How can “Sustainable Agriculture” be defined?

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“Sustainable Agriculture” combines the global concept of sustainability with the need to create healthy food sources for human populations. To answer this question well, let us consider the following sub-questions…

Does “Sustainable Agriculture” utilize large amounts of fertilizers, water and pesticides to maximize yields?

No, it does not. Producing maximal yields using large amounts of fertilizers, water and pesticides in monoculture industry (see Fig. 1) is often considered to improve the overall environmental sustainability of agricultural production, and is the mainstream attitude taught in modern agricultural science.

However, this approach addresses only a limited range of problems to be considered, and places short-term profitability over long-term sustainability.

Major sustainability concerns of intensive farming are soil degradation by monoculture, waste accumulation, high water, fertilizer and fuel use and costs, and complete loss of biodiversity due to widespread application of pesticides and deep soil tilling. Further concerns are the deteriorating conditions of farm workers and animals to an extent prohibited by law in most countries, but nevertheless tolerated in agriculture.

Fig. 1: current industrial farm production is based on monocultures requiring exponentially increasing inputs of fertilizers and pesticides for production of feed and food. This unbalanced industrial production methods create huge amounts of unused waste and degraded soils.

Fig. 2: in a semi-natural agroforestry-silvipasture system all resources are recovered and recycled while the combined yields of high quality fruit, fodder, woody biomass and animal products can outpace those achievable in intensive monoculture.

More often than not, low input mixed sustainable agriculture can provide high yields while safeguarding significant biodiversity, providing multiple ecosystem services and satisfactory work places. In such systems most of the resources consumed cycle naturally within the agro-ecosystem components as indicated in Fig. 2, and allow for coexistence with significant levels of biodiversity. Maintenance of such an independent skilled and sustainable farming community is of highest benefit to maintaining balanced rural development, but in conflict with the goals of corporate development and industrial agriculture.

Project Wadi Attir is integrating some intensification of traditional livestock management with large scale ecosystem restoration and soil rehabilitation, to provide an overall excellent sustainability balance, economic growth and high quality products, while creating large areas of valuable agro-ecosystems with significantly enhanced biodiversity.

Can sustainable farming operations move to new areas as soon as used farmland is exhausted and degraded?

This is also, not an option. Current farming technologies do serious damage to soils and local ecosystems due to use of heavy equipment, removal of local vegetation and destruction of biodiversity by application of massive amounts of pesticides. Poor irrigation practices result in more and more salinized soils. As a result many dryland farming operations are moving to new areas as soon as formerly used farmland is exhausted and degraded, a practice encouraged even in Israel. This results in a vicious cycle of ongoing and spreading land use change and ecosystem degradation most prominently but not only expressed in the ongoing destruction of tropical rainforests, but also widely practiced in savanna and dryland ecosystems resulting in massive loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions. This LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry) component constitutes a major percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions (Fig. 3) and is one of the major global environmental impacts of agriculture. Abandoned farmland is mostly degraded to an extent that will not allow for recovery within acceptable timeframes.

Fig. 3: World Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector (Source: The Economist (EIA; World Resources Institute; 19 September 2006)

The sustainable alternative to this problem is careful maintenance and restoration of farmland by safeguarding soil quality, avoiding soil erosion and degradation for continued enhancement of productivity, and by restoring and protecting local biodiversity even within intensively used farming areas. Project Wadi Attir is integrating aspects of ecosystem restoration, soil conservation and rehabilitation, restoration and conservation of biodiversity hotspots with establishment of an intensive livestock farming operation, integrating high value permaculture and agroforestry plantations for enhancing economic development.

Are conserving and safeguarding soil and soil fertility the central challenges in sustainable dryland agriculture?

They certainly are. Dryland soils are especially sensitive to soil degradation due to low and variable biomass cover easily destroyed by tilling or overgrazing. Such depleted and exposed soils are easily crusted or compacted and at risk of wind and water erosion, resulting in creation of infertile wastelands. Therefore, returning and recycling all nutrients and resources back into the soil, while restoring trees and annual vegetation for enhancing nutrient pools and soil organic matter are the major requirements for developing sustainable dryland agriculture. Such enhanced soil has higher productivity and water infiltration resulting in enhanced water use efficiency and continuous improvements of productivity and biodiversity, while sequestering carbon dioxide into soil and biomass to mitigate global warming.

Does “Sustainable Dryland Agriculture” mean we should avoid soil erosion by all means?

Absolutely! Soil erosion in drylands, both by wind and water, is the major driver of degradation and desertification. Any agricultural activity, such as tilling or grazing can interfere with naturally evolved soil protection mechanisms, and is enhanced by removal of perennial vegetation and trees that play an essential role in maintaining dry ecosystem stability and resilience, resulting in loss of the essential, nutrient rich fertile topsoil.

Degraded Dryland Soils

Dryland inhabitants have developed a range of technologies permitting sustainable farming, such as terrace agroforestry, windbreaks and controlling grazing intensities. More recently application of no-till agriculture has been demonstrated to dramatically improve soil quality and productivity including soil organic matter content, while reducing the need both for fertilizer inputs and soil erosion.

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