Agriculture and crop production

After a monoculture phase, it is becoming an unavoidable necessity to diversify perennial crops (cocoa, rubber, palm or coconut oil) in humid tropical areas. Why and when should these diversification processes take place? What type of planter is involved? What are the constraints to diversification? How do public policies and private actions interfere? The authors answer these questions through fifteen case studies, mainly located in Africa and South-East Asia, thereby providing a better understanding of the economies of family plantations and their recent changes.

Already a reference in this field, the guide updates and adds sixty new species and ninety photos, thereby offering a panorama of these garden, glasshouse and nursery pests. From rose aphids via all the butterflies and their caterpillars, it lists, details and illustrates everything you need to know: scientific classification, damage caused, distribution area, favourite hosts, biology and control methods.

It will win over entomologists, researchers, technicians, experts in horticulture and fruit growing and also amateur gardeners.

The work presents a sociological and historical analysis of transformations in French agriculture since the Second World War. The author shows that some farmers continue to invent unusual productive forms that withstand the on-going extension of industrial agriculture. The work has six chapters and can be a medium for teaching the history of French agriculture.

Based on archive documents and surveys, the author analyses the transformation of farmers, both men and women, since the beginning of the last century. It addresses the influences of post-war modernisation and group farming in the 1960s. It examines the changes in certain farming populations, pig breeders, organic farmers and also women. Lastly, the author presents the effects of a reconstructed work area (rurbanisation, for example) on today's farmers.

This work plots the crazy saga of natural rubber production on American soil since the end of the 19th century to date. Between quarrels of enthusiasts, agronomic experimentation, lobbying by oil industrialists and political about-turns, the guayule and a few other latex plants have shown the potential for founding a new industry entirely separate from the rubber tree that currently provides the world with natural rubber almost exclusively.

Genetic plant improvement aims to unite in a same genotype the variety and the maximum number of favourable genes for the traits to be improved. But which tools are used to achieve this? This book answers this question and shows that, since domestication, plant breeding has always been governed by genetic engineering.

Fruit of the photosynthesis of plants, the biomass is an essential resource for humans, supplying them with food, energy and materials. With its three sources (forest, crops and waste), the energy-biomass is restricted by the production capacity of soils and its competition with its other uses. Could it therefore contribute to the growing energy needs of humanity and to the energy transition that must take place to reduce our oil and gas consumption substantially?

How can cultivated plant biodiversity contribute to the transformation and the "ecologisation" of agriculture in Southern countries? Based on extensive field work in the Southern countries, a great deal of scientific progress is presented in all areas affecting agriculture (agronomy, plant breeding and crop protection, cultivation systems, etc.) in order to intensify the ecological processes in cultivated plots and at the scale of rural landscapes.

This book champions the idea that it is possible to achieve plentiful agricultural production whilst improving the quality of the environment. It discusses the various specific features of ecologically-intensive agriculture, sets out the changes in the concept and states the means of expanding the use of ecological functionalities for agriculture and animal husbandry. It addresses the conditions for global economic and social viability, seen as a factor in successful ecologically-intensive agriculture. Based on a panel with very wide experiences, this work will fuel the debates between agricultural professionals and environmental groups so that farmers themselves become true champions of the agricultural biosphere.

The olive tree is the emblem of Mediterranean landscapes.This work blends social, biological and technical sciences to recount the story of a tree that has unceasingly alienated man through religion, food, agriculture and the economy. The olive tree is a symbol found in many ancient texts. The authors retrace its origin and its history. Although only of slight economic importance in France, the olive tree is tied to numerous tourist sites in Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. A science is developing around products, their characterisation, tasting and potential frauds. This book also delves into "Mediterranean" diets, which have olive oil as a component.