Extensive livestock farming systems in the Less Favored Areas (LFA) of the European Union (EU) are under social stress and requirement to adapt their production practices to new economic and social realities. This research argues that a restructuring plan for the cereal-sheep system of Castile-La Mancha may represent economic and ecological synergies. The potential implementation of a technical strategy (integrating cereal and sheep farming and increasing acreage of annual forage legumes) has been tested within a community-based research project carried out over three phases.

This paper analyses the land use/cover dynamics of land degradation through the interpretation of aerial photographs (1958 and 1980) and 2006 SPOT-5 satellite image of the Gerado catchment. Other, non-visual data were gathered from personal interview and focus group discussions conducted in 2010 and 2011 with local elders, farmers and development (agricultural extension) agents. The results identified the presence of cultivated and rural settlement land, shrubland, woodland, bare land, grassland, urban built up area and forest.

Following the national policy, the Department of Agriculture of Thailand has implemented a crop diversification program in several provinces of the country. This study, which was conducted in Nakhon Pathom Province, analyzed the extent of crop diversification and its determinants using primary information collected from 245 farm households using a structured questionnaire, and from selected farmer leaders and agricultural development officials. The study also assessed the effects of crop diversification on income and the inputs used.

This study used linear programming (LP) to analyse land-use alternatives in the traditional Umbundu farming system in the Angolan central highlands. Farmers of the region have traditionally produced maize and pulses for subsistence and vegetables and timber as cash crops. Different pasture and forest fallow rotations are used along catena production sites. The system is labour-intensive and uses animal traction. LP problems were formulated and solved for a baseline land-use alternative, improved diet alternative and maximal timber production alternative.

Land activities contribute ~18% of total greenhouse gas emissions produced in Australia. To help reduce these emissions, the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) was implemented in 2011 to encourage land projects, which reduce the production of greenhouse gases and/or sequester carbon in the land. Prospective projects include savanna fire management and rangelands management, which have high relevance in northern Australia where Indigenous landholding is strong.

Agrarian reform has been a key theme on the development agenda of many countries in the Global South for decades. Whilst such interventions are often pursued for political goals and in the interests of empowerment, there is often a mismatch between these goals and the actual outcomes achieved. Within this context, this study investigates the impacts of agrarian reform in Del Rosario, a former coconut hacienda in the Philippines.

In the last decades, due to climate changes, soil deterioration and land use/land cover (LULC) changes, land degradation (LD) has become one of the most important issues at the global, regional and local scale. In concrete terms, LD determines a reduction in the productivity of a territory and in its capacity of providing ecosystem goods and services. “Syndromes” of LD can be assessed in the past, and scenarios, conversely, can be developed for the future, as information baselines for sustainable land management strategies and interventions.

Indonesia has available over 20 million ha of tidal lowlands. In their natural state these are generally waterlogged areas that may be regularly inundated for prolonged periods. Almost 4 million ha of these tidal lowlands have been reclaimed, partly by spontaneous settlers and partly by the government.

Landscape dynamics result from forestry and farming practices, both of which are expected to have diverse impacts on ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we investigated this general statement for regulating and supporting services via an assessment of ecosystem functions: climate regulation via carbon sequestration in soil and plant biomass, water cycle and soil erosion regulation via water infiltration in soil, and support for primary production via soil chemical quality and water storage.

Rapidly accelerating climate change in the Himalaya is projected to have major implications for montane species, ecosystems, and mountain farming and pastoral systems. A geospatial modeling approach based on a global environmental stratification is used to explore potential impacts of projected climate change on the spatial distribution of bioclimatic strata and ecoregions within the transboundary Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) of China, India and Nepal.

Mono-cropping is the most common farming practice followed in the North Eastern Hilly Region (NEHR) of India and farmers leave the land fallow after harvesting the main crop. The identification of suitable sequential crops is essential to increase the cropping intensity, land-use efficiency and overall productivity of the land. Therefore, a study was carried out during 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 on maize (rainy season) followed by table pea, mustard, French bean and groundnut (post rainy season). Sequence crops were imposed with paddy straw mulch at 5.0 t ha⁻¹ and without mulch.