Showing results for: agriculture land News
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Effective season extension technologies identified for strawberry production
Fruit growers in the U.S. Intermountain West (the region including the states of Montana, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado) are faced with challenges that include decreased agricultural land availability, harsh climatic conditions, and significant competition from both domestic production and imports. In order to keep fruit production viable in the region, growers need to adopt strategies that ...
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Irrigation threatening steppe birds in Mediterranean wetlands
Intensive irrigation of agricultural land in a Mediterranean water basin is altering the habitats of associated wetlands and changing the balance of the bird population living there, according to a recent study. The Mar Menor coastal lagoon is located in the Southeast of Spain. Inland there are an associated series of wetlands of ecological interest, protected by the Natura 2000 Network1. The ...
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Patches of flowers boost pollinator diversity and lead to higher crop yields
Falling levels of insect pollination are causing declining yields of important agricultural crops. However, new research from South Africa now indicates that planting small patches of native flowers in agricultural fields can be a profitable and sustainable method of increasing pollination and yield. Insect pollination is a vital ecosystem service as animal-pollinated crops form an essential ...
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Expert IPM decision support system
The synopsis for this grant opportunity is detailed below, following this paragraph. This synopsis contains all of the updates to this document that have been posted as of 05/28/2010 . If updates have been made to the opportunity synopsis, update information is provided below the synopsis. If you would like to receive notifications of changes to the grant opportunity click send me change ...
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EPA administrator addresses Farm, Ranch, and Rural communities ffederal advisory committee / agency announces new committee members (HQ)
Today U.S. Environmental Protection Administration Administrator Lisa P. Jackson addressed the newly-appointed members of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC) during their first official meeting since being appointed. The FRRCC is an independent committee, established by EPA in 2008, that advises the agency on a wide range of environmental issues of importance ...
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Australia to share farming lessons with Africa
The Australian government will establish an international food security centre to offer research and technical expertise to willing governments and institutions in Africa. The Australia International Centre for Food Security (AICFS) will be established in the second quarter of next year. Australian prime minister Julia Gillard announced the establishment of the centre last month (28 October). ...
By SciDev.Net
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Putting family farmers first to eradicate hunger
Nine out of ten of the world's 570 million farms are managed by families, making the family farm the predominant form of agriculture, and consequently a potentially crucial agent of change in achieving sustainable food security and in eradicating hunger in the future, according to a new U.N. report released today. Family farms produce about 80 percent of the world's food. Their prevalence and ...
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New Fertilizer Rule Protects Florida`s Liquid Heart
TALAHASSEE, Florida, August 30, 2007 (ENS) - The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services today adopted a final rule limiting the phosphorus and nitrogen content in fertilizers for urban turf and lawns. The Urban Turf Fertilizer Rule will reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus applied in urban areas, limiting the amount of those compounds reaching Florida waters , including ...
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Birds could provide a simple means of identifying high nature value farmland
New research from central Italy shows that high nature value farmland in the region can be accurately identified by the presence of just four bird species. Once such groups of species have been identified for different regions, they can provide a quick and inexpensive tool for assessing the ecological value of farmland, the researchers say. Agriculture is a major land use across Europe and ...
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Can one-time tillage improve no-till?
A one-time tillage has no adverse effects on yield or soil properties on no-till land, according to field research conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Although tillage is another expense for farmers and generally increases the risk of soil erosion, a one-time tillage may be performed to correct some problem, such as a perennial weed problem. The feasibility study was conducted for ...
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Slash-and-burn `improves tropical forest biodiversity`
Slash-and-burn agricultural practices, banned by governments because of the risk of uncontrolled fires, provide better growing conditions for valuable new trees than more modern methods of forest clearance, a study suggests. Starting in 1996, researchers cleared 24 half-hectare areas of tropical forest in Quintana Roo state, in southern Mexico, using three methods: clear-felling, where most of ...
By SciDev.Net
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Rooftop farming: The next steps for development
Urban agriculture is becoming increasingly popular. A recent assessment of rooftop farming in Barcelona shows differing attitudes towards the practice, and provides important recommendations for the development of agricultural policy for the 21st century, such as including food production as a potential use of rooftops in planning legislation. Urban agriculture, defined by the Food and ...
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2015 Farm Science Review Takes On Sharp Edge
Farmers and producers can gain a sharper edge and glean cutting-edge ideas from experts from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University during this year’s Farm Science Review Sept. 22-24 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio. The Review will again emphasize the best agricultural research, resources, information and access for ...
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Life cycle study demonstrates the long-term costs of everyday crops
The environmental and economic costs of a selection of common crops have been determined by a new study, which hopes to improve agricultural sustainability assessments in Europe. The researchers used life cycle analysis on organically farmed tomatoes and pears, and intensively farmed wheat, apples, and lettuce to show the overall impact of agricultural methods. Agriculture accounts for 45% of ...
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FAO urges farmers to join “Greener” revolution
Some 100 delegates from 36 countries meeting at FAO last week called on farmers to join the ongoing “Greener” revolution represented by a form of farming known as Conservation Agriculture. This farming system, CA for short, aims to help feed the world more sustainably by building up soil ecosystems and reducing unnecessary soil disturbance wherever possible. According to one study, some 20 ...
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Water reform urgently needed in Asia to feed extra 1.5bn people by 2050, says new report
A comprehensive new study of irrigation in Asia warns that, without major reforms and innovations in the way water is used for agriculture, many developing nations face the politically risky prospect of having to import more than a quarter of the rice, wheat and maize they will need by 2050. This warning, along with related forecasts and possible solutions, appear in a report entitled, ...
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Ancient crops preserved for future generations in Arctic seed vault
Varieties of one of the world's most important staple crops will be stored for perpetuity deep in the Arctic ice today. José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is joining scientific experts and delegations from Peru, Costa Rica and Norway to witness a ceremony here this afternoon that will help to preserve these vital ...
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