Glossary

Decision support system: A coordinated assemblage of people, devices or other resources that analyzes, typically, business data and presents it so that users can make business decisions more easily.

Diagnosis: Identification of the nature and cause of a problem or a disease.
Dicots: A plant with two cotyledons. One of the two major classes of flowering plants (along with the monocotyledons). Examples include many crop plants (potato, pea, beans), ornamentals (rose, ivy) and timber trees (oak, beech, lime).
Digestion: Digestion is the process of mechanically and enzymatically breaking down food into substances for absorption into the bloodstream.
Direct seeding: An agricultural technique that involves planting a crop directly into plant cover without first tilling the soil. There are two types: one where the cover is destroyed and its biomass is left on the soil surface, and one where the cover is kept alive.
Dung: Excrement from the intestines, containing unabsorbed solids, waste products, secretions, and bacteria of the digestive system.

Effluents: Wastewater (sewage or other liquid waste, esp. toxic waste) that flows into a body of water such as a river or lake.

Environment: A concept which includes all aspects of the surroundings of humanity, affecting individuals and social groupings. The European Union has defined the environment as “the combination of elements whose complex interrelationships make up the settings, the surroundings and the conditions of life of the individual and of society, as they are or as they are felt”. The environment thus includes the built environment, the natural environment and all natural resources, including air, land and water. It also includes the surroundings of the workplace.
Environment protection: Measures and controls to prevent damage and degradation of the environment, including the sustainability of its living resources.
Equipment: Any collection of materials, supplies or apparatuses stored, furnished or provided for an undertaking or activity.
Extensive farming: A system of raising crops and animals, usually on large parcels of land, where a comparatively small amount of production inputs or labor are used per acre. Compare intensive farming.

Genetics: The science that is concerned with the study of biological inheritance.

Goat: A hardy domesticated ruminant mammal that has backward-curving horns and (in the male) a beard. It is kept for its milk and meat, and noted for its lively behaviour.
Grasses: A very large and widespread family of Monocotyledoneae, with more than 10.000 species, most of which are herbaceous, but a few are woody. The stems are jointed, the long, narrow leaves originating at the nodes. The flowers are inconspicuous, with a much reduced perianth, and are wind-pollinated or cleistogamous. The fruit in single-seeded, usually a caryopsis. Grasses are the most important of all species for food and feed.
Grassland: Biome found in regions where the average annual precipitation (ca. 25–76 cm) is sufficient to support the growth of grasses and other herbaceous plants but generally insufficient to support continuous tree cover. In wetter regions grassland is maintained as a result of grazing by herbivores.

Grassland management: Grassland management refers to the manipulation of natural vegetation in order to achieve predetermined goals. Grasslands are often managed to improve productivity and to maximize benefits for human use.
Grazing: Feeding on standing vegetation, as by livestock or wild animals.
Grazing management: Organisation of grazing by the farmer on an annual, seasonal or daily basis, including the allocation of plots to the different groups of animals that make up the herd.
Ground: The top layer of the land surface of the earth that is composed of disintegrated rock particles, humus, water and air.

Habitat connectivity: Landscape connectivity is defined as the degree to which the spatial configuration of the landscape facilitates or disturbs movement, dispersal, and gene flow between habitat patches.

Habitat enhancement: The term “habitat improvement” means restoring, enhancing, or establishing physiographic, hydrological, or disturbance conditions necessary to establish or maintain native plant and animal communities, including periodic manipulations to maintain intended habitat conditions on completed project sites.
Habitat preservation: The preservation, maintenance, protection, restoration and enhancement of habitats for wild species.
Harvest: The amount or measure of the crop gathered in a season, and collecting thanks to the harvesting.
Heat stress: Condition in which crop performance or survival is compromised by periods of exposure to high temperatures.
Hedgerow: A line of closely planted bushes or shrubs, marking the boundaries of a field. The type of hedge varies between parts of the country, and its age can be dated from the number of species of tree and shrub present. Over the last thirty years hedge-row removal has had a marked visual effect on lowland agricultural landscapes. From the farmer’s point of view, in areas of predominant arable or intensively managed grazing, there is little or no economic justification for retaining hedges.
Herbicide: A substance that kills or inhibits the germination, growth and development of plants. Herbicides may be synthetic chemicals, natural chemicals or biological agents.
Horse: A large plant-eating domesticated mammal with solid hoofs and a flowing mane and tail, used for riding, racing, and to carry and pull loads.
Housing: a) Dwelling-houses collectively and the provision of these. b) Shelter, lodging.

Income: The gain derived from capital, from labour or effort, or both combined, including profit or gain through sale or conversion of capital.
Infrastructure: The basic network or foundation of capital facilities or community investments which are necessary to support economic and community activities.
Injury: A stress upon an organism that disrupts the structure or function and results in a pathological process.
Insect: A class of the Arthropoda typically having a segmented body with an external, chitinous covering, a pair of compound eyes, a pair of antennae, three pairs of mouthparts, and two pairs of wings.

Intervention: An intervention is a coherent set of planned activities, intended to bring about change in a given population, sector or system.
Invasive: Species that are non-native to a particular ecosystem and whose introduction and spread cause, or are likely to cause, socio-cultural, economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.
Investment: Any item of value purchased for profitable return, as income, interest or capital appreciation.

Lameness: Lameness occurs when an animal has leg or foot pain that affects how they move.

Rain: Precipitation in the form of liquid water drops with diameters greater than 0.5 millimetres.
Redclover: Perennial fodder legume used as fodder for creating artificial and temporary grasslands. Red clover is also used as a service plant because it improves soil structure (cover crop) and enriches the soil with organic matter (green manure).
Region: A designated area or an administrative division of a city, county or larger geographical territory that is formulated according to some biological, political, economic or demographic criteria.

Regrowth: Vegetative bud and shoot elongation, either after shoot is cut or after shoot has attained sufficient maturity.
Resilience: The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions.
Resource: Any component of the environment that can be utilized by an organism.
Riparian: Frequenting, growing on, or living on the banks of streams or rivers.
Risk: The expected number of lives lost, persons injured, damage to property and disruption of economic activity due to a particular natural phenomenon, and consequently the product of the probability of occurrence and the expected magnitude of damage.
Risk management: The process of evaluating and selecting alternative regulatory and non-regulatory responses to prepare for the probability of an accidental occurrence and its expected magnitude of damage, including the consideration of legal, economic and behavioral factors.

Rodent: A gnawing mammal of an order that includes rats, mice, squirrels, hamsters, porcupines, and their relatives, distinguished by strong constantly growing incisors and no canine teeth.

Seasonal grazing: Seasonal grazing means that grazing occurs only during part of the year on a given site.
Security: State of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Seed: Originating from the development of an ovule, what is referred to as “seed” is the simplest type of seed, consisting of three essential parts: the embryo, the reserve tissues, and the integuments.
Self-sufficiency: State in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others.
Sheep: Domesticated animals of the species Ovis aries kept in flocks mainly for their milk, wool or meat.
Shrubs: Woody perennial plant, generally more than 0.5 meters and less than 5 meters in height at maturity and without a definite crown.
Silage: Feed preserved by an anaerobic fermentation process in which lactic acid and volatile fatty acids (produced by fermentation) lower the pH of the silage.

Size: The magnitude of a quantity, such as length or mass, relative to a unit of measurement.
Slurry: A liquid mixture of animal faeces and urine and straw collected from stables and spread on agricultural land.
Soil compaction: An increase in bulk density (mass per unit volume) and a decrease in soil porosity resulting from applied loads, vibration, or pressure. More compacted soils (or other materials) can support greater loads (load-bearing capacity). Bulk density can be increased by controlling the moisture content, compaction forces and treatment procedures, as well as by manipulating the type of material being compacted.

Soil cover: The observed physical and biological cover of the Earth’s land surface including natural features such as vegetation, soils and waterbodies, as well as human-made features such as buildings and roads. Land cover is distinct from land use, which refers to the activities people undertake on a particular land cover type.
Soil fertility: The status of a soil with respect to the amount and availability to plants of elements necessary for plant growth.
Soil health: The capacity of a specific kind of soil to function, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation. In short, the capacity of the soil to function.
Soil organic matter: Any measurable characteristic related to the organic matter compounds of the soil.
Soil test: A set of analyses carried out on a soil sample with the aim of better understanding the physical, chemical and biological characteristics and properties of soils.

Sorghum: The word “sorghum” typically refers to cultivated sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench subsp. bicolor), a member of the grass family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae, and subtribe Sorghinae that is grown for its grain (grain sorghum), its sugary sap (sweet sorghum) or as a forage (forage sorghum). A variety of common names are used in different regions to refer to cultivated sorghum, including great millet, guinea corn, broomcorn, kaffir corn, durra, mtama, milo, jowar or kaoliang.
Sowing: A major operation in crop establishment that involves creating a soil profile conducive to crop establishment, planting seeds, and various other operations aimed at promoting the establishment of the crop by modifying the various components of its physical or biological environment.
Species: In sexually reproducing organ­isms, a group of interbreeding individuals not normally able to interbreed with other such groups. A species is given two names in binomial nomenclature (e.g. Homo sapiens), the generic name and specific epithet (italicized in the scientific liter­ature), similar and related species being grouped into genera. Species can be sub­divided into subspecies, geographic races, and varieties.

Spreading: Application of nutrients for the benefit of plant growth in general. It includes applications for agricultural and other purposes, including recreational and sporting facilities, public and private gardens and lawns.
Squirrel: Member of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels.
Storage: A series of actions undertaken to deposit or hold goods, materials or waste in some physical location, as in a facility, container, tank or dumping site.
Streamside vegetation: Plants growing in areas adjacent to rivers and streams.

Supplementation: Refers to the addition of micronutrients to a food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not.

Supply chain: The network created amongst different companies producing, handling and distributing a specific product. It encompasses the steps it takes to get a good or service from the supplier to the customer.
Sustainable farming: A type of agriculture that applies the principles of sustainable development to the agricultural world: its goal is to enable farms to be autonomous, economically viable, ecologically sound, transferable, socially acceptable and active players in their local area. By adopting these principles, sustainable agriculture aims to enable farmers to make a decent living from their work while reducing their environmental impact and playing an active role in their local area.

Temporary grassland: Fallow that is planted with species such as grass or legumes to regenerate the soil more rapidly.

Temporary pasture: Grassland sown and composed of forage grasses, either alone or mixed with forage legumes. Grassland used for grazing or mowing to produce hay and silage. Grassland with a lifespan of 0 to 5 years. Artificial grasslands, sown exclusively with perennial forage legumes, are sometimes counted as temporary grasslands.
Transhumance: The seasonal migration of livestock to suitable grazing grounds.
Treatment: A process in which the act is intended to modify or alter some other material entity.
Tree: Any large woody perennial plant with a distinct trunk giving rise to branches or leaves at some distance from the ground.

U

Urine: Wastes removed from the blood stream via the kidneys and voided as a liquid.

Variety: A grouping of plants defined by the reproducible expression of its distinctive characteristics such as growth habit, color, size, disease resistance, or other traits. Essentially, a plant variety is characterized by its uniformity, stability, and distinctiveness from other groupings within the same species.

Vegetation: The plant cover of an area, considered generally, and not taxonomically.
Vegetation coverage: Number of plants growing on a certain area of land.

Veterinary: A person registered or licensed by the relevant veterinary statutory body of a country to practise veterinary medicine/science in that country.
Veterinary services: The combination of governmental and non-governmental individuals and organizations that perform activities to medically treat and care for animals.

Water resource: Water in any of its forms, wherever located – atmosphere, surface or ground – which is or can be of value to man.
Waterway: A river, canal, or other navigable channel used as a means of travel or transport.

Weather conditions: Atmospheric conditions at a particular time in a particular location, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind, and visibility. Weather conditions do not happen in isolation, they have a ripple effect. The weather in one region will eventually affect the weather hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.
Weed control: Freeing an area of land from weeds in order to limit or avoid their competition with crops. This is achieved by several means, such as herbicides, tillage, burning, mowing, and crop competition.
Wetland: Area habitually saturated with water. It may be partly or wholly covered permanently, occasionally or periodically, by fresh or salt water up to a depth of 6 metres. Wetlands include bogs, fens, wood meadows, marshland and salt marshes, shallow ponds, river estuaries, and intertidal mudflats, but exclude rivers, streams, lakes and oceans.
Wetland conservation: Strategy and processes to preserve an area that is saturated by surface or ground water with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions.
Wildlife conservation: A series of measures required to maintain or restore the natural habitats and the populations of species of wild fauna and flora at a favourable status.

Wildlife management: The application of science-based and local knowledge in the stewardship of wild animal populations (including game) and their habitats in a manner that is beneficial to the environment and to society.
Work time: Actual time spent working per day, week, month or year.
Working conditions: Use for the social, physical and psychological environment of human laborers.