The book discusses recent innovation and diversification paths in agri-food, specifically the linkages among food research and innovation, production, consumption, gastronomy, and place branding as well as technology. It also focuses on EU policies and instruments in support of R&I activities in agri-food, and explores agri-food domains within the context of smart specialisation.

Over-pumping of aquifers is a worldwide problem, mainly caused by agricultural water use. Among its consequences are the falling dry of streams and wetlands, soil subsidence, die-off of phreatophytic vegetation, saline water intrusion, increased pumping cost and loss of storage needed for drought relief. Stopping or reversing the trend requires management interventions. The North China Plain serves as an example. A management system is set up for a typical county. It contains three components: monitoring, decision support based on modelling, and implementation in the field. Besides all monitoring data, the decision support module contains an irrigation calculator, a box model, and a distributed groundwater model to project the outcomes of different water allocation scenarios. In view of grain security, a solution combines an adaptation of the cropping system with imports of surface water from the South. The Open Access book does not only describe the problem and the path to its solution. It also gives access to nine manuals concerning methods used. They include computer programs and the game Save the Water. The Chinese experience should be of considerable interest to other regions in the world which suffer from over-pumping of aquifers.

The conservation of crop genetic resources is one of the important elements in efforts to sustainably increase agricultural production in low-income countries, and to guarantee long-term food security, especially for the low-income population groups in these countries. Horticultural crops, as high-value crops, have an important role to play in revitalizing rural economies and can add significantly to national economies. Moreover, horticulture provides more than twice the number of jobs compared to traditional cereal crop production, and the shifting of conventional agriculture towards high-value horticulture has increased employment opportunities in developing countries. To exploit this potential, researchers need a vast array of horticultural genetic resources and information on new traits. Horticultural crops, which are only a part of PGRFA (Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture), are characterized by a wide and varied range of species. In fact, there are five major horticultural crop groups: fruit and nut crops, vegetables, food legumes, roots and tubers, and lastly the ornamental and medicinal group. In this context, the present book provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of conservation and utilization of horticultural genetic resources, addressing contemporary approaches to conservation in connection with different technologies, including biotechnological approaches as practised in India and in some cases, globally. It includes a brief chapter on the unique nature of horticultural genetic resources, providing a rationale for viewing them as being distinct from field crop genetic resources. Subsequent chapters share insights on protocols for the conservation of selected horticultural crops ex situ, and focus on the increased need to complement these efforts with in situ conservation approaches. Geospatial tools are also briefly described, emphasizing their utility with regard to mapping and managing resources. The book also explores the wild gene pool in horticulture crops; discusses legal aspects related to horticultural genetic resources and biotechnological aspects; and describes the key aspects of sustainable management and replenishment. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for all horticulturists, graduate students, researchers, policymakers, conservationists, and NGOs engaged in horticulture in particular and biodiversity in general.

The plant species that humans rely upon have an extended family of wild counterparts that are an important source of genetic diversity used to breed productive crops. These wild and weedy cousins are valuable as a resource for adapting our food, forage, industrial and other crops to climate change. Many wild plant species are also directly used, especially for revegetation, and as medicinal and ornamental plants. North America is rich in these wild plant genetic resources. This book is a valuable reference that describes the important crop wild relatives and wild utilized species found in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The book highlights efforts taken by these countries to conserve and use wild resources and provides essential information on best practices for collecting and conserving them. Numerous maps using up-to-date information and methods illustrate the distribution of important species, and supplement detailed description on the potential value these resources have to agriculture, as well as their conservation statuses and needs. There is broad recognition of the urgent need to conserve plant diversity; however, a small fraction of wild species is distinguished by their potential to support agricultural production. Many of these species are common, even weedy, and are easily overshadowed by rare or endangered plants. Nevertheless, because of their genetic proximity to agriculturally important crops or direct use, they deserve to be recognized, celebrated, conserved, and made available to support food and agricultural security. This comprehensive two-volume reference will be valuable for students and scientists interested in economic botany, and for practitioners at all levels tasked with conserving plant biodiversity. The chapters 'Public Education and Outreach Opportunities for Crop Wild Relatives in North America' and 'Genetic Resources of Crop Wild Relatives - A Canadian Perspective' are open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

This book explores themes in the rhetoric of vegetarian discourse. A vegan practice may help mitigate crises such as climate change, global health challenges, and sharpening socioeconomic disparities, by ensuring both fairness in the treatment of animals and food justice for marginalized populations. How the message is spread is crucial for these aims. Vegan practices thus uncover tensions between individual dietary choices and social justice activism, between ego and eco, between human and animal, between capitalism and environmentalism, and within the larger universe of theoretical and practical ethics. The chapters apply rhetorical methodologies to understand vegan/vegetarian discourse, emphasizing, for example, vegan/vegetarian rhetoric through the lens of polyphony, the role of intersectional rhetoric in becoming vegan, as well as ecofeminist, semiotic, and discourse theory approaches to veganism. The book aims to show that a rhetorical understanding of vegetarian and vegan discourse is crucial for the goals of movements promoting veganism. The book is intended for a wide interdisciplinary audience of scholars, researchers, and individuals interested in veganism, food and media studies, rhetorical studies, human-animal studies, cultural studies and related disciplines. It urges readers to examine vegan discourses seriously, not just as a matter of personal choice or taste but as one vital for intersectional justice and our planetary survival.

Compiles the recent agricultural-biocatalysis research results by interdisciplinary teams from international institutes for chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, and materials and chemical engineering, Investigating important agricultural-biocatalytic topics related to biochemical conversions or bioremediation, modern biological and chemical applications Covers the research on biological control, plant uptake and plant growth aspects, plant stress, including genome editing in plants, and selected agrochemical classes as well as the importance of modern chiral agrochemicals.

Agricultural automation is the emerging technologies which heavily rely on computer-integrated management and advanced control systems. The tedious farming tasks had been taken over by agricultural machines in last century, in new millennium, computer-aided systems, automation, and robotics has been applied to precisely manage agricultural production system. With agricultural automation technologies, sustainable agriculture is being developed based on efficient use of land, increased conservation of water, fertilizer and energy resources. The agricultural automation technologies refer to related areas in sensing & perception, reasoning & learning, data communication, and task planning & execution. Since the literature on this diverse subject is widely scattered, it is necessary to review current status and capture the future challenges through a comprehensive monograph. In this book we focus on agricultural automation and provide critical reviews of advanced control technologies, their merits and limitations, application areas and research opportunities for further development. This collection thus serves as an authoritative treatise that can help researchers, engineers, educators, and students in the field of sensing, control, and automation technologies for production agriculture.

Wine has been around for thousands of years, grape growing and wine production is worldwide, and recipes are prolific. However, this approach to winemaking root cause analysis is original and cannot be found in any other winemaking publications. The book start with the basics, with the authors' own basic winemaking steps. This provides a winemaking process and common language. With this understanding and departure point, they describe Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methods as applied to winemaking. Though winemaking appears to have simple steps, problems or flaws inevitably arise. Instant access to online materials can provide ad-hoc answers to given conditions; however, the applicability of these solutions to one's own situation ad particular conditions is not always clear. Selective changes may or may not solve the problem and in the winemaking world, it may take years to finish the wine and understand if the quality actually improved or not. A finished wine will have thousands of particular current and historical conditions that played some role in its quality.The root cause analysis (RCA) approach provides a path to sort these out and guide winemakers to the solution. It creates a problem statement and systematically divides the world into six discrete groups. This book tackles each and all of these, one group at a time. The text contains examples that prioritize the contributing factors. Observations are noted, possibilities identified, and likelihoods assessed. Actions and tests are identified to aid in assigning risk, corrective action, and preventive measures. Given limited time and resources, prioritized risks and actions improve the chance of solving the problem. The book provides problems exploring each of their respective six group characteristics. Each RCA step is described and illustrated in detail. The process is revealed and explained through multiple examples. Feature 1: Organized systematic method for solving winemaking quality problems Feature 2: Applicable to amateur or commercial winemakers or any other product or system development activity and organization Feature 3: Unique new application to the wine making world but similar methods historically used in complex aerospace product development Feature 4: Teaching winemakers and producers how to think about uncertainty and error. It's possible that gold medal wine, or 95-point Wine Spectator score, or 93-point Robert Parker score was deserved for that particular wine and vintage. But it is also possible you were very lucky. It may not be earned again in next year's vintage. This book teaches approaches and methods to maintain and or improve the quality, every year. Feature 5: Application of a potentially 'dry' rigorous root cause analysis approach in a world that enables the joy of creating and appreciating something very enjoyable. It will help you smile, at least once a year.

This book is the first volume of a comprehensive assemblage of contemporary knowledge relevant to genomics and other omics in date palm. Volume 1 consists of 11 chapters arranged in 3 parts grouped according to subject. Part I, Biology and Phylogeny, focuses on date palm biology, evolution and origin. Part II, Biodiversity and Molecular Identification, covers conformity of in vitro derived plants, molecular markers, barcoding, pollinizer genetics and gender determination. Part III, Genome Mapping and Bioinformatics, addresses genome mapping of nuclear, chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA, in addition to a chapter on progress made in date palm bioinformatics. This volume represents the efforts of 30 international scientists from 10 countries and contains 78 figures and 30 tables to illustrate presented concepts. Volume 2 is published under the title: Omics and Molecular Breeding.

New and Future Developments in Microbial Biotechnology and Bioengineering: Microbial Biotechnology in Agro-environmental Sustainability describes, in detail, the various roles of microbial resources in the management of crop diseases and how microbes can be used as a source of income for biomass and bioenergy production. In addition, the book covers microbial inoculants as bio-fertilizers to enhance crop productivity, along with degraded land restoration. Users will find the latest information in the field of microbial biotechnology and its further applications in bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, its generation as an alternative source of energy, restoration degraded and marginal lands, the mitigation of global warming gases, and more.

This collection features five peer-reviewed literature reviews on sensor technologies in livestock monitoring. The first chapter considers the development of on-animal sensors as a means of monitoring an array of livestock species, as well as the challenges which arise with their deployment in commercial livestock management operations. The second chapter reviews the utilisation of wearable technologies to monitor the welfare of poultry, including accelerometers. The chapter also considers the effects of these sensors on bird welfare and behaviour. The third chapter provides a detailed overview of recent advances in techniques for monitoring dairy cow health and welfare. The chapter reviews the development of diagnostic tools and sensor technologies which enable automated, continuous monitoring of livestock. The fourth chapter reviews the potential of precision livestock farming (PLF) technology to monitor dairy cattle welfare in line with the Five Domains framework. The chapter explores how PLF can positively impact each of the five domains: nutrition, environment, health, behaviour and mental state. The final chapter reviews recent advances in technologies for monitoring key indicators of pig welfare by considering good feeding, good housing, good health and appropriate behaviour.

- Provides a comprehensive introduction to the emerging interdisciplinary field of marine studies - Provides a unique social science and humanities approach to key marine challenges, including climate change, pollution and aquaculture - Includes examples of professional or academic areas of specialization within Marine Studies such as social and environmental justice, governance, traditional ecological knowledge and management, community development, conservation, and the blue economy - provide the first cohesive resource on Marine Studies to educate students, train interdisciplinary marine leaders, and build capacity for a new generation of marine-focused professionals

examines how the Adaptive Collaborative Management approach can be utilised to address global environmental issues by complementing global and national policies with community-based action and commitment. argues that the activation and the empowerment of local peoples is critical to addressing current environmental challenges. provide concrete examples showing how a bottom-up approach can function to enhance policies and development. will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners working in the fields of conservation, forest management, community development, natural resource management and development studies more broadly.

This book provides an overview of the complex challenges and opportunities related to forest-based rural development in the tropics and subtropics. Applying a socio-ecological perspective, the book traces the changing paradigms of forestry in rural development throughout history, summarizes the major aspects of the rural development challenge in forest areas and documents innovative approaches in fields such as land utilization, technology and organizational development, rural advisory services, financing mechanisms, participative planning and forest governance. It brings together scholars and practitioners dealing with the topics from various theoretical and practical angles. Calling for an approach that carefully balances market forces with government intervention, the book shows that forests in rural areas have the potential to provide a solid foundation for a green global economy.

"It is my expectation that respect for the critical importance of seed sovereignty will in due course be recognised by member states of the United Nations to be as critical to global peace and security as the UN Charter demands in respect of State sovereign equality, justice, human rights and economic and social wellbeing for all peoples."-Denis J. Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary-General 1994-98 "A constructive contribution to our understanding of what is going wrong and what can go right in the complex area of seed sovereignty."-Dervla Murphy, renowned travel writer and adventurer "Keeping seed diversity alive is the secret ingredient, not just for the good, nutrient-dense food that every cook, gardener and farmer/producer needs, but for strengthening our resilience in the face of multiple environmental threats. This compelling and timely book helps us to understand what we are up against and how we can overcome it."- Darina Allen, internationally renowned cook, founder of Ballymaloe Cookery school and President of the East Cork Convivium of Slow Food This book studies the relationship between globalisation and seed sovereignty in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides comparative case studies of the most recent Kenyan and Ethiopian seed laws, as well as a study of seed sovereignty 'on the ground' in a locality within Ethiopia. Based on extensive fieldwork, it identifies the interests and motivations of transnational seed corporations, global philanthropic organisations, state actors, and local farmers. It finds significant differences in the wording of seed laws and the exercise of seed sovereignty, applying theories of globalisation to help us better understand these varied outcomes. It shows that seed sovereignty has the potential to be shared between local, national, regional, and global authorities, but in different ways in different countries and localities. In the face of what might sometimes appear to be unstoppable global forces, these findings suggest that the exercise of seed sovereignty can be transformed even in a highly globalised world.

Provides a contemporary view of the impact of climate change on cultivation of various fruit species. Offers modern approaches for mitigating the adverse impact of climate change on fruits cultivation. Describes case studies, empirical experiments and observations emphasizing the research progress of understanding and combating the impact of climate change on fruits production. Illustrates concepts with relevant figures and tabulated data.

This book offers new insights into the ongoing agricultural transformation in Africa. Presenting case studies, macro-level simulations, and relevant surveys, it analyzes food crops and agri-food policy challenges and their implications in various African countries. In addition, it discusses how current African agri-food policies could be improved to achieve the continental vision of sustainable development in light of the African Union's Agenda 2063. The respective contributions address topics such as drivers of technical efficiency among smallholder maize farmers; farm management practices; agri-food infrastructure policies; food security; agricultural growth; and financing for and investment in agricultural production. Accordingly, the book appeals to scholars of economics and agricultural studies and to anyone interested in the agricultural transformation of Africa.

Nanotechnology is a fast-evolving discipline that already produces outstanding basic knowledge and industrial applications for the benefit of society. Whereas the first applications of nanotechnology have been developed mainly in material sciences, applications in the agriculture and food sectors are still emerging. Due to a rapid population growth there is a need to produce food and beverages in a more efficient, safe and sustainable way. Here, nanotechnology is a promising way to improve crop production, water quality, nutrition, packaging, and food security. There are actually few comprehensive reviews and clear textbooks on nanotechnology in agriculture, water, and food. In this book there are 10 chapters describing the synthesis and application of nanomaterials for health, food, and agriculture are presented. Nanomaterials with unique properties will dramatically improve agriculture and food production. Applications will include nanofertilisers to enhance plant growth and nanosensors to detect food contamination. An overall view of nanotechnology applications in agriculture, food, water, and environment are described in the first two chapters by Dasgupta et al. and Singh. Health and environmental applications of nanotechnology are presented in chapters 3-5. Shukla and Iravani review green methods to synthesize metal nanoparticles, and give applications to water purification, in chapter 3. The removal of up to 95% of contaminants by nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanostructured membranes is described by Naghdi et al. in chapter 4. Yoti et al. then review nanosensors for the detection of pathogenic bacteria in chapter 5. Those nanosensors can be used as biodiagnostics to control food and water quality. Food applications of nanoscience are presented in chapters 6 and 7 by Kuswandi and Sarkhar et al. Kuswandi explain in chapter 6 that nanomaterials can improve packaging quality and that nanosensors can detect freshness and contanimants. The use of nanoparticles to protect ingredients such as vitamins, flavours, and antimicrobials is reviewed by Sarkhar et al. in chapter 7.

Grassland produces feed for livestock, improves soil fertility and structure, protects water resources and may contribute to climate change mitigation through carbon storage and to biodiversity preservation. It simultaneously maintains sustainable economic outputs for farmers and provides ecosystem services. Turf similarly c- siderably contributes to our environment by adding beauty to our surroundings, providing a safe playing surface for sports and recreation. The species diversity present in most grasslands and turfs is a functional div- sity contributing to the previously mentioned agronomic and environmental bene?ts. The species belong to different functional groups and the adequate species com- sition may maximise the agronomic performance through a higher production and a better quality and the environmental bene?ts through symbiotic nitrogen ?xation or sources of pollen and nectar to pollinators. In a given grassland or turf, the genetic diversity available in each variety contributes to this economic and environmental performance, but also to the stability of these performances including the stability of the resistance against pathogens and pests. Natural grasslands share many species with the sown swards. They may be regarded as favourable sites for in situ preservation of genetic diversity as well as valuable sources of diversity for breeding.

This specially curated collection features five reviews of current and key research on fruit losses and waste. The first chapter reviews the magnitude of losses and waste of fruit and vegetables as well as key issues in estimating losses. It provides a detailed assessment of the main causes of losses and waste together with strategies for their prevention. The second chapter assesses the adoption of new, non-destructive technologies as a way of measuring harvest maturity and improving sorting operations to minimise the risk of product loss and waste. The third chapter outlines the importance of harvest management of apples and considers the importance of various factors associated with fruit physiology, maturation and ripening to reduce losses. The fourth chapter reviews existing research in the preservation of fruit quality and reduction of post-harvest damage and loss by adopting suitable technologies and knowledge during post-harvest operation, storage management, transportation and marketing of mango fruit. The final chapter explores the advantages and disadvantages of cultivating ripening-impaired tomato mutants. It describes how controlling tomato diseases in both pre- and postharvest operations can help avoid fruit losses.

Advances in high spatial resolution mapping capabilities and the new rules established by the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States for the operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) have provided new opportunities to acquire aerial data at a lower cost and more safely versus other methods. A similar opening of the skies for sUAS applications is being allowed in countries across the world. Also, sUAS can access hazardous or inaccessible areas during disaster events and provide rapid response when needed. Applications of Small Unmanned Aircraft systems: Best Practices and Case Studies is the first book that brings together the best practices of sUAS applied to a broad range of issues in high spatial resolution mapping projects. Very few sUAS pilots have the knowledge of how the collected imagery is processed into value added mapping products that have commercial and/or academic import. Since the field of sUAS applications is just a few years old, this book covers the need for a compendium of case studies to guide the planning, data collection, and most importantly data processing and map error issues, with the range of sensors available to the user community. Written by experienced academics and professionals, this book serves as a guide on how to formulate sUAS based projects, from choice of a sUAS, flight planning for a particular application, sensors and data acquisition, data processing software, mapping software and use of the high spatial resolution maps produced for particular types of geospatial modeling. Features: Focus on sUAS based data acquisition and processing into map products Broad range of case studies by highly experienced academics Practical guidance on sUAS hardware, sensors, and software utilized Compilation of workflow insights from expert professors and professionals Relevant to academia, government, and industry Positional and thematic map accuracy, UAS curriculum development and workflow replicability issues This book would be an excellent text for upper-level undergraduate to graduate level sUAS mapping application courses. It is also invaluable as a reference for educators designing sUAS based curriculum as well as for potential sUAS users to assess the scope of mapping projects that can be done with this technology.

- Analyses real data sets from start to conclusion. - Includes an extensive set of examples of the use of R to construct graphs and maps and to model and analyze spatial data. - Provides background information on exploratory and graphical data analysis and on spatial econometrics methods. - Lists the possible types of spatial data used to analyze and model agriculture economics phenomena (and offers several codes for each example in the R software environment). - Presents the methods of spatial data analysis and of spatial econometric modeling appropriate for each agricultural data type. - Examines how each spatial data type can be used to explore spatial structures and how the spatial effects can be properly added to agricultural economics models. - Outlines methods for model estimation when data is not available for the whole population but for a sample survey. - Illustrates the simplest and more sophisticated methods both to convert data from one type to another and to integrate different spatial data sources.