldwide, especially in agricultural areas. Between 1-6 billion ha of land worldwide is affected by land degradation. With an increasing world population, more food production is needed and, therefore, more land is converted into agricultural areas. This conversion of land to agricultural areas, in turn, leads to more land degradation. Some common forms of land degradation are desertification, salinization and soil erosion by water. The negative effects of soil erosion have been recognized for a long time.

This assessment focuses on three main services that plant protection impacts on soil can significantly affect: provisioning services for food, fibre, and fuel supply and regulating services for water quality and erosion. The Global Soil Partnership (GSP) at its 2016 plenary session requested that the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) complete “an assessment at global level of the impact of Plant Protection Products on soil functions and ecosystems”. It is an activity under the strategic objective SO2 and indirectly contributing to all FAO strategic objectives.

Assessment of ecosystem services has been set a strategically important role in the European Union countries, including it to the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. The EU Biodiversity Strategy determines that “Member States, with the assistance of the Commission, will map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory by 2014, assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020”.

Lease of farm lands is the most important process of proprietorial changes in the state’s agriculture sector. As an effect of turbulent socio-economic conditions and legal solutions resulting from country’s agricultural politics, its share in land’s management has significantly shrunk. Currently there is around 1.1 million ha of land in lease, which makes up for 23% of the land acquired by the Agricultural Property Agency of the State Treasury.

Degraded territory is land which has been damaged by either industrial and other activities or no activities at all to the stage where any economic activity is impossible unless special renewable measures are implemented. One of the aims of sustainable environment resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September, 2015 was ‘to restore degraded land and to aim to achieve having a world neutral to land degradation’. This is the first worldwide document where universal and comprehensive actions regarding land degradation are provided.

Proceedings of international scientific - methodical conference “Baltic Surveying’17” are periodical edition of scientific articles, issued as online (ISSN 2243-6944) edition. The periodicity of proceedings is one volume per year. Conference was held on the 10 - 12 of May, 2017 at the Latvia University of Agriculture, Jelgava, it was organized by the Department of Land Management and Geodesy. Authors of the papers are teachers, researchers and practising professionals from Belarus, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and Latvia.

The article shows the content of land reforms in the Russian Empire, conducted with the help of land management measures.

В статье показано содержание земельных реформ в Российской Империи, проводимых с помощью землеустроительных мероприятий.

The article generalizes theoretical and practical addition to the components of mathematical processing of geodetic measurements, which are the basis and used to support work in land management and cadastre. The research identifies general components of mathematical processing of geodetic measurements and components which are primarily used in the field of land management and cadastre.