The demand for additional agricultural land is expected to rise by approximately 50 per cent by 2050 on a global level, and agricultural land of high quality needs to be preserved to ensure future food security. However, agricultural land per capita is decreasing. One of the main reasons for this in the EU and globally is the building of houses or infrastructure on agricultural land. There is a possibility that the Swedish agricultural sector will grow in the future and supply more regions than its own territory with food due to, e.g., climate change.

Housing land consolidation and relocation has been widely implemented in rural China as a policy tool to reduce the area of built-up land, reclaim agricultural land, and redistribute the use of land. Despite of the large scale of implementation, the impact of this policy on the daily life of rural people is not sufficiently evaluated. Our work aims to fill in this gap by examining the daily activity pattern of rural residents in consolidated and unconsolidated villages through mobile phone locational data, using the Chengdu city-region as the case.

This study investigates the spatial expansion process, the de facto land use change, and their endogenous driving forces in the village of Fengzhuang since the 1990s. Fengzhuang is a specialized village in Hebei, North China, in which above 80% of rural residents are engaged in the manufacturing of mahogany furniture. Land use data were extracted from a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) survey conducted in 2014–2015. The results suggest that the land in Fengzhuang has been expanding rapidly under the influence of the informal furniture industry.

In this paper we point out the basic soil parameters characterizing current arable land, permanent grassland, vineyards, and orchards in Slovakia. While the area of permanent land use types is more or less stable, there is a noticeable decrease in the area of arable land. In Slovakia, arable land is located mainly on the plain. The value of its production potential is 67 points (the highest quality soil has 100 points). Permanent grassland is found at higher altitudes on slopes, with a higher gravel content, and the value of their production potential is 35 points.

Urban development and species invasion are two major global threats to biodiversity. These threats often co-occur, as developed areas are more prone to species invasion. However, few empirical studies have tested if both factors affect biodiversity in similar ways. Here we study the individual and combined effects of urban development and plant invasion on the composition of arthropod communities.

En Europe, l'abondance et la variété des espèces animales présentes sur les terres agricoles – la «biodiversité des terres agricoles» – connaissent un déclin marqué. L'UE s'était pourtant engagée à enrayer la perte de biodiversité d'ici 2020. À cet effet, la Commission a prévu d'allouer 66 milliards d'euros au titre de la politique agricole commune entre 2014 et 2020.

Climate change increases the vulnerability of agricultural sector due to the increasing threat from pest attacks. Mitigation of a threat that results from climate change requires adaptation strategies. This study investigates farmers’ willingness to participate in the process of climate change adaptation in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; particularly in facing the increasing risk of pest attacks. Using a logistic regression model, we tested the impacts of social capital on farmers’ willingness to participate.

In recent years, many attempts have been made in Poland to enable automatic data exchange between the system of the Cadastre, being the responsibility of local government units, and the system of Land and Mortgage Register, maintained by the judicial administration (supported by the state apparatus represented by the Ministry of Justice). Such exchange is necessary as it is dictated by the establishment of the Integrated Real Estate Information System.

Adoptions of improved technologies and production practices are important drivers of agricultural development in low-income countries like Nepal. Adopting a broad class of such technologies and practices is often critical for meeting the multifaceted goals of efficiency, profitability, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience.

The dilemma between preserving farmland and urbanization has attracted many policymakers’ attention. One sound solution that has been practiced in several developed countries is the “transfer of development rights” (TDR). This study examines a specific TDR program in China—the Chongqing Land Quotas Trading program. We use a synthetic control method on the 2001–2014 statistics of 57 prefectures to quantitatively assess the program’s effect on farmland preservation and economic growth.

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is advocated as an agricultural innovation that will improve smallholder famer resilience to future climate change. Under the conditions presented by the El Niño event of 2015/16, the implementation of CA was examined in southern Malawi at household, district and national institutional levels. Agricultural system constraints experienced by farming households are identified, and in response the technologies, structures and agency associated with CA are evaluated.