An Ecosystem Approach To Sustainable Agriculture

Modern industrial agriculture is not sustainable because of its heavy reliance on petroleum, a non-renewable source of the energy used in farming, and because of pollution caused by petroleum products such as fertilizers and pesticides. A systems analysis of farming suggests that agriculture will be more sustainable when services of nature, such as nutrient recycling by soil micro-organisms and natural controls of insects, replace the services now provided by energy from petroleum. Examples are drawn from the Southeastern USA, but lessons learned can be applied worldwide.

The book demonstrates how decision-makers, in particular, can use the Ecohealth approach to formulate policies and solutions that are both immediately visible and sustainable over the long term.

The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. It encompasses 17 volumes, each devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume addresses SDG 2, namely "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" and contains the description of a range of related terms, to allow for a better understanding and foster knowledge. Our planet produces enough food to feed everyone. Malnutrition and hunger are the result of inappropriate food production processes, bad governance and injustice. SDG 2 seeks to guarantee quality and nutritious food to ensure healthy life by adopting a holistic approach that involves various actions targeting different actors, technologies, policies and programs. These initiatives have to face challenges coming from extensive environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and the interrelated effects of climate change. Concretely, the defined targets are: End hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round End all forms of malnutrition, including achieving the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment Ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality Maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility Editorial Board Datu Buyung Agusdinata, Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari, Usama Awan, Nerise Johnson, Paschal Arsein Mugabe, Vincent Onguso Oeba, Tony Wall/div

The Ecosystem Approach, defined as a strategy for the management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way, was adopted at the Second Conference of the Parties of the CBD as the primary framework for action under the Convention. It puts people and their nature resource use practices squarely at the centre of the decision-making framework. The case studies presented here were discussed at three workshops held in Southern Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. They provide practical examples of the Ecosystem Approach as well as a number of recommendations for action that are widely relevant to Parties and other bodies.

This publication contains the proceedings of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA)/FAO International Technical Workshop on Biological Management of Soil Ecosystems for Sustainable Agriculture, which was held at EMBRAPA-Soybean headquarters in Londrina, Brazil, from 24 to 27 June 2002. The report includes a review of current understanding and knowledge of the biological management of soil ecosystems through a set of case studies from different production systems and socio-economic conditions, in the areas of indicators and assessment of soil health, adaptive management and innovative technologies. A general discussion and review of lessons learned leading to the main recommendations and further steps for the implementation of an International Soil Biodiversity Initiative are also presented. The financial support was provided through the agricultural biodiversity component of the FAO-Netherlands Partnership Programme.

This book is the 10th volume in the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series. The book is structured to systematically show the relationships between ecosystems, water and food security, and to elaborate an ecosystem approach to sustainable agriculture. It contains chapters on the drivers of food security (Chapter 2) and provides analyses on ecosystems, agroecosystems, ecosystem services and their valuation (Chapters 3 and 4). Next, there is an analysis of the role of water in agriculture as well as analyses of water use and scarcity (Chapter 5). This is followed by discussions of the specific challenges in drylands (Chapter 6) and wetlands (Chapter 7); each of these chapters provides more insight into the reasons why an integrated ecosystem approach is required and what this should entail, giving practical recommendations for those vulnerable ecosystems. A discussion of the contributions that can be made by increased water productivity to a better joint management of agroecosystems and water follows in the next chapter (Chapter 8). Subsequently, Chapter 9 presents various approaches to the enhancement of ecosystem services in agriculture, with many concrete examples, while Chapter 10 provides more detail of the ecosystem approach to water management. Finally, the last chapter (Chapter 11) ends the book with a synthesis that embeds the key recommendations into a landscape approach, links this to ongoing initiatives and identifies knowledge gaps for further research.

The recent technologies for sustainable development and maintaining ecological integrity in the field of agriculture, forestry and environmental management for the green future. Describes the recent technologies and issues to generate awareness among the global scientific community towards sustainable development. Covers various eco-friendly approaches for successful management of soil, water, forest, agriculture, and other natural resources. Addresses the policy issues promoting conservation, protection and management of various natural resources. Presents the issues of climate change and sustainable strategies to combat such a mega event. The existence of life on the earth primarily depends upon the agriculture, forest and environment. The changing climate is imposing the multifaceted challenges in front of human civilization. The agroecosystem management practices and technologies leads to higher productivity with destruction of agricultural, forest and environmental habitat leading to soil-water-air pollution. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) plays a key role in the promoting research and developmental activities in various sectors to achieve the sustainable development goals under 2030 agenda. Gradual growth of science and technology has imposed a significant pressure on the different ecosystem. In this context, approaches such as sustainable agriculture, forestry and eco-friendly technologies need to be address across the world. Keeping view of these facts this book underlines scientific chapters dealing with the issues with proper explanation, and accompanied by illustrative diagrams, tables, database as required. The editors have tried to provide a brief scenario about the current issues related to the agriculture, forestry and environment. Therefore, the book would be a very useful resource for academicians, scientists, and policy makers of the related field.

Farmers, fisherfolk, and forest dwellers not only understand and can apply ecosystem approaches in their decision-making, but also understand the potential impact of large-scale environmental threats to their livelihoods. FAO's biodiversity programmes apply ecosystem approaches to stimulate community level education and experiential learning by rural people. The same approaches educate national policy makers wishing to fulfill commitments made to environmental treaties while still meeting agricultural production demands.