European Journal of Agronomy 12 2000 145 – 161
Challenging targets for future agriculture
Holger Kirchmann
a,
, Gudni Thorvaldsson
b
a
Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish Uni6ersity of Agricultural Sciences, Box
7014
,
750 07
, Uppsala, Sweden
b
Agricultural Research Institute, Keldnaholti,
112
, Reykja6ik, Iceland Received 3 September 1998; received in revised form 30 August 1999; accepted 8 November 1999
Abstract
This article points out the kinds of problems agriculture is facing, outlines and structures agricultural quality components and defined aims for them, discusses the shortcomings of organic farming, proposes some important
research areas and presents an outlook. The quality components are a type of checklist of those factors that we should be aware of concerning protection of the environment, production of healthy food and the practice of good ethics.
These components can be integrated into the general aims of sustainable agriculture. Many European and other countries focus on organic farming as a solution, but this approach is dangerous because it does not necessarily lead
to a better environment or better food products. Concerning future agricultural research, the following issues are highly important: precision agriculture, low leaching cropping systems, management of soil biological processes and
maximum recirculation. Finally, the article discusses some issues of future agriculture such as intensity, nutrient imbalances caused by regional farm specialisation, and the development of an agricultural quality assessment system.
© 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
:
Sustainability; Ecosystem protection; Pesticides; Water resources; Leaching; Soil fertility; Soil pollutants; Soil compaction; Trace gas emissions; Energy use; Product quality; Ethic; Biodiversity; Soil degradation; Organic farming
www.elsevier.comlocateeuragr
1. Introduction
Agriculture is one of the oldest sources of hu- man livelihood and can be found in most parts of
the world. It has developed from simple cultiva- tion to differentiated forms. In particular during
the last century, mechanization, introduction of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and plant
breeding have increased productivity and made crop production possible on previously unculti-
vated land. As a result, more humans can be fed. The population in rural areas decreased while
more people settled in towns and found profes- sions within new industries. The size of farms
increased and farms became more specialized be- cause economic conditions favoured this develop-
ment. These changes created new kinds of problems for the environment and for society.
Our challenge is to identify, analyse, evaluate and solve them.
Corresponding author. Tel.: + 46-18-672292; fax: + 46- 18-672795.
E-mail addresses
:
holger.kirchmannmv.slu.se H. Kirch- mann, gudnirala.is G. Thorvaldsson
1161-030100 - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 1 1 6 1 - 0 3 0 1 9 9 0 0 0 5 3 - 2
Environmental problems in agriculture vary from one country to another. Some of them are
caused by natural conditions high native heavy metal content, drought, volcanic eruptions, etc.,
others depend on agricultural practices leaching of nutrients and pesticides etc, and some are
related to human influence in other areas air pollution. Furthermore, these causes are often
interrelated. Many scientific studies of the prob- lems and their causes have been carried out. In
the public debate, however, methods such as those proposed in ‘organic agriculture’
1
often outweigh the scientific solutions. It seems as if organic
agriculture has become a goal in itself, EU Regu- lation 207892 EEC, 1992. In fact, however,
many environmental problems found with con- ventional agriculture are also present with organic
agriculture. Agricultural production fulfills important needs
of human beings, most importantly the produc- tion of essential nutritional products, supplying
raw materials for industrial purposes, producing bioenergy, and environmental stewardship.
The purpose of this article is to point out the kinds of problems agriculture is facing and to
present important quality components of agricul- ture we should be aware of. The quality compo-
nents can be integrated into the concept of sustainable agriculture. We discuss the shortcom-
ings of organic farming and, finally, presents im- portant future research areas for agriculture.
Hopefully, the perspective and vision presented are a sound contribution to the development of
future agriculture.
2. Quality components for agriculture
