Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture - Participatory Learning and Adaptive Management in Times of Environmental Uncertainty

Hardback  344pp  ISBN 9780521581745      £80.00

Paperback  344pp  ISBN 9780521794817      £35.00

This book examines the implications of adapting more ecologically sound agricultural practices, both at the level of individual farmers and at the level of larger-scale agro-ecosystems such as water catchments. The emphasis of the book is on human and social aspects, rather than on agronomic or economic considerations, focusing on the learning process necessary for changes to be implemented and, in turn, on the facilitation of that learning through participatory approaches and appropriate institutioal support and policy structure. It covers agricultural development, sustainable development and extension science as a move towards more flexible, sustainable agricultural practices is increasingly being seen as the way to address or avoid environmental and economic problems associated with existing, predominantly intensive, farming systems. Through case studies taken from around the world, this book examines the implications of adopting more ecologically sound agricultural practices, both at the level of individual farmers and at the level of larger-scale agro-ecosystems such as water catchments. Following a preface the contents are as follows:

Part I. Introduction:

• A new practice: facilitating sustainable agriculture
• Supportive policies and practices for scaling up sustainable agriculture
• The second wing of the eagles: the human dimension in learning our way to more sustainable futures

Part II. Environmental Policies and Farmers' Reactions:

• Developing standards for sustainable farming in the Swiss Alps
• Extension functions and farmers' attitudes in Greece
• Integrated arable farming in the Netherlands

Part III. Farmer Learning, Its Facilitation and Supportive Institutions:

• Learning about sustainable agriculture: the case of Dutch arable farmers
• The diffusion of eco-farming in Germany
• Transforming extension for sustainable agriculture: the case of integrated pest management in rice in Indonesia
• Co-learning tools: powerful instruments of change in southern Queensland, Australia
• A social harvest reaped from a promise of springtime. User-responsive, participatory agricultural research in Asia

Part IV. Platforms for Agricultural Resources use Negotiation:

• Integrated farming systems: a sustainable agriculture learning community in the US
• Fomenting energy: experiences with facilitating landcare in Australia A. Campbell; 14.
• The implementation of nature policy in the Netherlands: platforms designed to fail
• The communication between farmers and government over nature: a new approach to policy development

Part V. Synthesis:

• The ecological knowledge system

About the authors
List of figures
Tables and Boxes
List of abbreviations and acronyms
Index.

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Cambridge University Press : agriculture & forestry : bioenergy : crop protection : ecology : environmental impact : environmental science : integrated crop protection : policy : sustainable agriculture : water science