Technology & Engineering

• Provides a truly global insight into pesticide use and pesticide resistance
• Brings together the latest information on patterns of resistance in different regions and what this means for the future of pesticide use
• Considers potential solutions such as more targeted pesticide use and role of alternative approaches, including integrated disease, pest and weed management

Soybeans are one of the most widely-grown crops in the world. As the world’s main source of vegetable protein, they have a wide range of food and non-food uses. Current yields need to increase significantly to meet growing demand but in a way that reduces input use, does not damage the environment and is resilient to climate change. This collection reviews the wealth of research addressing this challenge.

Volume 2 reviews advances in understanding and managing the range of diseases and pests that continue to cause significant crop losses. Part 1 discusses fungal, viral and bacterial diseases as well as developments in disease-resistant varieties, integrated pest and weed management. Part 2 summaries research on developing the food and non-food uses of soybean, from improving nutritional properties to uses in animal feed.

With its distinguished editor and international team of authors, this will be a standard reference for soybean scientists, growers, government and non-government agencies supporting soybean cultivation. It is accompanied by a companion volume that reviews advances in breeding and cultivation techniques.

• Provides an authoritative review of current research on the ways agriculture contributes to key greenhouse gas emissions
• Outlines the range of options for adapting agricultural land use to reduce emissions and optimise carbon sequestration
• Explores the challenges and opportunities faced by different regions in developing appropriate agricultural land use strategies to achieve net zero

”All three volumes of Achieving sustainable production of milk should be considered as a whole…Over more than 1200 pages, the authors review all fields of milk production, beginning with milk composition, genetics and breeding, safety and milk quality, sustainability of milk production as well as dairy herd management, health, welfare and nutrition of dairy. All three volumes could be considered a standard reference for graduate students in the fields of dairy science and veterinary medicine, animal and dairy scientists at universities and other research centres, and also those in governments and companies involved or working in the field of milk production.”
Animal Feed Science and Technology

In meeting rising demand, more intensive dairying systems face a range of challenges such as maintaining high standards of safety in the face of the continuing threat from zoonoses entering the food chain, whilst sustaining nutritional and sensory quality. At the same time farms need to become more efficient and sustainable. Finally, farming must also meet higher standards of animal health and welfare.

Drawing on an international range of expertise, this book reviews research addressing the welfare, nutrition and health of dairy cattle. Part 1 begins by discussing key issues in welfare followed by topics such as genetic selection and welfare, housing and transportation. Part 2 looks at nutrition with chapters on rumen microbiology, feed evaluation and formulation, feed supplements and feed safety. The final part of the book covers aspects of health such as control of diseases and other disorders such as lameness as well as dairy herd health management.

Achieving sustainable production of milk Volume 3: Dairy herd management and welfare will be a standard reference for animal and dairy scientists in universities, government and other research centres and companies involved in beef production. It is accompanied by two other volumes which review milk composition, genetics and breeding as well as safety, quality and sustainability.

The welfare of farmed animals such as cattle is an increasing concern for consumers and regulatory agencies. This book explores the science behind our understanding of dairy cow behaviour and ways to improve their welfare.

Understanding the behaviour and improving the welfare of dairy cattle summarises this wealth of recent research and reviews dairy cattle behaviour in areas such as cognition, learning, pain and stress. The collection features authoritative assessments by leading experts on developments in welfare indicators, monitoring and certification, as well as approaches to improve welfare practices of calves, heifers and transition cows at different stages of production including housing, transport and slaughter.

With its distinguished author team and wide-ranging coverage, Understanding the behaviour and improving the welfare of dairy cattle will be a standard reference for university and other researchers in dairy and veterinary science as well as ethology. It will also be a key reference for government and other agencies involved in regulating and monitoring farm animal welfare, as well as dairy farmers and companies processing milk and other dairy products.

Oil palm is widely cultivated in tropical countries for use in food processing, personal care products and other applications such as biodiesel. Cultivation faces a range of challenges such as its environmental impact (e.g. in deforestation and biodiversity loss) as well threats from pests and diseases. There is an urgent need to make oil palm cultivation more efficient and environmentally sustainable. This collection reviews the key research addressing this challenge.

Volume 1 begins by reviewing trends in production and key challenges facing the sector. Part 2 focusses on developments in understanding oil palm physiology, genetics and genetic diversity and their application to improved breeding techniques. The final part of the book discusses developments in cultivation practices.

With its distinguished editor and international team of expert authors, this collection will be a standard reference for researchers, oil palm growers, palm oil processors as well as government and non-governmental agencies responsible for more sustainable oil palm cultivation. Volume 1 is accompanied by Volume 2 which covers pests and diseases, quality and sustainability issues

"Overall, Drs Acuff and Dickson have produced a truly international and model reference here; it reflects robust research-based knowledge and best practices across the entire supply chain of the beef industry. Authors reflect international expertise, and the topics are well-organized and germane to beef’s role in public health. Each author has compiled a very comprehensive discussion of their respective topics; but each chapter is ultimately comprehensible on food safety issues for even the less-knowledgeable reader. The text reflects the thoughts and knowledge of some of the best food safety minds in the business… all-in-all, a great read!"
Meat Science

Beef production faces a range of challenges. There is an ongoing need to ensure safety in the face of threats from zoonoses and other contaminants, particularly in more intensive beef production systems and with more complex supply chains (allowing potentially broader transmission). At the same time, consumers have ever higher expectations of sensory and nutritional quality.

Drawing on an international range of expertise, this book reviews research addressing safety challenges in beef production. The first part of the book addresses pathogenic risks on the farm, developments in detection techniques and safety management. The second part of the book reviews safety issues in the rest of the supply chain, from slaughterhouse operations to management of the cold chain and consumer handling of fresh beef.

Ensuring safety and quality in the production of beef Volume 1: Safety will be a standard reference for animal and food scientists in universities, government and other research centres and companies involved in beef production. It is accompanied by Volume 2 which reviews quality issues in beef production.

"It is likely that Plant genetic resources will become the essential methods manual to facilitate their international exchange and local dissemination. It may well become the standard reference for researchers at universities, institutes, government departments and plant nurseries for many years. It provides an indispensable contribution as a handbook for plant collectors."
(Plant Science Bulletin - Botanical Society of America)

Maintaining and benefitting from plant genetic diversity are key challenges facing agriculture. Challenges include a narrowing genetic base for many key crops, the loss of landraces and wild varieties with agricultural intensification and urbanisation, and the need to develop the role of existing gene banks from repository of genetic diversity to enablers of the flow of germplasm and genetic information for breeding more robust varieties.

Plant genetic resources: A review of current research and future needs surveys the wealth of research addressing these challenges and the opportunity for a more integrated, global approach to protecting and leveraging plant genetic diversity for a more sustainable agriculture. The book assesses ways of valuing and monitoring plant genetic diversity and discusses advances in in-situ and ex-situ strategies for conserving plant genetic diversity. The book concludes by reviewing ways of enhancing the use of plant genetic diversity, including participatory plant breeding programmes and more effective seed systems.

With its eminent editor and range of international expertise, Plant genetic resources: A review of current research and future needs will be a standard reference for university and other researchers studying crop genetic resources and breeding, staff managing genebanks and germplasm collections, government and other agencies regulating the collection, storage and exchange of germplasm, as well as companies involved in crop breeding.

Insect pests remain a major threat to crop production primarily because of their ability to inflict severe damage on crop yields, as well as their role as key vectors of disease. Early identification of pests is critical to the success of integrated pest management (IPM) programmes and essential for the development of phytosanitary/quarantine regimes to prevent the introduction of invasive insect pests to new environments.

Advances in monitoring of native and invasive insect pests of crops reviews the wealth of research on techniques to monitor and thus prevent threats from both native and invasive insect pests. The book considers recent advances in areas such as sampling, identifying and modelling pest populations.

With its considered approach, the book explores current best practices for the detection, identification and modelling of native and invasive insect pests of crops. The contributors offer farmers informed advice on how to mitigate a growing problem which has been exacerbated as a result of climate change.

There is increasing competition for water resources in the face of declining aquifer reserves and increasing risk in many areas of drought related to climate change. At the same time poor water management is damaging agriculture with problems such as salinization, waterlogging, erosion and run-off. This volume summarises the wealth of research on understanding and better management of water resources for agriculture.

Part 1 reviews fundamental issues such as plant water use and soil water retention. Part 2 discusses ways of mapping and monitoring groundwater and surface water resources whilst Part 3 covers other sources such as rain and floodwater, waste and brackish water. Part 4 surveys developments in irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation and fertigation. The final sections in the book discuss ways of using water resources more efficiently such as site-specific and deficit irrigation techniques.

With its distinguished editor and international team of expert authors, this wlll be a standard reference for agronomists, scientists involved in water and irrigation science as well as government and non-governmental organisations responsible for agriculture and water resource management.

Pig meat is the most widely-consumed meat in the world. Previous growth in production has relied, in part, on more intensive systems. In meeting rising demand, these systems face challenges such as the ongoing threat of zoonotic diseases, the need to improve feed efficiency in the face of rising costs, the need to reduce the environmental impact of pig production and increasing concerns about animal welfare.

This volume looks first at the main zoonoses affecting pigs and how they can be controlled. It then reviews the latest research on aspects of meat quality such as flavour, colour, texture and nutritional quality. Finally, it assesses ways of monitoring and reducing the environmental impact of pig production.

With its distinguished editor and international team of expert authors, this will be a standard reference for researchers in swine science, producers, government and other organisations involved in supporting pig production. It is accompanied by two companion volumes which focus on animal breeding, nutrition, health and welfare.

• Reviews the range of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies for monitoring dairy cattle health and milk quality
• Considers the applications of PLF technologies across beef and dairy production, such as the use of automated feeding technologies and those used to monitor housing/environmental conditions
• Discusses the range of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques in precision dairy farming, such as decision trees, support vector machines and neural networks

• Provides a detailed overview of the range of alternative animal feed ingredients
• Considers the potential of alternative animal feed ingredients as core ingredients or supplements in the diets of pigs and fish
• Discusses the techniques used to calculate the nutritional content and quality of alternative animal feed ingredients

Women smallholder farmers globally are confronting social, economic and environmental challenges related to water resource management with impacts on access to energy, drinking water and food. Furthermore, it is common for women in rural regions to be subjected to physical, economic and slow violence. In this chapter the authors utilize a water-energy-food (WEF) nexus framework with a gender lens to analyze the experience of women smallholders in the fields and in the home in three rural communities in the Magdalena River Watershed in North Colombia. The WEF nexus framework helps reveal integral connections between these elements to show both the magnitude of the challenges women face as well as how they gain access to these resources to produce food and reproduce lives.

By the end of the 1990s research had clearly established that women had a good control over the benefit resulting from small-scale chicken use and sale. This paper analyses the differences between gender-blind and gender-aware approaches in dealing with small-scale chicken production. Three case studies are evaluated. Two are gender aware and aimed at supporting women’s chicken raising endeavour through the control of Newcastle disease in Africa: One is gender-accommodating and the other is gender transformative. The third case study is gender-blind and examines the impact of the 2003-6 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak in Asia. While promoting women’s participation in animal health and livestock raising activities can contribute to gender awareness and improve gender dynamics in the sector, the gender-blind intervention during the HPAI outbreak negatively impacted female farmers raising small-scale chickens. The authors highlight the importance on using gender-transformative approaches in initiatives that target livestock production systems.

Women smallholder farmers in this region have generally had to seek land in the interstices of large male-owned land holdings. Such smallholdings have been ignored in official statistics and the gender of their ownership rarely considered. European colonialism has strongly influenced farming and Covid 19 and climate change have worsened rural poverty. Recent positive changes for women smallholder farmers have largely come about through new ideas on sustainable development and gender introduced by international agencies. The chapter considers the background and current status of women smallholder farmers in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Special emphasis is given to Barbados which has long had a high proportion of women smallholder farmers. Much of the information provided is based on field research.

Women play a central role in agricultural value chains by doing work and investing resources across value chains from production to consumption of the products. However, as agricultural value chains commercialize or upgrade, women risk being marginalized and eliminated from commercial activities of value chains. This chapter draws on Ugandan research and development programs supported by the International Livestock Research Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through the Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services to identify the gendered structure of pig value chains that women smallholders participate in. Findings reveal that inequalities exist in the structure for division of labour, and the benefits that women and men derive from pig value chains. The chapter suggests that supporting women smallholders involved in pig farming requires further understanding of women’s role, the risks they're exposed to, and generating de-risking solutions to promote their work and investments along pig value chains.

Coffee and tea are two of the most ubiquitous beverage crops that are grown globally, and together they represent a significant share of the beverage industry overall. Even with the rise of packaged sodas, tea remains the second most popular beverage in the world, just below water. Coffee, though less sipped than tea by volume, is second only to crude oil in terms of its value (International Coffee Organization, 2015). Due to the value of these beverage crops, the production of coffee and tea represents an important point of focus for addressing global inequalities in agriculture for women in smallholder farming. This chapter will explore the recent historical evolution of these industries and efforts by women coffee and tea farmers to address inequalities in their agricultural spheres on the farm, in cooperatives, and through coordinated efforts at multiple levels of the coffee and tea supply chains.

This chapter examines the barriers facing women who re smallholder farmers or who produce a niche product on a larger farm. The most critical barrier for women wanting a career in agriculture is a lack of land ownership and the difficulties associated with proving their capacity. Their lack of access is shaped by tradition, by inheritance practices, by the reluctance of institutions such as banks to engage with women and by various structural arrangements that preclude women's entry to agriculture. Drawing on a study of sixteen women recognised as national or state level agricultural leaders, we outline the barriers facing women and the types of policies, strategies and supports needed to facilitate women smallholder farmers.

Gender-sensitive analysis is critical to understanding women's roles in agrifood systems. However, studies typically portray agrifood systems as mechanistic entities controlled by macro level structuring forces. In this chapter, we apply a new materialist perspective to examine how farmers from the Association of Renewed Intibucan Women affect or are affected by horticultural crops. We analyze the relations that integrate the assemblage of women and horticulture, the affects that draw these relations together, the capacities produced or constrained, and the emerging micropolitics and long-lasting dis/advantages. We find that, by relying on available resources, horticulture crops enhanced AMIR member’s capabilities to fulfill their roles, while strengthening their position in their households and defending their right to occupy feminist spaces, in a way that other economic activities might not have made possible. This examination emphasizes the significance of contextual knowledge to guide the design of development interventions to support women and mitigate inequality.

There are numerous studies on the interlinkage between gender and agricultural productivity and gender and agricultural technology adoption. However, most of these studies use the sex of the household head as a gender indicator, which ends up dismissing the contributions of males in female-headed households and females in male-headed households. This chapter provides a detailed overview of these studies, focussing on the factors that influence the adoption of agricultural technology by women smallholder farmers, as well as how differences in agricultural productivity between male and female farm households can be measured.

Agri-food scholars have long documented the deep-rooted social, cultural, and political issues that plague global agricultural systems. Still, there is a noticeable lack of empirical research examining the intersections of gender and race and their profound impact on individuals' lived experiences within agricultural spaces. This chapter reviews the key issues and challenges to navigating the intersections of gender, race, and agriculture on a global scale. The chapter describes the necessity of intersectional scholarship in contemporary agri-food systems research and considers the five significant challenges related to the intersection of gender and race in agriculture identified within academic literature. After providing insight from a case study of women agriculturalists working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the chapter calls for agricultural researchers, practitioners, and educators to reckon and engage with questions of intersectionality concerning agri-food systems work.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are internationally agreed aspirations to guide political action and development efforts until 2030. The guiding questions for this chapter were two-directional: What is the relevance of the SDGs for smallholder women? And, what do smallholder women contribute to the achievement of the SDGs? The chapter explores these questions through a narrative review on the evidence available and by systematically reviewing the indicators and targets of all 17 goals for visibility of smallholder women farmer. The co-authors analyze and interpret of what is captured and what is overlooked vis a vis smallholder women farmers in the SDGs considering their positioning both as potential agents and as potential beneficiaries of the goals. The chapter articulates critiques and limitations of the SDGs vis a vis this demographic and proposes priorities for the final six years of these SDGs and beyond.

This paper explores the effects of migration on women farmers in migration origins and destinations of Ghana, using 42 in-depth interviews and five focus groups. This exercise is timely and important as, first, many smallholder farmers are women, yet, they remain unrecognised and underpaid. Second, climate change threatens agrarian livelihoods and in response, smallholders migrate to areas with relatively better farming conditions as a coping strategy. In Ghana, many in the Upper West Region migrate to rural areas of the middle belt for livelihoods. Third and importantly, some women partake in these rural-rural migrations, while others do not. Despite this, there remains limited research on their experiences, hence this study. The findings show that women smallholders in origin and destination areas face gendered, economic and sociocultural marginalisation in farming and accessing resources. These findings help to further our understanding about the unique ways in which migration impacts women smallholders.

This chapter examines the financial support available to women smallholders in Bangladesh. The study uses data from the 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) with a sample size of 12,240 households. Both descriptive and multivariate analyses are applied. Findings reveal that just 17.3% of women smallholders have access to credit, with an average loan sizes of approximately Taka 58,000 (approximately £380). Key factors influencing access to credit include the marital status of the household head, the number of younger household members, minority status, business ownership, asset ownership, and district labor participation rate. Additionally, factors such as the number of younger household members, minority status, business ownership, and asset ownership also significantly affected the total amount of credit received.

This chapter provides an overview of the importance of masculinity (re)construction to the work of agricultural equity and discusses how contemporary capitalist agriculture has engaged a hegemonic agricultural masculinity in order to normalise a certain type of land use and land decision-maker to maintain global agriculture “progress” and expansion. The chapter also discusses how agribusiness strategically rebrands this masculinity to maintain and expand the reach of capitalist agriculture.

This chapter brings an Australian perspective to the discussion of women smallholder farmers. It highlights that increasing climate induced disasters are having significant impacts on farmers across Australia with major consequences particularly on smaller farms. Assessing the impacts on women on smallholder farms in Australia is difficult because of a lack of public accounting, a dominance of patrilineal inheritance practices and the expectations on women in farming families to work on and off the farm. The chapter introduce insights from a study of women who have won national agricultural leadership awards for their work in agriculture noting the ongoing gender politics that pervades Australian agriculture.

Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) are increasingly used in development research and practice as a way to transform constraining gender norms that limit smallholder women’s engagement in agrifood systems. The literature on GTAs underscores the need to consider diverse identities and experiences in the design of interventions. Nevertheless, efforts to embed an intersectional lens into gender transformative work are fragmented, and operationalization of intersectionality is limited. Our literature review (2010-2023) confirms this: of 94 sources on key GTA publications, only 56 mention the need for intersectional considerations, with very few empirical studies. The limited use of an intersectional approach in gender transformative research and practice translates into a lack of empirical evidence. This chapter advances distinct ways to apply an intersectional lens to strengthen GTAs in agrifood systems; particularly, to the benefit of women smallholder farmers. Through critical examination of power structures, GTAs can pave the way for greater social justice.

Despite their significant contribution to agricultural production, women smallholder farmers suffer different types of gender-based violence including physical, emotional, psychological, and economic abuse perpetrated by their partners. This chapter considers the role of women smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, focussing on the interrelationship between power dynamics and gender-based violence in agricultural production in the districts of Dedza and Salima in Malawi.

In this chapter, the authors invite gender in agriculture scholars and practitioners to consider the smallholder farmers who are gender minorities but do not fit into the category of “woman.” By deconstructing gender and sex, researchers and practicians are positioned to attend to a more holistic form of gender and, as such, disassemble the structures that seek to dominate all gender minorities. Through re-examining the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, we reflect on how heteronormativity affects smallholder farmers and call for scholars and practitioners to investigate the pernicious ways in which heteronormativity manifests in research, policy, and practice. Second, by reviewing queer farmers’ research—primarily conducted in industrialized nations—and using a case study of farming in Switzerland, this chapter demonstrates that assumptions about queer equity and progress cannot be assumed based on geographic location. Finally, the chapter asks what sexuality-sensitive, -informed, -transformative approaches, policies and research entail.

The highest art of operational leadership is that of making timely and sound decisions. The act of exercising command consists of making decisions and ordering their execution.

Recent advancements in breeding perennial rice and the perennial grain Kernza® illustrate progress in converting an agroecology moonshot into a deeply rooted reality. In this chapter we highlight research efforts underway to advance the scientific and sociocultural development of new perennial grain crops and cropping systems. Sections describe concentric circles of targeted research that begins with plant breeding, and expands into ecological intensification of cropping systems, supply chain development, farmer adoption, food science, and community learning. Together these elements contribute to a working model of perennialization that may be adaptable to a wide range of cultural geographies around the world.

Soil fauna represent a substantial portion of life in soils and play a critical role in providing ecosystem services and maintaining and enhancing soil quality. This chapter focuses on the potential of two key soil faunal ecosystem engineers—earthworms and enchytraeids—as soil health indicators in agroecosystems. Both groups are widely distributed and share similar functions in soils, albeit at different scales. We examine how environmental conditions, soil management practices, and interactions between these faunal groups impact their populations. Further, we review the various methods used to sample them and assess their activity. Earthworms and enchytraeids are only recently being seriously considered as biological indicators for soil quality. While it is clear that both faunal groups are sensitive to external factors such as land use, management and climate, we demonstrate that translating their functions into a practical, accessible indicator remains a challenge. We end with proposing key directions for future research.

In temperate regions, as the main agricultural land uses are livestock grazing or tillage, the most applicable agroforestry practices are silvopastoral systems (where trees are grown in grazed or mown pasture in a regular or varied pattern) and silvoarable systems (where trees or shrubs are grown in rows between an arable crop). A silvopastoral system is a land use type which is a three dimensional complex ecological mix where seasonal and temporal evolution of the system delivers a wide range of ecosystem services. In this chapter the definition of silvopastoral systems will be considered as those where trees are grown in grazed pasture in a regular or varied pattern. The value of the system lies in its complexity and its capacity to be resilient within an increasingly challenging climatic framework.

Silvopastoral systems (SPS) have been identified as efficient land management strategies to increase the performance of animal and tree production. The combinations of trees and/or shrubs with pastures and animals are present in diverse ways, generating different SPS. SPS design can be two or three strata where grass, trees, and shrubs could be combined; live fences and barriers; windbreaks and native forests. These SPS deliver environmental services such as soil carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, water sources conservation, water regulation and soil quality improvement, animal welfare and increased forage production. The chapter includes four different SPS cases from Argentina. The chapter reviews their impacts, including an increase in total biomass production of the whole system and levels of soil carbon sequestration. SPS are therefore important tools for managing climate change mitigation and food security.

This chapter discusses the integration of livestock (or forage) production with tree crops, particularly fruit trees and vines. After reviewing the current extent of fruit tree-based agroforestry systems, the chapter highlights the opportunities this integration offers in increasing overall land productivity, whilst minimizing competition between forage and food production, while reducing inputs and environmental impact. The chapter then discusses in detail the many challenges this integration entails and how these challenges can be effectively addressed.

By fostering a balanced and symbiotic relationship between livestock and their environment, silvopastoral systems also offer pragmatic solutions to contemporary environmental challenges, including climate change and wildfire management. This chapter investigates the complex interactions occurring on the Iberian Peninsula between key oak species—holm oak (Quercus ilex L.), cork oak (Quercus suber L.), and Pyrenean oak (Quercus pyrenaica Willd.)—and various livestock species, including ruminants (sheep, goats, cattle) and monogastric animals (horses, pigs). The chapter aims to show the pivotal role of Mediterranean silvopastoral systems as resilient and sustainable agroforestry models, with a particular focus on their economic, ecological, and cultural significance. By examining these systems, the chapter underscores the synergistic interplay between anthropogenic activities and natural ecosystems, highlighting their potential to support sustainable land management practices and biodiversity conservation within Mediterranean landscapes.

In this chapter, the authors summarize historic and current research on multifunctional biomass production, and provide insights in current research trends and future possibilities. The chapter is oriented around a case study in which widespread deployment of riparian buffers and windbreaks is modelled across Europe, in over 81,000 landscapes. Using three policy scenarios, we identify landscapes in which riparian buffers and windbreaks can mitigate nitrogen emissions to water and wind erosion, respectively, and quantify corresponding areas, biomass output, and environmental benefits. The findings indicate that the implementation of these systems results in effective mitigation of the targeted environmental impacts, concurrently yielding substantial environmental co-benefits with minimal consequences on prevailing agricultural production. Such beneficial land-use change is pivotal in fulfilling environmental targets and facilitating progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy.

The agroforestry practice of forest farming is gaining traction as a useful land practice. Demand for forest farmed raw material and products is high as evidenced by consumer interest in sustainable, domestic, and local products, and priority for conservation of wild populations. The goals are to optimize production and support ‘conservation through cultivation’, ‘under the canopy’. The scale, site parameters, interaction of species, and level of management help define forest farming operations. Forest farmed and wild stewarded populations may serve as unique opportunities for widespread accessibility to forest farming. Challenges within the forest farmed supply chain present opportunities for new businesses and expanding operations of existing businesses. Forest farming brings together the fields of forestry, plant sciences, traditional knowledge, animal husbandry, agronomy, and horticulture, along with food safety, regulatory considerations, consumers, and industry. Communication, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among forest farming stakeholders is paramount to the future of the industry.

Urban agroforestry sub types are reviewed and the nature of current literature is described. Definitions for key concepts are clarified and steps in the design process are explained with a focus on dimensions of resilience and measures of effectiveness in the context of climate change resilience and biodiversity restoration. Two UK-based urban agroforestry case studies are outlined to give some answers to the key driving questions for ongoing research: (1) What would the system look like if we want to feed the most people per unit area? and (2) How can we use the land for maximum benefit forever?

This book provides the background needed to understand not only the wide field of polymer processing, but also the emerging technologies associated with the plastics industry in the 21st century. It combines practical engineering concepts with modeling of realistic polymer processes. Divided into three sections, it provides the reader with a solid knowledge base in polymer materials, polymer processing, and modeling.

"Understanding Polymer Processing" is intended for the person who is entering the plastics manufacturing industry and as a textbook for students taking an introductory course in polymer processing. It also serves as a guide to the practicing engineer when choosing a process, determining important parameters and factors during the early stages of process design, and when optimizing such a process. Practical examples illustrating basic concepts are presented throughout the book.

New in the third edition are chapters on data-driven modeling and physics-driven modeling, as well as new sections on manufacturing and dimensional analysis. In addition to a number of other smaller improvements and corrections throughout the book, bonus code downloads are also provided. 

Part I: Polymeric Materials

This section gives a general introduction to polymers, including mechanical behavior of polymers and melt rheology.

Part II: Polymer Processing

The major polymer processes are introduced in this section, including extrusion, mixing, injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding, film blowing, and many others.

Part III: Modeling

This last section delivers the tools to allow the engineer to solve back-of-the-envelope polymer processing models. It includes dimensional analysis and scaling, transport phenomena in polymer processing, and modeling polymer processes.

Learn the most critical concepts for map comprehension and creation with the updated ninth edition of this authoritative text. 

Maps are sophisticated conceptual creations. They convey as much about how people think and communicate as they do about the mapped environment. So how do we create maps that convey essential information correctly? 

Map Use: Map Reading and Design, Volume 1, ninth edition, distills content from the classic textbook Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation, eighth edition. This refined edition is a comprehensive primer that provides readers with the knowledge and skills to read and understand maps, design and make maps, and recognize the limitations and inaccuracies of maps. 

Combining authoritative text with hundreds of stunning visuals to describe foundational cartographic concepts in the context of the industry’s latest innovations, Map Use: Map Reading and Design, Volume 1 takes the reader beyond visual representations and into the decision-making processes of cartographers. 

Changes for the ninth edition include reindexing; revised datums, maps, and images; an updated map projection guide; a new state plane coordinate system; and updated text to reflect new concepts, practices, and technology. An online glossary is also available. 

Topics include:

• map scale,
• map projections,
• map design,
• map organization and layout,
• qualitative and quantitative thematic maps,
• relief representation,
• imagery and maps, and
• maps and reality.

The book makes basic cartographic principles accessible to all, from students of cartography and GIS to motivated self-learners and seasoned mapping practitioners. It is also an invaluable companion for college-level instructors, with a thoughtful structure designed for college curricula. 

Get ready to improve your understanding and creation of maps. 

“GeoAI—the integration of spatial analysis, AI, and big data—is creating new insights that promise to transform our understanding of the world.”  

Jack Dangermond, president of Esri 

Discover how organizations are powering greater automation, prediction, and optimization with GeoAI. 

Organizations across the globe have long relied on geographic information system (GIS) technology to manage and analyze data through the powerful lens of location, helping them tackle some of the toughest business and societal challenges. The emergence of AI-enhanced GIS has opened new opportunities to these groups to automate complex spatial analyses and harness the full breadth of spatial analysis. This democratization of GIS can help everyone make better decisions faster, from city planners and policymakers to businesses, research groups, and constituents.  

GeoAI: Artificial Intelligence in GIS explores a collection of real-life stories about public- and private-sector organizations as well as NGOs and nonprofits successfully using GeoAI and ArcGIS® to manage processes, workflows, policies, and communication. The book also includes a technology overview that provides ideas, strategies, tools, and actions to help jump-start your own use of GeoAI. 

Learn the most critical concepts for map comprehension and creation with the updated ninth edition of this authoritative text. 

Maps are sophisticated conceptual creations. They convey as much about how people think and communicate as they do about the mapped environment. So how do we create maps that convey essential information correctly? 

Map Use: Map Reading and Design, Volume 1, ninth edition, distills content from the classic textbook Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation, eighth edition. This refined edition is a comprehensive primer that provides readers with the knowledge and skills to read and understand maps, design and make maps, and recognize the limitations and inaccuracies of maps. 

Combining authoritative text with hundreds of stunning visuals to describe foundational cartographic concepts in the context of the industry’s latest innovations, Map Use: Map Reading and Design, Volume 1 takes the reader beyond visual representations and into the decision-making processes of cartographers. 

Changes for the ninth edition include reindexing; revised datums, maps, and images; an updated map projection guide; a new state plane coordinate system; and updated text to reflect new concepts, practices, and technology. An online glossary is also available. 

Topics include:

• map scale,
• map projections,
• map design,
• map organization and layout,
• qualitative and quantitative thematic maps,
• relief representation,
• imagery and maps, and
• maps and reality.

The book makes basic cartographic principles accessible to all, from students of cartography and GIS to motivated self-learners and seasoned mapping practitioners. It is also an invaluable companion for college-level instructors, with a thoughtful structure designed for college curricula. 

Get ready to improve your understanding and creation of maps. 

Learn the most critical concepts for map comprehension and creation with the updated ninth edition of this authoritative text. 

Maps are sophisticated conceptual creations. They convey as much about how people think and communicate as they do about the mapped environment. So how do we create maps that convey essential information correctly? 

Map Use: Map Reading and Design, Volume 1, ninth edition, distills content from the classic textbook Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Interpretation, eighth edition. This refined edition is a comprehensive primer that provides readers with the knowledge and skills to read and understand maps, design and make maps, and recognize the limitations and inaccuracies of maps. 

Combining authoritative text with hundreds of stunning visuals to describe foundational cartographic concepts in the context of the industry’s latest innovations, Map Use: Map Reading and Design, Volume 1 takes the reader beyond visual representations and into the decision-making processes of cartographers. 

Changes for the ninth edition include reindexing; revised datums, maps, and images; an updated map projection guide; a new state plane coordinate system; and updated text to reflect new concepts, practices, and technology. An online glossary is also available. 

Topics include:

• map scale,
• map projections,
• map design,
• map organization and layout,
• qualitative and quantitative thematic maps,
• relief representation,
• imagery and maps, and
• maps and reality.

The book makes basic cartographic principles accessible to all, from students of cartography and GIS to motivated self-learners and seasoned mapping practitioners. It is also an invaluable companion for college-level instructors, with a thoughtful structure designed for college curricula. 

Get ready to improve your understanding and creation of maps. 

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in composite structures is crucial for safety, increased lifespan, and cost efficiency with early damage detection. The book introduces the reader to composite materials, basic concepts, terminology, design concepts for composite materials structures, composite manufacturing, fabrication and processing. It explains the mechanics behavior of composite materials, SHM in composite structures theory and artificial intelligence algorithms in SHM, including machine learning, deep learning, and artificial neural networks. The book describes the capability of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques for SHM, characteristics of piezoelectric Sensors for SHM and lamb wave technique based SHM and include case studies of SHM of composite structures such as composite pipelines, plates, using NDT different methods integrated with artificial intelligence algorithms.

 With the world facing immense challenges, how do we create a safer and more equitable world? 

Geospatial intelligence offers valuable insights to help organizations and governments protect communities. By using technology to obtain location-based data, these groups can make spatially informed decisions about how best to help people who are most at risk. Learning the technical skills needed to use geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize and interpret this data has never been more essential for working to find resolutions for the numerous challenges humanity faces today. 

Security First: Geospatial Workflows for a Safe and Equitable World guides readers through specific exercises and examples to show how GIS can be used to address significant world issues while building the technical skills required to work in the field of human security and geospatial intelligence. 

Through 20 geospatial workflows, Security First covers a breadth of topics found in geospatial security, such as: 

• human rights violations,  
• vulnerability to flooding,  
• concerns around illegal fishing, 
• quantifying and mapping land use and land cover change, 
• monitoring environmental justice, and 
• emergency response and disaster management. 

Each chapter is organized with learning objectives, technical requirements, prerequisite knowledge, a geospatial workflow, an analysis, and additional resources. All detailed exercises use ArcGIS software and downloadable data, helping to establish and reinforce the technical skills of readers. Users will also interpret their results and write an intelligence brief, requiring them to think critically about the result of their work. In helping to guide strategic decision-making, this manual will get readers on their way to incorporating GIS into their work for improved analysis and results.

Written for professors, students, and professionals, Security First is the first crowdsourced workbook in the growing field of human security and geospatial intelligence. Contributors and editors include academics teaching or studying human security and geospatial intelligence.  

Get the technical and critical-thinking skills you need to work in human security and geospatial intelligence. 

It’s well known that our industrialized food system has abandoned priorities of nutrition and environmental stability in the pursuit of profit—a model designed to fail, especially as climate change escalates. Yet this groundbreaking book describes a glimmer of hope: a green wave of diverse female farmers, entrepreneurs, community organizers, scientists, and political leaders who operate with the shared goals of combatting climate change through regenerative agriculture, redesigning the food system, and producing healthy, socially responsible food.

From the Ground Up, by award-winning author Stephanie Anderson, offers a journey into the root causes of our unsustainable food chain, revealing its detrimental reliance on extractive agriculture, which depletes soil and water, produces nutritionally deficient food, and devastates communities and farmers. Anderson then delivers an uplifting, deeply reported narrative of women-led farms and ranches nationwide, supported by women-led investment firms, farmer training programs, restaurants, supply chain partners, and advocacy groups, all working together to create a more inclusive and sustainable world.

From the Ground Up sheds light on a set of inspiring journeys, with stories that will transform the way we think about the food chain—one that can weather the storms of climate change, conflicts, and global pandemics.

• How and where to set up your hive
• The tools and equipment you need to get started
• The job of inspecting the hive
• How and when to harvest your honey
• With delicious honey-based recipes shared by talented chefs and cooks, including Honey & Co, you’ll learn all about bees and their inspiring world of work and honey production.

It’s well known that our industrialized food system has abandoned priorities of nutrition and environmental stability in the pursuit of profit—a model designed to fail, especially as climate change escalates. Yet this groundbreaking book describes a glimmer of hope: a green wave of diverse female farmers, entrepreneurs, community organizers, scientists, and political leaders who operate with the shared goals of combatting climate change through regenerative agriculture, redesigning the food system, and producing healthy, socially responsible food.

From the Ground Up, by award-winning author Stephanie Anderson, offers a journey into the root causes of our unsustainable food chain, revealing its detrimental reliance on extractive agriculture, which depletes soil and water, produces nutritionally deficient food, and devastates communities and farmers. Anderson then delivers an uplifting, deeply reported narrative of women-led farms and ranches nationwide, supported by women-led investment firms, farmer training programs, restaurants, supply chain partners, and advocacy groups, all working together to create a more inclusive and sustainable world.

From the Ground Up sheds light on a set of inspiring journeys, with stories that will transform the way we think about the food chain—one that can weather the storms of climate change, conflicts, and global pandemics.

Beekeeping Success is a practical, easy-to-navigate reference for anyone starting out or looking to level up their beekeeping skills. Written in a clear question-and-answer format, the book solves the most common problems faced by beekeepers — from installing your first colony to managing diseases like Varroa, harvesting honey efficiently, and introducing new queens.

Organized by theme, with step-by-step guidance and hundreds of real-life tips, this is a resource you can dip into whenever you encounter a challenge — or read cover to cover for a comprehensive foundation. Unlike theory-heavy manuals, this book is grounded in practical advice, with solutions tested by real beekeepers across a variety of climates and conditions, including suburban and small-space setups.

Whether you're in the US, UK, Australia, or beyond, Beekeeping Success gives you the confidence to start strong, build resilient colonies, and enjoy the sweet rewards of your efforts.

Content strategy is clearly critical to your organization, but where do you start, and how do you grow it into a true practice? Whether you're a lone content person tasked with creating a content strategy practice from scratch, or a leader struggling to scale one up, From Solo to Scaled is your blueprint for creating and managing a content strategy practice that is sustainable and successful.

Who Should Read This Book?

Takeaways

• Create a content strategy practice blueprint and make the business case for it to upper management in your organization.
• Show what success looks like and how to measure it.
• Learn how to create a sustainable practice and when to scale it—from solo to mid–sized to enterprise.
• Take an inventory of your existing tools to see if you need to repurpose or augment them as you prepare to scale your business.
• Learn how to present the content practice’s work to leadership in language that leaders understand.
• Use a handy checklist to audit and improve your own practice–building.

It’s easier than ever to build a new product. But developing a great product that people actually want to buy and use is another story. 

Build Better Products is a hands-on, step-by-step guide that helps teams incorporate strategy, empathy, design, and analytics into their development process. You’ll learn to develop products and features that improve your business’s bottom line while dramatically improving customer experience.

It’s easier than ever to build a new product. But developing a great product that people actually want to buy and use is another story. Build Better Products is a hands-on, step-by-step guide that helps teams incorporate strategy, empathy, design, and analytics into their development process. You’ll learn to develop products and features that improve your business’s bottom line while dramatically improving customer experience.

Content strategy is clearly critical to your organization, but where do you start, and how do you grow it into a true practice? Whether you're a lone content person tasked with creating a content strategy practice from scratch, or a leader struggling to scale one up, From Solo to Scaled is your blueprint for creating and managing a content strategy practice that is sustainable and successful.

Who Should Read This Book?

Takeaways

• Create a content strategy practice blueprint and make the business case for it to upper management in your organization.
• Show what success looks like and how to measure it.
• Learn how to create a sustainable practice and when to scale it—from solo to mid–sized to enterprise.
• Take an inventory of your existing tools to see if you need to repurpose or augment them as you prepare to scale your business.
• Learn how to present the content practice’s work to leadership in language that leaders understand.
• Use a handy checklist to audit and improve your own practice–building.

App-building has never been easier.

Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Experience Builder guides readers step by step through the process of creating visually stunning and highly functional apps. Whether you are a beginner or experienced GIS user, this comprehensive guide will equip you with the skills needed.

These bite-sized chapters demonstrate how to create various types of apps to visualize data, perform analysis, explore 3D environments, and more.

Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Experience Builder includes

• Easy-to-understand, step-by-step tutorials,
• Simple instructions with plenty of screenshots showing what to do, and
• Resources that provide readers with self-paced learning opportunities.

By the end of this book, you’ll know

• ArcGIS Experience Builder interface and how to create layouts,
• Best practices from a design perspective,
• How to create simple apps that allow you to perform a number of useful activities,
• How to set up powerful tools for conducting analysis and gaining valuable insights from your data, and
• How to share your app and optimize it for mobile use.

Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Experience Builder is perfect for ArcGIS users who want to understand ArcGIS Experience Builder, what kind of apps they can make, and how to make them look good.

Gain the essential imagery skills you need for data preparation, data exploration, and advanced imagery analysis workflows.

Top 20 Essential Skills for Imagery and Remote Sensing guides readers step-by-step through the essential techniques needed to visualize, process, analyze, and manage imagery and raster products. In just a few clicks, you’ll learn the skills necessary to interpret imagery, create imagery products, and perform various imagery analysis workflows.

These concise chapters are designed for quick learning, with each chapter taking about 45 minutes to complete. Clear, easy-to-follow tutorials with practical examples consisting of instructions and screenshots make Top 20 Essential Skills for Imagery and Remote Sensing an approachable resource for users of all skill levels.

By the end of this book, you’ll be proficient in:

• Enhancing imagery, managing image collections, and performing advanced analyses
• Using the ArcGIS Image Analyst extension for enhanced image processing
• Applying real-world skills to support decision-making and solve complex problems

Top 20 Essential Skills for Imagery and Remote Sensing is ideal for GIS professionals who want to deepen their understanding of imagery, as well as students eager to learn about remote sensing.

Empower yourself to use imagery and raster data effectively in your GIS projects with this comprehensive resource.

Few of us ponder the mechanisms behind our eyes. We simply expect them to capture the world around us. But for many people, injuries, illnesses, aging, and other health issues can hinder their ability to see and navigate their world. When it comes to maps, assistive technology can only do so much, often lacking the subtle nuances of a landscape, changes in elevation, or the presence of nearby bodies of water. This lack of a geographical overview impedes not only exploration of unfamiliar neighborhoods but also a more general geospatial understanding of local, regional, and international phenomena. 

Tactile maps can be life-changing for people with visual impairments, offering them greater independence and inclusion. Yet much of the research done in the field of education for the blind has remained inaccessible to a broader audience. Tactile Mapping: Cartography for People with Visual Impairments aims to bridge this gap by exploring the subject from a multidisciplinary perspective, illustrating cartographic theory with real-life case studies and user stories. 

A collaboration by skilled professionals, domain experts, and people with visual impairments, Tactile Mapping offers fresh insights from three perspectives: user experience, scientific research, and practical implementation. Through this collection of expert-written chapters, case studies, and user stories, cartographers and other geographic practitioners can gain new insights into the foundations and methods of presenting geographic information for greater accessibility. 

Topics include: 

• The role of maps in shaping our perception of the world 

• Best practices in tactile map design, including an understanding of tactile perception 

• Complex geographic data and the importance of abstraction, generalization, and content selection 
• The need for map design processes to be user centered 
  
• Different output media for tangible maps and geographic models 
  

Cartography not only helps us better understand the world but also helps us convey that knowledge to others. Tactile Mapping: Cartography for People with Visual Impairments explains and demonstrates how mapmakers can and are being intentional and inclusive with their designs. 

Learn how to use ArcGIS Utility Network, the powerful software that handles the complexity of modern utility systems now and into the future.

Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Utility Network is a practical guide for GIS technicians and analysts, whether you are already using ArcGIS Utility Network in your organization or are migrating to Utility Network. ArcGIS Utility Network is an advanced network information model within ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise that handles the complexity of modern utility systems now and into the future. ArcGIS Utility Network allows you to manage a connected network with a single unified model and visualize your infrastructure in 2D and 3D to unlock detailed insights and analytics.

Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Utility Network focuses on 20 skills that were chosen based on existing user input, suggestions, and troubleshooting over the last few years. Using short, to-the-point chapters with step-by-step tutorials that simplify important tasks and descriptions, readers will build a solid foundation of skills.

Users will learn how to:

• Create feature templates;
• Apply network rules and validate data;
• Use the error inspector to resolve error features;
• Use a basic connective trace;
• Use directional traces;
• Create a network diagram;
• Manage subnetworks, and more.
  

Written by experts at Esri, Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Utility Network is perfect for anyone who wants a single, reliable, comprehensive resource for learning how to use or optimize their current use of Utility Network.

Machine Learning Based Air Traffic Surveillance System Using Image Processing analyses how advanced machine learning algorithms and image processing technologies are revolutionising air-traffic management. By integrating real-time visual data analysis with sophisticated artificial intelligence techniques, this book highlights the potential to enhance situational awareness, safety, and efficiency in managing increasingly complex and congested airspaces. It delves into the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and deep learning models to identify, track, and analyse aircraft movements, offering precise and actionable insights for air-traffic controllers.

This comprehensive resource combines theoretical foundations with practical applications, including real-world case studies and discussions on system implementation. It addresses critical aspects such as object detection, anomaly identification, and trajectory prediction, alongside regulatory, ethical, and cybersecurity considerations. With its blend of cutting-edge research and practical insights, this book is an invaluable guide for professionals, researchers, and students in aerospace engineering, artificial intelligence, and computer vision, providing a roadmap for advancing air-traffic surveillance and management in the era of intelligent systems.

The Digital Revolution explores how digital algorithms reshape our minds, lives, and society and offers a powerful call to reclaim time, attention, and humanity in an AI-driven world.

Digital algorithms are reshaping our minds and lives, trading convenience for a loss of agency, self, connection, and humanity. The Digital Revolution, based on over a decade of research across multiple fields—including psychology, technology, and philosophy—pursues a holistic approach to answering the question of how digitization affects us and our relation to the world around us.

The Digital Revolution takes the reader on an unexpected journey, starting from the great revolutions of our age and the invention of the first modern computers in the post-World War II era to inside our very own minds, exploring the neural mechanisms of addiction, hypnotic trances and age-old questions around perception versus reality.

Today, despite unprecedented connectivity and access to information, we feel lonelier, adrift in an era that consumes our time and attention. By college, most young people have already spent tens of thousands of hours on screens, immersed in a silent Digital Revolution that alters our lives without protests or barricades. Instead, it has quietly established a subversive foothold in our previously analog lives. You want to put down your phone but can’t. You want to quit social media, yet you hesitate. You want to read a book but keep picking up your phone instead. You feel like time is slipping away. These devices promise to save us time and make life more convenient, but all they do is keep us busy—and not with the tasks we want to do. Though we sense the negative impact, breaking free is difficult.

Despite clear evidence of harm, the people most affected—parents, teachers, children, and adolescents—lack accessible information on this topic. Drawing on George’s long career as a philosopher and educator, this book offers insights from personal experience, tracing technological shifts from the 1930s to today. It aims to empower readers to become intentional participants in this revolution, reclaiming time, connection, and self-awareness. As AI is becoming increasingly dominant in shaping our daily lives, professional endeavors, and social interactions, The Digital Revolution is both a warning and a guide to conscious change.

The Digital Revolution seeks not only to understand this development—what is “artificial intelligence” and how should we understand its role in our lives?—but also suggests how we can maintain human control in a world where digital algorithms set the tone and the pace of work, leisure, communication, consumption and so much more.

Addressing Climate Risk in Coastal Urban Areas of East and Southeast Asia provides an in-depth exploration of the multifaceted challenges posed by climate hazards in coastal urban areas of East and Southeast Asia. It addresses interconnections between climate science, physical climate threats, engineering solutions, financial impacts and strategies for resilience. With contributions from leading experts, the book presents a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach for tackling physical climate risk, combining scientific knowledge with practical solutions.

The book is divided into three parts, covering:

• analysis of key issues and pain points in tackling physical climate risk from the perspectives of meteorological, engineering and financial sectors
• a methodology integrating principles of resilience, climate change science and financial risk assessment to provide a comprehensive framework for enhancing resilience
• a range of case studies that offer practical examples of state-of-the-art approaches, demonstrating how theoretical concepts can be applied in real-world situations.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding and tackling the complex challenges posed by climate hazards in East and Southeast Asia’s coastal urban areas. It serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in each sector, helping them to plan, design, operate, and manage their assets under uncertainty.

NEC3 and NEC4 Compared is a practical reference which covers on a clause-by-clause basis, the differences between the NEC3 and NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contracts (ECC). Using clear and simple language, the book will allow the reader to gain a rapid overview of all the updates to the ECC Contract forms. This revised edition includes coverage of January 2019, October 2020, and January 2023 amendments.

The book presents each clause of NEC3 ECC opposite the new wording of NEC4 ECC with all changes highlighted. Detailed explanatory notes are included which describe the significance of important changes. Users will be able to look up any clause in the NEC3 ECC and see at a glance, what, if anything, has changed. The book covers all updates to the NEC ECC but it will also be useful for those using other contracts in the NEC4 contract suite, so anybody wishing to understand the new provisions applied across the suite of NEC4 contracts will benefit from this book.

Written by an established NEC expert, and a member of the NEC4 drafting team, this companion to the NEC4 ECC will be a valuable resource for anyone who is familiar with the provisions of NEC3 ECC and is looking for an easy-to-use comparison of the changes between the two editions.

Women smallholder farmers across the globe play pivotal roles in enhancing global food security by contributing to food production, accessibility, stability and utilisation. These roles lack sufficient recognition in global food policies and are hindered by prevailing structural gender inequalities. These constraints are rooted in restrictive gender norms, disparities in access to and control over productive and complementary resources, disproportionate allocation of domestic responsibilities and limited agency. They collectively undermine the full potential of women’s contributions to sustainable food security. Challenging the discriminatory norms that weaken women’s capacities to produce and purchase sufficient and nutritious food requires targeted strategies to promote gender equality and empower women to achieve improved food security outcomes at the household, community and global levels. Accessing data from global datasets about women's contributions and challenges offers the necessary evidence to support their crucial role in attaining food security.

This chapter provides an overview of soil biology, health and ecosystem services. The authors present an update on previous work by integrating the chemical and physical components of soil health with that of the biologically mediated processes and further define how environmental conditions may contribute. To achieve this, four soil function cognitive models have been developed: (1) Carbon and Climate Regulation, 2) Nutrient Cycling, 3) Water Regulation and Filtration and 4) Habitat Provision for Biodiversity. The four cognitive models offer a structured way to integrate biodiversity into soil health assessments, alongside chemical, physical and environmental parameters, ensuring that biological indicators are given appropriate weight in evaluation frameworks.

This chapter describes the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) Crop Modeling ecosystem, its origin, advancements in model capabilities, addition of models for new crops, examples of model simulations of genetic improvement, and tools for data entry, calibration, analysis, and applications. Examples of model applications are given with emphasis on genetic improvement especially under the impacts of climate change.

This chapter provides an overview of techniques for understanding and modifying phytobiome microbial activity toward plant disease control. It reviews traditional and advanced techniques for analyzing microbial communities, including molecular, culture-based and microscopic approaches, and it explores strategies to exploit microbial activity through biological control and manipulate activity through phytobiome engineering. The chapter discusses constraints to these methods and identifies future directions that will increasingly translate phytobiome knowledge to field application.

Cereals are challenged by many fungal and bacterial diseases, some of which can be most destructive, threatening food security and, when considering mycotoxin accumulation, also food safety. The application of antifungal and antibacterial chemicals, the development of resistant varieties and culturing methods have been used to contain the various diseases were until recent sufficient. However, resistance breaking, pathogen insensitivity toward chemical protection, and the banning of pesticides due to environmental and health concerns have turned things in favor of the pathogens. More emphasis will therefore be put on integrated pest management approaches, in which biological control may play an important role. This chapter discusses the application of biological entities and the responsible mechanisms to protect cereals against pathogenic fungi and bacteria, some of which were already discussed and applied well before the time of chemical pesticides, and their problems with respect to efficacy and durability.

The oomycete Pythium oligandrum is a soil-inhabiting mycoparasite of both fungi and oomycetes, and colonizes the root ecosystems of diverse plants to induce defense responses against pathogens. Based on the multiple advantages of P. oligandrum in plant disease control, which is non-toxic and environmentally friendly, and provides additional plant growth benefits. P. oligandrum has served as an important biological control agent (BCA) for plant disease control and has been widely and successfully used in agricultural production and ecosystem management. In this chapter, we primarily summarize the application of P. oligandrum as a BCA in controlling plant diseases caused by fungal, oomycete, and bacterial pathogens, and highlight approaches taken to identify and apply plant immunity-inducing proteins from P. oligandrum in inducing plant resistance against several plant diseases. We conclude with recommendations for the most urgent future research directions needed to address the efficient utilization of P. oligandrum and in disease control.

Weed control plays a critical role in crop production, but the overuse of synthetic herbicides has led to various problems such as chemical residue accumulation, herbicide resistance in weed species, and environmental concerns. To address these challenges, sustainable weed management strategies are being sought, and bioherbicides offer a promising solution. Bioherbicides present a sustainable alternative for weed control, reducing reliance on synthetic herbicides and promoting environmentally friendly approaches in agriculture. Further research and development are crucial to optimize the efficacy and commercial viability of bioherbicides, ensuring their successful integration into weed management programs and contributing to a more sustainable agricultural system. This review paper examines the potential of bioherbicides for sustainable weed control and discusses their effectiveness, advantages, and limitations.

Recent efforts in bioprospection have uncovered new Actinobacteria bioactivities ranging from antibiotics, fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides, and have renewed interest in the development of Actinobacteria-based inoculants, mainly composed of microbial cells and cell-free microbial cultured extracts. In this chapter the authors review the surge in Actinobacteria research and multi-omics resources available, compile case studies of Actinobacteria MBCAs that depict new bioactivities in crop protection, and identify challenges in bioproduction and resistance durability that directly affect commercialisation and deployment of Actinobacteria-derived products. Finally, they discuss emerging fields and future approaches in the research and development of Actinobacteria MBCAs.

This chapter reviews the current literature to gather efficacy data on biocontrol in planta for the main diseases and analyzes them quantitatively. A meta-analysis of these data was carried out in selected cases (powdery mildew, trunk diseases, and certain species of Aspergillus producing ochratoxin A). Ways to improve the efficacy and consistency of the biocontrol is also discussed. The chapter concludes with a step-by-step outline, describing the steps required for the effective biocontrol of grape diseases. The pathogen stage for which biocontrol is required should firstly be defined, as well as the mechanism of action needed for the control. Next, suitable microorganisms should be defined based on their ability to thrive in the same environment as the pathogen, so that the BCA may grow when the pathogen grows.

This chapter presents an update of trends on insecticide resistance in Northwest Europe. It addresses the current status and future estimations of the insecticide market in Europe, specifically in context of evolving agricultural practices and environmental challenges. The chapter then explores important cases of insecticide resistance in Northwest Europe, and the drivers behind the resistance. This is shown with four examples: green peach aphids (Myzus persicae), Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae), and common house mosquitoes (Culex pipiens). It is then followed by sections touching on insecticide resistance detection, monitoring, and management. The chapter concludes with recommendations and future perspectives on the matter.

This chapter reviews the piecemeal development of pesticide regulation and the challenges of developing a more harmonised and global approach to approving new crop protection products. Such as approach needs to meet the needs of farmers, companies and regulators in balancing criteria such as efficacy, safety, environmental impact, cost and speed of approval. It also needs to take proper account of the distinctive features of biological products. The chapter reviews the work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in creating a harmonised framework to meet these objectives.

Potato production faces significant challenges from a wide range of diseases, which have traditionally been managed using synthetic fungicides. However, increasing concerns over environmental impacts, the development of pathogen resistance, and public health risks have led to the exploration of biological control agents (BCAs) as sustainable alternatives. BCAs, which include beneficial bacteria, fungi, viruses, nematodes, and other organisms, offer effective and environmentally friendly solutions by harnessing natural antagonistic relationships and enhancing plant defence mechanisms. Additionally, substances derived from biological materials also fall under this category, broadening the scope of BCAs. This chapter reviews the mechanisms by which BCAs control potato diseases, such as competition, antibiosis, and induced systemic resistance. It further discusses recent advancements and cases of field applications. Biological control is a promising pathway toward more sustainable agricultural practices, meeting the growing demand for eco-friendly farming solutions.

Clonostachys rosea is a fungal biocontrol agent able to control a range of impactful plant diseases, such as damping-off, root rot, botrytis blight, fusarium head blight, and others. The use of C. rosea can subsequently replace or reduce the use of chemical pesticides. However, biocontrol efficacy can be highly variable depending on factors such as the environmental conditions and the genotypes of the pathogen, host plant, and biocontrol agent. C. rosea can be applied through seed treatment, drenches, sprays, pollinators, and in combination with other biocontrol agents, depending on the disease being targeted for management. While C. rosea was first characterized as a mycoparasite, it can also act through other mechanisms to control disease such as the secretion of cell wall degrading enzymes, antibiosis, endophytic colonization and the induction of plant defenses. Clonostachys rosea also has the potential to control other plant pests, such as nematodes or insects.

• Provides a detailed overview of the range of alternative animal feed ingredients
• Considers the potential of alternative animal feed ingredients as core ingredients or supplements in the diets of pigs and fish
• Discusses the techniques used to calculate the nutritional content and quality of alternative animal feed ingredients

• Reviews the range of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies for monitoring dairy cattle health and milk quality
• Considers the applications of PLF technologies across beef and dairy production, such as the use of automated feeding technologies and those used to monitor housing/environmental conditions
• Discusses the range of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques in precision dairy farming, such as decision trees, support vector machines and neural networks

• Provides a detailed overview of the range of alternative animal feed ingredients
• Considers the potential of alternative animal feed ingredients as core ingredients or supplements in the diets of pigs and fish
• Discusses the techniques used to calculate the nutritional content and quality of alternative animal feed ingredients

• Reviews the range of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies for monitoring dairy cattle health and milk quality
• Considers the applications of PLF technologies across beef and dairy production, such as the use of automated feeding technologies and those used to monitor housing/environmental conditions
• Discusses the range of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques in precision dairy farming, such as decision trees, support vector machines and neural networks

• Highlights the significant importance of supporting farmers in their transition from relying on inorganic fertilisers to utilising more organic sources of nutrition
• Considers the role of biostimulants in promoting crop nutrient use efficiency and overall crop health
• Reviews the potential contribution of particular soil amendments to soil organic matter content, nutrient availability and nutrient cycling

• Highlights the significant importance of supporting farmers in their transition from relying on inorganic fertilisers to utilising more organic sources of nutrition
• Considers the role of biostimulants in promoting crop nutrient use efficiency and overall crop health
• Reviews the potential contribution of particular soil amendments to soil organic matter content, nutrient availability and nutrient cycling

NEC4: Practical Solutions, Second edition is a practical ‘how to’ guide that answers commonly-occurring issues faced by users of the NEC4 contracts. Drawing on extensive experience and feedback, this fully revised and updated edition will help the reader to avoid common project pitfalls and to implement good practice, ensuring the successful delivery of project outcomes.

The book is presented as a series of questions and answers, offering guidance on the practical application of the NEC4 contract forms. The chapters provide concise and practical solutions to over 270 common queries faced by practitioners during the design and implementation stages of a project, as well as addressing the risks associated with running a project. For ease of reference, the structure follows the same order as the Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC), enabling readers to use the book as a quick look-up tool to find answers to common queries and problems that occur in practice. This edition includes recent amendments and updates, as well as extended coverage of early warning provisions, Contractor’s proposals, compensation events and appropriate use of Z clauses.

Written by two well-known NEC consultants NEC4 Practical Solutions is essential reading for engineers, surveyors, architects, project managers, supervisors, consultants, contractors, subcontractors, and anyone else working with, or interested in working successfully with, the NEC4 suite of contracts.