The Future of Agricultural Land
Joop H. J. Schaminée and Nils M. van Rooijen
Abstract From the moment people started to settle, agriculture became a common
and rapidly increasing form of land use, having a huge impact on nature and
landscape on all continents. An impact much greater than even urbanisation and
increasing infrastructure. Nowadays, agricultural activities directly influence more
than 38% of the world’s land surface. Two major practices must be distinguished: on
the one hand the production of crops on arable land, and on the other hand livestock
farming. The focus in this chapter is on the production of crops on arable land. An
exception is made for two examples on the landscape level, which will be discussed
here. These refer to traditional agricultural land use systems, one from the low
mountain ranges of Central France and one taken from the Northwest European
lowlands.
After a general introduction on the worldwide distribution of agricultural land and
the focus on strong mechanisation in modern agriculture, a wide spectre of issues
will be addressed. This includes issues like: how are world processes affected by
agricultural land use in history and present times, what is the origin of species that
are accommodated in agricultural ecosystems, and what is the relationship between
agriculture and nature, regarding different levels of farming.
Keywords Agriculture · Arable crops · Living archives · Traditional land use · Coevolution · Genetic manipulation · Organic farming
J. H. J. Schaminée (*)
Wageningen University and Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands
e-mail: joop.schaminee@wur.nl
N. M. van Rooijen
Vegetation, Forest and Landscape Ecology Group, Wageningen University and Research,
Wageningen, The Netherlands
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Hobohm (ed.), Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Environmental
Challenges and Solutions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_17
407
Joop H. J. Schaminée and Nils M. van Rooijen
Abstract From the moment people started to settle, agriculture became a common
and rapidly increasing form of land use, having a huge impact on nature and
landscape on all continents. An impact much greater than even urbanisation and
increasing infrastructure. Nowadays, agricultural activities directly influence more
than 38% of the world’s land surface. Two major practices must be distinguished: on
the one hand the production of crops on arable land, and on the other hand livestock
farming. The focus in this chapter is on the production of crops on arable land. An
exception is made for two examples on the landscape level, which will be discussed
here. These refer to traditional agricultural land use systems, one from the low
mountain ranges of Central France and one taken from the Northwest European
lowlands.
After a general introduction on the worldwide distribution of agricultural land and
the focus on strong mechanisation in modern agriculture, a wide spectre of issues
will be addressed. This includes issues like: how are world processes affected by
agricultural land use in history and present times, what is the origin of species that
are accommodated in agricultural ecosystems, and what is the relationship between
agriculture and nature, regarding different levels of farming.
Keywords Agriculture · Arable crops · Living archives · Traditional land use · Coevolution · Genetic manipulation · Organic farming
J. H. J. Schaminée (*)
Wageningen University and Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands
e-mail: joop.schaminee@wur.nl
N. M. van Rooijen
Vegetation, Forest and Landscape Ecology Group, Wageningen University and Research,
Wageningen, The Netherlands
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Hobohm (ed.), Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Environmental
Challenges and Solutions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_17
407