Sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture must meet the needs of the world's current population of 5.8 billion and the huge increase in population anticipated in the next millennium. Any failure to meet this challenge will have catastrophic consequences so the need for a sustainable agriculture is absolutely fundamental to the future of mankind. Interaction between agriculture and the environment is particularly intimate. Agriculture is a manipulation by man of processes in the natural environment and as such creates secondary environmental effects. Some of these effects are highly valued as environmental enhancements whilst others such as pollution of water or air, which may to some extent be inevitable, are nevertheless rated as undesirable. Moreover, agriculture is highly subject to environmental influences especially those concerning climate and the quality of soil, water and air so the interaction between agriculture and the environment is a two-way process. Socio-economic factors also play an extremely important role in both the nature and development of agriculture. Applying the concept of sustainability to agriculture requires an understanding of these factors but the concept must be given meaning if it is to find practical application rather than providing an abstract theory. The first stage is définition of some key principles that must be applied. These include the requirement for economic efficiency but the application of this principle must be broadly based to consider the natural and socio-economic environment as well as the production process. The second principle concerns conservation of natural resources - both renewable and non-renewable - and further principles relate to flexibility in land use to provide options for the future, and a system of values which must provide the philosophical underpinning to a sustainable agriculture. This approach enables the consideration of various practices which should be incorporated into models of a sustainable agriculture, including the integrated approach to pest and disease management and soil fertility management. The integrated farming approach represents the best current synthesis of these ideas in practical farming systems. It seems likely that this approach can be widely adopted in the developed world but technical and financial constraints continue to limit its wider adoption in many developing regions. It is critically important that such constraints are addressed in development programmes to meet the fundamental human need of a secure and safe food supply.