The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of clustering in the development of agriculture and rural communities in China. We shall examine in detail the food industry, which is the link in the food chain that propels the industrialization of agriculture, and identify instances of...

Global efforts to reduce deforestation rely heavily on protected areas and land use restrictions. The effect of these restrictions on local communities is currently the subject of heated debate among conservation and development experts. Measuring the social impacts of protected areas is...

The Ministry of Agriculture of People’s Republic of China put in practice in non-hazardous food production and high-toxicity pesticides elimination, which aim at human, food and environmental safety. To investigate 491 farmers in Sichuan Province, the paper analyzes comparatively training...

Conservation agriculture is often perceived to provide “win-win” outcomes for farmers leading to reduced erosion and off-site sedimentation, as well as improved soil fertility and productivity. However, adoption rates for conservation agriculture in many regions of the world remain below...

This paper addresses the relationship between agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable agricultural intensification. A stylised theoretical model is used to explore the conditions by which both agrobiodiversity and conventional input intensification may increase through optimal adjustments...

The Chinese government is moving towards market mechanisms to promote environmental sustainability. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a globally recognised label gaining ground within Non Timber Forest Product markets (NTFP). Standardization and replicability have become essential in order...

The pressure on land as required input in competing uses fuelled research on trade-offs in land use due to agricultural land expansion to meet food demand which is explicitly and implicitly treated in global land use modelling. Global land use studies rely on assessing the trade-offs by assuming...

The new European Council Regulation on support for rural development (EC) No. 1698/2005 has opened up the opportunity for two important innovations for the design and implementation of agrienvironmental measures: local action groups (LAG) according to the LEADER approach and calls for tender....

EC Regulation 1257/99 of 17 May 1999 underlines the intention of the European Commission of an integrated rural development policy. In this paper the chances are examined that this new policy orientation offers for a more multifunctional agriculture. Possibilities for the implementation of...

This study assessed the preference for and efficiency of land tenure contract arrangements in rice farming in West Java, Indonesia. Specifically, it examined the transaction costs associated with land tenure contracts, the land tenure contract preference, the efficiency of land tenure contracts,...