It is widely accepted that agricultural development will be severely curtailed without addressing the risks and capitalizing on the opportunities posed by climate change (FAO, 2010b). The agriculture sector must adapt to the impacts of climate change in order to provide food security to the world’s growing population. At the same time agriculture must mitigate its contributions to climate change (13.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions) in order to slow the progression of this global challenge (FAO, 2009). Concurrently, it is internationally recognized that addressing gender issues in agriculture reduces hunger and poverty. In fact, it is estimated that more than 100 million people could be lifted out of poverty if women had the same access to and control of resources as men (FAO, 2011a). Although they are important food producers and providers, women presently have limited access to and control of resources. However, to date, these ideas – that climate change and gender issues are integral parts of agricultural development – have not been implemented in an effective way. This guide seeks to fill that gap by supporting work to investigate the gender dimensions of responding to climate change in the agriculture and food security sectors. The final goals are to improve food production, livelihood security and gender equality in the context of the changing climate.

Forest mineral soil is one of the terrestrial carbon pools, and changes in forest management practices can affect the carbon stock in forest soil. The purpose of the study is to estimate temporal fertilization impact on mineral soil organic carbon stock, depending on fertilizers applied, forest stand type, different dominant tree species of the stands. Coniferous and birch forest stands with mineral soil in the central and eastern part of Latvia were selected for the experiment. The fertilizers used were wood ash and nitrogen containing mineral fertilizer. No significant differences in organic carbon stock in O horizon were detected 2–5 years after fertilization. A tendency of smaller organic carbon stock in upper mineral soil layers (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm) was found in most part of objects. Significantly smaller organic carbon stock was found in upper mineral soil layers (0–10 cm and 10–20 cm) in birch stands with wet mineral soil treated with ammonium nitrate if compared to the control plots, possibly due to a different soil moisture regime of forest stands. The positive and significant correlations between soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks were found in most part of the objects.

In the celebration of the Annual 25th International Scientific Conference “Research for Rural Development 2019ˮ held at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, in Jelgava, from 15 to 17 May, participants with different backgrounds from 12 countries did 156 presentations, enjoyed welcome dinner with Latvian folk songs and dances as well as tasted a special cake. During a social programme of the conference, the participants visited a malt production plant, Rundāle palace and had farewell lunch. In the retrospect, four months later, we consider the Conference a great success in terms of interdisciplinary studies and networking opportunities. The sessions of the conference were structured so as to give all participants the opportunity to contribute to the primary purpose of the conference, which is discussion of important current issues facing rural development. The interdisciplinary proceedings of the Annual 25th International Scientific Conference “Research for Rural Development 2019ˮ (two volumes since 2010) are intended for academics, students and professionals. The subjects covered by those issues are as follows: crop production, animal breeding, agricultural engineering, agrarian and regional economics, food sciences, veterinary medicine, forestry, wood processing, water management, environmental engineering, information and communication technologies.

The four independent reviewers estimated each paper and recommended 81 articles for publishing at the proceedings consisted of 2 volumes, which started life as presentations at the Annual 23rd International Scientific Conference “Research for Rural Development 2017” held at the Latvia University of Agriculture, in Jelgava, on 17 to 19 May 2017. In the retrospect of four months later, we can count the Conference as a great success. The theme – Research for Rural Development - attracted participation more than 155 researchers with very different backgrounds. There were 124 presentations from different universities of Poland, Kazakhstan, France, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, India, Russia and Latvia. Thank you for your participation! We are sure that you have learned from the presentations and discussions during the conference and you can use the outcomes in the future. The cross disciplinary proceedings of the Annual 23rd International Scientific Conference “Research for Rural Development 2017” (two volumes since 2010) are intended for academics, students and professionals. The subjects covered by those issues are crop production, animal breeding, agricultural engineering, agrarian and regional economics, food sciences, veterinary medicine, forestry, wood processing, water management, environmental engineering, landscape architecture, information and communication technologies. The papers are grouped according to the sessions in which they have been presented.

Liming soils make both direct and indirect effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If raising the pH of soil, the amount of N2 O emissions in the result of nitrification decreases; therefore, it is important to perform also maintenance liming if applying nitrogen fertilisers. Liming acidic soils contributes to the absorption of nutrients supplied by means of fertilisers by plants, limits the spread of plant diseases, forms better soil moisture and air regimes for plants, improves the structure of soil and activates microorganisms. The aim of this study was to assess liming effect on nitrogen use efficiency and nitrogen oxide emissions in crop farming. To achieve the aim, this study proceeds in two stages: 1) to analyse the scientific literature on the liming effect on nitrogen use efficiency and nitrogen oxide emissions in other countries, as a few such research studies are available in Latvia; 2) to calculate potential gains and losses from liming acid soils in order to examine the real situation concerning liming and its effects on the economy of farms. The research finds out that at the farm level in Latvia liming gives a positive economic effect (41.6 EUR haE-1) however, it is essential for maintaining soil fertility, increasing yields, and presumably for more efficient circulation of nitrogen, which decreases nitric oxide emissions.

The aim of this study was to investigate amino acid content, biological value and dietary fibre content of conventional and organic pea (Pisum sativum L.) and buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum M.) flours. Results showed that pea flours contained high amounts of aspartic acid, threonine, serine, glycine, alanine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, histidine, lysine and arginine while glutamic acid, proline, methionine and tryptophan were found in similar or smaller amounts comparing with wheat flour. The differences of various amino acids between conventional and organic pea flours were insignificant. The content of aspartic acid, threonine, serine, glycine, alanine, valine, histidine, lysine and arginine was high in buckwheat flours in comparison with wheat flour. There were significant (p is less than 0.05) differences in the individual amino acid contents across buckwheat flours. Significant (p is less than 0.05) variation existed in the content of essential amino acids among samples, whereas the results concerning the proportion of essential amino acids in total amino acids showed insignificant (p is greater than 0.05) differences between pea flours and buckwheat flours (34.80 – 35.77% and 29.96 – 33.90% respectively). The highest content of lysine was found in pea flours, and it formed about 23% of essential amino acids content. For pea flours the total dietary fibre amount varied between 15.28 g 100 gE-1 for conventional and 27.24 g 100 gE-1 for organic pea flour. Pea and buckwheat flours could be characterised as a good source of dietary fibre with significantly (p is less than 0.05) higher content of total dietary fibre comparing to wheat flour.