Environmental Protection Strategies For Sustainable Development

This report stresses the urgency to address some of the most pressing challenges for sustainable development. It reviews the conceptual foundations of sustainable development, its measurement, and the institutional reforms needed to make it operational. This report discusses how international trade and investment, as well as development co-operation, can contribute to sustainable development on a global basis, and reviews the experience of OECD countries in using market-based, regulatory and technology policies to reach sustainability goals in a cost-effective way.

This book is a compilation of case studies from different countries and covers contemporary with future prospective for sustainable development of agriculture.

The dramatic worldwide increase in agricultural and industrial productivity has created severe environmental problems. Soil and groundwater reservoirs have been polluted with pesticides, xenobiotics and agro-chemicals. The global consensus to reduce inputs of chemical pesticides and agrochemical fertilizers, which are perceived at being hazardous by some consumers, has provided opportunities for the development of novel, benign sustainable crop management strategies.

Microbial biotechnology is an emerging field with applications in a broad range of sectors involving food security, human nutrition, plant protection and overall basic research in the agricultural sciences. The environment has been sustaining the burden of mankind from time immemorial, and our indiscriminate use of its resources has led to the degradation of the climate, loss of soil fertility, and the need for sustainable strategies.

by Rajesh Kumar Shakya (Author, Editor)
The worldwide consumption of resources is causing environmental damage at a rate that cannot be sustained. Apart from the resulting environmental and health problems, this trend could threaten economic growth due to rapidly decreasing natural resources and the cost of addressing these issues

Crop plants growing under field conditions are constantly exposed to various abiotic and biotic stress factors leading to decreased yield and quality of produce. In order to achieve sustainable development in agriculture and to increase agricultural production for feeding an increasing global population, it is necessary to use ecologically compatible and environmentally friendly strategies to decrease the adverse effects of stresses on the plant. Selenium is one of the critical elements from the biological contexts because it is essential for human health; however, it becomes toxic at high concentrations. It has been widely reported that selenium can promote plant growth and alleviate various stresses as well as increase the quantity and quality of the yield of many plant species.

The socio-economic activities due to world development are promoting increasing pressures on land, creating competition and conflicts, resulting in suboptimal use of resources.