In recent years, the role of information and communications technologies in the development of agriculture and environmental issues has received significant attention in different types of international forums. With new technologies constantly developing, there is a need for research dedicated to technological progress. Innovations and Trends in Environmental and Agricultural Informatics provides emerging research on the design, development, and implementation of complex agricultural and environmental information systems, addressing the integration of several scientific domains including agronomy, mathematics, economics, and computer science. While highlighting topics such as image quality assessment, environmental policy, and supervised classification, this publication explores the applications and progress of various technologies within agricultural and environmental professions. This book is an important resource for researchers, professionals, academics, students, and scientists seeking current research on the rapidly evolving field of technology integration in agricultural production and environmental issues.

Extension education is no more an out -- of -- school education alone. The science and practice of extension has been found useful for environment, health, education, small industries as well. There have been many changes in the way extension should be organized. Privatization of extension is seriously being considered, extension has also been added as the third dimension of general universities as well, participatory methods of extension are being tried and new information technologies are finding application in providing useful information to farmers, scientists and students communities. The book Advances and Challenges in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development" covers the applications of areas like extension education, extension educational technology, administration and management, human relation in development administration and human resource development, participatory approaches, recent approaches in extension techniques, extension strategies for changing agricultural scenario and rural development, transfer of technology efforts, and recent advances in research methodology which has highly innovative methods of applications and implementation. This book would prove helpful to the extension and rural development workers in planning and manipulating communication strategies. Besides that it will be useful to the students in the field of extension and rural development. This book will be very helpful to the researchers, planners, policy makers in planning and decision-making regarding agricultural extension and rural development."

In large parts of the world, the reduction in the viability of agriculture and rural areas is an escalating problem. Sustainable Land Management offers a contemporary overview of the strategies employed to cope with the marginalisation of agriculture, through analyses of case studies and regional trends in marginalisation.The authors argue that complexities and driving forces governing marginalisation are not always the same across nations and regions due to climate, geography, economics, legislation and political status. This book illustrates in what form these complexities exist, and how these unravel at the national and regional levels. As the need to understand and cope with marginalisation processes has developed, the concept of multi-functionality has also gained a vital place in the string of coping strategies. This work contributes essential knowledge for the development of marginalisation mitigation policy actions across the globe. Informative and well-documented, this book will appeal to those researching and working in the fields of agricultural and resource economics, rural geography, environmental governance and sustainable development.

The second volume of Foods, nutrients and food ingredients with authorised EU health claims continues from Volume 1, which provided a comprehensive overview of many of the permitted health claims for foods and nutrients approved under European Regulation EC 1924/2006. This new volume discusses more of the health claims authorised to date for use in the EU. The chapters cover details of various permitted claims, such as the approved wording, conditions of use, the target group for the claims, the evidence for the claimed health benefits, and where appropriate details of other relevant legislation, consumer-related issues and future trends. The book opens with an overview of regulatory developments relating to health claims. Part One reviews authorised disease risk reduction claims and proprietary claims. The second part investigates ingredients with permitted 'general function' claims, with chapters examining ingredients such as red yeast rice, glucomannan and guar gum. The final section of the book explores foods and nutrients with permitted health claims, including chapters on authorised EU health claims for prunes, foods with low or reduced sodium or saturated fatty acids, and claims for essential and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Selected paper presented at the 1st International Conference on Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability are contained in this book. The research reviews ways in which urban agriculture can contribute to achieve sustainable cities and considers ways of reducing the impact in terms of use of natural resources, waste production and climate change. The increasing number of people in cities requires new strategies to supply the necessary food with limited provision of land and decreasing resources. This will become more challenging unless innovative solutions for growing and distributing food in urban environments are considered. The scale of modern food production has created and exacerbated many vulnerabilities and the feeding of cities is now infinitely more complex. As such the food system cannot be considered secure, ethical or sustainable. In the last few years there has been a rapid expansion in initiatives and projects exploring innovative methods and processes for sustainable food production. The majority of these projects are focused on providing alternative models that shift the power back from the global food system to communities and farmers improving social cohesion, health and wellbeing. It is therefore not surprising that more people are looking towards urban farming initiatives as a potential solution. These initiatives have demonstrated that urban agriculture has the potential to transform our living environment towards ecologically sustainable and healthy cities. Urban agriculture can also contribute to energy, natural resources, land and water savings, ecological diversity and urban management cost reductions. The impact urban agriculture can have on the shape and form of our cities has never been fully addressed. The studies included in this volume look at how cities embed these new approaches and initiatives, as part of new urban developments and show that a city regeneration strategy is critical.