The Progressive Replacement of Traditional Agriculture by Precision Livestock Farming and Super-Intensive Crops: Effects on Land Degradation and New Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

According to United Nations projections, humanity must face a new challenge: feeding ca. 9 billion people by 2050, of which more than half will live in cities and will experience a higher consumption of meat. In parallel to this geographic process, humankind will also experience a greater demand in terms of the quality of agricultural products: shape, size, color, organic origin, biolabeling, etc.; this goes along with significant advances in machinery and knowledge (e.g., tractors driven by GPS systems) within a globalized context of market agriculture and climate change.

These coming changes will lead to revolutionary transformations in systems that we have considered as traditional (e.g., slash and burn agriculture, rainfed olive trees and vineyards, extensive rangelands and grasslands, etc.) due to their long permanence in time and their legacy to local communities. Presumably, more productive areas will be intensified, and the less-productive ones will be abandoned although the economic and environmental limits (context depending) of each system will undoubtedly alter this hypothetical linearity.

At present, many territories are already experiencing significant changes in land use/management. Many farmers have adapted their farming systems to precision livestock farming principles in order to involve smart sensors in their farm management. This phenomenon, along with previous livestock husbandry intensification, is progressively converting extensive increases in marginal practices that are economically supported by the European Union thanks to their provision of ecological services and the possibility of fixing rural populations within rural environments.

For instance, in the millenary rainfed Mediterranean agriculture, the arrival of super-intensive crops of vineyard and olive trees using smart drop irrigation systems and precision machinery is dramatically changing the landscape configuration, the temporary jobs of the local population, water resources, and the temporal dynamics of the product prices.

Considering the factors mentioned above, in this Special Issue we are particularly interested in better knowing and understanding how this progressive replacement of traditional systems with new ones is affecting land degradation processes, including:

• Soil erosion;
• Loss of biodiversity;
• Depletion of water resources;
• Soil and water pollution;
• Soil salinization;
• Soil compaction;
• and other agro-environmental processes.

Research papers focusing on geographical areas that are now experiencing significant changes in land use/management in terms of the substitution of traditional practices are welcome. Models or in situ experiments as well as reviews or technical reports are strongly encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Manuel Pulido Fernández
Dr. Simone di Prima
Dr. Jesús Rodrigo-Comino
Dr. Mirko Castellini
Guest Editors

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