The Development Of Modern Agriculture

This highly readable and up-to-date history provides an informative critique of the causes and consequences of the modern agricultural revolution, since the agricultural depression of the inter-war period. This includes evaluating the impact of the Second World War, the post-war scientific and technological revolutions and the metamorphosis in the role of the state. It also examines the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy and the more recent attempts to rationalize production. The book provides the essential background for an objective appreciation of modern agricultural development.

The Effect of Modern Agriculture on Rural Development discusses the role of agriculture in rural development and analyzes the interaction between the social and technical aspects of rural development. The 22 chapters of the text are organized into five parts. Part I discusses social changes, modernization of agriculture, and process of rural transformation, and Part II deals with modernizing agriculture and the rural settlement pattern. Part III tackles agrotechniques and rural change, while Part IV covers the industrialization of agriculture and villages. Part V discusses agro-industrial integration and rural transformation. The book will be of great interest to individuals concerned with the effects of the modernization of agriculture on rural areas.

This volume examines the factors currently affecting agriculture on a global scale. Land use, soil quality, and the inherent production of greenhouse gasses by agriculture each receive their own chapters.

This new volume explores a wide variety of topics in modern agriculture. From the use of big data and new technologies for monitoring water levels and weather, to the use of biotechnology in seed production and new non-chemical ways to control pests and weeds, this volume provides students and researchers with new and interesting ways to look at agricultural production in modern society. Will our farmers be able to produce enough food to support the growing population? What is the future of our water supply and our soil health? How will climate change affect agricultural production? How do sustainable practices affect prices and growth rates?

This book arises from a 2011 international conference entitled Climate Change, Agri-Food, Fisheries and Ecosystems: Reinventing Research, Innovation, and Policy Agendas for an Environmentally and Socially-Balanced Growth (ICCAFFE2011), organized by the North-South Center for Social Sciences (NRCS) in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany and the Institute for Research and Development (IRD), France. Coverage focuses on the agricultural sector and helps improve understanding of the relationships between agriculture and the environment and between human communities and nature, so as to sustainably manage agricultural development. The contributors analyze the interdependence between sustainable agricultural development and environmental, economic and social dynamics; assess the impacts of soil degradation on agricultural productivity; present ways to enhance livestock production and recommend mechanisms for managing links between agro-biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods. Part I examines sustainable agriculture development and environmental, economic and social dynamics, addressing topics such as global climate change, agriculture and challenges including socio-economic factors, adaptation, poverty reduction and water management. Part II covers the impacts of soil degradation on agricultural productivity and discusses the use of expert systems to assess and manage degraded lands, agricultural productivity, land suitability and rehabilitation. Part III focuses on livestock production enhancements, such as feed resources and supplemental feeds for animals and capacity building for women in dairy management. Part IV shares the outcomes of research in agro-biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods, addressing topics such as co-management of forests, carbon consumption models, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration and scarce mangrove forests. Current environmental and agro-ecological research focuses on understanding the cause-consequence relationships between specific agricultural practices and land use and the responses at different levels of ecosystems. This book is intended to contribute to this discussion.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food and Environment, HAICTA 2017, held in Chania, Crete, Greece, in September 2017. The 14 revised full papers presented in this book were carefully selected from the 55 accepted full papers out of 124 submissions. The selected papers span across various subjects, from ICT innovations and smart farming, to decision support systems, as well as precision farming, disease diagnosis using mobile devices, IoT for monitoring and controlling animal production, sensor-based solutions, GIS-based water management, environmental planning, information systems for monitoring of fish stocks and fisheries, information management in the agri-food sector, and forestry planning and management.

From the large corporation using enormous machines in the USA, to the woman with her hoe and her plot of cassava in Mozambique, to a Chinese collective farm worker in the rice fields, agriculture is essential for humanity to eat. This book looks at the many different types of agriculture and considers the challenges facing farmers today.

This innovative text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Christopher Isett and Stephen Millerargue that people, rather than markets, have been the primary agents of agricultural change. Exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time and analyzing their activities in the wider contexts of markets, states, wars, the environment, population increase, and similar factors, the authors emphasize how larger social and political forces inform decisions and lead to different technological outcomes. Both farmers and elites responded in ways that impeded economic development. Farmers, when able to trade with towns, used the revenue to gain more land and security. Elites used commercial opportunities to accumulate military power and slaves. The book explores these tendencies through rich case studies of ancient China; precolonial South America; early-modern France, England, and Japan; New World slavery; colonial Taiwan; socialist Cuba; and many other periods and places. Readers will understand how the promises and problems of contemporary agriculture are not simply technologically derived but are the outcomes of decisions and choices people have made and continue to make.