Nelle aree peri-urbane, l’agricoltura è influenzata da tre diverse categorie di attori: gli abitanti (sia in forma associativa, sia individuale), i soggetti politici (in particolare le istituzioni locali, dal comune alla regione) e le comunità agricole. L’agricoltura può essere percepita da queste tre categorie come un’entità spaziale, un’attività economica, un ambiente, un paesaggio, una produzione, un patrimonio culturale o un bene pubblico. Possono essere identificate cinque tipologie di politiche in grado di avvicinare abitanti, agricoltori e istituzioni: politiche fondiarie, di sostegno alle strutture, di qualità dei prodotti e dell’ambiente, di commercializzazione, di integrazione dell’agricoltura e di governance. Si rinforzano o indeboliscono una con l’altra, anche se sono gestite a diversi livelli amministrativi e con diversi mezzi. La sostenibilità del progetto agricolo peri-urbano è importante nelle dinamiche di interazione tra abitanti, politici e produttori, in poche parole nell’emergenza di uno spazio condiviso che in Francia porta il nome di pays. | L’agriculture, en particulier en périurbain, se situe sous l’influence de trois types d’acteurs eux-mêmes interdépendants: les habitants, regroupés ou non en associations, les acteurs politiques (en ce concentrant ici sur les politiques locales, de la commune à la région), et le monde agricole. L’agriculture selon qu’elle est appréhendée plutôt comme un espace, un ensemble d’entreprises, de milieux, de paysages, de produits ou comme un patrimoine ou un bien commun se déplace à l’intérieur de ce triangle d’acteurs et d’influences. On peut identifier cinq types de politiques qui engendrent différentes proximités entre agriculture, habitants et territoires: politiques foncières; de soutien aux structures; de qualité des produits et des milieux; de commercialisation; d’intégration dans le patrimoine et la gouvernance. Elles se renforcent ou s'affaiblissent les unes les autres même si elles sont gérées par plusieurs niveaux de collectivité aux moyens très variés. La durabilité du projet agricole périurbain se joue dans l’implication croisée des habitants, des politiques et des producteurs, en bref dans l’émergence d’un pays.

The trend towards crop specialization and increased farm size in U.S. agricultural systems has had negative economic and environmental impacts. On large, specialized farms, bottlenecks in labor occur, and a significant amount of seasonal labor is underutilized. This study was conducted to determine if this labor could be allocated to the production of supplemental enterprises. A linear programming analysis confirmed that 2,807 hours of underutilized labor exists in a typical corn-soybean rotation and that integration of the supplemental crops evaluated in our study are feasible. Grazing of stalk residues alone did not make use of the underutilized labor, however, integration of two alternative cabbage production scenarios as well as an agroforestry alternative that included decorative woody florals made use of an additional 357 and 306 hours of the underutilized labor, respectively. The integration of supplemental alternative crops into an existing corn-soybean rotation has the ability to make use of underutilized labor and has potential to increase farm profitability and improve agronomic and environmental sustainability.

peer reviewed | Pumping stations and dams generate modifications of rivers’ state flow. In this work, we propose to implement and compare the results of three instream flow assessments. We are studying a Belgian river called Crupet, which has some pumping stations on its catchment. The Crupet medial flow is 0.56 m3/s at the point of discharge of the catchment. The three methods are : the Range of Variability Approach, the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology and the Wetted Perimeter Method. The aim of the first method is to find an instream flow so that the river conserves as much as possible its natural behaviour after pumping. This method is usually based on twenty years of flow data, before and after the construction of the pumping stations. In our case, the data were not available, especially because there are no stage gauging stations. So we had to generate hydrologic data based on some approximations and hypotheses (estimation of the quantity of water pumped on the catchment, method of regionalisation). Next, we used the IHA software to analyse the alteration of thirty-three hydrologic parameters, and we formulated an equation that calculates how much water could be pumped to minimize the alteration of the parameters. The second method is based on hydrological, morphological, and biological (fish habitat) data to assess the minimum flow in a river at low water. The third method, the Wetted Perimeter Method, is used to find the minimum flow knowing the morphology of the transect (relation between wetted perimeter and flow). For the last two methods, we found the minimum flow for the studied section being equal to 1.5 m3/s. The RVA methodology recommends, however, a higher minimum flow and imposes to reduce the pumping, at least if all our hypotheses are correct.

This volume presents the proceedings of an International Workshop on "Agricultural management in peri-urban areas" organised by the UMR Métafort of Clermont-Ferrand (France) and the Land Lab of the Scuola Superiore S. Anna of Pisa (Italy) which was held on the 11th and 12th of June 2009 in Pisa. The main goal of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to compare the research carried out by French and Italian teams on the role of agriculture in the planning of peri-urban areas, along with the effects on farming and agricultural systems of the new relationships between the city and countryside. In fact, in Italy and France the zoning and plans are not the same, and neither are the stakeholders, the models of peri-urban development, nor the agricultural spatial configurations and organisations. Therefore, this workshop aimed to reflect on these differences for a more effective management of agriculture in peri-urban areas by comparing good practices and experiences in support to local planning processes. Above all, it puts forward agricultural management in peri-urban areas as the starting point for developing new spatial, societal and productive identities.

The rapid evolution of ICT creates numerous opportunities for agricultural education and training. Digital learning resources are organized in online databases called learning repositories, in which people can search, locate, and access resources. In order to facilitate the exchange of information between such repositories, the issue of metadata interoperability is crucial. In this paper, we particularly focus on metadata interoperability of learning repositories with content relevant to agricultural stakeholders. More specifically, we present results from an analysis of implementations of metadata standards in agricultural learning repositories around the world. The results provide useful feedback to the developers of repositories with educational content for agricultural stakeholders, as well as directions for potential harmonization of work in this area.

In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there were analyzed the essence of budgeting, by an example of enterprise management system. There was determined the place of budgeting in a control system of an enterprise. There was analyzed an essence of budgeting, which included planning, control and analysis of financial and economic activities which involved all structural levels of an organization on the basis of well-balanced and co-ordinated budgets. There was given a definition to various centers of the financial responsibility. Also, there was analyzed the expediency and possibility of budgeting use at the agricultural organizations in Belarus depending on their size and a type of a control system. Large agricultural enterprises for the maintenance of their competitiveness had to use technologies of large business management, including budgeting that caused the necessity of development of methodological bases of the budgeting considering features of a large commodity agricultural production.

This volume presents the proceedings of an International Workshop on "Agricultural management in peri-urban areas" organised by the UMR Métafort of Clermont-Ferrand (France) and the Land Lab of the Scuola Superiore S. Anna of Pisa (Italy) which was held on the 11th and 12th of June 2009 in Pisa. The main goal of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to compare the research carried out by French and Italian teams on the role of agriculture in the planning of peri-urban areas, along with the effects on farming and agricultural systems of the new relationships between the city and countryside. In fact, in Italy and France the zoning and plans are not the same, and neither are the stakeholders, the models of peri-urban development, nor the agricultural spatial configurations and organisations. Therefore, this workshop aimed to reflect on these differences for a more effective management of agriculture in peri-urban areas by comparing good practices and experiences in support to local planning processes. Above all, it puts forward agricultural management in peri-urban areas as the starting point for developing new spatial, societal and productive identities.