The assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production

The thematic assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production carried out under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aims to assess animal pollination as a regulating ecosystem service underpinning food production in the context of its contribution to nature’s gifts to people and supporting a good quality of life. To achieve this, it focuses on the role of native and managed pollinators, the status and trends of pollinators and pollinator-plant networks and pollination, drivers of change, impacts on human well-being, food production in response to pollination declines and deficits and the effectiveness of responses

Land use and food security in 2050: a narrow road

After a first foresight study on "World food security in 2050" (Agrimonde), CIRAD and INRA have turned their attention to a new foresight exercise on 'Land use and food security in 2050' (Agrimonde-Terra). This new study seeks to highlight levers that could modify ongoing land-use patterns for improved food and nutrition security. Agrimonde-Terra proposes a trend analysis on the global context, climate change, food diets, urban-rural linkages, farm structures, cropping and livestock systems, and explores five scenarios. Three scenarios entitled "Metropolization", "Regionalization" and "Households" are based on current competing trends identified in most world regions. Two scenarios entitled "Healthy" and "Communities" involve potential breaks that could change the entire land use and food security system. The "Healthy" scenario is the only one that makes it possible to achieve sustainable world food and nutrition security in 2050. Nevertheless, current trends in agricultural and food systems in most parts of the world converge towards the "Metropolization" scenario, which is not sustainable in terms of both land use and human health. Therefore, changing the course of ongoing trends in favor of sustainable land uses and healthy food systems will be one of the main challenges of the next decades. It will require systemic transformation, strong and coherent public policies across sectors and scales, and consistent actions from a wide range of actors. This foresight provides a large information base on land uses, food systems and food security and constitutes a tool box to stimulate debates, imagine new policies and innovations. It aims to empower decision makers, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and researchers to develop a constructive dialogue on the futures of land uses and food security at either world, regional and national levels

Agroecological Approaches for Soil Health and Water Management

In the last century, innovations in agricultural technologies centered on maximizing food production to feed the growing population have contributed to significant changes in agroecosystem processes, including carbon, nutrients, and water cycling. There are growing concerns regarding soil fertility depletion, soil carbon loss, greenhouse gas emissions, irrigational water scarcity, and water pollution, affecting soil health, agricultural productivity, systems sustainability, and environmental quality. Soils provide the foundation for food production, soil water and nutrient cycling, and soil biological activities. Therefore, an improved understanding of biochemical pathways of soil organic matter and nutrient cycling, microbial community involved in regulating soil health, and soil processes associated with water flow and retention in soil profile helps design better agricultural systems and ultimately support plant growth and productivity. This book, Agroecological Approaches in Soil and Water Management, presents a collection of original research and review papers studying physical, chemical, and biological processes in soils and discusses multiple ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, nutrients and water cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and agro-environmental sustainability. We covered tillage, nutrients, irrigation, amendments, crop rotations, crop residue management practices for improving soil health, soil C and nutrient cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, soil water dynamics, and hydrological processes

Plant Genetics and Molecular Biology

This book reviews the latest advances in multiple fields of plant biotechnology and the opportunities that plant genetics, genomics and molecular biology have offered for agriculture improvement. Advanced technologies can dramatically enhance our capacity in understanding the molecular basis of traits and utilizing the available resources for accelerated development of high yielding, nutritious, input-use efficient and climate-smart crop varieties. In this book, readers will discover the significant advances in plant genetics, structural and functional genomics, trait and gene discovery, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, nanotechnology and analytical & decision support tools in breeding. This book appeals to researchers, academics and other stakeholders of global agriculture

Emerging Genomic Technologies for Agricultural Biotechnology: Current Trends and Future Prospects

Twenty years from now, the earth’s population will need 55% more food than it can currently produce. However, agriculture is facing severe challenges such as global climate change, exhausted resources, reduction of arable lands and various pathogen attacks. Advances in genomic technologies may offer potential solutions to these agricultural problems. Recent years have seen the rapid development of new genomic technologies such as CRISPR, TALENS and ODM (collectively gene editing), as well as doubled haploids, molecular markers and mapping populations. Together with the rapidly expanding availability of genome sequence data, these technologies have the potential to transform plant breeding. Cross breeding is a traditionally used technology to improve the crops with desirable traits such as nutritional quality, higher yields, abiotic and biotic stress tolerances. Nowadays, emerging genomic technologies (EGTs) are being used extensively in agriculture and life sciences by researchers all over the world to incorporate desirable genes in different crops such as cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fruits or vegetables. Application of these technologies in new crops is expected to play an important role towards faster growth in productivity so critical for meeting the sustainable development goals, in particular the goals of zero hunger and sustainable food, nutrition and environmental security in the world. This Research Topic will include papers that describe the application of cutting-edge technologies to improve various crops, vegetables and fruits. We aim to attract papers addressing targets from all over the world but not limited to the following: • CRISPR/Cas, ZFN, TALENs • Development of Molecular Markers • Markers Assisted Breeding • SNP Markers • Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) in plants • Genetic Engineering and Development of Transgenic (GMO) crops • Current status of regulatory frameworks controlling GMO crops in the world • Risk assessment of GMO crops • New other emerging genomic technologie

Program and abstracts from the 24th Fungal Genetics Conference

Abstracts of the plenary and poster sessions from the 24th Fungal Genetics Conference, March 20-25, 2007, Pacific Grove, CA

Water productivity indices of the soybean grown on silty clay soil under sprinkler irrigation

The objective of this research was to compare the effects of different irrigation treatments on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] productivity and water use efficiency on experimental fields of the Maize Research Institute of Zemun Polje(Serbia), in 2007 and 2008. Four irrigation levels were investigated: full irrigation (I100), 65% and 40% of I100 (I65 and I40) and a rain-fed (I0) system. The crop water use efficiency (CWUE, also known as crop water productivity –CWP), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and evapotranspiration water use efficiency (ETWUE) were used to assess the water productivity of each studied treatment. The efficiency of the same treatment differed between the years as it depended on seasonal water availability, weather conditions and their impact on seed yields. Maximum and minimum yields were obtained in the I65 and I0 treatments, averaging 3.41 t ha–1 and 2.26 t ha–1, respectively. Water use efficiency values were influenced by the irrigation levels. In general, CWUE values increased with the increased level of irrigation. In both growing seasons, IWUE and ETWUE decreased with increasing the seasonal water consumption and irrigation depth. On average, treatments I40 and I65 resulted in similar or higher CWUE and ETWUE than I100, in both growing seasons. I65 resulted in the highest IWUE, averaged over the two seasons, while I100 had the lowest IWUE. I65 could be proper for the soybean irrigated in Vojvodina when there is no water shortage and I45 could be used as a good basis for reduced sprinkler irrigation strategy development under water shortage