The full report is now available on the FAO website
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February 19, 2010
FAO – The State of Food and Agriculture 2009 – Livestock in the Balance
Posted by brugerard under FAO, Global, PublicationLeave a Comment
February 19, 2010
Race for Cellulosic Fuels Spurs Brazilian Research Program
Posted by brugerard under Biofuels, Conservation Agriculture, Crop Residues, News, PublicationLeave a Comment
In Science today:
‘….Although Brazilian sugar cane is the most competitive ethanol feedstock today, the United States and Europe are investing heavily in next-generation approaches. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy alone budgeted more than $325 million for biofuel science and demonstration plants. Much of that effort is aimed at “cellulosic ethanol,” or how to obtain fermentable sugars cheaply from straw, wood chips, and other plant material normally considered waste’
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Note: Next generation biofuel might have a major impact on livestock feeding, new opportunities for feeding monograstics and could be a treat to sustainability in some production systems. It will create new competitive interests for cereal crop residues (conservation agriculture practitioners strongly advocating for keeping large amounts of residues in the field to maintain or improve long term productivity)
February 16, 2010
Livestock, feed and food security
Posted by brugerard under Crop Residues, Crop-Livestock, Food security, Forages, Intensification, News, Pastoralism, PublicationLeave a Comment
From the Food Climate Research Network
This briefing paper explores some of the arguments surrounding the relationship between what we feed and how we rear farm animals, and the availability and accessibility of food for human consumption. Does livestock production foster or hinder food security? In what ways are the contributions of intensive and extensive systems to food security different?
February 16, 2010
Intensive versus extensive livestock systems and greenhouse gas emissions
Posted by brugerard under Climate Change, Crop-Livestock, Global, Intensification, PublicationLeave a Comment
From the Food Climate Research Network
The purpose of this briefing paper is to explore the different ways in which one might view the contributions that livestock in intensive and extensive systems make to greenhouse gas emissions. Why do people draw different conclusions about intensive versus extensive systems? How far do these conclusions reflect differing approaches to quantifying emissions, to considering land use, and to accepting future demand for animal source foods?
February 10, 2010
Special Issue, European Journal of Agronomy – Cropping Systems Design : new methods for new challenges
Posted by brugerard under Crop-Livestock, Modelling, PublicationLeave a Comment
Volume 32, Issue 1, Pages 1-120 (January 2010)
This special issue is the product of the First International Symposium on Farming Systems Design organized in September 2007 in Catania, Italy by the European and American Societies for Agronomy (ESA and ASA), the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society and the International Farming Systems Association.
- The challenge is ‘to produce methods and tools that can be used locally by applied researchers and extension specialists to adapt cropping systems in collaboration with farmers…
- • From mono-criteria to multi-criteria design. Even if the production function of cropping systems remains a major pillar of sustainability in many regions of the world, it has to be combined with an increasing number of other assessment criteria related to the negative externalities, environmental and social services of agriculture.
- • From field scale to multi-scale design. For several of the processes to be manipulated in the design of these multi-functional cropping systems, the proper scale at which they operate is often larger than field scale. Examples are the landscape scale for disease management or the farm scale for socio-economics. The challenge of agronomic research is to keep the field as the biophysical unit of crop management, while developing methods and knowledge for up- and down-scaling with the traditional (farm) and new (landscape, watershed, natural ecosystems) embedding and contextual aspects of cropping systems.
- • From stable to unstable environment. Designing new cropping systems is a long process and it occurs in a rapidly changing environment. This is exemplified by climate but also by the economy (prices and policies) and the changing demands and functions that society assigns to agricultural systems. The design process has therefore to integrate objectives of the resilience and flexibility of cropping systems in an unpredictable environment.’ J. Wery, and J.W.A. Langeveld, guest editors
February 8, 2010
One Billion are Hungry – Can we reduce hunger now and by 2050? New Special Issue of Agricultural Water Management addresses question
Posted by brugerard under Intensification, Livestock-Water, News, PublicationLeave a Comment
Based on work completed in 2007, as part of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, the articles in this special issue of ‘Agricultural Water Management’ (April 2010) provide an updated perspective on the investments and interventions needed to improve both irrigated and rainfed agriculture, and to achieve global food security goals. Furthermore, the authors shed light on the challenges and opportunities we must seize without delay, if we are to feed the world successfully by 2050 and beyond.
See the table of content of this special issue
January 21, 2010
New book ‘Science and Innovation for Development’
Posted by brugerard under Climate Change, Crop-Livestock, DFID, Food security, Innovation Systems, PublicationLeave a Comment
Science and Innovation for Development
By Professor Sir Gordon Conway and Professor Jeff Waage, with Sara Delaney. Published by UKCDS January 2010.
ISBN: 978 1 84129 0829
‘…We hope that this book will give anyone who is interested in international development a clearer picture of the role that science and innovation can play. We firmly believe that science is only one of many factors which can contribute to development, but we want that factor to be well understood, particularly as science is often presented in a way which is not easily accessible to the non-specialist. We have used the MDGs as a framework for our exploration, because they address a wide range of development issues where science is particularly active: agriculture, health, and the environment….’ Gordon Conway, Jeff Waage and Sara Delaney
Hard copies will be provided free of charge to researchers and policy-makers in developing countries (see above link).
January 18, 2010
FAO – The State of Food and Agriculture 2009 – Livestock in the Balance
Posted by brugerard under Crop-Livestock, FAO, News, Publication1 Comment
The full report is now available on the FAO website
The new publication of the FAO State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2009: “Livestock in the balance” is planned to be officially launched during January 2010. The State of Food and Agriculture, FAO’s major annual flagship publication, aims at bringing to a wider audience balanced science-based assessments of important issues in the field of food and agriculture. Each edition of the report contains a comprehensive, yet easily accessible, overview of a selected topic of major relevance for rural and agricultural development and for global food security.
Key messages of the report are:
- The livestock sector is expanding rapidly, driven by population growth, rising affluence and urbanization.
- Decisive action is required if increasing demand is to be met in ways that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to poverty alleviation and improved human health.
- The contribution of the livestock sector to poverty alleviation should be enhanced through appropriate policy reform and investments within a framework of broader rural development policies.
- Governance of the livestock sector should be strengthened to ensure that its development is environmentally sustainable and that it both adapts to and contributes to mitigating climate change.
- The neglect of animal-health systems in many parts of the world must be redressed, and producers at every level must be involved in the development of animal-disease and food-safety programmes.
Systemwide Livestock Programme 