Glossary

A

adaptation:

actions of individuals or systems to avoid, withstand or take advantage of current and projected climate variability, changes and impacts.

agronomy:

the branch of agriculture dealing with crop production.

aquifer:

an underground layer of rock which holds fresh water and allows water to percolate through it.

agricultural productivity:

the ratio of agricultural inputs to agricultural outputs, incl. labor and land, capital and materials, most often measured in yield (weight) and market value (profit).

agricultural profitability:

the margin over cost incurred.

arable:

farming based on annual plowing or cultivation of the land and sowing of an annual crop.

B

balanced fertilization:

the application of nutrients in proportions best suited to the needs of the crop taking account of the soil’s nutrient supply capacity.

biodiversity:

the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem.

biofuel:

a solid, liquid or gas fuel consisting of or derived from recently dead biological material, most commonly plants, theoretically produced from any (biological) carbon source.

biomass:

the biological mass, quantity of living matter, or dry weight of a particular species, within a habitat or geographical area. Biomass energy is stored in organic matter such as plants or animals and their waste products.

biotechnology:

any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use

C

carbon sequestration:

the capture and storage of carbon dioxide CO₂ instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

clean technology:

manufacturing process or product technology that reduces pollution or waste, energy use or material use in comparison to the technology that it replaces. “Clean” - as opposed to “end-of-pipe” - technology is integrated into the production process.

CO2 equivalent:

a measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential.

climate change:

any long-term significant change in the “average weather” experienced, caused by dynamic processes on Earth, external forces including variations in sunlight intensity, and more recently by human activities. In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, the term "climate change" often refers to changes in modern climate.

climate variability:

variations in the mean state and other statistics of the climate on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be due to natural internal processes in the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability).

conservation tillage:

agricultural method where the soil surface is broken without inverting the soil.

corporate citizenship:

a company’s complete role in and contributions to society, largely based on its core business.

D

desertification:

a process in which land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas is turned into desert, as a result of various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.

drylands ( semi-arid land):

areas characterized by lack of water, which constrain primary production and nutrient cycling.

E

ecological balance:

a state of dynamic equilibrium within a community of organisms in which genetic, species and ecosystem diversity remain relatively stable, subject to gradual changes through natural selection.

ecological footprint:

an index of the area of productive land and aquatic ecosystems required to produce the resources used and to assimilate the wastes produced by a defined population at a specified material standard of living, wherever on Earth that land may be located.

ecosystem:

a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit.

effluent:

liquid waste (treated or untreated) discharged to the environment from sources such as industrial processes and sewage treatment plants.

energy efficiency:

measure of the energy required for a process usually shown as a ratio of a unit of production to the energy required to produce that unit.

environment:

the sum total of everything that surrounds an organism, both biological environment and physio-chemical environment.

extreme poverty:

the most severe state of poverty, where people cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, education and health care. The World Bank characterizes extreme poverty as living on USD 1 or less per day, and estimates that 1.1 billion people currently live under these conditions.