An independent, peer reviewed journal for policy makers and practitioners in agriculture and related industries, assessing the interactions between population growth, resources, the environment and climate change.
“ Global warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty” .
Summary and Conclusions
The report of 48 th Session of the IPCC indicates how human activities must change during the next 12 years if the worst effects of global …
Summary
Environmental temperature change of climate and rainfall distribution and intensity, the migration of wild animals, and movement of domestic animals and the migration of people and increasing tourism are all affecting the distribution and abundance of insect, arachnid and molluscan vectors of disease. Thesustained control of the insect vectors of dengue and leishmaniasis is difficult because their high reproductive potential allows the vector populations to recover quickly after …
BEN Aldiss has drawn attention to what must be an issue that is common in so-called developed countries.
It is likely to be more prevalent in island communities, such as that of the UK, in which the countryside is particularly benign. Our most poisonous snake is the adder, and one person recently was bitten by a fox in her home –it made the news!
As the world population rises an increasing proportion of the population and families will live in tower blocks, or apartments, where the …
Dr Jillian Lenné (#1810) has provided an introduction to climate change and plant disease.
She noted the paucity of information on food crops in developing countries. This lack of evidence is partly caused by the concentration of research effort on fungal diseases of major cereal crops and the complexity of the interactions.
A similar situation occurs with tropical diseases of humans requiring insect vectors. Mosquitoes and flies are by far the most common vectors of disease, …
The three papers to follow (#1806 to #1808) are by Professor Sir John Marsh, by Kirstie Goggin and Professor Murphy and the third by Prof. Murphy.
The first is short notes on the subject of finance and how Brexit is expected to lower food costs by removing barriers to international trade. To what extent is this likely to influence British agricultural production?
There are some intriguing points that must be considered, raised by Sir John. The second paper is by Professor Murphy and …
SUMMARY
A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon -containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration .
The five major sinks are:
1) fossil fuels and carbonate rocks;
2) forests;
3) soils, including non-woody plants;
4) the oceans and
5) the atmosphere.
The distinction is arbitrary…
Summary
The comparison of deciduous broad-leaved (DB) with coniferous evergreen (CE) forests, in respect of biodiversity and their effect on climate change, is restricted, as many published comparisons are made between these two forest types in different locations and latitudes.
We have therefore compared each forest type with grassland in the same location to draw conclusions about their relative values at the latitudes of the UK- 50 o N-60 o N.
The majority of forest carbon, …
Comment on Guishen et al. 1
Guishen et al. 1 demonstrate that Beijing City, which has a population of 27 million, has an ecological deficit equivalent to >24 Mha. Using the concept of global hectares (gha) as the area needed to support each hectare, they show that China is more sustainable than the rest of the world, as each hectare uses 1.74 ha of global resource, compared with an estimate for the world of 2.51 ha.
These estimates include fuel and other forms of …
A comment on papers by Gregory et al . 2 and Guishen et al . 3
Two papers in this Issue concern world food resources from entirely different angles.
Previously in this Journal Cook and Frape 1 examined the potential regional food production and related this to Man’s minimum nutrient requirements.
They found that global food production at present was adequate when considered only as sources to meet the minimum dietary requirements for energy and protein, although there was a …
Professor R. H. Richards, C.B.E, a long standing member of the Editorial Board of World Agriculture has been awarded the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' Queen's Medal.
A renowned fish vet. Professor R. H. Richards, CBE,MA, Vet.MB, Ph.D, C.Biol, FRSB, FRSM, MRCVS, FRAgS, was is the recipient of this year’s Queen’s Medal, the highest honour the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) can bestow upon a veterinary surgeon.
There have been only two previous recipients of this …
Sir John died on the 30th September, 2017. Professor Sir John Marsh was one of a very small band of the World’s outstanding agricultural economists over the past thirty years.
In 2011 he was awarded the Royal Agricultural Society of England’s National Agricultural Award in recognition of a career that spanned more than 50 active years.
During this time, Sir John had a huge impact on the agricultural industry. He was Professor of Agricultural Economics and Management at the Universit…
This group of publications (#1714 to #1722) includes the sad news of the death of our good friend and colleague, Professor Sir John Marsh. John has been a constant source of inspiration to our group and has worked hard for our Journal from the first day in 2003, when the group commenced its activities, to the last.
We are very pleased to record the achievement of Professor Randolph Richards, a colleague also on our Editorial Board, who has been awarded the Royal College of Veterinary …
Note to readers of this editorial : tropical insectivorous bats are important for insect control! Would any reader who has a knowledge of the mechanisms of bat’s excretion of nitrogen waste or of N metabolism by bats, please comment to the editor of World Agriculture- we should be happy to publish any useful comments under your name.
Water is the most critical nutrient for both plant and animal life- to maintain cellular osmotic pressure, for transport of metabolites and as the medium in …
This Issue considers the consequences of climate change in two quite different mammalian populations, caused by the growth of one of them in two most important world regions.
Nevertheless, there is a vital connection between the bat and human population. Both these populations are affected by the destruction of tropical forests, as measured by the deducible effects on rainfall, ambient temperature, biodiversity and food supplies.
The adoption of smart agricultural practices, …
In the early 1950s the place of cotton in common use for clothes was being gradually supplanted by synthetic fibres produced from oil.
In recent years cotton has regained its place owing very largely to technological developments in the agricultural sector. Moreover the number of countries producing cotton in large quantities has increased.
Development has led to phenomenal increases in the yield/ha and in the fibre quality of that yield, and labour has been reduced by mechanisation. …
Summary
The UK Government and Forestry Commission state: “if we plant an additional 15,000 hectares per year, by 2050 these woodlands could be sequestering carbon equivalent to 10% of GHG emissions”(1)(Appendix A).
The inference is that by lowering atmospheric CO 2 concentration with planting conifers climate cooling will follow. This is not so. This premise is wrong.
Latitude-specific deforestation experiments indicate that afforestation projects in the tropics would be clearly …
The New Year will see a new ‘face’ to World Agriculture .
We shall change our WEB format, and to keep our Journal abreast of developments in internet technology, we shall for example, simplify the procedure by which one downloads references on-line.
Moreover, we shall invite readers to comment on World Agriculture , or on relevant current issues, by publishing your unedited comments, to which we shall append only your name and country.
In the present Issue we give evidence of …
Introduction
The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among five spheres of the Earth, carbon (C) sinks: the biosphere, pedosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere (These are not mutually exclusive, see Glossary).
Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle, the carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that is key to making the Earth capable of sustaining life; it describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused …
Dame Fiona has published a most apposite and timely book on the Man’s need for beauty of the natural world.
She has asked me to review it – a hard-headed scientist to review a book on beauty, is you might think, a bit incongruous.
“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”, as Plato most astutely stated – it is not subject to scientific analysis, or quantification.
Nevertheless, what is beautiful is subject to teaching, or is learnt by experience. My mother once told me she …
This Issue is one of the more important Issues of World Agriculture.
The pages here are more numerous than is normally the case. We deal with one of our fundamental purposes and objectives.
This is to give a clear, description of the some of the complex, vital problems confronting this World and where possible propose solutions. Policy makers carry out their duties in response to pressure from the voting public.
It is up to that public with the very best and well-informed …
A discussion of the conclusions drawn by Dr. Tang Huaizhi, Dr. Xue Jian, Prof. Yun Wenju – this Issue
The Chinese Government fully recognizes the potential national problems associated with their current agricultural production and accepts the conclusions of their leading scientists as to the appropriate action to take.
Over the next 20 years, urbanization of China’s population will continue, presenting similar problems to those of western societies.
A current Chinese …
In the current Issue of WA we publish a fascinating and informative account of agroforestry in India by Handa, Toky et al .
In this paper are listed various tree-based products: gums, resins, floss, fibres, fodder, brooms, fruits and many others for the use of the subsistence farmer. Hence, these various agroforestry systems are considered to be the backbone of marginal farming for a self-reliant and sustainable agriculture, which also forms a strong feasible option to counter climate …
Are the European Union Regulators Laggards?
It is appropriate, first, to review the discussions and outcome of a meeting of the FAO in Rome, 15-17 February this year.
The meeting was entitled “The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition”. The key question at the meeting was: to what extent could agricultural biotechnologies assist and benefit smallholders in developing sustainable food systems and improve nutrition during climate change
…
Summary
This paper provides explanations both of why essential fatty acids are essential and of biochemical terms which are widely used by the general press.
These explanations should aid an appreciation of two of our papers in this issue especially that by Haslam et al. Vegetable oils are extracted mostly from seeds of maize, soyabean, sunflower, linseed, rape, olive, and palm.
These oils provide over twice as much net energy/kg compared with starch and so their consumption can …
Vegetable oils provide more than twice as much net energy per unit weight, compared with proteins or carbohydrates.
Fatty foods therefore contribute to obesity in the Western world. Obesity is a contributory factor to the wide occurrence of cardio-vascular disease (CVD) and type 2-diabetes (T2D).
Hence, studies to compare the specific effects of fats on CVD replacing carbohydrates must be conducted on the basis of equalizing total energy intake. But surveys of large populations of …
Keywords: Climate change, carbon sinks, GHG, food production.
See Appendix for definitions of terms used.
Matt Ridley, writing in the Wall Street Journal (1), made a number of points justifying why the world should continue to burn fossil fuels at an increasing rate.
We contend he draws the wrong conclusions from the established evidence. Ridley fails to recognize the potential chronic, dire and irreversible consequences of burning fossil fuels at an ever increasing rate.
…
In this Issue we have international cooperation amongst nations of the kind this Journal was designed to kindle.
Experts from China, UK, Australia and India have integrated and focused their attention on several current problems of international concern, the solutions to which will have widespread effects, not only for agricultural production, but also for issues of both economy and biodiversity.
In this Issue we have conducted a detailed survey of many aspects of the semi-arid …
Summary
A system was devised to help understand some of the problems likely to be encountered in feeding the world in 2050.
The system assumed that by 2050 the world population would be approximately 9.4 billion, as predicted by FAO, that all women on average had two offspring and that life expectancy at birth would be constant.
A simple set of fifty-four vegetarian diets was formulated to meet the FAO dietary requirements for energy, protein and dietary limiting amino acids, for …
The world population is approximately 6.5 billion (6.5 x 10 9) and it is expected to rise to 9.5 x 10 9 within the next few decades. This rise will greatly increase the likelihood of mass starvation on a scale not previously witnessed, unless there are increases in both the annual output of fertilisers and the efficiency of their use, especially with respect to nitrogen and phosphorus (N & P). World Agriculture has published two papers on the roles of N and P fertilisers. The difficulties …
There are many assertions made, and scientific conclusions drawn, about how agriculture, including fish farming, horticulture and forestry, should develop over the next half century. The purpose of this development must be to provide adequate food for an increasing population without increasing, and if possible, decreasing, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and without decreasing biodiversity.
A major function of this Journal is to make an independent assessment of reliable scientific and …
The nitrogen-cycle (N-cycle), discussed in detail in this Issue, is a key to the difference between “organic” and so-called “conventional” farming.
Synthetic N- fertilisers depend for their production upon the Haber process for the fixation of atmospheric N in the form of ammonia by reaction with hydrogen gas.
Despite the fact that 78.1% of the air we breathe is N, this gas is relatively unreactive because the molecule (N2) is held together by a strong triple bond.
Hence, the …
We make no apology for publishing more articles and an editorial on the general subject of ‘organic’ farming in this issue of World Agriculture . The subject gives rise to extensive and often polarised discussion, especially in Europe and the developed world generally.
The reasons for the popularity of produce from organic systems often derive from the belief that they are better for the environment, or have health or other personal benefits.
This is often a genuine response to real …
In the first Issue we commenced an analysis of problems related to the structure of African agriculture, that discussion is continued here. We present evidence of the replacement of a tropical forest by oil palm plantations, as an economic necessity. These forests are not only repositories of vast numbers of extremely valuable species, but are also vital carbon sinks. Moreover, the act of uprooting large numbers of tropical trees, itself leads to the release of enormous quantities of greenhouse …
This Issue of World Agriculture is dedicated to the memory of Norman Borlaug, who was born on a farm near Cresco, Iowa in 1914 and who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He died in September 2009 during the preparation for this journal of a paper of which he is a co-author. Borlaug always displayed remarkable personal stamina in his plant breeding research, working 12-hour days in harsh field conditions, where he challenged younger researchers with the physical prowess he had developed on the …
Two consecutive publications of The Royal Society appeared in February 2008. These are entitled Sustainable agriculture I and Sustainable agriculture II (Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society. 363, No.1491, 443-680 & 363, No.1492, 681-913, Eds: Pollock, C. , Pretty, J. , Crute, I. , Leaver, C . & Dalton , H.). These publications include 31 papers in which the various authors use a total of over 3000 references to other works. The papers present potential problems to be …
The world faces global agricultural problems with a rising human population, increased consumption per capita and climate change. The growth in agricultural yields during the 20th century was associated with intensive experimentation, that should continue, and increased fossil fuel use that should not. Agriculture has been a net producer of greenhouse gases, whereas forested areas, acting as a major carbon sink are being destroyed to be replaced by agricultural crops and an increased urban …
