A European perspective for developing modern multifunctional agroforestry systems for sustainable intensification

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Smith ◽  
Bruce D. Pearce ◽  
Martin S. Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Energy Production ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Sustainable Intensification ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ecological Farming ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
Global Agriculture ◽  
Traditional Agroforestry ◽  
Agriculture And Food ◽  
Key Questions

AbstractOne of the key questions of primary importance to global agriculture and food security is how to optimize sustainable intensification to balance competing demands on land for food and energy production, while ensuring the provision of ecosystem services and maintaining or increasing yields. Integrating trees and agriculture through agroforestry has been attracting increasing interest as an agroecological approach to sustainable intensification. Trees have traditionally been important elements of temperate agricultural systems around the world, but there has been increasing separation of agriculture, forestry and nature over the past few decades. This paper discusses what we can learn from traditional agroforestry systems to help develop modern systems that integrate ecological farming and agroecological advances to achieve sustainable intensification. We also discuss the existing barriers to wider adoption of agroforestry, and identify how these barriers can be overcome to promote agroforestry as a mainstream land-use system.

scholarly journals Environmental assessment of the Tung cultivation through life cycle analysis

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Bern�l ◽  
Rosana Schneider ◽  
�nio Machado
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Life Cycle Management ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ecosystem Changes ◽  
Poor Soil

Over the past few decades, conventional agriculture has been facing serious crises caused by numerous factors, including poor soil management and the excessive application of pesticides. Thus, alternative production systems have been developed, including agroforestry systems, especially those that produce both energy and food. The objective of this study was to environmentally evaluate the culture of Aleurites fordii Hemls. (Tung) using the Life Cycle Assessment method with the SimaPro 7.3.2 software. The results revealed that in family farms that use less mechanization to harvest crops, the primary category of environmental impact was land use, which included the removal of animal and vegetable species and ecosystem changes. The full impact of this category was 1741.21 m2yr PDF (potentially disappeared fraction). Subsequently, prognostics were established for the reduction of such impacts, and we conclude that Tung has a high potential for agricultural installation with high responsibility to the environment. Keywords: Environmental factors, Aleurites fordii Hemls, Life Cycle Management, Tung.

scholarly journals Does Traditional Agroforestry a Sustainable Production System in Bangladesh? An Analysis of Socioeconomic and Ecological Perspectives

Conservation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-35
Author(s):  
Kazi Kamrul Islam ◽  
Mohammad Saifullah ◽  
Kimihiko Hyakumura
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Cost Ratio ◽  
Benefit Cost Ratio ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Agroforestry ◽  
Benefit Cost

In the tropics, products and services provided by the traditional agroforestry systems (TAS) support the basic needs and promote the livelihood of millions of rural people. However, the outcomes and mitigation of TAS, in particular, the social and environmental issues are not systematically addressed. Thus, the objective of the study was to assess the economic, social and environmental outcomes of two important TAS in Bangladesh. This study reports results on prospective analyses using the Date palm and Jackfruit-based TAS practiced in the Jashore and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh. The results revealed that the TAS enhanced farm productivity and the benefit–cost ratio of both systems were much higher than the general agricultural practices in Bangladesh. The TAS also improved resilience of rural farmers through more efficient water utilization, enhancing soil fertility, improving microclimate, controlling pests and diseases, and diversifying products. At the same time, the farmers’ problems were neglected due to the absence of farmers’ platforms, and also tradeoffs may arise; thus, the social aspects of the TAS farmers had not developed equally. Therefore, the study would recommend minimizing the tradeoffs through enhancing the conservation strategies at farmers’ levels to make the TAS more viable and sustainable land-use practices.

Jaziret Fadel

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-126
Author(s):  
Amal Adel Abdrabo
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Mutual Interaction ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Preliminary Research ◽  
The Village ◽  
Key Questions

The plight of refugees fleeing from Palestine in 1948 raises several key questions regarding their historical fragmentation as a nation and their future. From a social anthropological point of view, the existing literature seems to tackle the Palestinian case from different perspectives influenced by the mass exodus of Palestinians from their homeland. Such perceptions took for granted the recognition of the state of “refugeeness” of the exiled Palestinians around the globe, while, in reality, it is a mutual interaction between people, place, and time. In the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War at the beginning of the year 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes in Palestine to the nearby Arab countries, among them was Egypt. Some thousands settled in different areas all over Egypt. Based on a preliminary research on the literature, the author can argue that this is the first ethnographic study of the social life of the village of Jaziret Fadel and its Palestinian inhabitants in Egypt. The chapter is about tackling the historical trajectories, genealogies, memories, and present of the inhabitants of this village who seemed to be torn between two nostalgic pasts. The author's emphasis within this chapter is about how the narratives of the past memories could reveal a lot about the present time of the human societies and their future.

scholarly journals Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Obesity and Reproduction

Endocrinology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manasi Das ◽  
Consuelo Sauceda ◽  
Nicholas J G Webster
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dysfunction ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Metabolic Alterations ◽  
Genetic Manipulations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Calcium Buffering

Abstract Mounting evidence suggests a role for mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, aging, and ovarian failure. Because of the central role of mitochondria in energy production, heme biosynthesis, calcium buffering, steroidogenesis, and apoptosis signaling within cells, understanding the molecular mechanisms behind mitochondrial dysregulation and its potential implications in disease is critical. This review will take a journey through the past and summarize what is known about mitochondrial dysfunction in various disorders, focusing on metabolic alterations and reproductive abnormalities. Evidence is presented from studies in different human populations, and rodents with genetic manipulations of pathways known to affect mitochondrial function.

From Control to Ownership: China's Managerial Revolution

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew G. Walder
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Corporate Sector ◽  
New Variety ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corporate Elite ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Assets ◽  
And Control ◽  
Key Questions

Over the past decade, the ownership and control of China's corporate sector has finally begun to depart fundamentally from patterns typical in the socialist past. Students of corporate governance have watched these changes with an intense curiosity about their impact on firm performance. Students of comparative economic institutions have examined them for hints of a new variety of Asian capitalism and have sought to anticipate China's international competitiveness and impact. But these changes potentially will create a new corporate elite with greater compensation, personal wealth, and independence from government agencies than ever before. This transformation of China's political economy may eventually alter the Chinese state itself, although the extent and nature of this change are still far from clear. The key questions of interest are the social origins of the new elite, the scale of the economic assets they control, and especially their continuing relationships with party and government agencies. The answers will vary decisively by sector, four of which are described here: a state-owned sector, a privatized sector, a transactional sector, and an entrepreneurial sector. The evolving mix of these sectors will determine the future contours of the Chinese corporate economy.

Sexual motivation: problem solved and new problems introduced

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Pfaff ◽  
Farid Saad
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Sexual Motivation ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
The Past ◽  
Epigenetic Effects ◽  
Androgenic Hormone ◽  
Brain States ◽  
To Come ◽  
Intervening Variables ◽  
Key Questions

AbstractBackgroundDuring the past 50 years, motivational studies have evolved from the logical inference of logically required “intervening variables” to explain behavioral change, to electrophysiological and molecular analyses of the mechanisms causing such changes.AimThe purpose of this review article is two-fold: first to describe the logic of sexual motivation in a way that applies to laboratory animals as well as humans, and the second is to address some of the problems of sexual motivation experienced by men.ResultsWhen problems of motivational mechanisms are stripped down to their essentials, as performed in the laboratory animal models and are available for reductionistic studies, then the problems can be solved with certainty, as illustrated in the first part of this review. However, with respect to human sexual motivation, the various determinants which include so many behavioral routes and so many brain states come into play, that definite conclusions are harder to come by, as illustrated in the second part of this review.ConclusionsThis review highlights a number of key questions that merit further investigation. These include (a) What mechanisms do cultural and experiential influences interact with androgenic hormone influences on human sexual motivation? (b) How would epigenetic effects in the human brain related to changes in motivation be investigated? (c) What are the effects of unpredictable traumatic and stressful human experiences on sexual motivation; (d) How such mechanisms are activated upon unpredictable traumatic and stressful insults? (e) What are the outstanding differences between sexual motivational drive and motivations driven by homeostatic systems such as hunger and thirst?

scholarly journals A Review of the Role of Forests and Agroforestry Systems in the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 860
Author(s):  
Antonio Santoro ◽  
Martina Venturi ◽  
Remo Bertani ◽  
Mauro Agnoletti
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Traditional Management ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
Traditional Agroforestry

Traditional agroforestry systems have received increasing attention in recent decades for their multifunctional role and as a sustainable development model for rural areas. At the international level, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme in 2002 with the aim of identifying agricultural systems of global importance; preserving landscapes, agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge; applying the dynamic conservation principles while promoting sustainable development. The aim of the research is to carry out a review of the inscription dossiers of all the 59 sites already included in the GIAHS programme, in order to analyze the role of forests and agroforestry systems. Moreover, the main traditional management techniques have been identified and briefly described, as traditional forest-related knowledge is particularly important for sustainable forest management. Forests and agroforestry systems have been found to be important or crucial in about half of the sites. The main role assigned to forests and agroforestry systems in GIAHS proposals is related to the production of timber, fuelwood and by-products for the local communities according to sustainable and traditional management techniques. Among these, they also play important roles in hydrogeological protection, water regulation and biodiversity maintenance, representing examples both of human adaptation to different environments and of resilient systems that could help to face global challenges such as hydrogeological risk and climate change. The review of the GIAHS inscription dossiers also highlighted the lack of a uniform approach in dealing with forest issues, especially for what concern the description of management plans and the relation with protected areas or forest planning instruments.

scholarly journals Compound natural and human disasters: Managing drought and COVID-19 to sustain global agriculture and food sectors

2021 ◽  
Vol 754 ◽  
pp. 142210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashok Mishra ◽  
Ellen Bruno ◽  
David Zilberman
Keyword(s):  
Global Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture And Food

scholarly journals Traditional agroforestry systems and biodiversity conservation

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 927-935
Author(s):  
Doddabasawa ◽  
BM Chitapur ◽  
M Mahadeva Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Lower Number ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Plant Families ◽  
Traditional Agroforestry ◽  
Religious Reasons ◽  
North Eastern Part

A survey was made to assess the biodiversity in traditional based agroforestry systems under rainfed agroecological situation in north eastern part of Karnataka, India and 27 tree species belonging to 15 families were recorded. Fabaceae was found to be the predominant family accounting for 11 species followed by Meliaceae and Rutaceae with 2 species each while other families had one species each. However, higher tree density per hectare was observed in Azadiractha indica (19.71) belonging to Meliaceae. Among the 27 species Sandal wood and Stain wood were listed in IUCN red list as threatened species. The highest number of families and species were observed in Koppal (11 and 20, respectively) closely followed by Yadgir district (10 and 20, respectively) while lower number of plant families and species were observed in Bidar district (6 and 11, respectively). Most of the species were used for timber (55.56%) purpose followed by fodder (48.15%), while 7.1 per cent were maintained for religious reasons.

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