Evaluating Alternative Farming Systems
Author : Richard K. Olson
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,13 MB
Release : 2000
Category : Alternative agriculture
ISBN :
Author : Richard K. Olson
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,13 MB
Release : 2000
Category : Alternative agriculture
ISBN :
Author : National Research Council
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 465 pages
File Size : 28,56 MB
Release : 1989-02-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0309039851
More and more farmers are adopting a diverse range of alternative practices designed to reduce dependence on synthetic chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics; cut costs; increase profits; and reduce the adverse environmental consequences of agricultural production. Alternative Agriculture describes the increased use of these new practices and other changes in agriculture since World War II, and examines the role of federal policy in encouraging this evolution, as well as factors that are causing farmers to look for profitable, environmentally safe alternatives. Eleven case studies explore how alternative farming methods have been adoptedâ€"and with what economic resultsâ€"on farms of various sizes from California to Pennsylvania.
Author : Leonie April Marks
Publisher :
Page : 670 pages
File Size : 27,99 MB
Release : 1998
Category : Alternative agriculture
ISBN :
The focus of this research is to operationalize the concept of sustainability by developing a decision support method which integrates measures of achievement in the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of farming. The decision support method combines multiple attribute decision making (MADM) with fuzzy logic. Multiple attribute decision making is used to model decisions characterized by multiple, conflicting objectives. Vague, imprecise, and ambiguous information is incorporated into the decision process by the use of linguistic variables. The fuzzy MADM model was applied to the problem of evaluating farming systems in Missouri. A representative farm was used to construct ten crop-livestock farming systems. Each farming system represents a different allocation of resources among crop and livestock components. The ten farming systems were evaluated on the basis of eleven economic, environmental, and social criteria. The criteria were selected by Missouri farmers and social scientists. Attribute weights were elicited from three Missouri farmers using a hierarchical weighting method. The fuzzy MADM model fully ranked the decision alternatives relative to the preferences of decision makers. Additional hypothetical farming systems and farmers with different preferences were used to test how preference information is reflected in the final ranks. Results indicate that intra-attribute and inter-attribute preference information is preserved. In addition, this method is not subject to the rank reversal problem of the analytic hierarchy process. The problem of converting non-commensurate data to a common numerical scale, inherent in other MADM approaches, is solved by the use of linguistic variables. It is concluded that the fuzzy MADM model can improve decision making on the farm--the end goal of this research.
Author : Richard K. Olson
Publisher :
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 11,65 MB
Release : 1998
Category : Alternative agriculture
ISBN :
Author : Kathy Jo Vermilyea
Publisher :
Page : 166 pages
File Size : 36,49 MB
Release : 1993
Category : Agricultural ecology
ISBN :
Malheur County is located in the southeast corner of Oregon and consists of about 64 million acres of which 260,000 acres is irrigated. Groundwater contamination has been found in a 115,000 acre area in Northeastern Malheur County. The main source of the groundwater contamination is agricultural practices. The overall objective of this research is to design and evaluate environmentally sound and economically feasible alternative row crop and dairy farming systems for Northern Malheur County. Previous research has commonly used linear programming and growth and physical simulation models for environmental and economic analysis. This research takes a different approach in that the baseline farming system and each alternative farming system for row crop and dairy farms had a detailed whole-farm budget completed and evaluated using Planetor. NLEAP was used to evaluate nitrogen leaching for the row crop alternatives. The row crop analysis results indicated that implementing best management practices (BMPs) to reduce soil erosion, water use, and nutrient runoff and leaching, can increase profits. The dairy farm analysis results indicated storing and applying dairy barn runoff was cost effective because of the savings in nutrients from storage.
Author : Eric Lichtfouse
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 33,44 MB
Release : 2011-01-19
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9400701861
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for our children. This discipline addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, starvation, obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and biodiversity depletion. Novel solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, philosophy and social sciences. As actual society issues are now intertwined, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series analyzes current agricultural issues, and proposes alternative solutions, consequently helping all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians wishing to build safe agriculture, energy and food systems for future generations.
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 42,49 MB
Release : 1997
Category : Sustainable agriculture
ISBN :
Author : Karl Schneider
Publisher :
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 36,67 MB
Release : 1996
Category : Alternative agriculture
ISBN :
Author : Sajjadul Hassan
Publisher :
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 33,67 MB
Release : 2002
Category : Agriculture and state
ISBN :
Author : Karl Schneider
Publisher :
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 47,69 MB
Release : 1986
Category : Agriculture
ISBN :