As global demand for livestock products (such as meat, milk and eggs) is expected to double by 2050, necessary increases to future production must be reconciled with negative environmental impacts that livestock cause. This paper describes the LivestockPlus concept and demonstrates how the sowing of improved forages can lead to the sustainable intensification of mixed crop-forage-livestock-tree systems in the tropics by producing multiple social, economic and environmental benefits. Sustainable intensification not only improves the productivity of tropical forage-based systems but also reduces the ecological footprint of livestock production and generates a diversity of ecosystem services (ES) such as improved soil quality and reduced erosion, sedimentation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Integrating improved grass and legume forages into mixed production systems (crop-livestock, tree-livestock, crop-tree-livestock) can restore degraded lands and enhance system resilience to drought and waterlogging associated with climate change. When properly managed tropical forages accumulate large amounts of carbon in soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes), inhibit nitrification in soil and reduce nitrous oxide emissions (grasses), and reduce GHG emissions per unit livestock product.The LivestockPlus concept is defined as the sustainable intensification of forage-based systems, which is based on 3 interrelated intensification processes: genetic intensification -the development and use of superior grass and legume www.tropicalgrasslands.info cultivars for increased livestock productivity; ecological intensification -the development and application of improved farm and natural resource management practices; and socio-economic intensification -the improvement of local and national institutions and policies, which enable refinements of technologies and support their enduring use. Increases in livestock productivity will require coordinated efforts to develop supportive government, non-government organization and private sector policies that foster investments and fair market compensation for both the products and ES provided. Effective research-for-development efforts that promote agricultural and environmental benefits of foragebased systems can contribute towards implemention of LivestockPlus across a variety of geographic, political and socio-economic contexts. ResumenDe la misma manera que la demanda global de productos pecuarios (carne, leche, huevos) se duplicará para 2050, se espera que las producciones futuras tengan en cuenta los efectos ambientales negativos ocasionados por este sector. En este documento se describe el concepto LivestockPlus y se demuestra cómo en el trópico los forrajes mejorados pueden llevar a la intensificación sostenible de sistemas de producción mixta que integran forrajes/ganadería y cultivos y/o árboles, produciendo múltiples beneficios sociales, económicos y ambientales. La intensificación sostenible no sólo incrementa la productividad de los sistemas tropicales basados en forra...

Variations of naturally emitted gamma radiation have been used in geological prospecting for over 20 years to detect anomalies associated with exploitable ore deposits. We examined their ability to detect spatial variation of soil material by comparing simultaneous ground and airborne measurements of gamma emissions with ground observations over a catchment in south-western Australia. Measurements were taken in the spectral windows for 40K, 238Uand 232Th. Variations of gamma radiation corresponded with the distribution of soil-forming materials over the landscape, and were used to distinguish between highly weathered residuum and fresh material from granitic outcrops. Gamma radiometric data also discriminated clearly between doleritic, lateritic and granitic soil parent materials. Airborne data indicated the distribution of these materials through the catchment, with the exception of dolerite dikes, which were too narrow to be detected using pixels greater than 20 m wide. It is concluded that gamma radiometric data can provide valuable insights into the spatial distribution of soil-forming materials but, given their limitations to provide direct information of pedological alteration, such data are likely to prove most valuable to soil survey when considered jointly with other information such as terrain models or aerial photography.

SUMMARYGlobal food security is under threat by climate change, and the impacts fall disproportionately on resource-poor small producers. With the goal of making agricultural and food systems more climate-resilient, this paper presents an adaptation and mitigation framework. A road map for further agricultural research is proposed, based on the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. We propose a holistic, integrated approach that takes into account trade-offs and feedbacks between interventions. We divide the agenda into four research areas, three tackling risk management, accelerated adaptation and emissions mitigation, and the fourth facilitating adoption of research outputs. After reviewing specific technical, agronomic and policy options for reducing climate change vulnerability, we acknowledge that science and good-faith recommendations do not necessarily translate into effective and timely actions. We therefore outline impediments to behavioural change and propose that future research overcomes these obstacles by linking the right institutions, instruments and scientific outputs. Food security research must go beyond its focus on production to also examine food access and utilization issues. Finally, we conclude that urgent action is needed despite the uncertainties, trade-offs and challenges.

Summary. Precision agriculture is the term given to crop management methods which recognise and manage within-paddock spatial and temporal variations in the soil–plant–atmosphere system. This paper reviews the principles, practice and perceived benefits of precision agriculture. The objective of precision agriculture is to improve the control of input variables such as fertiliser, seed, chemicals or water with respect to the desired outcomes of increased profitability, reduced environmental risk or better product quality. The practice can be viewed as comprising 4 stages: information acquisition; interpretation; evaluation; and control. Much of the technology to acquire information and control machinery is available or at a late stage of development. However, methods of interpretation are less well developed.

No abstract

This is a peer-reviewed, post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the following published document, Conditions of use Articles published within the Springer Nature group of companies which are made available through academic repositories remain subject to copyright. The following restrictions on use of such articles apply: Academic research only 1. Archived content may only be used for academic research. Any content downloaded for text based experiments should be destroyed when the experiment is complete. Use must not be for Commercial Purposes 2. Archived content may not be used for purposes that are intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, licence, loan, transfer or any other form of commercial exploitation ("Commercial Purposes"). Wholesale re-publishing is prohibited 3. Archived content may not be published verbatim in whole or in part, whether or not this is done for Commercial Purposes, either in print or online. 4. This restriction does not apply to reproducing normal quotations with an appropriate citation. In the case of text-mining, individual words, concepts and quotes up to 100 words per matching sentence may be used, whereas longer paragraphs of text and images cannot (without specific permission from Springer Nature). Moral rights 5. All use must be fully attributed. Attribution must take the form of a link-using the article DOI-to the published article on the journal's website. 6. All use must ensure that the authors' moral right to the integrity of their work is not compromised. Third party content 7. Where content in the document is identified as belonging to a third party, it is the obligation of the user to ensure that any use complies with copyright policies of the owner. Use at own risk 8.

No abstract

Digital agriculture is exciting attention because of an expectation that food systems will be disrupted by new digital technologies through improvements in precision, efficiency, volume, speed of process or identity of product. This is against the background of the drive for sustainability in food systems.A diversity of technology applications is unilaterally emerging in all food chains with benefits realized through human acceptance and adoption in business processes. This paper focuses on Australia but the lessons apply to digital agriculture globally. We propose that sustainable food systems frameworks identify the relation of individual changes to broader systemic change, to relate individual changes to one another and to understand how multiple changes within a system can trigger major shifts in entire agrifood chains. With this rapidly-changing landscape in mind, we argue that food system frameworks cover five domains: production, market, capitals, governance and data technologies.We analyse experience from agricultural systems, compare it to digitization in nonagricultural systems and conclude that change will be both disruptive and cumulative. We consider the role of systems governance to be under-reported. Governance will prove critical in areas of IP legislation, policy harmonization and targeted investment.