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Agronomic and economic potential of sustainable agriculture in South India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Erik van der Werf
Erik van der Werf
Affiliation:
A consultant in sustainable agriculture, ETC-Foundation, PO Box 64, 3830 AB Leusden, the Netherlands
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Abstract

The development of sustainable agriculture in India has been limited by the absence of data on the agricultural and economic viability of ecological agriculture and its longterm prospects. This paper describes a two-year study of seven farm pairs, each consisting of one ecological and one comparable conventional reference farm. The ecological farms differed significantly from the conventional farms in the number of crops grown, the dependence of crop activities on external nutrients, and the number of techniques used to maintain soil fertility and create plant diversity. No significant economic differences were found. Gross income, variable costs, gross margin and net cash income per hectare were in the same range for the two groups of farms. The two groups were similar in average yields for major crops, days of labor per hectare, and total returns per day of labor.

Keywords

fanning systemsustainabilityecological agriculturelaborsoil fertilityincomeIndia
Type
Other Feature Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 185 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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