Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Finland, for example, society at the national level emphasises environmental aspects of agri-
culture in conventional as well as organic systems. This is true of the EU countries in general,
where subsidies promote environmental awareness and compliance with resource-conserving
practices, and conventional agriculture has adopted many environmentally friendly practices.
In some ways, organic farming has served as an example in this process. There has been a sub-
stantial inf luence of organic farming methods on the mainstream of agriculture, though it has
not been able to quantify this observation. The early organic principles just cited and the later
environmental aspects are important societal motives of organic agriculture (Seppänen 2004).
They show that organic farming is dynamically changing in time, and this change needs to be
considered in farmer education.
There is often a considerable overlap between what is written about organic production
and programs of research and education in sustainable agriculture (Edwards
et
al
. 1990,
Francis
et
al
. 1990, Hatfield and Karlen 1994). Similar philosophy is shared by those writing
about and teaching agroecology (Altieri 1995, Gliessman 1998, Lieblein
et
al
. 1999). A broader
and more inclusive agenda for research and education is emerging with the definition of agro-
ecology as the
ecology
of
food
systems
(Francis
et
al
. 2003). In this Chapter it is recognised
explicitly that just because a system is organic, it is not necessarily sustainable, and therefore
environmental aspects and sustainability issues should be taken up in training of organic
farmers. Organic farmers also need to relate closely with processors and marketers, and under-
stand intimately the desires of consumers - especially if one goal is direct marketing.
Diersity and location specificity
Compared to conventional agriculture, organic farms are more diverse enterprises, often have
integration of crops and animal enterprises, depend more on non-chemical inputs and careful
use of internal and renewable resources and market through niche channels. There is a com-
plexity in managing organic crop/animal systems that requires more information and skills.
For example, a farmer with a typical maize-soybean rotation in Nebraska requires knowledge
about two crops, each planted in monoculture in a given year. In contrast, an organic farmer
must plan a longer-term rotation that may involve not only a cereal-legume sequence but also
summer crops rotated with winter crops and annuals in rotation with perennials. The latter
systems likely include rotation of annual cereals with several years of mixed swards of pastures.
A well-designed organic system may include a complex combination of different crops in strips
through the fields, relay plantings or other mixtures of species, close interactions with border
areas left in native vegetation and annual/perennial agroforestry patterns.
The creation of multiple managed biotopes within an organic field and the immediate
proximity presents a complexity in management decisions that is vastly unlike conventional
systems. Due to the requirement for crop rotation, intensive biological soil management, and
access of livestock to outside areas, organic farms are by definition more complex, thus decision
making on farming and marketing practices is more difficult. Compared to conventional agri-
culture, farming decisions and activities in the organic system involve many more factors, and
because of their complexity, the decision making process may appear less linear and seemingly
less rational than what is followed by conventional farmers. The brief list of questions below
that are high priority for a farmer planning for the coming cropping season illustrate the dif-
ferent levels of complexity in conventional and organic systems (Table 17.1).
Design of an educational program for each group of clients will be different. For the con-
ventional farmers, a list of products and prices plus the latest experimental results on their
efficacy will often suffice. Although some questions on specific products and information
from other growers could be useful, there is minimal need for discussion or processing infor-
mation, and much of the same information could be gleaned from a publication or website. In
