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Sustainability of Organic, Integrated and Conventional Farming Systems in Tuscany

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  • Pacini, Cesare
  • Giesen, G.W.J.
  • Vazzana, V.
  • Wossink, Ada

Abstract

Agricultural researchers widely recognise the importance of sustainable agricultural production systems and the need to develop appropriate methods to measure sustainability. The principal purpose of this paper is to evaluate the financial and environmental aspects of sustainability of Organic, Integrated and Conventional Farming Systems (OFS, IFS, and CFS, respectively) at farm and more detailed spatial scales. This is achieved applying an integrated economic-environmental accounting framework to three case study farms in Tuscany including different farming systems and different spatial scales. The environmental performances of the FS were measured through the application of an Environmental Accounting Information Systems (EAIS) at field, site and farm level. The EAIS indicators were then integrated with (1) a set of financial indicators to evaluate the economic and environmental trade-offs between different FS and (2) with information on the regional and site-specific soil and climate conditions to study the impact of different pedo-climates on the environmental performances of the FS. The gross margins of steady-state OFS were found to be higher than the corresponding CFS gross margins. OFS perform better than I/CFS with respect to nitrogen losses, pesticide impact, herbaceous plant biodiversity and most of the other environmental indicators. However, on hilly soils, erosion revealed to be higher in OFS than in CFS. The pesticide and the nitrogen indicators showed, for this example, that the environmental impact due to integrated and conventional farming practices is similar. Regional pedoclimatic factors resulted to have a considerable impact on nutrient losses, soil erosion, pesticide impact and herbaceous plant biodiversity, site-specific factors on nutrient losses and soil erosion. Conclusions are drawn on the possible practical applications of the method for environmental measures in the agricultural sector.

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  • Pacini, Cesare & Giesen, G.W.J. & Vazzana, V. & Wossink, Ada, 2002. "Sustainability of Organic, Integrated and Conventional Farming Systems in Tuscany," 13th Congress, Wageningen, The Netherlands, July 7-12, 2002 6956, International Farm Management Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ifma02:6956
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.6956
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Coiner, Colette & Wu, JunJie & Polasky, Stephen, 2001. "Economic and environmental implications of alternative landscape designs in the Walnut Creek Watershed of Iowa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 119-139, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Arpaphan Pattanapant & Ganesh P. Shivakoti, 2009. "Opportunities and constraints of organic agriculture in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 16(1), pages 115-147, June.
    2. Parra-Lopez, Carlos & Calatrava-Requena, Javier, 2006. "A Multifunctional Comparison of Conventional versus Alternative Olive Systems in Spain by Using AHP," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25417, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Timo Sipiläinen & Anni Huhtala, 2013. "Opportunity costs of providing crop diversity in organic and conventional farming: would targeted environmental policies make economic sense?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 40(3), pages 441-462, July.
    4. Epiphane Sodjinou & Laurent Glin & Gian Nicolay & Silvère Tovignan & Jonas Hinvi, 2015. "Socioeconomic determinants of organic cotton adoption in Benin, West Africa," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Schonhart, Martin & Schauppenlehner, Thomas & Schmid, Erwin, 2010. "Integrated land use modelling of agri-environmental measures to maintain biodiversity at landscape level," 120th Seminar, September 2-4, 2010, Chania, Crete 109401, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Sipilainen, Timo & Marklund, Per-Olov & Huhtala, Anni, 2008. "Efficiency In Agricultural Production Of Biodiversity: Organic Vs. Conventional Practices," 107th Seminar, January 30-February 1, 2008, Sevilla, Spain 6478, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Craig Bond & Y. Farzin, 2008. "Alternative Sustainability Criteria, Externalities, and Welfare in a Simple Agroecosystem Model: A Numerical Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 40(3), pages 383-399, July.
    8. Sipilainen, Timo & Huhtala, Anni, 2012. "Opportunity Costs of Providing Crop Diversity in Organic and Conventional Farming," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126652, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Giuseppina Siciliano, 2009. "Social multicriteria evaluation of farming practices in the presence of soil degradation. A case study in Southern Tuscany, Italy," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 11(6), pages 1107-1133, December.

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    Keywords

    Farm Management; Land Economics/Use;

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