Agricultural Districts and Zoning: A State-Local Approach to a National Problem

Rural vernacular agricultural landscapes located on the urban fringe of expanding metropolises are under immense conversion pressure. At the same time, their proximity to urban markets with high demand for locally sourced agricultural products affords them distinct market opportunities. Considering these two inherent qualities of farmland on the urban fringe, the hypothesis for this thesis is this: What are the land use management practices currently available for the preservation of farmland, and how is demand for locally sourced food contributing to the sustainability of agricultural production and farmland conservation on the urban fringe? Through a literature review of existing national, state, local, and private efforts to support and promote farmland preservation, this thesis research examines current land management practices employed to preserve rural vernacular agricultural landscapes. Additionally, this thesis research explores the increasing consumer demand for locally grown food as a potential economic tool to conserve farmland by promoting direct-to-consumer markets as part of an overall strategy to support agricultural activity. A case study is included of Loudoun County, Virginia investigating the local government’s land use regulations and incentives, as well as their efforts to promote programs which support local agricultural markets. This I conclude that by focusing on local direct-to-consumer markets, agricultural activity can remain profitable even under high development pressure. I advocate for local jurisdictions to exhibit the political will to support comprehensive farmland conservation programs, including land use regulations and incentives, as well as rural economic development support for local direct-to-consumer agricultural markets.

In diesem Beitrag werden die Bestimmungsfaktoren der Entwicklungen auf den Weltagrarmarkten untersucht und deren Auswirkungen auf die EU Landwirtschaft fur den Zeitraum 2003/05 - 2013/15 quantifiziert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die weltweite Nachfrage nach Agrargutern starker steigt als das Angebot, so dass der Trend der Weltagrarpreise positiv ist. Die gegenwartig (Mai 2008) sehr hohen Preise werden indes nicht von Dauer sein. Vielmehr ist mittelfristig mit einem eher moderaten Preisanstieg von etwa 15-30 % im Untersuchungszeitraum zu rechnen. Bei Weizen und anderem Getreide (auser Mais) wird die Europaische Union wieder zu einem Nettoimporteur. Die zu erwartenden Entwicklungen auf den Weltagrarmarkten und die dadurch steigenden Preise fur Nahrungsguter werden zu einer ernsthaften Verscharfung der Welternahrungslage fuhren. Da die Flachen, die weltweit fur die Nahrungsguterproduktion verfugbar sind, begrenzt sind, muss die Steigerung des Angebots, die notwendig ist, um die rasch wachsende Weltbevolkerung in hinreichendem Umfang mit Nahrungsgutern zu versorgen, weitgehend uber eine Steigerung der Produktivitat derjenigen Flachen erreicht werden, die bereits heute landwirtschaftlich genutzt werden. Eine Steigerung der Produktivitat in der Weltlandwirtschaft fuhrt zu geringeren Nahrungsguterpreisen. Sie verringert daher auch die Anreize auf dem Weg der Brandrodung zusatzliche landwirtschaftliche Nutzflachen zu erschliesen. Gegenwartig tragen diese Brandrodungen 18 % zum anthropogenen Klimawandel bei. Dies ist mehr als der Klimaeffekt der weltweiten Industrieproduktion. Damit ist das landwirtschaftliche Produktivitatswachstum nicht nur zentral im Kampf gegen den Hunger auf der Welt, sondern es leistet auch einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Verringerung des Klimawandels.

We assessed agricultural land’s potential as to food supply and biofuel production. Agricultural land use has been steadily increasing worldwide as one means of feeding the burgeoning global population. If this same land, currently in agricultural production for food purposes, is diverted for biofuel production then it is most probably going to have an impact on global food supply. In this study, we first assessed the characteristics of land and where crops can be successfully grown based on the qualifications of weather, land intensification, land quality, and cropping patterns. Use of land in biofuel production, under current existing technologies, would need a significant expansion of agricultural land in both developed and developing countries from their current levels. We assessed the supply potential of the World Bank’s 25 classified regions for biofuel and also for meeting food production needs under the whole grain production, current per capita consumption, and optimal grain consumption based on vegetarian, normal and affluent diets under a variety of scenarios that encompass both increases in productivity and increases in pasture land conversion to grain crop cultivation. Results indicate that under the whole grain need criterion, the world will have a surplus balance of grains by 2050 (even if production is increased at only the 40% level). When requirements for a vegetarian diet are assumed, a productivity increase of 60% at current land levels would be required to meet global grain needs. When a moderate diet requirement assumption is made, expansion of crop production in existing pasture and meadow land would be necessary to meet food demand. An affluent diet requirement would require a fairly substantial increase in productivity and expansion of crop production to marginal land in order to meet world food demand by 2050. Plantings of switchgrass and Miscanthus on marginal lands can produce much more biofuel than needed but stress on land resources, water quality, water quantity, and the need for a huge amount of production inputs may create a hindrance for its implementation in the future. Additionally, it will require advances in cost effective technology that will then be capable of producing biofuel from lignocellulosic feedstocks. Minimally, to meet moderate diet requirements in 2050, there will be need to expand grain crops in 30% pasture land and to meet at least 10% average world biofuel mandated need additional 3.3% pasture land needs to be planted with lignocellulosic crops such as switchgrass.

Hazard and risk assessment of wind erosion and dust emissions in Denmark - a simulation and modelling approach

Bangladesh is a densely populated country of 142.3 millions people where 964 person live per sq. km. It is located in the north-eastern part of South Asia. Although it is predominantly an agriculture dependent country, it has the lowest land man ratio in the world and it accounts fro 0.06 hactres per person. Every year around 18-20 lacs people are born to soar the existing overpopulation. In addition, 47.3% of the total labour forces of the the country are employed in agriculture and it provides 21% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. To meet the multiple demands of the ever increasing population the scarce agricultureal lands of this country are being misused for non-agricultural purposes. Besides, excessive use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides and intensive cultivation of lands without necessary conservation practices gradually deteriorates the productive capacity of the agricultural lands. If the present trend of Agricultural land management system (ALMS) continues it may hamper the sustainable development of the country. This article examines the dynamics of ALMS in Bangladesh and investigates to indentify the key problems and challenges for promoting sustainable development in ALMS. Lastly, based on overall observations of the research, this article suggests several policy and administrative guidelines to promote sustainable development in agricultural land management in Bangladesh.

When granting credits, commercial banks can take a gricultural land as guarantee. Because the three components of agricultural farm a re land, work and capital, we consider that evaluation of agricultural land is of extreme importance when accepting it as a guarantee for the solicited credits for agricultural use. Agr icultural customers prefer to offer land as guarantee for mortgage instead of personal houses o r apartments for real estate mortgage. In Romania after 1990, commercial banks have been reticent in accepting agricultural land as guarantee upon granting credits for agriculture, du e to difficulties that have appeared in the process of applying legislation in this domain. Thi s attitude of the banks has also been motivated by the following reasons (Harangus, 2004): - lack of a functional land market; - non-existence, up to 1998, of a complete and cohere nt legal framework concerning selling and owning agricultural land; - late procurement of title deeds by agricultural lan d owners; - difficulty in establishing the value of agricultura l land that could be taken into consideration as credit guarantee; - difficulty of the bank to establish the value of th e land of a debtor because of the pre-emption right upon alienation of any of the agr icultural lands . In 1998, Law nr. 54/1998 regarding juridi cal circulation of land established a juridical framework for the land market. The difficulty in ev aluating the land of agricultural lands consisted also in the evolution of the number of ho useholds and their small surfaces. Evaluation of agricultural land is an extremely dif ficult task as the evaluator has to take into account and to analyse information regarding indica tors specific for a particular cultural area (Mertz, Wadley & Christensen, 2005). Such information can be obtained from the centres for agricultural consultancy and from agricultural spec ialists. Because of the complexity of methodologies for evaluation of agricultural land, namely the six new standard methods of evaluation of agricultural lands, the banks have di fficulties in establishing the value of the collaterals that can be considered as guarantees fo r credits granted to agricultural customers. REFERENCES

This report examines evidence on the relationship between agricultural land-use changes, soil productivity, and indicators of environmental sensitivity. If cropland that shifts in and out of production is less productive and more environmentally sensitive than other cropland, policy-induced changes in land use could have production effects that are smaller-and environmental impacts that are greater-than anticipated. To illustrate this possibility, this report examines environmental outcomes stemming from landuse conversion caused by two agricultural programs that others have identified as potentially having important influences on land use and environmental quality: Federal crop insurance subsidies and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Nation's largest cropland retirement program. The report finds that lands moving between cultivated cropland and less intensive agricultural uses are, on average, less productive and more vulnerable to erosion than other cultivated lands, both nationally and locally. These lands are also associated with greater potential nutrient runoff and leaching compared with cultivated cropland nationally. Crop insurance subsidies and CRP have estimated effects on erosion and other environmental factors that are disproportionate to the acreage and production effects, but specific environmental impacts vary with the features of each program.

Introduction: One of the fundamental issues in the agricultural sector in Iran is the absence of optimal water and soil resources utilization and lack of new agricultural science and technology adoption through major prevailing transformations in agricultural land exploitation system. The studies conducted in the history of agricultural development in Iran cast light on the fact that the farming system’s role in the agricultural development in Iran is of great importance. And water and soil resources utilization has been one of the fundamental issues of agriculture which has enjoyed major consideration after the implementation of land restructuring. The agriculture farming systems are referred to as the focus of all activities related to sustainable agricultural development in Iran and it is believed that the shift and transition from traditional agriculture to modern and profitable agriculture through appropriate, improved and newly developed agricultural establishments are the major activities which can increase productivity and improve the overall performance of the agricultural sector and thus contribute to sustainable development more than any other factor. Hence, such significance will be more evident when the small and scattered farmlands in many cases have imposed some limitations in the application of agricultural techniques and machinery, equipping and developing the infrastructure and efficient use of resources with appropriate performance forcing agricultural policymakersto be always looking for ways to deal with it. Therefore, identifying the relative advantage of any farming system specified for each area and region in the country seems important. Accordingly, the Mazandaran province is regarded as one of the production hubs in producing crops such as rice, wheat and canola in the country playing a major role in supplying food. With a detailed analysis of research literature, the economic, ecological, social, technical and policy criteria were identified as sustainability criteria for agricultural activities in the province along with Cooperative, Commercial and Peasant alternatives as the dominant farming system in the present study. Consequently, the identification of the most suitable farming system for sustainable agricultural activities in the province serves as the main objective of this research. Materials and Methods: The study adopted an applied survey approach to conduct the study in 2014 in Mazandaran. The statistical population comprised of all professionals and experts working in the field of sustainability aspects and farming systems with a deep understanding and sufficient information on the issue being selected through purposive and snowball sampling summing up to 15 subjects. A questionnaire was used to collect data. In order to determine the face and content validities, the professors’ and specialists’ comments were taken into account and to estimate the reliability, the inconsistency rate was used. To achieve the main objective, the analytic hierarchy process technique by considering 5 criteria and 33 sub-criteria on three farming types (cooperative, commercial and peasant) were used. The Expert Choice software 2000 was applied for data analysis. It should be noted that the analytic hierarchy process is a multi-criteria decision-making approach being based on paired comparison which enables managers and policymakers to review various scenarios. Likewise, it is sought to consider the experts’ opinions from the most central units involved instead of focusing on the number of decision-makers. Results and Discussion: Based on the results and considering criteria prioritization reveal the fact that the ecological,policy, social dimensions compared with the economic and technical criteria remain more imperative. Therefore, the ecological, political and social dimensions are the most important aspects of agricultural activities sustainability in the province. Hence, it can be concluded that in order to maintain the sustainability of agricultural activities, the emphasis should be placed on ecological issues which are at present a great challenge and crisis at the international level and social policy based on sustainable agriculture. The growing integration of land restructuring and biological and organic farming development in recent years advocates the importance of the ecological aspect. Similarly, considering the ecological, political, economic and technical criteria, the commercial and cooperative farming system ranked first and second, respectively. Nevertheless, consistent with social criterion, the cooperative and commercial farming system kept the first and second priorities. Conclusion: Combining the relative weight of criteria and sub-criteria in agricultural activities sustainability and the farming system, the commercial farming system with good Inconsistency Ratio was the most desired and applicable farming system in sustainable agricultural activities and cooperative farming system with a diminutive difference ranked second. Based on the research findings, the most appropriate system was the commercial farming system and the cooperative farming system was second.However, since such model is not widely applied in the province at present, it is necessary that provincial and even national policymakers and practitioners consider the issue and the agricultural activities development and establishment mechanisms in terms of modern commercial and cooperative farming system be provided. As in most of these types of farming systems, the criteria identified in this research are substantially observed and their emphasis can serve as an effective step towards the development of sustainable agriculture.

Land use changes and transnational migration

The agro-ecosystem is a complex system, with various parameters that can impact on its productivity. Over time, human beings have put the sector under stress due to their demands for food and other agricultural products from it. The proposed Ecological-Footprint Agro-Ecosystem Model (EFAM) has shown that the increasing ecological footprint (i.e. demands on the agro-ecosystem) has a negative relationship with the efficiency of productive arable lands. Agricultural lands are extremely scarce. Additionally, in the present study, data on land used fo agriculture have been converted into global calorie received from the sun which are stored in agricultural products; this shows that land is only marginally producing the calories that human beings need for food security globally. This will lead to economic instability around the world. The policies for agro-ecosystems should monitor the condition of agriculture in the world from climate change to land productivity and good distribution of food throughout the world. This may be done by subsidizing world food production through United Nation programs. In this respect, the UN or governments should have funds reserved to support subsidizing food production in the impacted areas of lower production but without changing the policy for market commodities. This fund is to be used not for emergencies but to support farmers in producing agricultural commodities and to ensure food security.

Until 2050, the global population is projected to reach almost 9 billion people resulting in a rising demand and competition for biomass used as food, feed, raw material and bio-energy, while land and water resources are limited. Moreover, agricultural production will be constrained by the need to mitigate dangerous climate change. The agricultural sector is a major emitter of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG). It is responsible for about 47 % and 58 % of total anthropogenic emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) (IPPC, 2007). CH4 emissions are associated with enteric fermentation of ruminants, rice cultivation and manure storage; N2O emissions are related to nitrogen fertilizers and manure application to soils, but also to manure storage. Land use changes, pasture degradation and deforestation are the main sources of agricultural CO2 emissions, where livestock is a major driver of deforestation and climate change, accounting for 18 % of anthropogenic GHG emissions (Steinfeld et al., 2006). In this context, the key role of livestock is to be investigated. According to FAO, livestock uses already about 30% of the Earth‘s land surface as resource for grazing while demand for livestock products will continue to rise significantly, especially to feed the animals. For the assessment of future food supply and land-use patterns as well as the environmental impacts of the agricultural sector, there is an urgent need to identify and analyse main characteristics of the livestock sector. Concerning the conversion efficiency of natural resources like land and water to animal products, feeding technologies play a crucial role. They also determine the magnitude of environmental impacts per amount commodity generated. For ten world regions we define the feeding technology for five livestock subsectors as a set of the following parameters: feed mix, feed energy requirements per unit output, and methane emissions per unit output. We calculate these parameters on the basis of FAO Food Balance Sheets and data from the literature. The resulting regional feed demand of marketable feed is consistent with FAO data. To assess the impacts of different feeding technologies, we implement this concept in the global land use model MAgPIE that is appropriate to assess future anthropogenic GHG emissions from various agricultural activities and environmental and economic impacts of different pathways of the agricultural sector by combining socio-economic regional information with spatially explicit environmental data. We compare three alternative feeding scenarios in terms of GHG emissions from agricultural activities (CH4, N2O). We find that methane emissions rise significantly under a scenario of production extensification (i.e. higher roughage shares in feed mixes). Under an intensification scenario, future methane emissions are even lower than in 1995, but N2O emissions from nitrogen fertilizers and manure application to soils increase.

Antropogeniczne formy rzeźby stanowią ważny element krajobrazu Magurskiego Parku Narodowego. Gospodarka prowadzona na jego obszarze przez wieki doprowadziła do znacznych przekształceń rzeźby i stosunków wodnych. Zamieszkujący go Łemkowie zajmowali się pasterstwem, gospodarką rolno-leśną, obróbką surowców skalnych czy pozyskiwaniem tzw. oleju drzewnego. Gwałtowny przyrost liczby ludności doprowadził do intensywnego zagęszczenia zabudowy na przełomie XIX i XX w. oraz zwiększenia antropopresji. Po zakończeniu
\nII wojny światowej w latach 1946-1947 wysiedlono większość mieszkańców Beskidu Niskiego. Wówczas nastąpiła zmiana użytkowania gruntów. Stoki górskie, które do tej pory były wykorzystywane rolniczo jako pastwiska i pola uprawne, poddane zostały zalesieniu lub stopniowo podlegały wtórnej sukcesji roślinnej. Mimo obecnie małej gęstości zaludnienia i rozproszonej zabudowy Magurskiego Parku Narodowego formy antropogeniczne są nadal bardzo wyraźne. Ze względu na ich pierwotne przeznaczenie można wyróżnić formy związane z: dawną zabudową mieszkalną i gospodarczą, gospodarką rolno-leśną i eksploatacją surowców skalnych, kultem religijnym oraz działaniami militarnymi z okresu I i II wojny światowej. Lokalnie na ślady dawnej kultury materialnej nakładają się również efekty działalności gospodarczej, podjętej na tym obszarze po II wojnie światowej. Na podstawie badań zinwentaryzowano najciekawsze obiekty i formy świadczące o antropogenicznej georóżnorodności. Szczególnie istotne pod tym względem są tu zespoły teras rolnych w Nieznajowej, Ciechani, Żydowskiem i Rozstajnem. Wyraźne ślady dawnej zabudowy mieszkaniowej i gospodarczej, w postaci m.in. podmurówek domów, piwnic oraz studzienek i ujęć wody, zachowały się w dawnym przysiółku Parszywskie w Hucie Polańskiej. Z kolei liczne ślady obiektów militarnych z okresu II wojny światowej znajdują się na stokach góry Baranie, Nad Tysowym, Wysokie oraz Dąb. Na obszarze Magurskiego Parku Narodowego liczną grupę stanowią również obiekty związane z kultem religijnym. Podczas badań zaobserwowano efekty ewidentnej renaturalizacji, a przez to również zanikania antropogenicznych form rzeźby. Dokładna ich inwentaryzacja skłania do zabezpieczenia wielu miejsc pod kątem zachowania wielowiekowej antropogenicznej georóżnorodności.

Conflict over natural resources such as land, water and forest is ubiquitous. Societies everywhere have competed for natural resources to enhance their livelihoods. Agriculture production and forest conservation are vital natural resources in the rural land use development and closely integrated to each other in a long history of human civilization. However, the promotion of one often leads to destruction of the other. Higher agricultural production improves farmers’ well being as well as higher economic growth. In the same vein, forests are very important for biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, soil restoration, timber supply and people’s livelihoods. Binary models were developed using field data collected from four states in the Southwest of Nigeria namely Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states to assess a number of factors causing conflicts between forestry and agricultural land uses. The models predict the probability that a respondent (i.e. a stakeholder) will support or against conflicts between forestry and agricultural land uses in relation to independent variables which include Poor Documentation and Records of Admitted Farms (PDRAF), Unsustainable Agriculture Practices and Technologies (UAPT), Obsolete Land Use Decree and Lack of Land Use Reform (OLUDLLUR), High Population Growth (HPG), Forest Reservation Process (FRP), Poor Sectoral Integration among Land Use Sectors (PSILUS), Absence of Conflict Management Strategies in Agricultural and Forest Policies (ACMSAFP), High Demand for Farming and Mining (HDFFM) and Multi-Stakeholders and their Diverse Interests (MSTDI). The results of the binary logistic model for Land use conflicts between forestry and agricultural sectors in the Southwest Nigeria indicated overall significant fit to the data judging from the chi square value (df, 9) = 2032.3 that is significant at p<0.05. The final loss of the model indicated a value of 36.77. Land use conflicts between forestry and agricultural sectors in the Southwest Nigeria were best predicted by MSTDI, HDFFM and PSILUS with odds ratio of 108269E6, 3703.33 and 1.08. The higher the odds ratio, the more influential the factors causing conflicts of land use between forestry and agricultural sectors. The specific models developed for the four states in the Southwest Nigeria, depend on the locations where the data were collected; therefore the models should not be applied to areas outside the range of the data. However, the modelling approach is of general applicability and can be used to predict the conflicts of land uses between forestry and agriculture in other areas.

There is a lively debate on whether biodiversity conservation and agricultural production could be better reconciled by land sparing (strictly separating production fields and conservation areas) or by land sharing (combining both, agricultural production and biodiversity conservation on the same land). The debate originates from tropical countries, where agricultural land use continues to increase at the expense of natural ecosystems. But is it also relevant for Europe, where agriculture is withdrawing from marginal regions whilst farming of fertile lands continues to be intensified? Based on recent research on farmland biodiversity we conclude that the land sharing – land sparing dichotomy is too simplistic for Europe. Instead we differentiate between productive and marginal farmland. On productive farmland, semi-natural habitats are required to yield ecosystem services relevant for agriculture, to promote endangered farmland species which society wants to conserve even in intensively farmed regions, and to allow migration of non-farmland species through the agricultural matrix. On marginal farmland, high-nature value farming is a traditional way of land sharing, yielding high quality agricultural products and conserving specialized species. To conserve highly disturbance-sensitive species, there is a need for nature reserves. In conclusion, land sparing is not a viable olution for Europe in both productive and marginal farmland but because of different reasons in each type of farmland.

Because of the limited supply of land resource, it is unavoidable that farmland is being transferred to non-agricultural use in the course of economic development, but there is different basic nature between agricultural and nonagricultural land. It is well-known that recovery of land productivity may be difficult or impossible under improper conversion or application. In order to protect precious agricultural areas as well as the agricultural production environment, farmland resources should be balanced against the needs of all sectors in future, and land use should be comprehensively planned on the whole. Otherwise, the pollution problem will aggravate and agricultural productive environment will be destroyed.Accordingly, it is very important to use land resources reasonably, in order to meet the need for land of the whole nation's economic development, and to protect the precious farmland resources from irregularly scattering.Because of the scarcity of land resources, many countries strongly support the importance and protection of farmland though legislation. For example, in German ”Federal Territorial Order Law”, land suitable for agricultural production must not be considered for the use of other purposes except for very special need. Those farmland resources are well maintained and preserved in developed countries may be important experience worthy of learning for Taiwan.This paper intends to investigate rural land use planning and management in Taiwan from the aspects of land-use planning and control in Germany. Besides, the problems of agricultural land use in Taiwan will be expounded by current legal regulations so as to propose policy for sustainable development of land resources.