IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ccsesa/230377.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Functional Biodiversity in Organic Systems: The Way Forward?

Author

Listed:
  • Barberi, Paolo

Abstract

Trends in EU agricultural policies recognize an increasingly important role to biodiversity conservation and use in agroecosystems, including organic ones. However, along with their economic success, organic systems are facing a risk of ‘conventionalization’, i.e. the prevalence of input substitution over agroecologically-based crop management. Understanding what is functional agrobiodiversity and when it can be successfully applied in organics may help strengthen the recognition of organic farming as the reference management system for agricultural sustainability. Here functional agrobiodiversity is defined as a subset of total biodiversity identified at the gene, species or habitat level able to deliver a given agroecosystem service, which extent increases with diversity in the functional group. Different functional agrobiodiversity categories are identified, compared to biofunctionality, and used to illustrate the mechanisms through which they can support agroecosystem services and consequently sustainability. Three case studies taken from the author’s own research are used as examples to illustrate functional agrobiodiversity’s potential in organic systems as well as open questions. Results show that (i) functional agrobiodiversity has potential to support agroecosystem services but it is not possible to generalize the effects; (ii) a given functional biodiversity element may create conflicts between different target agroecosystem services. In those cases, prioritization of services is required.

Suggested Citation

  • Barberi, Paolo, 2015. "Functional Biodiversity in Organic Systems: The Way Forward?," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(3 Special).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:ccsesa:230377
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.230377
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/230377/files/p26_26-31_.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.230377?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N/A, 1998. "Research in Progress," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(3), pages 547-549, April.
    2. N/A, 1998. "Research in Progress," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(4), pages 722-723, July.
    3. N/A, 1998. "Research in Progress," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(2), pages 346-350, January.
    4. Henning Best, 2008. "Organic agriculture and the conventionalization hypothesis: A case study from West Germany," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(1), pages 95-106, January.
    5. N/A, 1998. "Research in Progress," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 52(1), pages 153-154, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alberto Sturla & Elena Vigan? & Laura Vigan?, 2019. "The Organic Districts in Italy. An Interpretative Hypothesis in the Light of the Common Pool Resources Theory," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(2), pages 429-458.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gianluca Misuraca & Clelia Colombo & Csaba Kucsera & Stephanie Carretero & Margherita Bacigalupo & Raluca Radescu, 2015. "ICT-enabled Social Innovation in support of the Implementation of the Social Investment Package (IESI) - Mapping and Analysis of ICT-enabled Social Innovation Initiatives promoting Social Investment t," JRC Research Reports JRC97467, Joint Research Centre.
    2. Sharma, Rakhi & Tiwari, G.N., 2013. "Life cycle assessment of stand-alone photovoltaic (SAPV) system under on-field conditions of New Delhi, India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 272-282.
    3. Mahdavi, Mahdi & Malmström, Tomi & van de Klundert, Joris & Elkhuizen, Sylvia & Vissers, Jan, 2013. "Generic operational models in health service operations management: A systematic review," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 271-280.
    4. Pavlatos, Odysseas & Paggios, Ioannis, 2007. "Cost Accounting In Greek Hotel Enterprises: An Empirical Approach," MPRA Paper 6364, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Natalie Todak & Michael D. White & Lisa M. Dario & Andrea R. Borrego, 2018. "Overcoming the Challenges of Experimental Research: Lessons From a Criminal Justice Case Study Involving TASER Exposure," Evaluation Review, , vol. 42(3), pages 358-385, June.
    6. Isabel Iglesias & María N Lorenzo & Juan J Taboada, 2014. "Seasonal Predictability of the East Atlantic Pattern from Sea Surface Temperatures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, January.
    7. Alicia Meckstroth & LaDonna Pavetti & Michelle K. Derr, "undated". "Implementing Welfare Reform in Nebraska: Accomplishments, Challenges, and Opportunities for Improvement," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 1597429212e348bcb03d9a3a0, Mathematica Policy Research.
    8. repec:mpr:mprres:2422 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Nawaz, I. & Tiwari, G.N., 2006. "Embodied energy analysis of photovoltaic (PV) system based on macro- and micro-level," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3144-3152, November.
    10. P. Barnwal & G. N. Tiwari, 2008. "Life cycle energy metrics and CO 2 credit analysis of a hybrid photovoltaic/thermal greenhouse dryer," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 203-220, July.
    11. Shukla, Ashish & Tiwari, G.N. & Sodha, M.S., 2009. "Embodied energy analysis of adobe house," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 755-761.
    12. Charalampos Konstantinidis, 2018. "Capitalism in Green Disguise: The Political Economy of Organic Farming in the European Union," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 830-852, December.
    13. Manuel González-Rosado & Luis Parras-Alcántara & Jesús Aguilera-Huertas & Beatriz Lozano-García, 2021. "Building an Agroecological Process towards Agricultural Sustainability: A Case Study from Southern Spain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Zorn, A. & Lippert, C. & Dabbert, S., 2013. "Zur Nichteinhaltung von Vorschriften des ökologischen Landbaus in Deutschland und in der Schweiz – Statistische Analyse einzelbetrieblicher Daten," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 48, March.
    15. Alessandra Arcuri, 2015. "The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 144-159, June.
    16. Po-Ching Wang & Fang-Chun Liu & De-Chih Lee & Ming-Ying Lin, 2023. "Environmental Knowledge, Values, and Responsibilities Help to Enhance Organic Farming Intentions: A Case Study of Yunlin County, Taiwan," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-12, July.
    17. Nizet, Jean & Dam, Denise Van, 2014. "Les évolutions des exploitations agricoles bios," Économie rurale, French Society of Rural Economics (SFER Société Française d'Economie Rurale), vol. 339(January-M).
    18. Kazumi Kondoh, 2015. "The alternative food movement in Japan: Challenges, limits, and resilience of the teikei system," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 143-153, March.
    19. Harvey James Jr., 2012. "Agriculture and human values," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(3), pages 285-286, September.
    20. Dinis, Isabel & Ortolani, Livia & Bocci, Riccardo & Brites, Cláudia, 2015. "Organic agriculture values and practices in Portugal and Italy," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 39-45.
    21. Sidali, Katia Laura & Spiller, Achim & von Meyer-Hofer, Marie, 2016. "Consumer Expectations Regarding Sustainable Food: Insights from Developed and Emerging Markets," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1-30, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ccsesa:230377. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ccsenet.org/sar .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.