The manure issue is complex and inherently interdisciplinary but, more fundamentally, it requires systems thinking. Current policies, technologies, infrastructure, incentives and modes of thinking about the problem fail to consider the system-wide implications, and thus fail to foster the creation of new and innovative solutions. At the farm level, complexity, uncertainty and lack of compatibility with the current farming system need to be addressed in order to promote better manure management. Production facilities, feed management and waste treatment systems (including centralized treatment plants) need to be designed to allow for beneficial use of manure components. At the industry level, changes in the poultry, swine and beef industries have resulted in concentration, both in terms of decision-making and geography. This currently limits the ability of these farmers to take a systems approach to livestock production. Environmental policies thus need to take account and advantage of this new reality. At the economy-wide level, factors affecting the demand and supply for alternative manure products need to be considered. A number of innovative uses are being developed in the private sector, but there are constraints as far as technology, institutions and infrastructure are concerned. A systems perspective will allow the design of policies and technologies that reduce environmental problems associated with manure, while promoting efficient utilization of the resource.

Even in developing countries that are faced with ecological and socio-economic problems, agricultural areas are constrained by land-use laws to be developed in particular ways. This being the case, the major issues in these areas are a better quality of life and sustainable use of the limited resources. This necessitates planning for sustainable development and evaluating various qualitative and quantitative data in a single framework. Multicriteria or multipurpose decision analysis methods are appropriate for this purpose. Using these methods, physical, economical and social data, as well as planning goals, can be combined and evaluated in the context of sustainable development. These multicriteria methods have been documented widely in a variety of problem areas, but two multicriteria methods, namely AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and ELECTRE II (elimination and choice translating reality), have not been used extensively in agricultural land-use decisions in developing countries. However, in situations where decision-making criteria are non-commensurable, non-comparable or non-countable, and when it is necessary to evaluate the criteria together, as in agricultural land-use decisions, AHP and ELECTRE II methods are warranted. This study reviews these methods briefly and suggests their potential application in the agricultural land-use decision process in a developing country. For this purpose, these methods were sampled in Ziyaret Stream Basin in Adiyaman, which is part of the Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi (GAP) (South-eastern Anatolian Project) in the Republic of Turkey. The area could be characterized by its rural and agricultural features, although it is under the pressure of Adiyaman urban development. This study shows that both AHP and ELECTRE II methods can be applied successfully for the determination of agricultural land-use priorities, which are an essential part of the quality of life and of sustainable land-use studies.

Agricultural enterprises that are run on ecological principles receive, in some countries, higher levels of financial support from the European Union (EU) than other agricultural businesses. The aim is to provide an incentive for businesses to adopt organic farming systems, a change desired by both politicians and society. However, with a fixed system of support payments based on land area, increasing the proportion of farms being run organically leads directly to higher costs of subsidies for the EU and the individual countries. This becomes especially true if enterprises with large land areas, high turnover and high income are converted to organic farming methods. Because financial resources within the member states are in very short supply, a modification of the current system of subsidies would seem to be necessary in the near future. The aim of any new system should be to reduce profit windfalls without making a drastic reduction in the incentive effect of the current system. At the same time, businesses that can run along these lines on a sustainable basis should be especially supported. This requires an increased level of individual assessment of the potential of the subsidized enterprises in relation to their cost–performance ratio for organic agricultural production. In this connection, a partial change to profit-based tax systems can be used as an effective instrument for co-financing. The method used to calculate profits for tax purposes, which varies from state to state, can be used to assess the performance and success of the organic farmer. Tax-free allowances or reductions in tax rates could be used to provide a selective subsidy method. The ability to relate subsidies to performance, thereby reducing windfall profits, is not the only advantage of using the tax system for this purpose. Another advantage is the low transaction costs. Using the example of the offsetting of profits between time periods, it will be shown here that the tax system can be used as an additional instrument for subsidization. The existing methods of subsidy can only be supported in this way, not completely substituted.

In Australia, the retail value of organic food production was estimated at A$250 million, with farm-gate value at around A$90 million and exports at around A$40 million, in 2002. The current share of organic sales in total food sales in Australia is about 1%. The growth rate in organic production was forecast to continue at 10–30% per annum. Despite the positive outlook, there are consumer concerns about product recognition and product integrity. To understand how demand for organic products is changing, it is important to investigate consumer attitudes and knowledge about these issues. The objective of this study was to identify issues that may hinder or promote demand. Given the qualitative nature of these issues, we used a focus group study to probe consumers. While focus group results are a qualitative approach and not intended to be generalizable, the results suggest directions for future research. The participants raised concerns about the use of chemicals, the treatment of farm animals and the environmental impact of food production. Organic food consumers were found to be more knowledgeable about organic foods, as well as being more tolerant of higher prices and inaccessibility. The results also suggest that increasing consumers' awareness of organic farming and certification, as well as the availability of organic foods, may be the most effective way of moving organic foods into mainstream.

There is limited documented scientific information on garden production systems managed in developing countries, partly because both researchers and research administrators have, until recently, ignored them as legitimate areas of study, and because such production systems have been regarded as informal production activities, managed outside conventional market and economic channels. Yet in a developing country such as Ghana, these production systems are potentially able to contribute substantially to the food security and health needs of households. This study was aimed primarily at providing critical scientific information for understanding the complex web of production and management factors associated with garden production systems. A total of 300 survey responses, representing the Sudan savannah, Guinea savannah and moist deciduous forest agro-ecological zones of Ghana, were analyzed (27% of respondents were females and 73% were males). Several hypotheses from the field agriculture literature were tested to determine their relevance in garden production systems. Although, for the country as a whole, a variety of garden crops are cultivated, each agro-ecological zone concentrated on a set of four major crops, with the actual food crops differing across agro-ecological zones. The type of protective fencing used was not statistically associated with land tenure (i.e., own versus rented land) status of the gardener (χ2=3.285, P=0.4501). Gender responsibilities in garden production and management tended to be more equally shared in the forest agro-ecology, where garden crops are cultivated for household consumption and for generating family income. In contrast, in the two savannah zones, adult males undertook a disproportionate share of activities to produce garden crops that were primarily for marketing. Valuable information on production and management exist within the traditional garden production systems studied, and range from socio-economic, agronomic and medicinal considerations in selecting garden crops and fruit trees, to ecological monitoring systems and strategies for garden management.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are plant root symbionts that provide many benefits to crop production and agro-ecosystem function; therefore, management of AMF is increasingly seen as important to ecological farming. Agronomic weeds that form a symbiotic relationship with AMF can increase diversity and abundance of agronomically beneficial AMF taxa. Also, AMF can strongly affect plant community composition, and may thus provide some degree of biological control for weeds. Therefore, relationships between weeds and AMF have a dual significance in ecological farming, but are relatively unexamined. In glasshouse experiments, seedlings of 14 agronomic weed species were grown in the presence or absence of AMF inocula sampled from each of three types of cropping systems: organic, transitional-organic or high-input/conventional. For each weed species, AMF root colonization rates and growth responses to AMF were assessed. On the basis of observed colonization levels, the species were classified as strong hosts (five species), weak hosts (three) and non-host species (six). Among species, biomass responses to AMF were highly variable. Strong hosts showed more positive responses to AMF than weak hosts, although the range of responses was great. Non-hosts did not suffer consistent negative biomass responses to AMF, although strong biomass reductions were noted for certain species–inoculum combinations. Biomass responses to inocula from different cropping systems varied significantly among weed species in one of two experiments. Results suggest that weed–AMF interactions can affect weed community dynamics. We recommend investigation of these interactions in agro-ecosystems that use management methods likely to intensify weed–AMF interactions, such as conservation tillage and cover cropping.