IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v104y2011i4p365-370.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Redirecting technology to support sustainable farm management practices

Author

Listed:
  • Rains, G.C.
  • Olson, D.M.
  • Lewis, W.J.

Abstract

Agricultural technology has increased farm production to unprecedented levels. However, return on investment is diminishing and environmental concerns conflict with current input intensive farm practices. Conventional technologies and their application such as crop breeding and management practices have focused on monocultural systems that are dependent on chemical inputs to produce optimum yields. Current profit margins are low or non-existent with these conventional non-sustainable practices and must be changed if the family farm is to survive. We propose an ecologically based approach to farm management that strives to reduce reliance on chemically intensive inputs through better use of multiple attributes inherent within agroecosystems. This approach requires a redirection in the development and application of current and emerging technologies. Examples of redirections in research and development programs for pest management practices, genetic engineering, and precision agriculture necessary to provide a more ecologically-based and sustainable farming approach are illustrated.

Suggested Citation

  • Rains, G.C. & Olson, D.M. & Lewis, W.J., 2011. "Redirecting technology to support sustainable farm management practices," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(4), pages 365-370, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:104:y:2011:i:4:p:365-370
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308-521X(10)00165-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weih, M. & Didon, U.M.E. & Rönnberg-Wästljung, A.-C. & Björkman, C., 2008. "Integrated agricultural research and crop breeding: Allelopathic weed control in cereals and long-term productivity in perennial biomass crops," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 99-107, June.
    2. Pretty, J. N. & Brett, C. & Gee, D. & Hine, R. E. & Mason, C. F. & Morison, J. I. L. & Raven, H. & Rayment, M. D. & van der Bijl, G., 2000. "An assessment of the total external costs of UK agriculture," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 113-136, August.
    3. Sandhu, Harpinder S. & Wratten, Stephen D. & Cullen, Ross & Case, Brad, 2008. "The future of farming: The value of ecosystem services in conventional and organic arable land. An experimental approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 835-848, February.
    4. Tegtmeier, Erin M & Duffy, Michael, 2004. "External Costs of Agricultural Production in the United States," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12659, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    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. Lippsmeyer, Margaret & Langemeier, Michael & Mintert, James & Thompson, Nathan, 2024. "Factors Influencing Producer Sentiment," Journal of the ASFMRA, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, vol. 2024, January.
    2. Wang, Tianyu & Wang, Zhenhua & Guo, Li & Zhang, Jinzhu & Li, Wenhao & He, Huaijie & Zong, Rui & Wang, Dongwang & Jia, Zhecheng & Wen, Yue, 2021. "Experiences and challenges of agricultural development in an artificial oasis: A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    3. Haiyan Ding & Ahmad Ali & Zhihui Cheng, 2018. "Dynamics of a Soil Fungal Community in a Three-Year Green Garlic/Cucumber Crop Rotation System in Northwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-16, May.
    4. Madhaven-Nambiar, Padmanand & Florkowski, Wojciech J. & Suh, Dong-Kyu, 2016. "Attitudes Of Urban Female Consumers Toward Food Production Practices In The Republic Of Korea," Journal of Central European Green Innovation, Karoly Robert University College, vol. 4(1), pages 1-13.
    5. Nambiar, Padmanand Madhavan & Florkowski, Wojciech J. & Suh, Dong-Kyun, 2012. "Attitudes of Urban Female Consumers Toward Food Production Practices in the Republic of Korea," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124811, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Pedersen, Michael Friis & Gyldengren, Jacob Glerup & Pedersen, Søren Marcus & Diamantopoulos, Efstathios & Gislum, René & Styczen, Merete Elisabeth, 2021. "A simulation of variable rate nitrogen application in winter wheat with soil and sensor information - An economic feasibility study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    7. Klerkx, Laurens & van Bommel, Severine & Bos, Bram & Holster, Henri & Zwartkruis, Joyce V. & Aarts, Noelle, 2012. "Design process outputs as boundary objects in agricultural innovation projects: Functions and limitations," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 39-49.

    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. Jongeneel, Roel & Polman, Nico & van der Ham, Corinda, 2014. "Costs and benefits associated with the externalities generated by Dutch agriculture," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182705, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Jónsson, Jón Örvar G. & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur & Nikolaidis, Nikolaos P. & Giannakis, Georgios V., 2019. "Tools for Sustainable Soil Management: Soil Ecosystem Services, EROI and Economic Analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 109-119.
    3. Adrian Sadłowski & Wioletta Wrzaszcz & Katarzyna Smędzik-Ambroży & Anna Matras-Bolibok & Anna Budzyńska & Marek Angowski & Stefan Mann, 2021. "Direct Payments and Sustainable Agricultural Development—The Example of Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Tait, Peter R. & Cullen, Ross, 2006. "Some External Costs of Dairy Farming in Canterbury," 2006 Conference (50th), February 8-10, 2006, Sydney, Australia 109595, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    5. Matthias Schlipf & Bastian Striegl & Tobias Gaugler, 2024. "Climate true‐cost analysis of industrial goods and its regulatory implications on value chains and global competition," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(3), pages 589-602, June.
    6. Leah Grout & Simon Hales & Nigel French & Michael G. Baker, 2018. "A Review of Methods for Assessing the Environmental Health Impacts of an Agricultural System," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-27, June.
    7. Chang, Jie & Wu, Xu & Liu, Anqin & Wang, Yan & Xu, Bin & Yang, Wu & Meyerson, Laura A. & Gu, Baojing & Peng, Changhui & Ge, Ying, 2011. "Assessment of net ecosystem services of plastic greenhouse vegetable cultivation in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 740-748, February.
    8. Bhim B Ghaley & Harpinder S Sandhu & John R Porter, 2015. "Relationship between C:N/C:O Stoichiometry and Ecosystem Services in Managed Production Systems," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Noble, Andrew D. & Bossio, Deborah A. & Pretty, J. & Penning de Vries, F., 2008. "Bright spots: pathways to ensuring food security and environmental integrity," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    10. Van Passel, Steven & Nevens, Frank & Mathijs, Erik & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2007. "Measuring farm sustainability and explaining differences in sustainable efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 149-161, April.
    11. David Blandford, 2010. "Presidential Address: The Visible or Invisible Hand? The Balance Between Markets and Regulation in Agricultural Policy," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 459-479, September.
    12. Paolo Cupo & Rinalda Alberta Di Cerbo, 2016. "The determinants of ranking in sustainable efficiency of Italian farms," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 141-159.
    13. Baba, S.H. & Wani, S.A., 2018. "Ecosystem Management Approach for Agricultural Growth in Mountains: Farmers Perception of Ecosystem Services and Dis-Services in Kashmir-India," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277556, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Daniel Gaitán-Cremaschi & Frits K. Van Evert & Don M. Jansen & Miranda P. M. Meuwissen & Alfons G. J. M. Oude Lansink, 2018. "Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Coffee Farms in Vietnam: A Social Profit Inefficiency Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-23, November.
    15. Elena Tamburini & Paola Pedrini & Maria Gabriella Marchetti & Elisa Anna Fano & Giuseppe Castaldelli, 2015. "Life Cycle Based Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Agricultural Productions in the Mediterranean Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-21, March.
    16. Patrizia Schwegler, 2015. "Economic valuation of environmental costs of soil erosion and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services caused by food wastage," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 8(2).
    17. Lukas Folkens & Volker Wiedemer & Petra Schneider, 2020. "Monetary Valuation and Internalization of Externalities in German Agriculture Using the Example of Nitrate Pollution: A Case-Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-19, August.
    18. Noble, Andrew D. & Bossio, Deborah & Pretty, J. & Penning de Vries, F., 2008. "Bright spots: pathways to ensuring food security and environmental integrity," IWMI Books, Reports H041602, International Water Management Institute.
    19. Pretty, J.N. & Ball, A.S. & Lang, T. & Morison, J.I.L., 2005. "Farm costs and food miles: An assessment of the full cost of the UK weekly food basket," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, February.
    20. Christof Gubler, 2014. "Potential des Anbaus und Absatzmo glichkeiten der Walnuss in der Schweiz," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 7(1).

    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:eee:agisys:v:104:y:2011:i:4:p:365-370. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    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.