Climate change is forecasted to impact deeply agricultural and food production in the next decades. Actually there is few knowledge on the major issues faced by farmers in Central Asia. Therefore agronomists Hamidov et al. reviewed 362 scientific papers published from 2008 to 2013. They classified the papers into three categories: environmental, economic and social issues. They found that the major issues of land use are the quality of air, soil, minerals and water; ecosystem services for fertilisation and food production; and biomass and energy.

Issues such as food contamination by toxic pesticides have fostered the need to develop safer cropping. Farmers are thus trying to implement alternative ecological practices, but the results of such changes, either positive or negative, is so far not clear. Therefore agronomists Toffolini et al. have analyzed indicators of ecological change to provide guidelines.

Industrial production of soybean developed in the Argentinean Pampa since the 1990s is not sustainable. Specifically, herbicide use creates glyphosate-tolerant weeds and pollutes waters. To solve this issue scientists Salembier et al. designed a method to identify alternative practices developed by farmers. These alternative practices include diversification of crop rotations, occasional return to tillage, and low pesticide use.

Both increasing human population and pesticide pollution call for alternative food production. Agronomists are thus currrently designing new cropping practices such as ecological intensification and sustainable intensification. However, the meaning and concrete applications of such practices is not clear so far. Wezel et al. review the definitions, principles and practices of ecological intensification, sustainable intensification and agroecological intensification. The photo shows relay intercropping of wheat and undersown lucerne in south-eastern France, an example of agroecological intensification.

The growing world food demand and climate change is threatening the long term survival of the human society on Earth. Sustainable solutions are therefore urgently needed. Agronomists Jacobsen et al. describe innovative solutions based upon the use and protection of biodiversity in agriculture. Examples include cultivation of quinoa (photo), lupine, yam, watermelon, amaranth and nopal.