scholarly journals Organics Olympiad 2016: Global Indices of Leadership in Organic Agriculture

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
John Paull

Organic production (including agriculture, wild culture, forestry and aquaculture) is a worldwide phenomenon that is practiced in at least 172 countries. The Organics Olympiad presents 14 indices of global organics leadership, each at three levels (Gold, Silver and Bronze). The Organics Olympiad of 2016 yields 29 countries as global organics leaders, and confirms that organics leadership is diversely distributed across countries, large and small, rich and poor, developed and less so, and cuts across linguistic, ethnic and cultural boundaries. Australia continues to lead the world in organic agriculture hectares. Australia also leads in the increase of organic hectares over the past four years (since the Organics Olympiad 2012) and in the number of WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) hosts. Finlandleads in organic wild culture hectares. Vietnam leads in organic aquaculture hectares, and Tunisia leads in organic forest hectares. Germany leads in biodynamic hectares, as well as with the number of members of IFOAM-Organics International. India leads for the number of organic producers. The Falkland Islands (Malvinas) leads in terms of the percentage agricultural land dedicated as organic. Switzerland leads with the value of organics consumption per capita. USA leads in the value of the organics market. Denmark leads in the publishing of organics research papers over the past four years. Namibia leads in the percentage increase in organic hectares over the past four years. The overall global organics leaders, on the basis of aggregated scores, are Australia, Germany, and Switzerland, in positions one, two and three, respectively. This study demonstrates the successful global diffusion of organics, and identifies that leadership lessons can be available from a broad diversity of countries. Key implications are identified.

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 144-150
Author(s):  
John Paull

Organic agriculture is now a worldwide phenomenon which is practiced in 160 countries. The Organics Olympiad presents 12 indices of global organics leadership, each at three levels. It yields 26 countries as global organics leaders, and reveals that organics leadership is diversely distributed across countries, large and small, rich and poor, developed and less so, as well as across linguistic and cultural barriers. Australia leads the world in organic agriculture hectares, Finland leads in organic wild culture hectares, China leads in organic aquaculture hectares, and Portugal leads in organic forest hectares. Germany leads in biodynamic hectares, as well as with the number of members of the International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), and in the publishing of organics research papers. India is in the lead position for the number of organic producers, the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) leads in terms of the percentage of agricultural land dedicated as organic, and Denmark leads with the value of organics consumption per capita. Uruguay leads in the relative increase in organic hectares over the past decade, and Japan leads in the number of organics certifiers. The overall global organics leaders, on the basis of aggregated scores, are Germany, India and Denmark, in positions one, two and three, respectively. The successful global diffusion of organics, as demonstrated in this study, means that leadership lessons are available from a diversity of social, geographical, political, and ecological situations for both existing and aspiring organics leaders.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henriette Sahm ◽  
Jürn Sanders ◽  
Hiltrud Nieberg ◽  
Gesine Behrens ◽  
Heike Kuhnert ◽  
...  

AbstractOver the past 10 years, the organic sector has expanded continuously in Europe due to policy support and a growing market demand for organic products. In line with this development, many farmers converted to organic farming each year. Nevertheless, the total number of organic farms has not increased constantly in Europe. In several countries, the absolute number of organic farms actually decreased in some years of the past decade. Some of the deregistered farmers gave up completely; others reverted to conventional agriculture. Against this background, this article aims (i) to give an overview of the extent of reversion to conventional agriculture in Europe based on statistics, (ii) to conceptualize the decision to revert in the form of a theoretical model, (iii) to compare farmers’ reasons to revert to conventional farming based on existing studies, and (iv) to identify further research needs. The importance of reversions to conventional agriculture is difficult to determine with the existing data, especially as in most cases it is not recorded as to what happened to the farms after deregistering from organic certification. The data nevertheless show that there are large fluctuations in the organic sector with many farmers entering and exiting each year. In order to reveal the farmers’ reasons for deregistering, various qualitative as well as quantitative surveys have been carried out already. For most farmers, the decision to revert is a result of different factors. Reasons for the reversion of their farms can be classified into economic motives, difficulties regarding certification and control, problems with organic production techniques as well as the farms’ macro environment. In most cases, however, economic reasons played a main role. Suggestions for organic legislation bodies, advisory services and policy makers are derived out of the findings. A deeper understanding of the influencing aspects regarding reversions and the necessary changes in the organic sector to avoid them should be an important objective of forthcoming research.


Author(s):  
Aleksandra Jezierska-Thöle ◽  
Mirosław Biczkowski

The aim of the work was to present and describe the development of organic farms in Poland and the impact of EU funds on the development of this sector. The possibilities of financing their development from the Rural Development Program funds in the period 2007-2013 functioning within the framework of the Union‘s Common Agricultural Policy were pointed out. The theoretical foundations and assumptions related to the functioning of the organic farming sector were also approximated. The results show that in the years 2002-2013 there was an increase in the number and area of organic farms. The greatest impact on the increase of the number and area of organic farms is the functioning of the RDPs in the years 2004-2006 and 2007-2013 and within it the subsidies for organic production. This confirms the very strong correlation between the number of farms and the amounts of subsidies paid to farms producing organic farming. It can be assumed that in the next few years the share of the area of ecological agricultural land may exceed 4-5%.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (24) ◽  
pp. 7611-7616 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Crowder ◽  
John P. Reganold

To promote global food and ecosystem security, several innovative farming systems have been identified that better balance multiple sustainability goals. The most rapidly growing and contentious of these systems is organic agriculture. Whether organic agriculture can continue to expand will likely be determined by whether it is economically competitive with conventional agriculture. Here, we examined the financial performance of organic and conventional agriculture by conducting a meta-analysis of a global dataset spanning 55 crops grown on five continents. When organic premiums were not applied, benefit/cost ratios (−8 to −7%) and net present values (−27 to −23%) of organic agriculture were significantly lower than conventional agriculture. However, when actual premiums were applied, organic agriculture was significantly more profitable (22–35%) and had higher benefit/cost ratios (20–24%) than conventional agriculture. Although premiums were 29–32%, breakeven premiums necessary for organic profits to match conventional profits were only 5–7%, even with organic yields being 10–18% lower. Total costs were not significantly different, but labor costs were significantly higher (7–13%) with organic farming practices. Studies in our meta-analysis accounted for neither environmental costs (negative externalities) nor ecosystem services from good farming practices, which likely favor organic agriculture. With only 1% of the global agricultural land in organic production, our findings suggest that organic agriculture can continue to expand even if premiums decline. Furthermore, with their multiple sustainability benefits, organic farming systems can contribute a larger share in feeding the world.


Author(s):  
Vlado Kovačević

The aim of this paper is to analyse the current situation and potential for the development of organic agriculture in Serbia. Despite the favourable agri-ecological conditions for the development of organic agriculture, this branch of agriculture in Serbia significantly lags behind the world and European average in terms of the percentage of agricultural land under organic production. The motive for the conducted analysis within this paper stems from the fact that the demand for organic products in the EU has been increasing at a rate of about 10% annually in recent years, which represents a chance for Serbian agriculture. Data sources used are from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia (MAFWM), Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS) and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FIBL) while the basic research method is interview with experts and participants in organic agriculture. The results of the analysis show that the main limiting factors for the development of Serbian organic agriculture are dominance of small and economically weak producers and insufficient consumer confidence in organic products. The path to the development of organic agriculture is in the increased cooperatives activity and the improvement of consumer confidence in organic products.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
Alina Burliai ◽  
Oleksandr Burliai ◽  
Yulia Nesterchuk ◽  
Alla Revutska

Abstract Organic agriculture ensures a balanced state of the ecosystem, which is the key to sustainable development of the economic and social spheres of society. European countries are in the process of historical development reached an understanding on the need for its further ecological progress. That is why the world market for organic products has formed. Studies show that the development of organic production began in the 20‘s of the twentieth century. Since then, markets for organic products began to grow rapidly in many countries. Among the world‘s regions, the largest areas of organic land are located in Oceania and Europe. The article is devoted to the study of foreign experience in the development of ecological agriculture. The variety of names of ecological systems of management in the countries of the world and the principles which are included in the concept “ecological agriculture“ are studied. The history of the emergence of organic agriculture has been explored. The analysis of the development of organic agricultural production at the world level, the countries of Europe and the European Union (EU) and individual countries has been analyzed. A grouping of organic farms in Europe has been organized in terms of size. Ukraine, with its significant natural and economic potential in the future may also be one of the important subjects that will form a proposal in this market. The environmental policy of the country has an important influence on the efficiency of organic farms.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 247
Author(s):  
Ligita Melece

Nowadays the organic farming as method and organic food takes important role for the sustainable and environmental friendly agricultural and food production. The paper analyzes the development and issues of future perspectives of organic farming in the Latvia. Some findings of organic agriculture development are given, estimating the primary information on organic farming in Latvia regarding the trends of the organic farms’ number, utilized organic agricultural and share of organic land in the total agricultural land. Besides, the state policy and support for organic farming have analyzed and compared with European Union (EU) and it’s Member States. The influence of Latvia’s accession to the EU on the organic farming development is assessed. Some issues of further perspectives of development of Latvian organic agriculture are evaluated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 2870-2878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia M. Smith ◽  
Abigail L. Cohen ◽  
John P. Reganold ◽  
Matthew S. Jones ◽  
Robert J. Orpet ◽  
...  

Organic agriculture promotes sustainability compared to conventional agriculture. However, the multifunctional sustainability benefits of organic farms might be mediated by landscape context. Assessing how landscape context affects sustainability may aid in targeting organic production to landscapes that promote high biodiversity, crop yields, and profitability. We addressed this using a meta-analysis spanning 60 crop types on six continents that assessed whether landscape context affected biodiversity, yield, and profitability of organic vs. conventional agroecosystems. We considered landscape metrics reflecting landscape composition (percent cropland), compositional heterogeneity (number and diversity of cover types), and configurational heterogeneity (spatial arrangement of cover types) across our study systems. Organic sites had greater biodiversity (34%) and profits (50%) than conventional sites, despite lower yields (18%). Biodiversity gains increased as average crop field size in the landscape increased, suggesting organic farms provide a “refuge” in intensive landscapes. In contrast, as crop field size increased, yield gaps between organic and conventional farms increased and profitability benefits of organic farming decreased. Profitability of organic systems, which we were only able to measure for studies conducted in the United States, varied across landscapes in conjunction with production costs and price premiums, suggesting socioeconomic factors mediated profitability. Our results show biodiversity benefits of organic farming respond differently to landscape context compared to yield and profitability benefits, suggesting these sustainability metrics are decoupled. More broadly, our results show that the ecological, but not the economic, sustainability benefits of organic agriculture are most pronounced in more intensive agricultural landscapes.


Author(s):  
Deepali Chadha ◽  
S. K. Srivastava

Organic agriculture is growing rapidly as an alternative strategy to modern farming methods. At present, only 1.5 per cent of the world’s agricultural land is organic. However, it has encountered a phenomenal rise over the past fourteen years (2005 to 2018) growing annually at a compound growth rate of 7.05 per cent; with 71.5 million hectares global organic land in 2018. However, India has witnessed a remarkable growth of 10.62 per cent during the ibid period and stood at ninth rank among other countries in terms of organic agricultural land (2018-19). The present study attempts to examine the trend and variability in growth of organic agricultural land (including both the cultivated and wild) from 2005 to 2018 at both the national and global level. Further, it explores the marketing patterns for organic food products and unveils those areas where more emphasis is needed and which issues are to be further investigated, addressed and improvised.


2020 ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
B.I. KORZHENEVSKIY ◽  
◽  
N.V. KOLOMIYTSEV ◽  
G.YU. TOLKACHEV

Putting out of using large areas of agricultural lands in the central region over the past years has led to worsening the prospects of their purposed use, although the problem of the relevance of their restoration still remains. For many years the unused land was exposed to both natural exogenous processes such as erosion, suffusion, etc. and biological and chemical changes, usually for the worse for agriculture. There are considered elements of monitoring aimed at assessing the prospects or lack of perspectives of rehabilitation of degraded lands. An energy approach to assessing the state of slopes and soils located within these slopes is presented. The main factors of natural and anthropogenic character in assessing the prospects for land restoration are their steepness, excess relative to local bases of erosion other morphological characteristics of slopes which in general is reduced to an assessment of the energy provision of slopes and soils. So the higher the energy capacity of slopes – they are less promising for development, for soils – there is a reverse picture – the higher their energy reserves, the more promising is their use. Approaches to zoning the territory for monitoring from larger taxons of natural and anthropogenic genesis to the sites of special surveillance within which the prospects for rehabilitation of the agricultural land are evaluated. The most important factor is the material expediency of such actions, i.e. before starting the restoration work it is necessary to assess the profitability or loss of the proposed event. In cases of the material expediency it is feasible as further actions to include energy assessments of slopes and soils; zoning of the object according to the steepness and oriented characteristics of soil washout; and the possibility of obtaining agronomic and meteorological data on a timely basis. The result of the work is a forecast assessment of the prospects for restoring degraded land for the intended purpose using modern databases and WEB-systems.


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