Making the assumption that property rights might determine whether farmers adopt particular strategies, this study aims at modelling farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change by focusing on their property rights – declined as institutional arrangements on land and rights on land – as well as their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The case study took place in northern Benin (West Africa). In this zone, 308 farmers producing maize and adapting to climate change were randomly sampled.

Data on humification is important to assessing the rate and magnitude of soil carbon (C) sequestration. Thus, this study assessed the humification degree (HLIF) of soil organic matter (SOM) and the changes in functional C groups (aromatic-C and aliphatic-C) for contrasting land use and management practices (native vegetation (NV), conventional plow-based tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) systems) in sub-tropical and tropical Brazilian environments. Experiments were conducted at Ponta Grossa (PG) in Paraná State and Lucas do Rio Verde (LRV) in Mato Grosso State of Brazil.

Safe and sustainable management of waste presents a major challenge in cities in the Global South. For decades farmers in the peri-urban interface (PUI) have used biodegradable components of urban waste as inputs into their farming practices. Evidence from Kano, Nigeria; Kumasi, Ghana; Hubli-Dharwad and Kolkata, India reveals in rare detail how urban waste reuse plays an important role in the livelihood strategies of lower-income families nd while waste farming also contributes significantly to urban food security.

A soil survey and mapping program financed by the municipality of Gazi located on the north–central part of Crete was carried out. The studied area is characterized by a moist meso-Mediterranean climate and different degrees of land degradation from human activities. Surface soil horizons are eroded, resulting in fertility decline for olive trees, the dominant crop. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture classification, the soils at higher altitudes are classified as Entisols xerorthents and those at lower altitudes as E. xerofluvents.

The pastoral resources in eastern Sudan are changing under the combined impact of increasing anthropogenic activities such as clearance of natural vegetation and the effect of state policies that favour crop farming against pastoralism. Remotely sensed data are used to detect spatial and temporal changes from 1979 to 2009 in the land use/land cover (LULC) across three study sites. Areas of natural vegetation have been reduced from 26.1% in 1979 to 12.6% in 1999 and further to 9.4% in 2007. The majority of this reduction went into agricultural land.

Higher irrigation quota for conventional farming causes substantial conflicts between water supply and demand in agriculture, and wind erosion near soil surface is one of the major causes of farmland degradation and desertification in arid areas. This research investigated the effect of the amounts of irrigation in combination with tillage practices on soil evaporation (E), water consumption (ET) characteristics, and grain yield performance and water use efficiency (WUE) for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) intercropped with maize (Zea mays L.) in strip planting in an Oasis region.

Using a nationally representative survey of 263 farm operators in Ireland, this study develops a typology of private forest landowners' objectives for forest ownership. It is important to understand farmers' forest ownership objectives as this will enhance economic analysis in general, but also to formulate more effective policies that take into account the range of motivational profiles of landowners. Using principal component analysis, three core motivations for forest ownership are identified representing economic, lifestyle and multifunctional benefits.

Biomass will play a role in the UK meeting EU targets on renewable energy use. Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) and miscanthus are potential biomass feedstocks; however, supply will rely on farmer willingness to grow these crops. Despite attractive crop establishment grants for dedicated energy crops (DECs) in the UK, uptake remains low. Drawing on results from an on-farm survey with 244 English arable farmers, 81.6% (87.7%) of farmers would not consider growing miscanthus (SRC), while respectively, 17.2% (11.9%) would consider growing and 1.2% (0.4%) were currently growing these crops.

This paper investigates how farm-households would dispose of farms following a decision by the farm-household to exit from farming, and in particular when a decision is made to sell the land The paper builds on data from a survey of stated intentions carried out in 9 EU countries at the beginning of 2009, using a probit Heckman model, where the model is applied to explain stated intentions to sell land in the case of farm-households that have decided to exit from farming activities, under two extreme Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scenarios.

There are many different images of the livestock industry and many persons are unhappy with the outcome of the market process. Instead of explaining why the market leads to the current outcomes, it is wise to be prepared that politics will rearrange the property rights in order to produce different outcomes of the market mechanism. In this essay, I show that there are market processes that contribute to a more sustainable way of farming, and that these processes can be reinforced. There are also unsustainable public policies that can be liberalized.

Agriculture and animal husbandry are important contributors to global emissions of greenhouse (GHG) and acidifying gases. Moreover, they contribute to water pollution and to consumption of non-renewable natural resources such as land and energy. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology allows evaluation of the environmental impact of a process from the production of inputs to the final product and to assess simultaneously several environmental impact categories among which GHG emissions, acidification, eutrophication, land use and energy use.

Although protected areas in Africa contain possibly the highest repositories of carbon and thus can play a role in mitigating the effects of climate change through carbon sequestration, they are threatened due to increasing levels of deforestation and forest degradation (DFD). However, little information is available on the on-site causes of DFD in these areas. This paper estimates the levels of DFD and identifies the drivers in the Ankasa Conservation Area (ACA) in Ghana as a case study. A survey was used to identify both direct and underlying factors that promote the DFD.