What is the best book on sustainable agriculture?
Cuba: A Successful Case Study of Sustainable Agriculture By Peter M. Rosset Chapter 12, pp. 203-213, in: Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food and the Environment, edited by Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster and Frederick H. Buttel (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000).
How many farming first case studies are there?
The following map displays more than 100 case studies that Farming First has compiled. These are grouped into five topics: Climate Change, Food & Nutrition Security, Gender, Sustainable Agriculture and Water. These case studies are live examples of farmers from around the world demonstrating the best practices for sustainable agriculture.
What is included in a farm case study?
Each case study includes a detailed description of the farm and farm operation and a section on incentives and limitations to SA and on the farmer’s (or farmers’) outlook. D.,Patriquin, L. Edwards, M. Gimby, P. Jobin, R. Sampson. 1991.
Are off-farm inputs a threat to sustainable agriculture?
Overreliance on fossil fuel based inputs, and transport of inputs and products is seen by many as a threat to long-term agricultural and food system sustainability. Many organic, biodynamic, and low-input farmers limit off-farm inputs, attempting instead to farm within the carrying capacity of their land or local environment.
What are some examples of sustainable agricultural?
Sustainable agriculture practicesRotating crops and embracing diversity. … Planting cover crops and perennials. … Reducing or eliminating tillage. … Applying integrated pest management (IPM). … Integrating livestock and crops. … Adopting agroforestry practices. … Managing whole systems and landscapes.
What is the conclusion of sustainable agriculture?
Conclusion to Sustainable Agriculture Sustainable agriculture is beneficial because it uses the land; reduces pollution; crates a stable food supply and promotes local communities.
What is the best method of sustainable agriculture?
1. Crop Rotation. Crop rotation is one of the most powerful techniques of sustainable agriculture. Its purpose is to avoid the consequences that come with planting the same crops in the same soil for years in a row.
What are the 5 main components of sustainable agriculture?
The main components of both sustainable farming and conventional farming are exactly the same: soil management, crop management, water management, disease/pest management and waste management. It’s the methods used that are often radically different.
What is sustainable agriculture essay?
Sustainable agriculture is a process of farming using eco-friendly methods understanding and maintaining the relationship between the organisms and environment. In this process of agriculture and animal husbandry are combined to form a simultaneous process and practice.
What is the observation of sustainable agriculture?
It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources—as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.
Why sustainable agriculture is important?
Sustainable agriculture gives equal weight to environmental, social, and economic concerns in agriculture. Agricultural sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
What can farmers do to achieve sustainable agriculture?
One of the big ways to achieve agricultural sustainability is to reduce our global reliance on pesticides and fertilizers and focus on natural processes that can be introduced to limit pest populations. An example of one of the components of sustainable agriculture is planting hedgerows along field edges.
How does sustainable agriculture benefit the environment?
In addition to preserving the earth’s natural resources, sustainable agriculture benefits the environment through helping maintain soil quality, reducing erosion, and preserving water.
What are the main goals of sustainable agriculture?
The basic goals of sustainable agriculture are environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity (sometimes referred to as the “three legs” of the sustainability stool).
What are the basic principles of sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture would contribute to all four pillars of food security – availability, access, utilization and stability – in a manner that is environmentally, economically and socially responsible over time.
What is the basic concept of sustainable agriculture?
“Sustainable agriculture is one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment. It is agriculture that follows the principles of nature to form systems for raising crops and livestock that are, like nature, self-sustaining.
What was the first problem with the ox herd?
The first problem was that of producing without synthetic chemical inputs or tractors. Gradually the national ox herd was built up to provide animal traction as a substitute for tractors, and the production of biopesticides and biofertilizers was rapidly stepped up.
What was Cuba’s agriculture?
Agriculture was defined by extensive monocrop production of export crops and a heavy dependence on imported agrichemicals, hybrid seeds, machinery, and petroleum. While industrialization was substantial by regional standards, Cuban industry depended on many imported inputs.
What was the Cuban diet in 1996?
In the 1996-97 growing season Cuba recorded its highest-ever production levels for ten of the thirteen basic food items in the Cuban diet. The production increases came primarily from small farms, and in the case of eggs and pork, from booming backyard production. The proliferation of urban farmers who produce fresh produce has also been extremely …
What were Cuba’s achievements?
The Cuban achievements were made possible by a combination of the government’s commitment to social equity and the fact that Cuba received far more favorable terms of trade for its exports than did the hemisphere’s other developing nations.
What is the purpose of biopesticides?
This has meant biopesticides (microbial products) and natural enemies to combat insect pests, resistant plant varieties, crop rotations and microbial antagonists to combat plant pathogens, and better rotations, and cover cropping to suppress weeds.
What are the lessons learned from Cuba?
The important lessons from Cuba that we can apply elsewhere, then, are agroecology, fair prices, land reform, and local production, including urban agriculture. Peter M. Rosset is co-director of Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy < http://www.foodfirst.org >.
What was the economic development of Cuba?
Economic development in Cuba was molded by two external forces between the 1959 revolution and the 1989-90 collapses of trading relations with the Soviet bloc. One was the U.S. trade embargo, part of an effort to isolate the island economically and politically.
Why do farmers accept lower farm productivity?
These farmers often accept lower farm productivity because they see reduced reliance on non-renewable inputs as more sustainable.
How long has S&S Homestead Farm been operating?
As described above, S&S Homestead Farm has been operating organically for over 30 years and represents an example of a farm operated on the principles of a closed system Edens and Haynes (1982). The boundaries of the system do not represent the actual farm boundaries but include the local community, in this case Lopez Island. In order to assess the overall sustainability of the farm, an informal life cycle analysis was conducted ( Heller and Keoleian, 2000) ( Table 6 ). The 20 ha farm is mostly in pasture and produces beef, pork, lamb, a wide selection of vegetables and fruit for sale and home consumption, and a CSA operated on 1.1 ha of the farm. With the exception of the CSA, the farm also grows the majority of its own fertility and animal feed. Compost is made from spoiled straw and hay, manure from two dairy cows, and slaughter by-products, effectively recycling on farm wastes. This compost is used exclusively in the vegetable and fruit growing operations. Pastures receive no inputs other than urine and manure deposited by grazing animals. The farm also has an extensive gravity fed rainwater collection system that stores water in underground tanks and a holding pond. Water is pumped from the pond using a solar powered pump and used for irrigating the vegetable gardens. Pastures are not irrigated and rely solely on rainfall for moisture.
How does overreliance on fossil fuels affect agriculture?
Overreliance on fossil fuel based inputs, and transport of inputs and products is seen by many as a threat to long-term agricultural and food system sustainability. Many organic, biodynamic, and low-input farmers limit off-farm inputs, attempting instead to farm within the carrying capacity of their land or local environment. These farmers often accept lower farm productivity because they see reduced reliance on non-renewable inputs as more sustainable. Documentation of low-input agricultural systems through both replicated research trials and case studies is needed in order to better understand perceived and real advantages and tradeoffs. The goal of our study was twofold: (1) to compare liming and biodynamic (BD) preparations in improving pasture on a moderately acidic pasture soil through stimulation of soil microbial activity; (2) to place these findings within the context of a whole farm analysis of economic, plant, and animal health. Treatments included lime, the Pfeiffer Field Spray plus BD compost preparations, and untreated controls. Soil pH, total C and N, microbial activity, forage biomass, and forage quality were evaluated over two growing seasons. Both lime and the Pfeiffer Field Spray and BD preparations were only moderately effective in raising soil pH, with no effect on soil microbial activity or forage yield. Lime significantly reduced forage crude protein but the practical implications of this are questionable given the overall low quality of the forage. While the farm is profitable and economically stable and the animals healthy, the need for future targeted nutrient inputs cannot be ruled out for sustainable long-term production.
Is S&S Homestead Farm sustainable?
So is S&S Homestead Farm achieving its goals of economic, environmental and social sustainability? As described above, the farm while not highly profitable is certainly economically stable, with a balanced cash flow. In terms of a whole farm system or life cycle analysis S&S Homestead Farm meets the criteria for economic, environmental and social sustainability. Nevertheless there are concerns the farm may not adequately balance soil nutrient budgets, in particular nutrient returns to pastures from the off farm sale of meat products. This is a concern that applies to many biodynamic and closed systems organic farms and could be addressed through increasing off-farm purchases of targeted nutrients when needed. Relying on inputs such as lime and rock phosphate that have been mined and transported long distances cannot ultimately be thought of as a sustainable long-term solution however. Another approach would be to try to increase mineral weathering of nutrients through stimulating soil microbial populations.
What was the food shortage in Cuba in 1995?
By mid-1995 the food shortage had been overcome, and the vast majority of the population no longer faced drastic reductions of their basic food supply. In the 1996-97 growing season Cuba recorded its highest-ever production levels for ten of the thirteen basic food items in the Cuban diet. The production increases came primarily from small farms, and in the case of eggs and pork, from booming backyard production. The proliferation of urban farmers who produce fresh produce has also been extremely important to the Cuban food supply. The earlier food shortages and the rise in food prices suddenly turned urban agriculture into a very profitable activity for Cubans, and once the government threw its full support behind a nascent urban gardening movement, it exploded to near epic proportions. Formerly vacant lots and backyards in all Cuban cities now sport food crops and farm animals, and fresh produce is soldfrom private stands throughout urban areas at prices substantially below those prevailing in the farmers markets. There can be no doubt that urban farming, relying almost exclusively on organic techniques, has played a key role in assuring the food security of Cuban families over the past two to three years.
What were the problems of the state sector?
The problems of the state sector, on the other hand, were a combination of low worker productivity, a problem pre-dating the Special Period, and the complete inability of these immense and technified management units to adapt to low-input technology. With regard to the productivity problem, planners became aware several years ago that the organization of work on state farms was profoundly alienating in terms of the relationship between the agricultural worker and the land. Large farms of thousands of hectares had their work forces organized into teams that would prepare the soil in one area, move on to plant another, weed still another, and later harvest an altogether different area. Almost never would the same person both plant and harvest the same area. Thus no one ever had to confront the consequences of doing something badly or, conversely, enjoy the fruits of his or her own labor.
What was Cuba’s economic situation in 1991?
In 1991 the government declared the “Special Period in Peacetime, ” which basically put the country on a wartime economy style austerity program. There was an immediate 53 percent reduction in oil imports that not only affected fuel availability for the economy, but also reduced to zero the foreign exchange that Cuba had formerly obtained via the re-export of petroleum. Imports of wheat and other grains for human consumption dropped by more than 50 percent, while other foodstuffs declined even more. Cuban agriculture was faced with a drop of more than 80 percent in the availability of fertilizers and pesticides, and more than 50 percent in fuel and other energy sources produced by petroleum.
What is sustainable agriculture?
With ‘sustainable agriculture,’ we mean an approach that applies specific strategies in a variety of fields of action in order to achieve sustainability goals in the environmental, economic, and social domains in an integrated way. Strategies for sustainable agriculture can be, for instance, adaptive management, holistic and complex systems thinking, an ecology-based or an economics-based strategy. Such strategies can be applied in diverse fields of action such as the agri-food system, management and technological solutions, or the social, political, and economic environment (Velten et al. 2015 ). Such a broad view of sustainable agriculture allows us to embrace a great variety of collaboratives that contribute to sustainable agriculture. Thus, we address collaboratives ranging from farmer initiatives in search of more sustainable production techniques to agricultural supply chain initiatives with diverse involved actors trying to establish sustainable standards, and to consumer or citizen initiatives seeking ways to support sustainable agriculture.
What is a case study?
For this case study meta-analysis, we defined a case as an intervention (initiative, project, putting a legislation into practice, etc .) which is realized on the local or regional level (i.e. , any level above farm-level and below national level), which aims at improving the sustainability of agriculture in the concerned locality or region and is carried out in any EU country in collaboration of several actors.
What is case study meta analysis?
The case study meta-analysis, which has also been termed case survey, is especially appropriate for the systematic integration of the insights of a larger number of qualitative case studies (Lucas 1974 ). The basic principle is to transform the qualitative case narratives into quantitative data and thus makes them accessible to quantitative analysis. For this transformation, a predefined coding scheme is used, which consists of a set of questions about the case studies to be answered mostly with numerical values. Thus, the case-study meta-analysis draws on a rich account of diverse case material, devised by different researchers using different research designs and brings them together under a common conceptual framework. While preserving a large amount of detail of individual case studies, the method allows for much wider generalization than single or small-N comparative case studies (Larsson 1993; Lucas 1974; Newig and Fritsch 2009 ).
What is the central feature of case study meta-analysis?
The central feature of the case study meta-analysis is the quantitative coding of variables for each investigated case study.
What is the role of collaboration in agriculture?
Collaboration is considered to directly and indirectly contribute to the generation of ecological, social, and economic benefits in agricultural contexts: arguably, collaboration allows for the effective management of natural resources and coordination of farming practices.
What is external success factor?
The group of external success factors comprises the factors that may have an influence on the performance of a collaborative but which the collaborative can hardly influence itself. This main group includes, firstly, the specific characteristics of the issue addressed by a collaborative.
What is coding scheme?
These are (a) the kinds and ambitiousness of the environmental, economic, and social goals of a collaborative; (b) the dependent vari-ables (success criteria); (c) the independent variables (success factors). Included in the latter were all factors retrieved from the reviewed literature (see Sect. 2.2.2). Moreo-ver, the coding scheme includes control variables capturing information about the avail-able publications describing the case (e.g., involvement/neutrality of the authors) as well as information characterizing the collaborative (e.g., start year, multi-level aspects, involved actors).
What is a case study?
For this case study meta-analysis, we defined a case as an intervention (initiative, project, putting a legislation into practice, etc.) which is realized on the local or regional level (i.e. , any level above farm-level and below national level), which aims at improving the sus-tainability of agriculture in the concerned locality or region and is carried out in any EU country in collaboration of several actors.
What is meta analysis in case studies?
The case study meta-analysis, which has also been termed case survey, is especially appro-priate for the systematic integration of the insights of a larger number of qualitative case studies (Lucas 1974). The basic principle is to transform the qualitative case narratives into quantitative data and thus makes them accessible to quantitative analysis. For this transfor-mation, a predefined coding scheme is used, which consists of a set of questions about the case studies to be answered mostly with numerical values. Thus, the case-study meta-anal-ysis draws on a rich account of diverse case material, devised by different researchers using different research designs and brings them together under a common conceptual frame-work. While preserving a large amount of detail of individual case studies, the method allows for much wider generalization than single or small-N comparative case studies (Larsson 1993; Lucas 1974; Newig and Fritsch 2009).
What are the internal factors of a collaborative?
For one, such internal factors can relate to the composition and structure of the group of involved actors. This may concern the characteristics of the individual actors involved. For instance, it is deemed more likely that a collaborative will succeed in achieving its objectives if the involved actors possess a high level of knowledge relevant to addressing the issues at hand (Newig et al. 2018) as well as pro-environmental attitudes (Lubell and Fulton 2007). On the other hand, also characteristics of the whole group of involved actors can matter, such as the size (e.g., Mills et al. 2011; Ramdwar et al. 2013; Prager 2015) and composition of the actor group (e.g., Isaac 2011, Dyer et al. 2013; Ramdwar et al. 2013), its level of social capital (e.g., Lamprinopoulou et al. 2006; Dyer et al. 2013; Prager 2015), or negative group dynamics such as conflicts (Ramdwar et al. 2013).
What is sustainable agriculture?
With ‘sustainable agriculture,’ we mean an approach that applies specific strategies in a variety of fields of action in order to achieve sustainability goals in the environmental, eco-nomic, and social domains in an integrated way. Strategies for sustainable agriculture can be, for instance, adaptive management, holistic and complex systems thinking, an ecology-based or an economics-based strategy. Such strategies can be applied in diverse fields of action such as the agri-food system, management and technological solutions, or the social, political, and economic environment (Velten et al. 2015). Such a broad view of sustain-able agriculture allows us to embrace a great variety of collaboratives that contribute to sustainable agriculture. Thus, we address collaboratives ranging from farmer initiatives in search of more sustainable production techniques to agricultural supply chain initiatives with diverse involved actors trying to establish sustainable standards, and to consumer or citizen initiatives seeking ways to support sustainable agriculture.
Who did the authors thank for coding?
The authors thank Edward Challies and Pim Derwort for volunteering to pre-test the coding scheme; Hanna Weber for her substantial contribution in coding the case studies; Stephanie Jahn for her expertise on the statistical analysis of the data; as well as Julia Leventon for her overall conceptual advice and input. Many thanks to five anonymous reviewers whose suggestions greatly improved earlier ver-sions of this manuscript.