Territorial management contracts as a tool to enhance the sustainability of sloping and mountainous olive orchards: Evidence from a case study in Southern Spain

The continuity of farming in traditional sloping and mountainous olive production systems (SMOPS) is at risk, especially in marginally productive areas. The abandonment of olive production on sloping lands would have adverse economic, social, environmental and cultural effects. To tackle this risk of abandonment and to improve the sustainability of traditional SMOPS, we propose the Territorial management contracts (TMC) of rural areas. The potential of this instrument to be specifically applied to organic olive production systems on sloping lands is assessed. The paper then summarises the results of a survey of Andalusian farmers in sloping and mountainous areas aimed at identifying key characteristics of the TMC with the potential to enhance its uptake in target farming communities. Results show that farmers are well-disposed towards TMC, and that issues such as flexibility and external advice need to be considered for its successful implementation. From a policy perspective, the instrument is well aligned with the objectives of the last reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).     

Assessing a farm's sustainability: insights from resilience thinking

Research on sustainability in agriculture often focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of production systems. However, environmentally friendly production methods may not be sufficient to ensure the long-term economic and social sustainability of a farm. Taking a systems approach to sustainable farming, we turn to resilience thinking with its focus on the interdependence of social and ecological systems. We apply this approach to farming by conceptualizing a farm as being part of a set of systems spanning several spatial scales and including agro-ecological, economic and political-social domains. These subsystems interact and are subjected to their own complex dynamics. Within such a complex adaptive system, farm sustainability can only be achieved through adaptability and change. To be ready for the inevitable periods of turbulent change, a farmer needs to retain diversity and redundancy to ensure adaptability. Resilience is thus more likely to emerge when farmers hone the capacity to transform the farm, when farm production is attuned to the local ecological carrying capacity, and when learning and innovation are targeted outcomes. This article shows how resilience theory applied to farming may provide a more comprehensive route to achieving sustainability and offers rules of thumb as guides to building farm resilience.     

Sense and Sustainability: Sustainability as an Objective in International Agricultural Research

This paper first discusses how to use sustainability as a criterion by which to evaluate agricultural research, then illustrates the difficulties inherent in applying the criterion and finally draws implications for international agricultural research. Seven propositions relating to sustainability are stated. Agricultural researchers are urged to (a) recognize the importance of the sustainability of agricultural systems. (b) devise appropriate ways to measure sustainability, (c) empirically examine the sustainability of some well-defined cropping or farming systems, (d) define the externalities that exist in such systems, and (e) develop methods to measure those externalities.     

Defining and delivering ‘sustainable’ agriculture in the UK after Brexit: interdisciplinary lessons from experiences of agricultural reform

Defining and achieving sustainability in the context of complex, multi-scale, and constantly changing agricultural systems is a challenge for research and policy. In UK agriculture, the European Union and its Common Agricultural Policy has been a key source of funding for and approaches to sustainability in the agriculture and rural development sectors. The decision to leave the European Union represents a significant moment in UK agriculture and rural development policy, and both an opportunity and responsibility for the UK government to set out and commit towards achieving sustainability goals for the sector. In this study, a combination of ethnographic case study research, focusing on the case of upland farmers in the Yorkshire Dales, policy analysis and national agricultural sector data is referred to in describing experiences of agricultural policy reform over recent decades. From these experiences, lessons for the design and delivery of future agriculture and rural development are drawn out. It is argued that the integrated assessment of multiple sources of knowledge can provide a means to critically reflecting on evidence about sustainability in complex systems, better understanding trade-offs, and creating a more complete and inclusive knowledge base from which to define sustainable agriculture.     

Assessing the sustainability of Irish agriculture

Indicators encompassing the multidimensional nature of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) are developed here using Irish National Farm Survey data over an 11-year period (1996–2006). This is the first such study undertaken for Ireland, and the results show significant change over the decade in all three areas examined. The general concept of sustainability is discussed and the development of agricultural sustainability indicators in an Irish context is described. Individual indicators are dealt with in turn, and the RERC SMILE model is used to demonstrate how these indicators can be derived at a spatial level below the national scale. Economic viability was found to be generally in decline over the 10-year period examined. However, when individual farming systems were taken into account, some were found to perform better than others. From an environmental perspective, the more intensive farming systems (primarily dairy) were found to pollute more on average, while in more general terms the levels of methane emissions produced per hectare have been falling over the reference period. Results also indicate that rural Ireland is experiencing a period of fundamental change in terms of the demographic viability of its farming community.     

The environmental sustainability of national cropping systems: From assessment to policy impact evaluation

The European political framework of the last decade aims to drive agriculture towards economic and environmental sustainability. Thus, European institutions have paid great attention to environmental impact assessment and to the definition of a complex indicator capable of restoring the multidimensional nature of environmental sustainability.In this work, a possible methodology for assessing the environmental sustainability of European national cropping systems by a synthetic indicator is provided. More specifically, the environmental impact of agriculture is assessed through a synthetic indicator, whose definition is based on a methodological improvement of the ecological footprint approach, which quantifies the balance between exploitation and availability of natural resources used in agriculture.The analysis shows how national cropping systems can contribute to Europe’s environmental impact through agriculture. To assess an eventual relationship between agriculture’s environmental performance and the ability to support more sustainable agriculture at the national level, the results are then compared with the subsidies for agro-environmental measures provided by the second pillar of the CAP. In addition, the synthetic indicator chosen for the study, giving the possibility of quantifying the dynamic of the environmental impact of agriculture between two different periods, permits the analysis of the possible causes that may have generated the observed changes.The implications of this approach should stimulate new reflections on the significance of the ecological relationships embodied into agricultural production and the environmental role of farmers.     

Leveling the field for biofuels: comparing the economic and environmental impacts of biofuel and other export crops in Malawi

Biofuels often raise the specter of food insecurity, water resource depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions from land clearing. These concerns underpin the “sustainability criteria” governing access to European biofuel markets. However, it is unclear if producing biofuels in low‐income countries does exacerbate poverty and food insecurity, and moreover, whether the sustainability criteria should apply to all agricultural exports entering European markets. We develop an integrated modeling framework to simultaneously assess the economic and environmental impacts of producing biofuels in Malawi. We incorporate the effects of land use change on crop water use, and the opportunity costs of using scarce resources for biofuels instead of other crops. We find that biofuel production reduces poverty and food insecurity by raising household incomes. Irrigated outgrower schemes, rather than estate farms, lead to better economic outcomes, fewer emissions, and similar water requirements. Nevertheless, to gain access to European markets, Malawi would need to reduce emissions from ethanol plants. We find that biofuels’ economic and emissions outcomes are generally preferable to tobacco or soybeans. We conclude that the sustainability criteria encourage more sustainable biofuel production in countries like Malawi, but are perhaps overly biased against biofuels since other export crops raise similar concerns about food security and environmental impacts.     

Cuban agricultural policy in the last 25 years. From conventional to organic agriculture

Political, social, economic and environmental changes undergone in Cuba in recent decades have led to several well-differentiated production models or systems, and have led to profound transformation of Cuban farmland. This article analyses those changes and transformations in three key stages or chronological periods of Cuban agricultural policy, the Green Revolution, the Special Period and Economic Reanimation. The analysis emphasizes the environmental, social and economic effects of each period, and especially, the change from a conventional intensive to an alternative or organic farming system, which has become an example to be followed.     

Irrigation Externalities and Agricultural Sustainability in South‐eastern Nigeria

Agricultural intensification by irrigation is increasingly regarded as the key to solving food supply problems in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Conversely, mounting empirical evidence suggests that irrigation externalities might preclude long‐term sustainability of arable agriculture. Choosing between intensive irrigation schemes and less intensive farming systems is therefore, problematic. The paper examines the implications of irrigation intensification in south‐eastern Nigeria using adjacent rain‐fed farms as the counterfactual. The analyses found mixed results. When first introduced, the irrigation scheme increased marginal factor productivity and gross margins but this has subsequently declined to the extent that the marginal factor product of land has become negative. The annual yields of the irrigated farms were also less stable than those of the less intensive rain‐fed farms. These results indicate the dilemma that irrigation externalities present to sustainable agricultural policy and suggest a need to look again at the potential for developments in rain‐fed systems.     

Sustainability of fish pond culture in rural farming systems of Central and Western Cameroon

In Sub-Saharan Africa, fish ponds are often an integral part of farming systems but have suffered from a lack of viability and sustainability. The present study aims to understand the strategies used by fish farmers to overcome economic and environmental constraints. In 2008 and 2009, fish farmers were surveyed in Central and Western Cameroon, and the fish production systems were classified by cluster analysis. Four broad types were identified according to the complexity of household operations. The development of extensive systems (large-scale and low-input) in rural areas of central Cameroon is induced mainly by abundant available land. For semi-intensive systems in both regions (small-scale and high-input in the Western Region, large-scale and high-input in peri-urban areas of the Central Region), horizontal integration is not sufficient to make fish production profitable and sustainable. More intensive fish farms tend towards vertical integration, in which farmers establish close links with input suppliers. Main causes of low productivity of semi-intensive systems (1–2?t/ha/yr) are both lack of knowledge of fish farming principles by farmers and lack of technical improvement by extension agents and researchers which need to consider the local complexity of farming systems to develop and intensify fish production. The adaptation of development strategies to socio-economic and environmental contexts is a necessity to hope for an increase in fish pond aquaculture production in Africa.     

A discussion of the market and policy failures associated with the adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops

Weed control in the U.S. Midwest has become increasingly herbicide-centric due to the adoption of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops in the 1990s. That integrated weed management (IWM) practices, including ecological and mechanical controls, are scarcely used is concerning. IWM would be a more sustainable form of farming for two reasons. First, it would reduce the negative health and environmental externalities associated with herbicide use. Second, it would reduce the selection pressure on weed populations and the development of weed resistance to some herbicides, thereby reducing the uncertainty of the long-term effectiveness of herbicidal weed control. In this context, we develop an economic framework to clarify the interplay among the different market failures that either contribute to the herbicidal ‘lock-in’ or make it problematic. We then analyse the evidence for and perceptions of these market failures based on twenty-four semi-structured interviews with farmers and experts conducted in 2017, as well as on discussions in the academic literature. To this end, we put into perspective the possible self-reinforcing effects in the adoption path of HT crops, such as increasing farm size, changes in farm equipment, increasing incentives for simplified crop rotations, and the loss of practical knowledge of IWM practices.     

Economics of new technologies for sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is prescribed as a policy approach that maximizes economic benefits while maintaining environmental quality. It is argued that this approach is human capital–intensive and encourages new scientific developments. To attain sustainability, economic incentives for the development and adoption of precision technologies (with minimal residues that cause environmental damage) have to be developed. Taxation and tradeable permits are desirable policies to attain first–best solutions; however, when heterogeneity and lack–of–information problems are significant, alternative institutions have to be developed. The paper presents and discusses such institutions.     

水电开发的环境外部性及其法律调整

水电属于清洁能源,具有增加能源供给、优化能源结构等作用。我国水能资源丰富,水电开发具有天然优势,但以金沙江流域为典型代表的水电过度、超前、无序开发业已造成严重生态破坏,带来环境外部性。环境外部性问题的解决,是运用外部性理论和政府管制、经济刺激手段实现环境外部性内部化的过程。可通过水电开发专项立法,明确流域水资源产权属性,严格水电开发环评相关制度,完善水电开发税费制度,实现水电开发的环境外部性的法律调整。     

Trade‐offs in the performance of alternative farming systems

Numerous alternative farming systems are proposed as solutions to the sustainability challenges of today's conventional farming systems. In this paper, we review the production, environmental, and socioeconomic performance of three widely discussed and promoted alternative farming systems—organic, smallholder, and urban agriculture. We show that both organic and smallholder agricultures have some benefits, but also entail important trade‐offs; organic has environmental benefits, and also livelihood, health, and nutritional benefits for producers and consumers, but is hampered by lower yields and higher prices. Smaller farms have higher yields and host higher biodiversity, but are hampered by lower incomes to farmers. Urban agriculture can take some pressure off rural landscapes, provide nutritional benefits to the urban poor, and engage urban dwellers in addressing food system challenges, but it simply cannot scale up to be a substantial solution in and of itself. We suggest that instead of focusing on alternative systems, we should identify pathways to sustainable farming for all systems, reforming conventional systems where they perform poorly, and transitioning to alternative systems in contexts where they perform best.     

International perspectives on future land use

The different approaches that other countries take to land use reflect many national variables, including planning systems, institutional structures, socio-cultural characteristics, population pressures and environmental priorities. Literature reviews of relevant land-use issues in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden provided the background material for this paper. Other European countries appear to offer models of more pro-active and indicative land-use planning, in contrast to the adversarial system in the UK, and a much stronger regional focus. This seems to have made it easier to implement other policies, for example on renewable energy. Experience with liberalisation of agricultural markets, and the promotion of environmentally sustainable farming are both relevant to an increasingly polarised agricultural sector in the UK. Cutting across all these themes is a reflection on governance of land use. Of the countries considered, Sweden's focus on environmental sustainability, international responsibility and long-term consistency of direction appears to be most closely aligned to the coming land-use challenges. When drawing conclusions from this review it is important to bear in mind the effect of differences in bio-geographic factors, socio-economic conditions and political culture, both in other countries and within the UK.     

Measuring the sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems: a model from sub-Saharan Africa

New technologies must be developed in sub-Saharan Africa which are sustainable and economically viable. This paper discusses a methodology for measuring the agricultural sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems for new technology evaluation. The approach is based on the concept of interspatial and intertemporal total factor productivity, paying particular attention to valuation of natural resource stock and flows. Agriculture is a sector which utilizes natural resources (e.g. soil nutrients) and the stock and flows of these resources affect the production environment. However, in many cases, the stock of these resources is beyond the control of the farmer and must be accounted for in an agricultural sustainability and economic viability measurement. For example, soil nutrients are removed by crops, erosion or leaching beyond the crop root-zone, or other processes such as volatilization of nitrogen. Agricultural production can also contribute to the stock of some nutrients by leguminous plants such as agroforestry systems. Using a data set available at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, we compute the intertemporal and interspatial total factor productivity indices for four cropping systems in southwestern Nigeria using stock of major soil nutrients as the natural resource stock. Results show that the sustainability and economic viability measures are sensitive to changes in the stock and flow of soil nutrients as well as the material inputs and outputs. Where the contribution of natural resource stock and flows are important (such as in the case of alley cropping), the measures provide markedly different results from conventional TFP approaches. The advantage of this approach is that interspatial and intertemporal total factor productivity measures are computed using only price and quantity data, thus eliminating the need for econometric estimation.     

Determinants of Adoption of Protected Designation of Origin Label: Evidence from the French Brie Cheese Industry

This paper investigates empirically the determinants of agro‐food firms’ adoption of the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label. A unique dataset containing firm‐level cost and production information on the French Brie cheese is used, covering the period 1980–2000. The Brie cheese data are especially relevant as PDO Brie producers have coexisted with other non‐PDO producers since 1981. To evaluate the producers’ incentive to opt for PDO certification, we use a structural switching regression model which incorporates cost and production structure variables. Results show that PDO certification is less attractive the higher the costs of raw materials and the greater the size of the company. PDO Brie cheese production costs are estimated to be on average 40% higher than those for non‐PDO Brie. The PDO production process could be technically inefficient when compared with the unconstrained non‐PDO manufacturing; yet, PDO producers benefit from a price premium on their product which offsets their higher production cost.     

Productivity and Land Enhancing Technologies in Northern Ethiopia: Health, Public Investments, and Sequential Adoption

The adoption of more efficient farming practices and technologies that enhance agricultural productivity and improve environmental sustainability is instrumental for achieving economic growth, food security, and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. Our research examines the interaction between public investments, community health, and adoption of productivity and land enhancing technologies by households in the northern Ethiopian state of Tigray. Agricultural technology adoption decisions are modeled as a sequential process where the timing of choices can matter. We find that time spent sick and opportunity costs of caring for sick family members are significant factors in adoption. Sickness, through its impact on household income and labor allocation decisions for healthcare and other activities, significantly reduces the likelihood of technology adoption. Our findings suggest that agencies working to improve agricultural productivity and land resource conservation should consider not only the financial status of potential adopters, but also their related health situation.     

A Note: Reducing Cropland Abandonment in China – Do Agricultural Cooperatives Play a Role?

Cropland abandonment occurring both nationally and globally threatens food security and environmental sustainability. We explore whether agricultural cooperatives help reduce cropland abandonment, using data collected from 5,593 households in 229 villages in China. By estimating a two-stage residual inclusion approach, we provide evidence that the existence of agricultural cooperatives in rural villages reduces the probability of cropland abandonment and the abandonment ratio. Further analysis shows that cooperative effects on cropland abandonment and the abandonment ratio are heterogeneous across geographic locations.     

Sustainable agricultural practices,environmental risk mitigation and livelihood improvements: Empirical evidence from Northern Ethiopia

Using sustainable agriculture practices has various economic, social and environmental benefits. Determining the attitude of farmers toward risk is an important first step in understanding their behaviour and coping strategies to mitigate environmental risks. This paper investigates the dual impacts of some agricultural practices on agricultural yields and farmers’ livelihoods considering sustainable farmland. Cross-sectional data is collected from farmers in six rural villages in Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia using structured questionnaires. Results show that education, labour supply, agricultural extension services, attitudes, social capital, risk mitigation attitudes, farming experience and soil conditions are factors that significantly affect farmers’ decisions to adopt these practices. The practices are adopted either in isolation or jointly of integrated sustainable practices that increase crop production, household income and asset. Therefore, government and other development actors should promote their adoptions especially in drought-prone, degraded and water-stressed areas