Agronomy for sustainable agriculture. A review

Abstract

-Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.Starving people in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, increasing food prices, on-going climate changes, increasing fuel and transportation costs, flaws of the global market, worldwide pesticide pollution, pest adaptation and resistance, loss of soil fertility and organic carbon, soil erosion, decreasing biodiversity, desertification, and so on. Despite unprecedented advances in sciences allowing us to visit planets and disclose subatomic particles, serious terrestrial issues about food show clearly that conventional agriculture is no longer suited to feeding humans and preserving ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture is an alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production in an ecological way (Lal (2008) Agron. Sustain. Dev. 28,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]. While conventional agriculture is driven almost solely by productivity and profit, sustainable agriculture integrates biological, chemical, physical, ecological, economic and social sciences in a comprehensive way to develop new farming practices that are safe and do not degrade our environment. To address current agronomical issues and to promote worldwide discussions and cooperation we implemented sharp changes at the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development from 2003 to 2006. Here we report (1) the results of the renovation of the journal and (2) a short overview of current concepts of agronomical research for sustainable agriculture. Considered for a long time as a soft, side science, agronomy is rising fast as a central science because current issues are about food, and humans eat food. This report is the introductory article of the book Sustainable Agriculture, volume 1, published by EDP Sciences and Springer (Lichtfouse et al. (2009) Sustainable Agriculture, Vol. 1, Springer, EDP Sciences, in press). sustainable agriculture / climate change / biodiversity / agronomy for sustainable development / organic farming / pest control / food / water / soil / pesticide / farming system

The Economic Consequences of Supporting Organic Farms by Public Funds: Case of Poland

“…According to G. Benckiser (2010), about 60% of the world's ecosystems are not utilised in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. Lichtfouse et al (2009) postulate co-operation of a wide group of scientists of various disciplines for the elaboration of new environment-friendly agricultural practices.…”

Adapting maize crop to climate change

“…Moreover, agricultural systems are under increasing pressure to supply food to a growing human population (Hatfield et al 2011;Jégo et al 2011), and food demand globally is expected to double by 2050 (Stuber and Hancock 2008). Flexibility of agriculture has been highlighted as a determinant factor of sustainability, enabling agriculture to adapt to ongoing environmental changes and allowing the preservation of the ability to farm and produce food into the future (Lichtfouse et al 2009). However, there are serious concerns that the forthcoming environmental changes will make the challenge of feeding additional people exceedingly difficult within the next 50 years (Vadez et al 2012).…”

Using our agrobiodiversity: plant-based solutions to feed the world

“…not including genetically modified genotypes, should be a central element in sustainable agricultural development (Conner and Mercer 2007;Huang et al 2002;Kahane et al 2013;Salinger 2012;Welch and Graham 2004). The concept of sustainability is based on the principle that today's needs must be addressed without compromising the needs of future generations (Lichtfouse et al 2009). Sustainable agriculture represents an attractive alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production based on ecological principles (Lal 2008).…”