Back P. Viaux
Technical Institute of Cereals and Forages (ITCF), Boigneville, France
Full Paper (PDF File: 51KB)
Abstract
The concept of sustainable agriculture includes important components of
economic, environmental, agricultural and social sustainability. To obtain
a better under-standing of the concept and interactions of these components,
trials were implemented in 1990 in different agroecological regions by
ITCF and ACTA to compare the performance of conventional farming systems
(CFS) with integrated farming systems (IFS). CFS is a cropping system that
is commonly employed by many farmers and requires substantial off-farm
inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. IFS is a low input
system which attempts to minimize environmental impacts. Trials were established
on farms of 15 to 75 hectares using large plots of 1 to 5 hectares to better
evaluate the system's feasibility, and its economic and environmental parameters.
After four years, results for the IFS have shown that a significant reduction
in production inputs and costs (25 to 37%) are possible, especially for
agrichemicals. Compared with CFS, IFS strategies may lead to lower crop
yields (up to 30%) although the economic net return is often higher because
of lower production costs. However, studies will continue because there
are many aspects of IFS that need to be improved to enhance the system's
economic viability, including intercropping, reduced tillage, and non-chemical
weed and pest control.