The Gatekeeper Series produced by IIED’s Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods (original) (raw)

Environment and Development Natural Resources Group and Sustainable Agriculture

2003

THE GATEKEEPER SERIES of the Natural Resources Group at IIED is produced by the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods Programme. The Series aims to highlight key topics in the field of sustainable natural resource management. Each paper reviews a selected issue of contemporary importance and draws preliminary conclusions for de-velopment that are particularly relevant for policymakers, researchers and planners. References are provided to important sources and background material. The Series is published three times a year – in April, August and December – and is supported by the

Sustainable Agriculture: Interpretations, Analyses and Prospects

The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet those of the future". Since that time, much attention has been devoted toward better defining the concept, and developing measures to facilitate its assessment (for example, Daly and Cobb 1989; Liverman et al. 1987). While the permutations are many, the common underlying premise relates to the interdependencies and compatibility among environment, economy, and society. Agriculture is a globally occurring activity which relates directly and powerfully to the present and future condition of environments, economies, and societies. While agriculture has provided for basic social and economic needs of people, it has also caused environmental degradation which has prompted a burgeoning interest in its sustainability. Like the concept of 'sustainable development', the t...

Sustainable Agricultural Development

Springer eBooks, 2011

This conference was held at a time when world leaders were preparing to meet in Copenhagen on 7-18 December 2009 to negotiate a binding agreement for reduction of green house gases (GHG) to tackle global warming beyond 2012 and to discuss international concerns regarding climate change, energy crises, and global hunger challenges. It is generally understood that if urgent actions are not taken, the ultimate impact of climate change will be the rise of global temperature, change in frequency and patterns of rainfall leading to food insecurity in many developing countries, especially those depending on dryland farming in Africa. The main objective of the conference was to bring together educators, scientists, researchers, managers, and policy makers from around the world to discuss various aspects of the conference themes and to develop a consensus surrounding the conference synthesis report which contains a set of valuable recommendations, as a way forward for addressing climate change and food security issues. The conference organizers had received an overwhelming response to the call for papers. The submitted abstracts were reviewed and those deemed appropriate to conference themes were accepted. That led to submission of full papers for conference books. Papers related to conference themes were presented in five plenary sessions and fourteen panels. A natural consequence of the diversity of the papers presented at the conference was the arrangement of the contributions into three books covering different areas of interest. These books can be treated almost independently, although considerable commonalities exist among them. Prior to publication, all pre-selected chapters have been rigorously peer-reviewed by relevant experts. The papers contained in this book "Sustainable agricultural development-Recent approaches in resources management and environmentally-balanced produc-vi tion enhancement" represent one part of the conference proceedings. The other part is embodied in separate books which are being published simultaneously. The other books are respectively entitled: (1) "Global food insecurity-Rethinking agricultural and rural development paradigm and policy"; and (2) Climate change, energy crisis and food insecurity: the world in quest of a sustainable face. In this book, papers pertaining to sustainable agricultural development are presented in four parts divided into 20 chapters. Part I deals with the sustainable use of land resources as a potential for sustainable agricultural development, including aspects like land resources governance, land grabbing, and implications for food security, turning adversity into an advantage, reforestation and zoo-ecological remediation of soil quality improvement, mitigation of salinization, and policy frameworks for farmland use. Part II goes on to discuss sustainable management of water resources at farm level, rice fields, reduction of water losses, and extension and education. Part III deals with innovations in agricultural production including slow release nitrogen fertilizers, organic fertilizers, use of waste as a resource, and the implications of animal breeding technologies. Innovative processes in livestock production have been discussed in Part IV focusing on animal husbandry and the use of sorghum, cactus, and halophytes as animal feed. The editors and the publisher are not responsible for any statement made or opinions expressed by the authors in this publication. We wish to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to the members of the Scientific Advisory Board, and the Steering Committee, chairmen and rapporteurs of the technical sessions and cooperating organizations for hosting the Agadir Conference and for the publication of the books. Special thanks are due to all authors, coauthors, and reviewers without whom this comprehensive book would not have been produced. We also owe our gratitude to all of those individuals and numerous other people who in one way or the other contributed to the conference and the book, especially those involved from Springer publishing. Finally, it is hoped that this book will be of interest to researchers, experts, and policy makers in the fields of agriculture, soil and water management and conservation, plant production, soil remediation, livestock development, land governance, and environmental protection. Graduate students and those wishing to conduct research in these topics will find the book a valuable resource.

Sustainable Agriculture: Unifying Concepts

Ciencia e investigación agraria, 2009

This work is the product of a long process that tried to approximate the principia involved in sustainable agriculture in an attempt to analyze it. We believe that these principia are crucial for the systematic, rigorous, and consistent development of sustainable agriculture. The unifying concepts of agriculture sustainability are classifi ed into seven fundamental principles: (i) there is a hierarchy in decision-making with respect to human actions on the landscape and environment; (ii) human impact on the land should be analyzed from different perspectives (local, global, anthropocentric, and ecocentric); (iii) the carrying capacity in an agrarian context is crucial to ecosystem management and design; (iv) humans arrange nature with little consideration of its own natural organization; (v) land-use planning and design are subordinate to the order determinants that occur in a particular situation; (vi) cultural landscape is a result of humans' actions on the land; and, (vii) the concepts of agriculture and rurality lack a territorial connotation, unlike farm and comarca (a region connected through a common local market). Finally, agriculture sustainability should be addressed from various focal points, with a focus on nature and culture as its main determinants.

What Is Sustainable Agriculture? A Systematic Review

The idea of a sustainable agriculture has gained prominence since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987. Yet, the concept of sustainable agriculture is very vague and ambiguous in its meaning, which renders its use and implementation extremely difficult. In this systematic review paper, we aim to advance understandings of sustainable agriculture from a social science and governance perspective by identifying areas of complementarity and concern between emerging definitions of sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, we conducted a structured literature review in combination with a cluster analysis in order to (1) identify the overall ideas and aspects associated with sustainable agriculture; (2) detect patterns and differences in how these ideas and aspects are adopted or applied; (3) evaluate how the different ideas and aspects of sustainable agriculture are combined in the scientific debate, and assess whether these different conceptions match with those that have been claimed to exist in the debate. There are two valuable outcomes from this research. The first is a framework for understanding the components of sustainable agriculture. The second outcome is in highlighting ways for actors involved with sustainable agriculture to deal with the complexity and multiplicity of this concept in a constructive manner. Group Theme Category Year 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98

Sustainable Development of Agriculture

Sustainable Development of Agriculture, 1988

Food problems-the efficient production or procurement of food and its appropriate distribution among members of society-are problems endemic to mankind. Yet the nature and dimensions of these problems have been changing over time. As economic systems have developed, specialization has increased; and this has led to increased interdependences of rural and urban areas, of agricultural and nonagricultural sectors, and of nations. When the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) began the Food and Agriculture Program (FAP) in 1976, we started with these objectives: (1) To evaluate the nature and dimensions of the world food situation. (2) To identify the factors that affect it. (3) To suggest policy alternatives at national, regional, and global levels: (a) To alleviate current food problems. (b) To prevent food problems in the future. To realize these objectives, FAP was organized around two major tasks. The first task was directed at national policy for food and agriculture in an international situation. Here, computable general equilibrium models were developed for nearly 20 major developed and developing countries and were linked together to examine food trade, aid, capital flows, and how they affect hunger, in addition to the effects of national government policies, which were also considered in detail. This approach, however, needed to be complemented by another approach that dealt with food production at the farm level. The second task, therefore, began in 1980 and was directed to the sustainability of agriculture, with detailed considerations of resources, technology, and environment. This task needed conceptual work as well as case studies to illustrate the major constraints in the sustainability of agriculture. This book presents the results of this second task. Yet another major exercise by Drs. Mahendra Shah and Gunther Fischer, in collaboration with FAD, is reported elsewhere. It has a different focus in that it deals with resource potential for agriculture in developing countries.

Sustainable Agricultural Development Economics and Policy

Sustainability, 2023

Agriculture, in developing and developed nations alike, will face huge challenges over the next century in meeting human food needs and shifting preferences. Agricultural economic development, from the personal and local level to the global and industrial level, must be balanced with communal needs (e.g., food sovereignty, self-sufficiency) and address environmental challenges (e.g., climate change, ecosystem degradation). Local, national, and global policies must support sustainable agricultural economic development, while also addressing future environmental and community impacts. This Special Issue focuses on agricultural systems and forest management in developing or developed nations in Africa, Asia, South America, and North America, and spans conversations from the personal and local level all the way up to the production and circulation of global commodities. Analytical methods from published articles are employed to focus on socio-economic surveys, field experiments, remote sensing, and public policy proposals. The research stresses that sustainable agricultural development can be economically viable while also reducing the environmental impact of agricultural activities and strengthening local communities. An improved understanding of sustainable agricultural and forestry systems can help farmers, researchers, students, and policy makers to design and implement similar systems. From an economic perspective, sustainability can be achieved through “economies of scale”. In simple terms, this involves increasing economic efficiency and agricultural productivity to spare land in the short run, reducing the need to convert natural habitats into agricultural areas. While export commodity agriculture can employ local workers, the diversified food needs of local communities may not be addressed under such systems. The agricultural development of both intensive and extensive systems may be more challenging in the future given changes in climate, agroecosystem degradation, and diminishing resource availability. Agricultural and forestry systems involving commodities may be less sustainable in the future. However, these systems can be designed to be more durable to future shocks in order to address the sustainability shortcomings of the “economies of scale” approach. Alternatively, sustainable agricultural development can use “economies of scope”, where agricultural producers diversify production and input use using systems-based approaches. While such diversification can be profitable, minimizes environmental impacts, and meets local community food needs, the use of these systems may be challenging due to the complexity of managing farms like an ecosystem, reducing input use, the need to sell directly to consumers, or a lack of available capital. Government policies can be structured to support more diversified agricultural production. Sustainable development involves specialization and diversification. Despite the potential for global agriculture to undergo intensification, this may not be environmentally sustainable. Diversification can involve enterprise diversification and ecological intensification. Regional case studies highlighted in this Special Issue focus on diversified agricultural systems for the creation of more sustainable future food systems. We are grateful to the efforts of all researchers who submitted manuscript submissions to this Special Issue of Sustainability. Your research efforts have gone a long way to improving the understanding of more sustainable agricultural and forestry systems. A special thanks to Ionut Spanu, the managing editor of this Special Issue, for his invaluable editorial and publication support over the past two years. Gabriel Rezende Faria, a journalist and public relations officer at Embrapa, Brazil, graciously provided the cover photograph for this Special Issue. Many thanks also to my family who made this work possible.