(IoT) offers innovative solutions that can provide new and precise information in real-time. A Bulgarian Operational Group is contributing to the digital transformation of the organic beekeeping sector, Tanya Gyuryusheva-Nikolova tells us “IoT improves efficiency and sustainability from hive management to product distribution.” There are around 615,000 beekeepers in the EU...

A web-based platform predicts African crop yields. The aim is to close Africa’s agricultural data gap and support effective decision-making and crisis planning. A new tool, which uses cutting-edge machine learning techniques and satellite remotely sensed data predicts agricultural yields for nine key crops across Africa, the pan-African non-profit research organisation...

Soil degradation threatens agricultural production and soil multifunctionality. Efforts for private and public governance are increasingly emerging to leverage sustainable soil management. They require consensus across science, policy, and practice about what sustainable soil management entails. Such agreement does not yet exist to a sufficient extent in agronomic terms; what...

There is an urgent need for agri-food system transformation to achieve global sustainability goals. Innovations can play a key role in this transformation but often come with both sustainability synergies and trade-offs. One such innovation is agricultural mechanization, which is spreading rapidly in parts of the Global South and is...

Animal agriculture is a leading driver of ecological destruction. But what if it’s not all bad? 

Small-scale farming communities across the world are using agroecology to simultaneously tackle food security soil health, and gender equality.

Despite the acknowledged benefits of crop diversification, the transition towards more diversified cropping systems needs to be supported, mainly due to socio-technical lock-ins favoring major dominant crop species. This calls for the development of new approaches to support the design of locally tailored diversified cropping systems. This paper aims to...

El workshop regional "Tomar acción en el sector de la biodiversidad para la alimentación y la agricultura en América Latina y el Caribe" se enmarca dentro de una serie de cuatro talleres que se celebrarán en diferentes regiones del mundo. Estos eventos se organizan en colaboración con la Federación Internacional de Asociaciones...

Legume-supported cropping systems affect environmental, production, and economic impacts. In Europe, legume production is still marginal with grain legumes covering less than 3% of arable land. A transition towards legume-supported systems could contribute to a higher level of protein self-sufficiency and lower environmental impacts of agriculture. Suitable approaches for designing...

Forests, trees and green spaces provide multiple products and services that contribute to human health and wellbeing, including nutritious food, medicines, and non-wood forest products. They also support climate change mitigation and adaptation, moderate micro-climate, filter air pollutants, reduce noise exposure, enrich environmental microbiota, and offer areas for recreation, stress...

The book of proceedings of the GSOIL4N contains the papers presented during the Global Symposium on Soils for Nutrition that was held from 26 to 29 July 2022. The papers provide the latest research findings and multisectoral insights which evidenced that nutrient imbalance is a global and crosscutting threat with multifactorial drivers...

In a bid to revolutionize fish processing methods and promote sustainability, a pilot study of a prototype fish drum oven was recently carried out. The study used innovative technology to address the limitations of traditional fish smoking techniques while ensuring the preservation of nutritional value and product quality. Based on...

Long-term active restoration is often employed to restore degraded grasslands. The establishment of a viable soil seed bank is the key to successful restoration, as it enhances the resilience of vegetation. However, little is known of how the soil seed bank affects vegetation resilience following long-term active restoration of degraded...

With the rapid growth of professional intra-urban agriculture (PIUA) projects in the Global North, sponsors, projects leaders, and experts developing these projects are seeking to evaluate their sustainability. As existing assessment tools are not adapted to PIUA projects, they establish their own assessment practices. Our study examines these practices to...

In his 30 years as a farmer, Illeperuma Arachchilage Rathnayake, or Rathnayake as he’s known in his village, struggled to unlock the full potential of his onion seed cultivation. He began cultivating this crop as a 22-year-old with no official training but relied on lessons and cues from other farmers...

Cropping system models are deployed as valuable tools for informing agronomic decisions and advancing research. To meet this demand, early career scientists are increasingly tasked with building crop models to fit into these system modelling frameworks. Most, however, receive little to no guidance as to how to do this well....

Marine fisheries in India is a caste-based occupation, with a social and political hierarchy in place. For those belonging to the subordinate fishing castes, excluded from decision-making processes at home, migration is an important strategy for gaining economic resources, social power and recognition as skilled and successful marine fishermen. In...

Fruit trees are often grafted onto rootstocks which provide the adaptation to the soil which makes them the long-term foundation for the tree and the orchard. This way the choice of rootstocks and varieties is so important and can thus be selected in a way that can meet the challenges...

There is a general lack of engagement from grain farmers to crop diversification, namely due to limited markets and outlets for harvested products. On the flip side, within the dairy sector, there is reliance on imported soybean and it is currently hard to substitute this cheap source of protein with...

Carrying out plant conservation work (e.g., relocations, translocations, habitat creation, habitat restoration) carries a risk of the inadvertent introduction of pests and pathogens into sensitive habitats. Thereby negating the objectives of the work. For example, there are several species of Phytophthora (fungal-like plant pathogens) which are ideally suited to surviving...