Contents: 1. Agroecology as a transdisciplinary science for a sustainable agriculture; Fabio Caporali. 2. Measuring agricultural sustainability; Dariush Hayati 3. Sustainable bioenergy production, land and nitrogen use; Enrico Ceotto 4. Biofuels, the role of biotechnology to improve their sustainability and profitability; Meenu Saraf 5. Challenges and opportunities of soil organic carbon sequestration in croplands; Ilan Stavi 6. Conservation agriculture under mediterranean conditions in Spain; Felix Moreno 7. Conservation tillage and sustainable agriculture in semi-arid dryland farming; Mohammad Zarea 8. Synergism among crops to improve dryland crop production; Randy Anderson 9. Sustainable irrigation to balance supply of soil water, oxygen, nutrients and agro-chemicals; Surya Bhattarai 10. Agricultural practices in northeast India and options for sustainable management; Awadhesh Kumar Shukla 11. Microbial community structure and diversity as indicators for evaluating soil quality; Sushil K. Sharma 12. Integrating silvopastoralism and biodiversity conservation; Rosa Mosquera.