| 1. |
- Chopin, Pierre
(författare)
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How to Measure the Performance of Farms with Regard to Climate-Smart Agriculture Goals? A Set of Indicators and Its Application in Guadeloupe
- 2023
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Ingår i: Agriculture. - : MDPI AG. - 2077-0472. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conceptualized by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2010, climate-smart agriculture aims to simultaneously tackle three main objectives. These are increasing food security, building the resilience of agricultural systems for adaptation to climate change and mitigation of GHG. As much research focuses on one of these three objectives, our understanding of how agricultural systems address these three challenges simultaneously is limited by the lack of a comprehensive evaluation tool. In order to fill this gap, we have developed a generic evaluation framework that comprises 19 indicators that we measured in a sample of 12 representative farms of the North Basse-Terre region in Guadeloupe. The evaluation revealed clear differences in the performance of these farming systems. For example, nutritional performance varied from 0 to 13 people fed per hectare, the average potential impact of climatic conditions varied from 27% to 33% and the GHG emissions balance varied from +0.8 tCO(2eq)center dot ha(-1) to +3.6 tCO(2eq)center dot ha(-1). The results obtained can guide the design of innovative production systems that better meet the objectives of climate-smart agriculture for the study region. The evaluation framework is intended as a generic tool for a common evaluation basis across regions at a larger scale. Future prospects are its application and validation in different contexts.
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| 2. |
- Chopin, Pierre, et al.
(författare)
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The reflection of principles and values in worldwide organic agricultural research viewed through a crop diversification lens. A bibliometric review
- 2023
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Ingår i: Agronomy for Sustainable Development. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1774-0746 .- 1773-0155. ; 43
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organic agriculture and organic food have expanded in recent decades but have undergone conventionalisation. Some claim that this contradicts some or all of the principles of ‘health’, ‘ecology’, ‘fairness’ and ‘care’ established by the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM). It is currently unclear how research on organic food/agriculture is structured, whether it embraces these principles, or how key crop diversification, driving sustainability, are addressed. To fill these knowledge gaps, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 10,030 peer-reviewed articles published from 1945 to 2021 with topic and textual analysis. Our main findings were the following: (1) research is compartmentalised into scales and disciplines, with at field-scale ‘weed’, ‘soil’, ‘pest and disease’ management and ‘livestock farming’ seldom addressed together, or with environmental assessment separated from socioeconomic studies at farm scale. (2) The proportion of publications on ‘consumers’ preferences’ and ‘product quality’ research almost tripled in 20 years, from 10 to 27%, emphasizing the consumer orientation of research on organic agriculture and organic food. (3) Only 4% of articles covered all four IFOAM principles, while associated values such as ‘resilience’, ‘integrity’, ‘equity’, ‘transparency’ and ‘justice’ were even less frequently addressed. (4) Fewer diversification practices have been tested in organic than in conventional agriculture research, with fewer articles on ‘crop mixtures’ or ‘bee-friendly crops’ and a smaller range of legumes considered. (5) Research on genetic improvement and processing of organic legumes is lacking, which could constrain adoption of legumes in organic farming even more than in conventional agriculture. These results indicate a need for increasing interdisciplinary efforts at field level, with systematic measurement of multiple processes (weed-nutrient-pest dynamics). Future studies on organic agriculture should combine several diversification practices and legumes, with relevant indicators addressing the IFOAM values explicitly, and consider the whole value chain by linking producers with consumers.
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| 3. |
- Reumaux, Rafaelle, et al.
(författare)
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Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) data allows identification of crop sequence patterns and diversity in organic and conventional farming systems.
- 2023
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Ingår i: European Journal of Agronomy. - 1161-0301 .- 1873-7331. ; 149
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Farmers grow crops in specific sequences to lower disease pressure and boost crop productivity, particularly in organic farming where artificial pesticides and chemical fertilisers are prohibited. Knowledge about crop sequences used in organic and conventional farming will aid the development of future farming systems through optimising crop diversity and pre-crop effects for improved resource efficiency. This study aims to investigate crop diversity and patterns in organic and conventional crop sequences in Sweden. Large-scale LPIS field data managed by the European Union (EU) Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) were used to monitor crop sequences on arable land in Sweden over 10 consecutive years (2005-2014). Individual fields (land parcels) could be followed on 40% of Sweden's total arable area (349,891 fields extracted) over the 10 years. The LPIS data was combined with information from a database on which fields were farmed organically. Crop distribution, diversity of crop sequences and pre-crops to the main cereal crops (winter wheat, spring barley) were analysed in organic and conventional farming systems in the five agricultural productivity zones of Sweden. The results showed that in the most productive zone in southernmost Sweden, small-grain cereals (particularly winter wheat) were the most common crops (62%), followed by oilseeds (11%), ley and forage crops (9%) and sugar beet (8%), when excluding permanent grassland. In the least productive zone (at higher altitudes and/or latitudes), ley and forage crops dominated (67%), followed by spring cereals (barley, oats) (23%). Crop diversity was higher in the two more productive zones (mean 4.6 crop types) than in two less productive zones (3.4) and organic farms showed 9% higher crop diversity than conventional farms in the most productive zones. Overall, in all zones, the pre-crop to winter wheat was generally a different crop type (3 out of 5 times) e.g., young ley (1-2 years) or grain legume, while the pre-crop to spring barley was most often (4 out of 5 times) another cereal. For both these crops, pre-crop type was more diverse in organic than conventional systems. These findings demonstrate that LPIS data can offer valuable insights into agronomic trends and on-farm practices regarding crop choice and that analysis of field-level LPIS data on crop sequences at large scale can reveal information about organic and conventional cropping in different productivity zones across countries. This information can be used to understand the practical limitations in the use of crop diversity to maximise pre-crop effects. This could in turn support advisory service and policy makers to facilitate more sustainable, productive and resource efficient crop production.
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