Agroecosystem analysis

Conway, Gordon

doi:10.1016/0309-586x(85)90064-0

Cited by 320 publications

(151 citation statements)

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“…Agricultural systems, or agroecosystems, are amended ecosystems (Conway 1985;Gliessman 1998Gliessman , 2005Olsson & Folke 2001;Dalgaard et al 2003;Odum & Barrett 2004;Swift et al 2004) that have a variety of different properties (table 2). Modern agricultural systems have amended some of these properties to increase productivity.…”

Section: Improving Natural Capital For Agroecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural sustainability: concepts, principles and evidence

Pretty

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

1,376

746

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Concerns about sustainability in agricultural systems centre on the need to develop technologies and practices that do not have adverse effects on environmental goods and services, are accessible to and effective for farmers, and lead to improvements in food productivity. Despite great progress in agricultural productivity in the past half-century, with crop and livestock productivity strongly driven by increased use of fertilizers, irrigation water, agricultural machinery, pesticides and land, it would be over-optimistic to assume that these relationships will remain linear in the future. New approaches are needed that will integrate biological and ecological processes into food production, minimize the use of those non-renewable inputs that cause harm to the environment or to the health of farmers and consumers, make productive use of the knowledge and skills of farmers, so substituting human capital for costly external inputs, and make productive use of people's collective capacities to work together to solve common agricultural and natural resource problems, such as for pest, watershed, irrigation, forest and credit management. These principles help to build important capital assets for agricultural systems: natural; social; human; physical; and financial capital. Improving natural capital is a central aim, and dividends can come from making the best use of the genotypes of crops and animals and the ecological conditions under which they are grown or raised. Agricultural sustainability suggests a focus on both genotype improvements through the full range of modern biological approaches and improved understanding of the benefits of ecological and agronomic management, manipulation and redesign. The ecological management of agroecosystems that addresses energy flows, nutrient cycling, population-regulating mechanisms and system resilience can lead to the redesign of agriculture at a landscape scale. Sustainable agriculture outcomes can be positive for food productivity, reduced pesticide use and carbon balances. Significant challenges, however, remain to develop national and international policies to support the wider emergence of more sustainable forms of agricultural production across both industrialized and developing countries.

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Section: Improving Natural Capital For Agroecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural sustainability: concepts, principles and evidence

Pretty

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

1,376

746

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“…The plant strategies mapped onto the successional trends are after Grime (Grime, 1979;Tansley, 1935) Farming Systems Research (FRS) (Shaner et al, 1982) and the work of overseas development organizations (Zandstra, 1977) were influential. However, it was Gordon Conway (1982Conway ( , 1985 who provided both the ecological link and the human dimension that we were looking for. His Agro-ecosystem Analysis measured the emergent properties of an agro-ecosystem as:…”

Section: Agro-ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A hierarchy of agro-ecosystems showing the social (left) and biophysical (right) hierarchies. After Conway (1985) 1981) provided us with the insights to develop our model of agriculture as a human activity system. The key addition to our systems syntax was the notion of the Weltanschauung or worldview that contextualized changes made in the name of transformative improvements.…”

Section: Soft Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An emerging model of a systems agriculturalist

Valentine

2005

Syst. Res.

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This paper describes the development of a conceptual model of agriculture at the Faculty of Agriculture, Hawkesbury Agricultural College, during the early 1980s. The model was a tool in a learning/researching process that was driven by the increasing complexity of problems/issues facing Australian agriculture over that period. The path took us from seeing agriculture as a science discipline-focused, mechanistic view of agriculture to a systemic model that incorporated people as an essential component. The phases that we went through included: 'agriculture as a production activity', 'agriculture as applied ecology', 'agriculture as a mechanical (hard) system', and 'agriculture as a human activity system'. Each phase was incorporated into the next so that the final model was able to be usefully used in approaching on-farm scientific and technical issues, managerial and information flow/communication issues, and social and cultural issues. It also placed farming as an activity within the wider social and biophysical environment, which encouraged study of the impact of agriculture on the soil and water resources as well as the fate of rural communities. The model was generated through a process of action research and thus was consistent with the growing educational philosophy of the Faculty. It was a collaborative process that drew on the expertise of members of the Faculty and on a wide range of literature.

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“…(1) the biophysical sustainability of its use, Gordon Conway (1985Conway ( , 1987, for example, in considering the evaluation of agricultural systems measures (1) their economic viability by their level of returns or yields also taking account of the degree of instability of these, (2) their social acceptability by the impact of these techniques on the distribution of income, and (3) their biophysical sustainability by the ability of yields to recover to former levels after being subjected to an environmental shock. (Tisdell, 1993, Ch.9 ).…”

Section: Sustainable Agricultural Techniques and Systems Of Land Manamentioning

confidence: 99%