Food and nutritional security of projected population of 9.7 billion globally and 1.7 billion in India by 2050 is the major challenge of the 21st century. Alongside the challenge is to improve farmers' income and upgrade agriculture as a business to make it attractive to the youth and generate...

This chapter adopts an historical perspective starting from pre-colonial times to detail how agricultural stagnation and abusive practices by public authorities have contributed to the generation of peasants' revolts, rebellions, and ultimately revolutions in Cambodia and Vietnam. The first section ...

This chapter discusses the emerging challenges of declining water resources and climate change in crop agriculture as well as the crop management options available to increase water productivity, i.e. through increasing water-use efficiency or through crop improvement. Also discussed are farm...

This chapter elaborates on why no-till conservation agriculture (CA) - comprising no or minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and cropping system diversity, plus other good agricultural practices - is better able to weatherproof agriculture compared with tillage agriculture. This is...

This chapter looks at the most common and most important limiting factors to farm productivity in African agriculture and examines whether conservation agriculture (CA) can increase the efficiency of their use. It is concluded that CA is not a low-input system (although it can be a low external...

This chapter focuses on the current status of pest problems and management in the intensive cropping systems of the Brazilian savanna. The major challenges and considerations for pest management in this region are also discussed.

Legume cultivation in Europe has declined in recent decades due to decreased farm-level economic competitiveness compared with cereal and oil crop production. The increase in soybean prices in recent years and the public benefits expected from diversified production systems are reasons to...

This chapter focuses on the importance of proper rootstock selections, canopy training systems and cropping physiology analyses (canopy photosynthesis and carbon distribution, among others) to improve the fruit production of intensive cherry orchards. The benefits of canopy and crop load management ...

Patterns of economic growth and agreements on international trade both impact the economy, nationally and globally. This chapter compares alternative patterns of economic growth with a bilateral free trade agreement between India and the EU and a multilateral trade agreement in the context of the...

Soil health mapping was adopted as entry point activity in the initiative supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh states of India which emphasized on developing soil test-based fertilizer recommendations at block level. In Jharkhand, yield benefit with balanced nutrition...