During the last half-century, advances in crop production came from expansion in areas irrigated from more intensive application of fertilizers and crop protection chemicals, and from crop varieties that were more responsive to technical inputs and management. Advances in animal production came from genetic improvements and advances in animal nutrition. Differences among developed and developing countries in output per hectare and per worker have widened. If these gaps are to be narrowed agricultural research capacity in developing countries will have to be substantially strengthened.

/pdf/productivity-growth-in-world-agriculture-sources-and-2bgsixyccq.pdf

Productivity Growth in World Agriculture: Sources and Constraints

Traditional approaches to agricultural science present a number of barriers to increasing our understanding of sustainable agriculture. Logical positivist and reductionist methods limit the information that can be obtained from complex biological systems, and institutional forces help to prevent scientists from exploring comprehensive and new directions that do not fit the predominant paradigms. A diverse range of political and institutional strategies for supporting research in sustainable agriculture is proposed.

Agricultural Science and Sustainable Agriculture: a Review of the Existing Scientific Barriers to Sustainable Food Production and Potential Solutions

The starting point for this review is the concern that contemporary pest management practice still has too narrow a theoretical basis, that questions central to ecology have had almost no impact on economic entomology, and in particular that little fundamental research in population or community ecology is directed at systems relevant to agriculture. (A notable exception is in the area of parasitoid/host dynamics.) There are several reasons for this situation; the history of the land grant system and of the US Department of Agriculture, which separated basic and applied research into different institutions, the sense of short-range urgency in applied research, the traditional anti theoretical biases of people who pride themselves on being "practical," the prejudice against applied problems in the private universities, the preference of ecologists for natural systems, etc. (9, 33, 44). Whatever the particular sociological and philosophical obstacles to a closer integration of theory and application, one immediate reason is that in several important ways ecological theory is not directly applicable. The common models have abstracted away features of the agroecosystem that are critical for its understanding. 1. Most models of species coexistence take popUlation size as the variable of interest and examine the mutual regulation of populations through pre­ dation (including herbivory) and resource competition. However, in the

Ecological Theory and Pest Management

Part I: Animal Breeding and Genetics for Food Animal Breeding and Genetics, Introduction Animal Breeding Methods and Sustainability Animal Breeding, Foundations of Animal Breeding, Long-Term Challenges Animal Breeding, Modeling in Animal Genetic in Environment Interaction Animal Molecular Genetics from Major Genes to Genomics Breeding in Beef Cattle Breeding in Developing Countries and Tropics Breeding in Horses Dairy Cattle Breeding Pig Breeding for Increased Sustainability Poultry Breeding Socially Affected Traits, Inheritance and Genetic Improvement Part II: Crop Science and Technology Abiotic Stress Tolerant Crops: Genes, Pathways and Bottlenecks Biomass Crops for Biofuels and Bio-based Products Biotechnology and Nutritional Improvement of Crops Commercialisation of GM Crops: Comparison of Regulatory Frameworks Crop Breeding for Sustainable Agriculture, Genomics Interventions in Crop Plants Transformation MethodsCrop Science and Technology, Introduction Crop Traits: Gene Isolation Genetic Engineering of Crops for Insect Resistance Global Economic Impact of Transgenic/Biotech Crops (1996-2008) GM Crop Risk Debate, Science and Socioeconomics Medicinal Plants, Engineering of Secondary Metabolites in Cell Cultures Molecular Breeding Platforms in World Agriculture Plant Molecular Pharming, Industrial Enzymes Plant Molecular Pharming, Pharmaceuticals for Human Health Plant Molecular Pharming, Veterinary Applications Sustainable Herbicide-Resistant Crops Transgene Expression in Plants, Control of Transgenic Crops Resistant to Fungal, Bacterial, and Viral Pathogens Transgenic Crops, Environmental Impact Transgenic Crops, Next Generation Transgenic Crops, Risk Assessment and Regulatory Framework in the European Union Part III: Ocean Farming and Sustainable Aquaculture Science and Technology Aquaculture and Renewable Energy Systems, Integration of Aquaculture, Ecological Aquaculture, Integrated Multi-trophic (IMTA) Aquaculture, Sustainability Science in Aquapod Systems for Sustainable Ocean Aquaculture Carrying Capacity for Aquaculture, Modeling Frameworks for Determination of Carrying Capacity for Sustainable Bivalve Aquaculture Environmental Impacts of an Open Ocean Mariculture Operation in Kona, Hawaii Life Cycle Assessments and Their Applications to Aquaculture Production Systems Mariculture Systems, Integrated Land-Based Marine Aquaculture in the Mediterranean Marine Fisheries Enhancement, Coming of Age in the New Millennium Mussel Culture, Open Ocean Innovations Ocean Farming and Sustainable Aquaculture Science and Technology, An Introduction to Polyculture in Aquaculture Seaweed Aquaculture for Human Foods in Land-Based and IMTA Systems Shellfish Aquaculture, Methods of Sustainable Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Part IV: Transgenic Livestock for Food Production Avian Specific Transgenesis Disease-Resistant Transgenic Animals Livestock Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Nuclear Transfer to Produce Transgenic Mammals Transgenic Fishes: Applications, State of the Art, and Risk Concerns Transgenic Livestock for Food Production, Introduction Transgenic Livestock Technologies Transgenic Livestock, Decreasing Environmental Impact of Transgenic Livestock, Enhanced Nutritional Quality in Transgenic Livestock, Ethical Concerns and Debate Transgenic Technologies and Increased Livestock Fertility Transgenics: Alternative Gene Transfer Methods Part III: Ocean Farming and Sustainable Aquaculture Science and Technology Aquaculture and Renewable Energy Systems, Integration of Aquaculture, Ecological Aquaculture, Integrated Multi-trophic (IMTA) Aquaculture, Sustainability Science in Aquapod Systems for Sustainable Ocean Aquaculture Carrying Capacity for Aquaculture, Modeling Frameworks for Determination of Carrying Capacity for Sustainable Bivalve Aquaculture Environmental Impacts of an Open Ocean Mariculture Operation in Kona, Hawaii Life Cycle Assessments and Their Applications to Aquaculture Production Systems Mariculture Systems, Integrated Land-Based Marine Aquaculture in the Mediterranean Marine Fisheries Enhancement, Coming of Age in the New Millennium Mussel Culture, Open Ocean Innovations Ocean Farming and Sustainable Aquaculture Science and Technology, An Introduction to Polyculture in Aquaculture Seaweed Aquaculture for Human Foods in Land-Based and IMTA Systems Shellfish Aquaculture, Methods of Sustainable Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Part IV: Transgenic Livestock for Food Production Avian Specific Transgenesis Disease-Resistant Transgenic Animals Livestock Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Nuclear Transfer to Produce Transgenic Mammals Transgenic Fishes: Applications, State of the Art, and Risk Concerns Transgenic Livestock for Food Production, Introduction Transgenic Livestock Technologies Transgenic Livestock, Decreasing Environmental Impact of Transgenic Livestock, Enhanced Nutritional Quality in Transgenic Livestock, Ethical Concerns and Debate Transgenic Technologies and Increased Livestock Fertility Transgenics: Alternative Gene Transfer Methods Part III: Ocean Farming and Sustainable Aquaculture Science and Technology Aquaculture and Renewable Energy Systems, Integration of Aquaculture, Ecological Aquaculture, Integrated Multi-trophic (IMTA) Aquaculture, Sustainability Science in Aquapod Systems for Sustainable Ocean Aquaculture Carrying Capacity for Aquaculture, Modeling Frameworks for Determination of Carrying Capacity for Sustainable Bivalve Aquaculture Environmental Impacts of an Open Ocean Mariculture Operation in Kona, Hawaii Life Cycle Assessments and Their Applications to Aquaculture Production Systems Mariculture Systems, Integrated Land-Based Marine Aquaculture in the Mediterranean Marine Fisheries Enhancement, Coming of Age in the New Millennium Mussel Culture, Open Ocean Innovations Ocean Farming and Sustainable Aquaculture Science and Technology, An Introduction to Polyculture in Aquaculture Seaweed Aquaculture for Human Foods in Land-Based and IMTA Systems Shellfish Aquaculture, Methods of Sustainable Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Part IV: Transgenic Livestock for Food Production Avian Specific Transgenesis Disease-Resistant Transgenic Animals Livestock Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Nuclear Transfer to Produce Transgenic Mammals Transgenic Fishes: Applications, State of the Art, and Risk Concerns Transgenic Livestock for Food Production, Introduction Transgenic Livestock Technologies Transgenic Livestock, Decreasing Environmental Impact of Transgenic Livestock, Enhanced Nutritional Quality in Transgenic Livestock, Ethical Concerns and Debate Transgenic Technologies and Increased Livestock Fertility Transgenics: Alternative Gene Transfer Methods Index

Sustainable food production

Animal Welfare and the Intensification of Animal Production

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-94-010-1887-6_6.pdf

Jean Mayer

Papers

Agriculture, The Island Empire