Diffusion of innovative agricultural production systems for sustainable development of small islands: A methodological approach based on the science of complexity

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 667-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guiseppe Barbera ◽  
Federico M. Butera
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Róger Martínez-Castillo

<p class="p1">Sustainable development is based on ethical principles such as respect for and harmony with nature, political values such as participative democracy and social equity, and moral norms such as environmental rationality. Sustainable development is egalitarian, neutral, and self-managed, able to satisfy the basic needs of people, respecting cultural diversity, and improving the quality of life. The concepts of agriculture and sustainable development refer to the need of minimizing degradation of fertile land, while working to increase production. They include agricultural activities such as soil and water management, crop management, and the conservation of biodiversity, taking into account the provision of food and raw materials. Sustainability of agricultural production systems refers to the capacity of the system to maintain its productivity in spite of economic and natural, external or internal limitations. Sustainability is a function of the natural features of a system and the pressures and interventions it experiences, as well as social, economic, and technical interventions that are carried out in order to fight negative pressures, highlighting the resiliency of the system. </p>


Soil Systems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Johan Bouma ◽  
Teresa Pinto-Correia ◽  
Cees Veerman

The general concept of sustainable development has been specified in terms of goals, targets, and indicators by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015, followed by the Green Deal of the European Union in 2019. The focus on targets and indicators does, however, not address the issue as to how these goals can be achieved for land-related SDGs in the real world, and attention in this paper is therefore focused on how land management can contribute to providing ecosystem services in line with the aims of the SDGs and the Green Deal. Agricultural production systems should at least produce healthy food (SDG2 and 3), protect ground- and surface water quality (SDG6), mitigate climate change (SDG13), avoid soil degradation, and support biodiversity (SDG15). The corresponding ecosystem services are discussed with particular emphasis on the role of soils, which are characterized in terms of soil health, defined as: contributing to ecosystem services in line with the SDGs and the Green Deal. Appropriate management, as developed and proposed by researchers working jointly with farmers in living labs, can only be realized when it is part of sound long-term business plans, supported by independent advice that is focused on farmers’ concerns based on the requirements for adaptive management. The research effort in living labs, addressing “wicked” problems, needs to be judged differently from classical linear research. As the development of successful ecosystem services requires an interdisciplinary research effort based on a systems analysis, SDG-oriented soil research in the future should be focused on: (i) presenting suitable data to the interdisciplinary effort beyond standard data to be found in existing databases; (ii) using soil types as “carriers of information” to allow extrapolation of results; (iii) providing data with a comparable degree of detail when analyzing the various ecosystem services, and (iv) revisit past experiences in soil survey and soil fertility research when contact with farmers was intense, as is again needed in future to realize ecosystem services in line with the SDGs and the Green Deal.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (95) ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Yu.A. Tarariko ◽  
L.V. Datsko ◽  
M.O. Datsko

The aim of the work is to assess the existing and prospective models for the development of agricultural production in Central Polesie on the basis of economic feasibility and ecological balance. The evaluation of promising agricultural production systems was carried out with the help of simulation modeling of various infrastructure options at the levels of crop and multisectoral specialization of agroecosystems. The agro-resource potential of Central Polesie is better implemented in the rotation with lupine, corn and flax dolguntsem with well-developed infrastructure, including crop, livestock units, grain processing and storage systems, feed, finished products and waste processing in the bioenergetic station. The expected income for the formation of such an infrastructure is almost 8 thousand dollars. / with a payback period of capital investments of 2-3 years.


2014 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Dogliotti ◽  
D. Rodríguez ◽  
S. López-Ridaura ◽  
P. Tittonell ◽  
W.A.H. Rossing

Author(s):  
John Leake ◽  
Victor Squires ◽  
S Shabala

Soil salinity is emerging as a major threat to the sustainability of modern agricultural production systems and, historically, land and water degradation due to salinity has defeated civilisations whenever the cost of remediation exceeded the benefits. This work discusses the complexity inherent in working with salinity, and the opportunities where salt damaged land and water is viewed as a resource. It takes a wider look at land and waterscapes, seeing them as systems that link damage and repair across time and space to bridge the divide between the main beneficiaries of ecosystem services and the main actors, farmers, and land managers. We first discuss the mechanistic basis of crop reduction by salinity and evolution of ideas about how to shape the plant-soil-water nexus. We then discuss the needs of farmers and other land users required for adequate planning and land management within the constraints of existing policy. Lastly, an approach that provides a new technical and economic tool for the remediation of land in several land use categories is presented. We conclude that a more concerted effort is required to turn payments for ecosystem services into a true market, accepted as such by the land managers, whose agency is essential so the ‘knowledge of what can be done can be transformed into benefits’. Achieving this will require a transformation in the paradigm of how natural resources are managed.


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