*CA-CoP* *CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE*
*for sustainable production intensification*
Dear Subscribers,
Please see herebelow an invitation to CA-CoP to contribute to the special
issue of AIM Agriculture and Food on 'Sustainable Crop Production
Intensification' to be guest edited by Professor Michele Pisante from
Teramo University, Italy.
*Amir Kassam *
*Moderator*
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: www.fao.org/ag/ca
--------------------------------
Dear colleagues,
As we suspect the topic area would be of interest to you, we are pleased to
invite you to contribute a paper to a special edition of AIMS Agriculture
and Food journal on the topic of “Sustainable Crop Production
Intensification“.
This special edition is edited by Prof. Michele Pisante [log in to unmask],
chair of the Agronomy and crop sciences research and education center,
University of Teramo.
AIMS Agriculture and Food is a brand new international Open Access journal
devoted to publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed original papers
representing complete studies in the multidisciplinary field of Agriculture
and Food. We wish to provide a new platform for researchers to communicate
their scientific ideas in the field.
This special edition will be published with the Open Access publication
policy. *All the article processing charges for authors are waived.*
Please see the introduction to the topic:
The concept of Sustainable Agriculture needs to be revisited in the context
of the need to increase productivity to meet the food and agricultural
demands of the future total projected population of some 10 billion by the
end of the 21st century. It is obvious that the concept of Sustainable
Agriculture must recognize that agricultural ecosystems are sustainable in
the long-term only if the outputs of all components produced balance the
natural and synthetic inputs into the production systems. Whether the
required amount of input (e.g. nutrients) to obtain a desired yield is
supplied in organic or biological form rather than in mineral form is a
matter of preference, availability, economics and logistics. Plants cannot
differentiate the nutrients supplied through the organic or biological or
synthetic sources but the yield response functions, nutrient retention and
release rates, and efficiency of nutrient utilization are affected by the
way the combined nutrient sources are managed and whether production
paradigm is based on conventional tillage agriculture or no-till
Conservation Agriculture. In either case, the important question is the
need to establish the supply of nutrients in effective forms, in adequate,
quantities, at right times and correct locations to support the production
of the desired amount of food and other agricultural products to meet the
needs of 10 billion people by the end of the century.
With the publication of Save and Grow in 2011, FAO proposed a new paradigm
of sustainable crop production intensification, one that is both highly
productive and environmentally sustainable, and at the same time efficient
and resilient, and capable of delivering ecosystem services such as clean
and regulated fresh water supplies, carbon sequestration, control of soil
degradation and erosion, and enhancement of agrobiodiversity. FAO
recognized that, over the past half-century, agriculture based on the
intensive use of mechanical tillage and agrochemical inputs has increased
global food production and average per capita food consumption. However, in
the process of this tillage-based intensification, there has been a severe
depletion of natural resources of many agro-ecosystems, jeopardizing future
crop productivity and agro-ecological potentials, and has added to the
emissions of green house gases responsible for global warming.
In light of the above, the concept of sustainable crop production
intensification should be the primary strategic objective of innovative
agricultural research and development strategies internationally for the
coming decades. Already, a set of core agroecological principles for
sustainable production (such as minimum soil disturbance, maintenance of
soil cover, and diversified cropping system) and a range of locally
formulated and often location-specific practical options exist for farming
practices, approaches and technologies that can strengthen sustainability
and at the same time intensify crop production in terms of increased output
and productivity (efficiency). These principles and practices need to be
applied and mainstreamed internationally in the coming decades.
In order to do this, a renewed attention on the results of innovative
research and development initiatives to improve agricultural productivity
growth on a sustainable basis is needed. Additionally, intertwining
challenges of climate change and competition for land, water and energy
require attention in the following areas: bridging the agronomically
attainable gap between actual and potential productivity levels in the
agriculture of developing countries; investing in agricultural innovation
and knowledge system development, broadly defined; and improving national
and international research and development cooperation for sustainable
agriculture growth and natural resource management.
*The above brief presentation for this special edition of AIMS Agriculture
and Food invites contributors to submit articles that address the topic of
Sustainable Crop Production Intensification from all the above described
points of view. The fields of interest include, but is not limited to, the
(overlapping) disciplines of agronomists, biotechnologists, crop
physiologists, soil scientists, and agroecologists who must also work with
geologists, hydrologists, climatologists, computer scientists, system
engineers, economists, with particular interest in the emerging
multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary systems approach to research and
development at multiple scales and levels of systems such as the farm,
household, community, landscape, basin, sectors and cross-sectors, local,
national and international.*
Submission due date: 31 January 2016.
Visit our website for more information at:
http://www.aimspress.com/newsinfo/441.html
Please feel free to distribute this letter within your organization and
professional network to colleagues who might be interested for this
publishing opportunity, if you do not have a paper to contribute or kindly
would like to do so.
In case of any questions you have, please contact us.
Thank you so much for your kind consideration.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Kind regards,
Xiaowei Tang, Managing Editor
AIMS Agriculture and Food
Website: http://www.aimspress.com/journal/agriculture
Email: [log in to unmask]
On behalf of
Michele Pisante, Professor
Chair, Agronomy and crop sciences research and education center
University of Teramo
Via C.R. Lerici, 1
64023 Mosciano S.Angelo (TE), Italy
Phone & Fax: +39 0861 266940
http://www.unite.it/UniTE/Engine/RAServePG.php/P/58511UTE0413?&VRIC_IDOC=193#A2
Email: [log in to unmask]
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