With global demand for food projected to increase by 50 % before 2030, we will need an additional 120 million
hectares of agricultural land to support the required food production.
This is a big problem because more than 70
percent of agricultural land is currently being used for livestock production, leaving little room for crops destined for human consumption.
Large
areas of agricultural lands have been converted for residential and commercial land uses, significantly altering natural water flows and drainage.
But the increased use
of agricultural lands for growing energy crops may compete with food production, causing increased food prices and deforestation.
More specifically, in the 19th and 20th century,
expansion of agricultural land remained the main driver of deforestation, together with the expansion of cities and the development of infrastructure and mining.
Such need is great across the globe, where many once - fertile lands are turning into desert, and a significant
amount of agricultural land is lost every year.
The total
extent of agricultural land is 4.9 billion hectares — and there is not much scope for expansion — on which future global food security depends.
Another obvious way forward is with trade and development — which brings with it not merely immense social benefits but reductions in population pressures and improvement in conservation and the
management of agricultural lands.
Eating less meat will free up a lot
of agricultural land which can revert to growing trees and other vegetation, which, in turn, will absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Most studies of this kind look only at the extent to which climate shocks affect crop yield — the amount of product harvested from a given
unit of agricultural land.
The purchaser agreed to buy a
parcel of agricultural land, which included a clause that there would be an adjustment of purchase price for «deduction of environment, if any».
Instead, the third world has seen a doubling in food prices owing to climate change policies such as turning over huge
areas of agricultural land to the growth of biofuels.
From an energetic stand point, the dual use principle of agrophotovoltaics is much more efficient than solely planting energy crops, accounting, after all, for 18 percent
of agricultural land use in Germany.
After the prime minister's comments, Fitzgibbon ruled out a change to the rules governing the FIRB but committed to a National Register of Foreign Ownership
of Agricultural Land from 1 July 2014, «commencing with a comprehensive stocktake of existing overseas ownership».
Now, countries including China, Kuwait and Sweden are snapping up vast
tracts of agricultural land in poorer nations, especially in Africa, to grow biofuels and food for themselves.
The majority of certified organic food is sold in the Coop and Migros supermarkets and 11 per
cent of agricultural land in Switzerland is certified by Biosuisse — the country's certification body.
Using real lemons may be no better because this could require large areas
of agricultural land owned by big companies being used to grow trees that provide little or no benefit to the local population.
Labor is seeking to garner foreign investment support in regional areas, while the Greens and minor populist parties called for tougher rules regarding the
sale of agricultural land and resources.
This decline reveals the precarious position of agriculture in Buffalo - Niagara; since 1969, every year sees over 4 square
miles of agricultural land converted to other uses.
Filed Under: Local News Tagged With: Cassadaga Wind LLC, Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency, Chautauqua County Legislature, David Himelien, David Tenpas, Mark Twichell,
Preservation of Agricultural Land Serenity
Speaking about bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), Prof Henry Shue from Merton College, Oxford and Peter Frumhoff from the Union of Concerned Scientists highlighted the uneven regional impacts of a future world with large
swathes of agricultural land dedicated to providing inputs for energy production.
Owners of agricultural land must notify the Commission «of the identity of the portion of such agricultural land holdings which constitutes redistribution agricultural land in terms of the provisions of the Act» (Redistribution Agricultural Land).
It was this principle that established the world's first agricultural research station some 150 years ago when the founders of Rothamsted saw the
potential of the agricultural land surrounding London to supply a growing urban population.
Her research focuses on the
effects of agricultural land uses on forest bird populations, as well as testing monitoring techniques to determine how land use patterns around protected areas influences their capability to maintain current levels of biodiversity.
The 2009 Report of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) warned of
depletion of agricultural land and spread of disease (e.g. malaria) in Arab countries.
As a Fellow of the Agricultural Law Association (ALA), a multi-disciplinary organisation which furthers excellence amongst rural professionals, she has particular expertise in handling disputes over the use and
occupation of agricultural land.
Lower crop prices, floods and a ruthless winter in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario failed to significantly impact the
value of agricultural land, though sellers in the areas hardest hit by the harsh winter reported seeing fewer transactions and an increase in the number of days on the market, the report says.
What's more,
many of the agricultural lands used to grow avocados are in the hands of drug cartels, who demand payments through intimidation from farmers.