A sustainable agricultural system is one that can indefinitely meet the requirements for food and fibre at socially acceptable, economical and environmental costs. Crossen (1992)
Useful links related to sustainable agriculture
Crop assuranceLinking Environment and Farming
The little red tractor standard
Sustain :The alliance for safe food
DEFRA on sustainable agriculture
What is sustainable agriculture?
There is no universally accepted definition of sustainable agriculture. The DEFRA definition, which lies behind thinking in current agricultural policy is:
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Ensuring the continuing availability to the consumer of adequate supplies of, wholesome , varied and reasonably priced food, produced within accordance with generally accepted environmental and social standards |
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Maintaining a flexible and competitive industry which contributes to an economically viable rural society |
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Ensuring effective protection of the environment and prudent use of natural resources |
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Conserving and enhancing the landscape, wildlife, cultural and archaeological value of agricultural land |
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Respecting a high level of animal welfare |
The United States Sustainable agriculture Network defined sustainable agriculture thus: Sustainable agriculture refers to an agricultural production and distribution system that:
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Achieves the integration of natural biological cycles and controls, |
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Protects and renews soil fertility and the natural resource base |
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Optimises the management and use of on-farm resources |
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Reduces the use of non-renewable resources and purchased production inputs |
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Provides an adequate and dependable farm income |
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Promotes opportunity in family farming and farm communities |
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Minimizes adverse impacts on health, safety, wildlife, water quality and the environment |
Pause for thought.......Compare the British and American definitions of sustainable agriculture, although they are relatively similar, what do you notice in relation to the farming community?
Conway and Barbier (1990) defined sustainable agriculture as:
The ability to maintain productivity, whether of a field, farm or nation, in the face of stress or shock (such as increasing salinity, or erosion, or debt, or a new pest, or a rare drought or a sudden massive increase in input prices).
Spedding (1994) outlined six essential attributes for future agricultural systems:
They should be highly productive, of safe, high quality products (within identified constraints, such as those listed below)
They should be physically sustainable, i.e. use physical resources at rates or in ways which allow adequate long term development
They should be biologically sustainable (i.e. the biological organisms and processes on which they depend must be sustainable in the long term) - this could encompass the avoidance of internal pollution such as the build up of heavy metals
They should satisfy agreed standards for human and animal welfare
They should not give rise to unacceptable pollution, by products or effects, including visual ones
They must be profitable (since they would not be practiced if they were not) - this also assumes that the products are wanted (otherwise there will be no demand and the business will collapse)
Pause for thought.......Future systems should satisfy agreed standards (4), what factors would effect these agreed standards on a national level?
Does sustainable agriculture necessarily mean welfare friendly (left). Is sustainable cropping possible using modern techniques (right)
Indicators of Agricultural sustainability
Agricultural indicators provide a means of measuring the social, economic and environmental impacts of agriculture and to help assess the effectiveness of policies within the agricultural sector. Within Government (local and national) the indicators will :
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In time, track changes of the impacts of UK agriculture and, where possible, show how agriculture is becoming more or less sustainable |
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Provide policy makers with a tool to help assess the social, economic and environmental consequences of their policies, identify the need for new policies and appraise policy options |
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Raise awareness of the environmental impacts of agriculture and its contribution to sustainable development |
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More effectively influence and contribute to the international debate about indicators and sustainability targets |
The agricultural sector should not be viewed in isolation from other sectors of the economy. The indicators, therefore take into account the four key objectives identified by the governments sustainable development strategy:
Social progress which recognizes the needs of everyone
Effective protection of the environment
Prudent use of natural resources
Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment
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Summary of list of indicators for Sustainable Agriculture |
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A. Agriculture within the rural economy and society |
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| Area | Indicator |
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Structure of the agriculture industry |
1. Agricultural assets & liabilities |
| 2. Age of farmers | |
| 3. Percentage of holdings that are tenanted | |
| Farm financial resources | 4. EU Producer Support estimate (PSE) |
| 5. Agri-environment payments to farmers | |
| 6. Total income from farming | |
| 7. Average earnings of agricultural workers | |
| Agricultural productivity | 8. Agricultural productivity |
| Agricultural employment | 9. Agricultural employment |
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B. Farm management systems |
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| Management | 10. Adoption of farm management systems |
| Organic farming | 11. Area converted to organic farming |
| Codes of practice | 12 Knowledge of codes of agricultural practice |
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C. Input use |
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Pesticide use |
13. Pesticides in rivers |
| 14. Pesticides in groundwater's | |
| 15. Quantity of pesticide active ingredients used | |
| 16. Area treated with pesticides | |
| 17. Pesticide residues in food | |
| Nutrients | 18. N & P losses from agriculture |
| 19. P levels of agricultural to soils | |
| 20. Manure management | |
| 21. Ammonia emissions from agriculture | |
| Greenhouse gas emissions | 22. Emissions of methane & nitrous oxide from agriculture |
| Energy | 23. direct energy consumption by farms |
| 24. Trends in indirect energy inputs to agriculture | |
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D. Resource use |
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| Water | 25. Use of water for irrigation |
| Soil | 26. Organic matter content of agricultural top soils |
| 27. Accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural top soils | |
| Agricultural land | 28. Area of agricultural land |
| 29. Change in land use from agriculture to hard development | |
| Non-food crops | 30. Planting of non-food crops |
| E. Conservation value of agricultural land | |
| Environmental conservation | 31. Area of agricultural land under commitment to environmental conservation |
| Landscape | 32. Characteristic features of farmland |
| Habitats | 33. Area of cereal field margins under environmental management |
| 34. Area of semi-natural grassland | |
| Biodiversity | 35. Populations of key farmland birds |
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Source: Towards sustainable agriculture: A pilot set of indicators, MAFF (February2000) |
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Pause for thought.........Suggest other indicators of agricultural sustainability
