scholarly journals Assessing the Role of Soils When Developing Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems Focused on Achieving the UN-SDGs and the EU Green Deal

Soil Systems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Johan Bouma ◽  
Teresa Pinto-Correia ◽  
Cees Veerman
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Soil Survey ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

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.

scholarly journals Rethinking rehabilitation of salt-affected land: new perspectives from Australian experience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Leake ◽  
Victor Squires ◽  
S Shabala
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Plant Soil ◽  
Mechanistic Basis ◽  
Australian Experience ◽  
Evolution Of Ideas ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

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.

scholarly journals Modeling trade-offs among ecosystem services in agricultural production systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 314-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Balbi ◽  
Agustin del Prado ◽  
Patricia Gallejones ◽  
Chandanathil Pappachan Geevan ◽  
Guillermo Pardo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

scholarly journals Agrosystem services: An additional terminology to better understand ecosystem services delivered by agriculture

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Wiggering ◽  
Peter Weißhuhn ◽  
Benjamin Burkhard
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Agricultural Ecosystems ◽  
Cultural Services ◽  
Policy Discussion ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

To discriminate between the contributions of ecosystems and the human subsidies to agricultural systems, we propose using an additional terminology to bring clarification into the controversial discussion about i) ecosystems versus agrosystems and ii) ecosystem services versus agrosystem services. A literature review revealed that with the exception of some very recent publications, this has not yet been sufficiently reflected, neither within the scientific nor in the policy discussion. The question remains whether to spoil the discussion with new terms again and again. We reason that it makes sense to underpin the case-specific share of agricultural inputs to the supply of agroecosystem services and to add "agro" to the terminology. We conclude, that there is a need to promote the new terminology of agrosystem services and to strengthen the use of the already established term agroecosystem services within this context. To emphasise the production patterns behind the multiple benefits agricultural systems provide to humans (commodity and non-commodity outputs) and to guarantee a reasonable weighting of related externalities in policy processes, we suggest to introduce the term agrosystem services into the discussion on ecosystem services. Agrosystem services in this context describe the anthropogenic share of agroecosystem services' generation. Agroecosystem services include multiple provisioning, regulating and cultural services from agricultural ecosystems. The inclusion of agrosystem services might accommodate the ecology-based ecosystem services concept to the specificity of managed agricultural ecosystems and therefore could be better implemented by mostly economy-driven agricultural production systems and agricultural policy.

Pastures Research in the Peruvian Amazon

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
William Loker
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Peruvian Amazon ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

There are few places on earth hotter than an Amazonian pasture at midday. With the canopy of the rainforest trees removed, the sun beats down relentlessly on unbroken fields of grass and weedy shrubs, baking plants, animals, and anthropologist alike. The forest is cool by comparison. Yet in pastures is where I found myself repeatedly while studying the role of cattle in the agricultural production systems of colonist farmers in the Peruvian Amazon.

scholarly journals Sustainable Agriculture: Farmers’ Perspectives on Transition to Sustainable Agricultural Practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paige Allen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Sustainable Policy ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Sustainable Agricultural Practices ◽  
Policy Discussion ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

The role of sustainability in Canadian agricultural production systems is a complex and evolving topic. In 2018 Canada announced the launch of a five-year Canadian Agricultural Partnership which is a $3 billion funding initiative between the federal, provincial and territorial governments. Innovation and sustainability is one of the key elements of the initiative. The purpose of this research is to increase policy discussion in relation to sustainable agriculture through the engagement of farmers in Southern Ontario. This research will help improve the sustainable policies and programs by investigating farmers’ views on the inclusion and transition to sustainable farming practices, factors influencing farmers’ decisions to make the transition, as well as identifying deficits in current sustainable policy and programming in Ontario. It is essential to develop research which is representative of farmers’ viewpoints on as they are the stakeholders directly impacted by the policies and programs which are developed and enacted.

scholarly journals Sustainable agricultural production systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Róger Martínez-Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Agricultural Activities ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

<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>

Prospects for the development of agrarian production systems in in the Right Bank Polesie of Ukraine

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (95) ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Yu.A. Tarariko ◽  
L.V. Datsko ◽  
M.O. Datsko
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
Resource Potential ◽  
Grain Processing ◽  
Processing And Storage ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

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.

TERRITORIAL COHESION POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF EU REGIONAL SECURITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (Vol 18, No 4 (2019)) ◽  
pp. 439-453
Author(s):  
Ihor LISHCHYNSKYY
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cohesion Policy ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Territorial Cohesion ◽  
Interregional Cooperation ◽  
The Eu

The article is devoted to the study of the implementation of territorial cohesion policy in the European Union in order to achieve a secure regional coexistence. In particular, the regulatory and institutional origins of territorial cohesion policy in the EU are considered. The evolution of ontological models of cohesion policy has been outlined. Specifically, the emphasis is placed on the key objective of political geography – effectively combining the need for "territorialization" and the growing importance of networking. The role of urbanization processes in the context of cohesion policy is highlighted. Cross-border dimensions of cohesion policy in the context of interregional cooperation are explored. Particular emphasis is placed on the features of integrated sustainable development strategies.

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