Agri-environment : perspectives on sustainable development

Agriculture is today at the crossroad. The human population on Earth is growing fastly, especially in developing countries, and will probably reach 9 billion people in 2050.
Economic development globally increases people's income. As a consequence, the demand for food is sharply increasing. In addition, the demand for renewable energy, including biofuels, is also going up.
At the same time, natural resources are becoming scarce and climatic changes influence more and more the conditions of vegetal and animal production.
During the last decades, agricultural production methods have used large quantities of inputs like pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Enough food was produced for the world population,
but some environmental problems appeared.
In the near future, a new equilibrium will have to be found between agriculture, environment and land management. New concepts are elaborated: “ecologically intensive agriculture”,
“organic farming”, “water management”, “agri-environmental measures”, “urban agriculture” etc.
This book is a collection of papers dealing with these topics which will define the features of our future.