Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.2
Percentage of national agricultural land under organic management (Yussefi 2004)
Country
Percentage (%)
Liechtenstein
26.4
Austria
11.6
Switzerland
10
Italy
8
Finland
7
Denmark
6.7
Sweden
6.1
Czech Republic
5.1
United Kingdom
4.2
Germany
4.1
Many governments today have accepted the arguments that there are problems with con-
ventional agriculture and that organic agriculture offers a viable solution to many of these.
This has resulted in policies and government actions that support the development of organic
agriculture along two main pathways (Dabbert
et al.
2001):
1 for the marketplace, or
2 for public-good environmental outcomes.
There are a numerous areas where agricultural policies have the potential to inf luence the
adoption and success of organic agriculture (Table 1.4).
A key policy role for many governments is defining organic agriculture in law and creating
enforcement mechanisms, often by using existing non-governmental certification agencies.
Examples of this are the NOP in the USA and EU Regulations 2092/1991 and 1804/1999 (for
crop and animal production respectively). Laws such as these are often as much for the protec-
tion of consumers as for the advancement of organic agriculture. A second policy role for many
governments is the provision of direct subsidies for conversion and, in some cases, ongoing
production. The use of cash subsidies for using certain farming practices is a common feature
of agricultural production in many countries. In Europe especially, such incentives have been
Table 1.3
Number of farms under organic management (Yussefi 2004)
Country
No. of farms
Mexico
53,577
Italy
49,489
Indonesia
45,000
Uganda
33,900
Tanzania
26,986
Peru
23,057
Brazil
19,003
Austria
18,576
Turkey
18,385
Spain
17,751
