What exactly is resilience and how can it be enhanced? Farming systems in Europe are rapidly evolving while at the same time being under threat, as seen by the disappearance of dozens of farms every day. Farming systems must become more resilient in response to growing economic, environmental, institutional, and social challenges facing Europe's agriculture. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for enhanced resilience has become even more apparent and continues to be an overarching guiding principle of EU policy making. Resilience challenges and strategies are framed within four main processes affecting decision making in agriculture: risk management, farm demographics, governance and agricultural practices. This empirical focus looks at very diverse contexts, with eleven case studies from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. This study will help determine the future and sustainability of European farming systems. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Increasingly, cracks are appearing in the capacity of communities, ecosystems, and landscapes to provide the goods and services that sustain our planet's well-being. The response from most quarters has been for "more of the same" that created the situation in the first place: more control, more intensification, and greater efficiency. "Resilience thinking" offers a different way of understanding the world and a new approach to managing resources. It embraces human and natural systems as complex entities continually adapting through cycles of change, and seeks to understand the qualities of a system that must be maintained or enhanced in order to achieve sustainability. It explains why greater efficiency by itself cannot solve resource problems and offers a constructive alternative that opens up options rather than closing them down. In Resilience Thinking, scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt present an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world. It is an engaging and important work for anyone interested in managing risk in a complex world.

Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.

As people increasingly migrate to urban settings and more than half of the world's population now lives in cities, it is vital to plan and provide for sustainable and resilient food systems which reflect this challenge. This volume presents experience and evidence-based "state of the art" chapters on the key dimensions of urban food challenges and types of intra- and peri-urban agriculture. The book provides urban planners, local policy makers and urban development practitioners with an overview of crucial aspects of urban food systems based on an up to date review of research results and practical experiences in both developed and developing countries. By doing so, the international team of authors provides a balanced textbook for students of the growing number of courses on sustainable agriculture, food and urban studies, as well as a solid basis for well-informed policy making, planning and implementation regarding the development of sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems.

This book presents a study of cooperatives as a two-layer entrepreneurial model, and analyzes cooperative enterprises. Above all, it explores how inducements (from the firm) and contributions (from its members, in their respective roles) are aligned, and seeks to answer the question of what this means for managing each cooperative as a firm as well as a group. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which begins with an analysis of specific aspects of cooperative enterprises, with a focus on the added value of cooperation, the weighing of interests, and a behavioral perspective on the imminent communities and their goals. In a structured approach, the book examines the various facets of relationships in cooperatives on a transactional, financial and control level. Further, a case study on the Dutch cooperative Rabobank illustrates what happens when members fail. In turn, part two concentrates on integrating the lessons learned with the existing economic literature on cooperatives, so as to contribute to a theory of cooperative management. Finally, the book links the theoretical approach to practice: in the third part, it reports on the outcomes of using a computerized simulation game to show members of cooperatives how to manage their business and the cooperative business at the same time, enabling them to understand and actively practice two-level entrepreneurship.

"How can agriculture contribute to the sustainable development of European cities? How can agriculture and horticulture create vital urban spaces that have new social and ecological qualities and are also economically viable? Urban Agriculture Europe is the first comprehensive, transdisciplinary publication about urban agriculture in Europe. Apart from well-known examples of urban food gardens in Western European metropolises, this volume also studies innovative forms of periurban agriculture, bringing in experiences in Eastern and Southern Europe. The contributions approach urban agriculture from the point of view of social science, the economy, agricultural ecology, and spatial planning and address the role of citizens, involved parties, and politics, as well as operational models and planning tools. Case studies from Barcelona, Dublin, Geneva, Milan, Sofia, Warsaw, and the Ruhr Metropolis allow a comparative view of European practice. Statements from involved parties and guidance for cities and regions round off the publication."--Page 4 of cover.

Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security comprehensively deals with important aspects of climate resilient agriculture for food security using adaptation and mitigation measures. Climatic changes and increasing climatic variability are likely to aggravate the problem of future food security by exerting pressure on agriculture. For the past few decades, the gaseous composition of the earth’s atmosphere has been undergoing significant changes, largely through increased emissions from the energy, industry and agriculture sectors; widespread deforestation as well as fast changes in land use and land management practices. Agriculture and food systems must improve and ensure food security, and to do so they need to adapt to climate change and natural resource pressures, and contribute to mitigating climate change. Climate-resilient agriculture contributes to sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, adapting and building resilience to climate change and reducing and/or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions where possible. The information on climate resilient agriculture for ensuring food security is widely scattered. There is currently no other book that comprehensively and exclusively deals with the above aspects of agriculture and focuses on ensuring food security. This volume is divided into fourteen chapters, which include the Introduction, Causes of Climate Change, Agriculture as a Source of Greenhouse Gases, Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture, Regional Impacts on Climate Change, Impacts on Crop Protection, Impacts on Insect and Mite Pests, Impacts on Plant Pathogens, Impacts on Nematode Pests, Impacts on Weeds, Impacts on Integrated Pest Management, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change Mitigation, and A Road Map Ahead. The book is extensively illustrated with excellent photographs, which enhance the quality of publication. It is clearly written, using easy-to-understand language. It also provides adoptable recommendations involving eco-friendly adaptation and mitigation measures. This book will be of immense value to the scientific community involved in teaching, research and extension activities. The material can also be used for teaching post-graduate courses. It will also serve as a very useful reference source for policy makers.

The book covers the spread of conservation agriculture (CA) to regions including Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, Europe and emerging CA destinations in Asia and Africa. ÿTopics covered include the various components of CA, and how their individual and combined implementation influence productivity, soil health and environmental quality under diverse edaphic and climatic conditions. The book will be useful to teachers, researchers, extensionists, farmers, and students interested in environmental quality.

In 2006, Resilience Thinking addressed an essential question: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shock after shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services we need from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientific community and the general public. In Resilience Practice, authors Brian Walker and David Salt take the notion of resilience one step further, applying resilience thinking to real-world situations and exploring how systems can be managed to promote and sustain resilience. The book begins with an overview and introduction to resilience thinking and then takes the reader through the process of describing systems, assessing their resilience, and intervening as appropriate. Following each chapter is a case study of a different type of social-ecological system and how resilience makes a difference to that system in practice. The final chapters explore resilience in other arenas, including on a global scale. Resilience Practice will help people with an interest in the “coping capacity” of systems—from farms and catchments to regions and nations—to better understand how resilience thinking can be put into practice. It offers an easy-to-read but scientifically robust guide through the real-world application of the concept of resilience and is a must read for anyone concerned with the management of systems at any scale.

Farming Systems Research has three core characteristics: it builds on systems thinking, it depends on the close collaboration between social and biophysical sciences, and it relies on participation to build co-learning processes. Farming Systems Research posits that to contribute towards sustainable rural development, both interdisciplinary collaborations and local actor engagement are needed. Together, they allow for changes in understanding and changes in practices. This book gives an overview of the insights generated in 20 years of Farming Systems Research. It retraces the emergence and development of Farming Systems Research in Europe, summarises the state-of-the-art for key areas, and provides an outlook on new explorations, especially those tackling the dynamic nature of farming systems and their interaction with the natural environment and the context of action.