Transitional Dynamics in Converting Conventional Field Cropping Systems to Certified Organic PDF Download

Author: Andrew Thomas Corbin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Crop rotation
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Author: Jacques-Eric Bergez
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030019535
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This Open Access book presents feedback from the ‘Territorial Agroecological Transition in Action’- TATA-BOX research project, which was devoted to these specific issues. The multidisciplinary and multi-organisation research team steered a four-year action-research process in two territories of France. It also presents: i) the key dimensions to be considered when dealing with agroecological transition: diversity of agriculture models, management of uncertainties, polycentric governance, autonomies, and role of actors’ networks; ii) an operational and original participatory process and associated boundary tools to support local stakeholders in shifting from a shared diagnosis to a shared action plan for transition, and in so doing developing mutual understanding and involvement; iii) an analysis of the main effects of the methodology on research organisation and on stakeholders’ development and application; iv) critical analysis and foresights on the main outcomes of TATA-BOX, provided by external researchers.

Author: Subhash Babu
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832536514
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Researchers and policy planners are in search of a solution to address the twin challenges of maximizing agricultural production while maintaining/ improving ecosystem sustainability. Enhancing farm productivity is needed in certain regions of the world to satisfy local food consumption and farmers' needs. Linear economy-based-input intensive conventional agriculture (CAPS) has increased production output but has not made agriculture more sustainable. Henceforth, a farming system that aims to reduce the adverse impact on the environment, as well as enhance agricultural productivity by reducing environmental footprint and improving soil health and economic wellbeing is needed in the present day. Integrated organic farming systems (IOFS) involve residue recycling, bio-intensive cropping, high-tech horticulture, mushroom, dairy, poultry, fishery, apiary, etc can improve the ecosystem health and augment the income and livelihood security of the growers. Worldwide, IOFS are gaining popularity due to improved ecosystem services and improving farm productivity and livelihood security. Hence, IOFS- a circular economy-based (reuse-recycle-repair) agricultural production system can be alternatives to energy-intensive inputs based on CAPS. Hence, there is an urgent need to select suitable IOFS models with proper resource optimization for productivity maximization and better ecosystem sustainability. Undoubtedly IOFS reduces energy use from synthetic agrochemicals but food production in IOFS is highly dependent on fossil fuel energy that must be addressed urgently. Despite the enormous positive outlooks, there are several challenges in the adoption of IOFS models. The IOFS is a multiproduct-oriented production system that needs multi specialties and marketing. Capacity building and infrastructure development are also great challenges in adopting IOFS. Moreover, the development of IOFS models is highly individualistic, and location-specific production systems need proper resource optimization and characterization. Hence, the development of site-specific IOFS models to maintain food quality with productivity improvement is a genuine issue to the researchers, which needs to be addressed. Papers (original research/review/letter to the editors) spanning across the discipline related to the IOFS development in sustainable ways are encouraged for inclusion in this research topic. Papers should explicitly cover ecosystem restoration, farm productivity, and profitability and could have a specific focus on the following areas: -the IOFS models for enhancing productivity and environmental quality through an integrated management approach aiming at the maximization of use efficiencies -the management of biomass waste to restore the soil fertility, and ecosystem services the effect of integrated management practices on greenhouse gas emissions and energy use -Critical approaches for climate-smart food production systems

Author: Niels Halberg
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1845930789
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
Agriculture and food systems, including organic agriculture, are undergoing a technological and structural modernization strongly influenced by growing globalization. Organic agricultural movements can be seen as a tangible effort towards more sustainable development. However, there are large differences between, on the one hand, industrialized farming and consumption based on global food chains and, on the other, smallholder farmers and resource poor people primarily linked in local food markets in low-income countries. This book provides an overview of the potential role of organic agriculture in a global perspective. The book discusses in-depth political ecology, ecological justice, ecological economics and free trade with new insights on the challenges for organic agriculture. This is followed by the potential role of organic agriculture for improving soil fertility, nutrient cycling and food security and reducing veterinary medicine use, together with discussions of research needs and the importance of non-certified organic agriculture.

Author: Stephen R. Gliessman
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420003593
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
With all of the environmental and social problems confronting our food systems today, it is apparent that none of the strategies we have relied on in the pasthigher-yielding varieties, increased irrigation, inorganic fertilizers, pest damage reductioncan be counted on to come to the rescue. In fact, these solutions are now part of the problem. It i

Author: Acram Taji
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643099395
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
With global revenue surpassing twenty-five billion dollars annually, organic agriculture is a highly visible and rapidly growing component of agricultural production. In Organic Agriculture: A Global Perspective, Paul Kristiansen, Acram Taji, and John Reganold, and their international group of contributors scientifically review key aspects of organic agriculture. At the intersection of research, education, and practice, the contributors look at the organic agricultural movement’s successes and limitations. The first half of this book critically evaluates the agricultural production of both plants and livestock in organic farming systems. All major aspects of organic agriculture are explored, including historical background and underlying principles, soil-fertility management, crop and animal production, breeding strategies, and crop protection. This global and comprehensive overview also addresses the economic, social, and political aspects of organic farming. These include economics and marketing; standards and certification; environmental impacts and social responsibility; and research, education, and extension. The book is a unique and timely science-based international work documenting current practices in organic agriculture and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. For more than two decades, research into organic methods by mainstream scientists has generated a large body of information that can now be integrated and used for assessing the actual impacts of organic farming in a wide range of disciplines. The knowledge of selected international experts has been combined in one volume, providing a comprehensive review of organic farming globally. Researchers, teachers, extensionists, students, primary producers and others around the world who are interested in sustainable agriculture will find this book to be a valuable and reliable resource.

Author: Jean-Philippe Deguine
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9402411852
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This book is devoted to Agroecological Crop Protection, which is the declension of the principles of agroecology to crop protection. It presents the concepts of this innovative approach, case studies and lessons and generic keys for agroecological transition. The book is intended for a wide audience, including scientists, experimenters, teachers, farmers, students. It represents a new tool, proposing concrete keys of action on the basis of feedbacks validated scientifically. Beyond the examples presented, it is therefore of general scope and proposes recommendations for all temperate and tropical cropping systems. It contributes to the training and teaching modules in this field and it is an updated information support for professionals and a teaching aid for students (agronomy, crop protection, biodiversity management, agroecology).

Author: Vinay Kumar
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000851206
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Green chemistry is a vital subject playing a key role in environmental sustainability. Despite its importance, very little has been explored in the past years. This book is a comprehensive compilation of the methods, techniques and strategies used in green chemistry. The book highlights some critical aspects of green chemistry related to agriculture and food production. It has been put together for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students. Each chapter has been cited with new and updated research discoveries to help the postgraduate, and doctorate students and researchers. I hope the presented book will be an important tool for students and researchers.

Author: Lord Northbourne
Publisher: Sophia Perennis
ISBN: 9781597310185
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
'Without vision the people perish.' So wrote the poet William Blake. Lord Northbourne (1896-1982) was a man of exceptional and comprehensive vision, who diagnosed the sickness of modern society as stemming from the severance of its organic links with the wholeness of life. But like his better-known younger contemporary E. F. Schumacher (author of Small is Beautiful), whose work developed along very similar lines, Northbourne's occupation as a practicing organic farmer (he coined the term) was joined to a deep conviction that humanity does not live by bread alone, and that the fullness of life properly integral to human nature demands obedience to sacred law. Thus his vision of life came to embrace the interrelationship of God, humanity, and the soil as a unity presupposing a way of life in stark contrast to that of the myopic, mechanististic world he saw encroaching on all sides. And so, as it becomes increasingly evident that such a way of life stands to emperil our very future and that of the delicate ecosystem on which all life depends, it is time to re-examine the work of this pioneering thinker. In an age of specialization and fragmentation, we have much to learn from Northbourne, whose vision of what is required by a truly meaningful and sustainable society embraced religion, farming, the arts, the rural crafts, monetary form, and traditional metaphysics. Northbourne's later works, Religion in the Modern World and Looking Back on Progress, present his wider reflections on the Divine and human society, but always with the sensibility of a man who knows the soil, recalling in many ways the writings of Wendell Berry. He corresponded with Thomas Merton, as well as mountaineer and Tibetan Buddhist Marco Pallis (The Way and the Mountain), who introduced him to the school of perennialist writers. Northbourne translated René Guénon's The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, described by Huston Smith as one of the truly seminal books of the twentieth century, as well as Frithjof Schuon's Light on Ancient Worlds and Titus Burckhardt's Sacred Art in East and West. He was also an accomplished flower gardener and watercolorist, and a frequent contributor to the British periodical Studies in Comparative Religion, described by Schumacher as one of the two most important journals to read. Sophia Perennis is republishing all three of Northbourne's works, a fourth volume of uncollected essays spanning agriculture and metaphysics, as well as the 23-volume Collected Writings of René Guénon, including The Reign of Quantity. Lord Northbourne (1896-1982) was a man of exceptional vision, who already in the 1940s diagnosed in detail the sickness of modern society as stemming from the severance of its organic links with the wholeness of life. A leading figure in the early organic farming movement, his writings profoundly affected such other pioneers as Sir Albert Howard, Rolf Gardiner, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, and H. J. Massingham. His path led him on to a profound study of comparative religion, traditional metaphysics, and the science of symbols, which he employed in incisive observations on the character of modern society. His later writings exercised considerable influence on his younger contemporaries E. F. Schumacher and Thomas Merton, and in many ways anticipate the essays of Wendell Berry. The republication of this milestone ecological text will be followed by three volumes of Northbourne's later metaphysical and cultural writings. "A major text in the organic canon, too long out-of-print" - Philip Conford, The Origins of the Organic Movement "We have tried to conquer nature by force and by intellect. It now remains for us to try the way of love." - From the book (possibly for front cover, if not too long?)

Author: Jules N. Pretty
Publisher: Earthscan
ISBN: 1849773181
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Since the 1960s, the world's population has more than doubled and agricultural production per person has increased by a third. Yet this growth in production has masked enormous hidden costs arising from widespread pesticide use - massive ecological damage and high incidences of farmer poisoning and chronic health effects. Whereas once the risks involved with pesticide use were judged to be outweighed by the potential benefits, increasingly the external costs of pesticides, to environments and human health, are being seen as unacceptable. In response to this trend, recent years have seen millions of farmers in communities around the world reduce their use of harmful pesticides and develop cheaper and safer alternatives. The Pesticide Detox explores the potential for the phasing-out of hazardous pesticides and the phasing-in of cost effective alternatives already available on the market. This book makes clear that it is time to start the pesticide detox and to move towards a more sustainable agriculture.