sustainable agriculture Articles
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Learning about sustainable agriculture
For almost 20 years the Orange campus of firstly the University of Sydney and now Charles Sturt University has been teaching Australian and overseas students about sustainable agriculture. The course is offered as a post graduate Masters course and students spend 18 months at the campus as internal students although many of the Australian students study it by distance mode. The following photo ...
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An analysis of some paradoxes in alternative agriculture and a vision of sustainability for future food systems
The paper offers an analysis of some of the prevailing practices in sustainable agriculture and points out some of the paradoxes that need to be addressed and resolved in order to enhance acceptability of sustainable agriculture by the general public. Education and research in sustainable agriculture are suggested as possible tools via which solutions to the paradoxes may be found. Preserving the ...
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Introduction: Features of environmental sustainability in agriculture: some conceptual and operational issues
This introductory paper aims to address the features of environmental sustainability in agriculture. Recent developments of the concept, which are discussed here, emphasise its multi-faceted nature and lead to various definitions as well as to different implications for policy measures in society. On the basis of all the papers presented in this Special Issue, we draw some perspectives for future ...
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Sustainable agriculture and sustainability of Indian agriculture in the context of globalisation
There is a growing realisation of the importance of sustainable agriculture across the globe. This awareness has become the main focus of global debate as a result of degradation of natural resources and environment. There is a growing demand for eco-friendly agricultural commodities in the international market. Here an attempt is made to examine the context and meaning of the term ...
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Enhancing undergraduate agro-ecological laboratory employment through experiential learning
We piloted an educational model, the Sustainable Agriculture Scholars Program, linking research in organic agriculture to experiential learning activities for summer undergraduate employees in 2007 and 2008. Our objectives were to: (1) further student understanding of sustainable agriculture research, (2) increase student interest in sustainable agriculture careers, and (3) use community service ...
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Transdisciplinary research for a sustainable agriculture and food sector
Research in agriculture has strongly focused on discipline-oriented, natural science-based approaches to increasing production with success measured by short-term, neoclassical economic evaluation. This strategy has contributed to impressive increases in food production over the last half century. Growing concerns include environmental impacts, changes in rural communities, and distribution of ...
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Emergy analysis of one century of agricultural production in the Rolling Pampas of Argentina
Historically, agricultural production in the Rolling Pampas of Argentina was characterised by low use of synthetic inputs. This changed during the 1990s, with the widespread adoption of technology privileged by neoclassical macroeconomic policies implemented in the same decade. In this paper, Emergy Accounting is used to quantitatively assess the ecological sustainability of agricultural systems ...
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What connection is there between the learning process and territorial governance?. The 'SAC' example on Reunion Island
Territorial governance has become a major issue for public authorities. Studying the information generated by implementing sustainable agricultural contracts (SAC) on Reunion Island (Ile de la Reunion) has contributed to the development of new types of territorial governance projects. The surveys conducted with rural development actors have revealed that learning was significant both at the ...
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Understanding the role of disturbance in peri-urban agricultural systems and communities: new concepts and principles to guide strategic intervention
New conceptualisations of peri-urban zones are needed to trigger a deeper understanding within professionals and practitioners of appropriate intervention strategies that build the resilience of sustainable agriculture and food production within peri-urban communities. This paper posits a theoretical construction of the peri-urban zone, derived from applying a biomimicry framework. Biomimicry is ...
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Editorial: agriculture in Turkey – structural change, sustainability and EU-compatibility
Rural Turkey is dominated by a large agricultural sector that still relies on extensive state support and policy intervention. There is a general agreement that structural change is needed to make its rural economy more innovative and competitive. Yet, as long as the main architects of Turkish agricultural reform are primarily concerned with mitigating the impact of trade liberalisation through ...
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Evolving more sustainable agriculture in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Smallholders in many tropical highlands cause serious environmental damage. The Cameron Highlands of Malaysia offer an excellent opportunity for studying how farmers interact with environment, changing markets, infrastructure development, indigenous peoples, and tourism, and how these shape innovation. Our surveys in 2002-2004, 2006 and 2007 show that farmers have intensified production and in ...
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European retailers as agents of change towards sustainability: The case of fruit production in Brazil
As multinational food producers and large retailers are increasingly adopting programmes for safe and sustainable agriculture, they could play a role as 'agents of change' in the transition process towards socially and environmentally responsible production methods. This article argues that the present private-sector programmes indeed provide an impetus for farmers to change their production ...
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From urban-rural to global dependencies
Against the background of global urban knowledge economy, this paper discusses some of the challenges that sustainable urban life is facing in the global knowledge economy of the 21st century. The paper makes an overview of the fundamental change in urban-rural relations, urban and rural demographics, the concepts of place surplus and place attractiveness, agglomeration and the new economic ...
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Towards sustainable food and farming systems in industrialised countries
Economic systems at all levels rely for their success on the value of services flowing from the stock of total assets which comprise five types of capital: natural, social, human, physical and financial. Sustainable systems accumulate stocks of these five assets, so increasing the capital base over time. But unsustainable systems deplete or run down capital, spending assets as if they were income ...
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European food and agricultural strategy for 21st century
Production ecological analyses reveal great differences in food production potential and food requirement between global regions, which implies the need for redistribution of food between surplus and deficit regions. The surplus production potential, current production and trade volumes of Europe along with the desires of its society for non-food functions from its land, favours a dual ...
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Soil Management for Sustainable Agricultural Productivity in Bangladesh
Introduction: The 'rules of road' by which agricultural researchers measure the impact of their work are being restudied. The first conclusion is that it is impossible to choose between food needs of today and food needs of 100 years from now. Somehow the food production system in Bangladesh must keep pace with the demand that 9 million new mouths place on it every year. Second, the natural ...
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Strategies to Successfully Manage Northeastern Apple Pests
A wide range of pests threaten Northeastern apple crops, forcing some growers to spend up to 25 percent of production costs to manage mites, insects, disease and other pests. Practical strategies to help growers lower this huge cost while protecting their region’s $580 million annual apple crop are outlined in Ecological Management of Key Arthropod Pests in Northeast Apple Orchards, a new ...
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Soils, souls and agricultural sustainability: the need for connection
Sustainability is a contested term, and has much in common with justice and liberty in meaning very different things to different people. Typically it is the vision of the developed North that has dominated. This paper describes some of the results of a long-term research project based in Kogi State, Nigeria, designed to explore agricultural sustainability, and in particular how a Northern-based ...
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Environmental dimensions of fertilizer and pesticide use; relevance to Indian agriculture
This paper presents an overview of the environmental consequences of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture and the measures needed to mitigate the adverse impact of these chemicals on environment. The issues are then analysed from the perspective of the use of fertilizers and pesticides in Indian agriculture. Fertilizer consumption in India is concentrated in about one-third of the cultivated ...
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Agro-ecological compensation of watershed based on emergy
The paper aims at providing a framework to calculate the agro-eco-compensation standard based on the systems agro-ecological concept of embodied energy as emergy. We have proposed a calculation system of eco-compensation standard for sustainable agricultural development based on the convertibility between emergy and price. According to our calculation, the total energy of agricultural ...
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