This book tackles the issue of using crop rotation to increase food production and secure it for the growing population of the future. Crop rotation can be a solution of food gaps in the developing counties. Crop rotation plays an important role in attaining soil sustainability and in controlling pests and weeds. It can alleviate damage caused by climate change by reducing losses in productivity of the crops, minimizing soil fertility loss and increase irrigation water productivity. This book also includes the reviews of a large number of crop rotations that have been published internationally, and additionally, the crop rotations that have been implemented in Egypt have a unique characteristic to them and therefore, a large number of those reviews have also been included.

Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm. At the same time, they can reduce costs, increase profits and even create new sources of income. You¿ll reap dividends on your cover crop investments for years, since their benefits accumulate over the long term. This book will help you find which ones are right for you. Captures farmer and other research results from the past ten years. The authors verified the info. from the 2nd ed., added new results and updated farmer profiles and research data, and added 2 chap. Includes maps and charts, detailed narratives about individual cover crop species, and chap. about aspects of cover cropping.

In Crop Rotation and Cover Cropping, you can learn some of the thinking behind—and the actual nuts and bolts of—laying out a rotation for your farm. This volume, part of the NOFA guides, covers: Historical roots of cover-crop techniques Thinking beyond this season's cash crop (disease and pest reduction, weed suppression, cash vs. cover crops) What is a good rotation? (mapping the farm, grouping crops, sample groupings) The economics of rotations and cover cropping (organizing your work, reducing labor inputs, land and cover-crop seed costs) Including on-farm examples and detailed appendices.

This book which is edited by Dr Bao-Luo Ma, a senior research scientist from Agriculture and Agri-Food in Canada, includes contributions from more than twenty-eight scientists in this dynamic field from around the world. This book synthesises the latest innovations and integrated knowledge from science disciplines as diverse as agronomy, soil science, ecology, economy, and social sciences. The global population is projected to reach nine billion by mid-century. Questions continue to arise concerning the ability of the agriculture sector to keep pace with the demands for food, feed, fibre and fuel of an increasing population in the near future, as well as finding a way of sustaining both the production system and the environment. Crop rotations, an ancient practice that has gained renewed interest in recent years, involve growing different crop species/varieties on the same piece of land in consecutive growing seasons (years). The direct and indirect benefits of this practice to the production system and the environment have been recognised for millennia. In recent years, it has been documented that crop rotations coupled with conservation tillage has enhanced the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil, improved seasonal nitrogen availability, and provided nitrogen inputs through symbiotic nitrogen fixation by legumes. This strategy can also lead to a better balance of plant nutritional requirements and a shift in soil mycorrhizal populations, interrupt insect populations, increase root activity, reduce disease severity, enhance environmentally-friendly biodiversity, and lower per-area greenhouse gas emissions or per-yield based carbon footprints. This book serves as one of the most recent and valuable reference on these multi-disciplines, and targets audiences at the undergraduate and graduate level, including crop, soil and agronomy scientists as well as environment scientists and policy-makers.

"[A] renowned chef ... Barber explores the evolution of American food from the "first plate," or industrially-produced, meat-heavy dishes, to the "second plate" of grass-fed meat and organic greens, and says that both of these approaches are ultimately neither sustainable nor healthy. Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the "third plate," a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat"--Provided by publisher.

In this practical step-by-step guide, gardening teacher Kath Irvine shares her wealth of knowledge from more than 20 years of helping Kiwi gardeners design, build, grow and maintain their own productive edible gardens. Kath's sage, hands-on, often humorous advice steps readers through everything they need to know to grow great produce at home, including garden design, tools and equipment, seasonal planting advice, soil fertility, seed-saving basics, managing pests and diseases, and how to incorporate organic and permaculture gardening methods into any home garden. While documenting a year on her own property, Kath shows how you can successfully produce bountiful crops throughout the seasons to provide a steady, daily harvest with minimal wastage. The book is illustrated with hundreds of stunning photographs and helpful hand-drawn illustrations that share clever design concepts and planting plans for gardens of all shapes and sizes. Kath is the perfect guide, and this easy-to-understand, comprehensive book is ideal for gardeners at any skill level, from beginners setting up a new garden from scratch, to intermediate trouble-shooters, to advanced green-thumbs seeking deeper knowledge.