Climate Change, Intercropping, Pest Control and Beneficial Microorganisms
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that, scientists use the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of a whole system to address scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and food system for future generations.
Contents
Preface: Climate change, society issues and sustainable agriculture, Eric Lichtfouse
Foreword: Tragedy of the global commons: soil, water and air, Rattan Lal
1. The rediscovery of intercropping in China: a traditional cropping system for future Chinese agriculture, Heike Knörzer
2. Effect of genetically modified bacteria on ecosystems and their potential benefits for bioremediation and biocontrol of plant diseases, Mareike Viebahn
3. Climate change and plant water balance. The role of aquaporins, Micaela Carvajal
4. Responses of cereal plants to environmental and climate changes, Vaclav Hejnak
5. Induction of plant tolerance to semi-arid environments by beneficial soil microorganisms, Ricardo Aroca
6. Essential oil crops for sustainable agriculture, Alessandra Carrubba
7. Sugarcane and precision agriculture. Quantifying variability is only half the story, Daniel Zamykal
8. Fungal disease management in environmentally friendly apple production, Imre J. Holb
9. Mitigation of agricultural nonpoint-source pesticide pollution in artificial wetland ecosystems, Caroline Gregoire
10. Sustainable management of natural resources for food security and environmental quality. Case studies from India, Rattan Lal
11. Decision support systems: concepts, progress and issues, Shabir Ahmad Mir
12. Olive and grapevine biodiversity in Greece and Cyprus, Georgios Banilas
13. Ethyl carbamate in foods and beverages, Jean-Victor Weber
14. Evaluation of soil fertility using infrared spectroscopy, Du Changwen
