Environment Agriculture and Poverty
Contents: 1. Environment and agriculture: an introduction. 2. Poverty-environment interactions in agriculture. 3. Environmental indicators for agriculture: methods and results. 4. Smallholder agriculture and the environment in a changing global context. 5. Use of environmental lifecycle assessment to evaluate alternative agricultural production. 6. Impact of agriculture on the environment. 7. Precision agriculture and environmental quality: challenges for research and education. 8. Nitrates, agriculture and environment. 9. Economic importance of agriculture for poverty reduction. 10. Urban agriculture and poverty reduction. 11. Urban agriculture for sustainable poverty alleviation and food security. 12. Land reform, agriculture and poverty reduction. 13. Agriculture and environment: interlink with poverty dimension. 14. Changes in global agriculture: a framework for diagnosing ecosystem effects. 16. Attacking poverty while improving the environment. Bibliography. Index.
Agriculture can either sustain or degrade the environment. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has documented agriculture’s main negative effects on land and freshwater, as well as the importance of agricultural landscapes in providing products for human sustenance, supporting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services. Agricultural biodiversity refers to the variety of living species that are important to agriculture. It comprises the diversity of genetic resources e.g. different varieties and breeds and species used in agriculture directly or indirectly, including species that support production e.g. soil organisms and pollinators and broader ecosystems within which agriculture takes places e.g. pastoral, forest and aquatic, as well as the diversity of these agro-ecosystems themselves.
Agriculture can either sustain or degrade the environment. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has documented agriculture’s main negative effects on land and freshwater, as well as the importance of agricultural landscapes in providing products for human sustenance, supporting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services. Agricultural biodiversity refers to the variety of living species that are important to agriculture. It comprises the diversity of genetic resources e.g. different varieties and breeds and species used in agriculture directly or indirectly, including species that support production e.g. soil organisms and pollinators and broader ecosystems within which agriculture takes places e.g. pastoral, forest and aquatic, as well as the diversity of these agro-ecosystems themselves.
