Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Starving people in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, increasing food prices, on-going climate changes, increasing fuel and transportation costs, flaws of the global market, worldwide pesticide pollution, pest adaptation and resistance, loss of soil fertility and organic carbon, soil erosion, decreasing biodiversity, desertification, and so on. Despite unprecedented advances in sciences allowing to visit planets and disclose subatomic particles, serious terrestrial issues about food show clearly that conventional agriculture is not suited any longer to feed humans and to preserve ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture is an alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production in an ecological way. While conventional agriculture is driven almost solely by productivity and profit, sustainable agriculture integrates biological, chemical, physical, ecological, economic and social sciences in a comprehensive way to develop new farming practices that are safe and do not degrade our environment. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical and narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. As most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world.

This book gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and food system for future generations.

Dr. Eric LICHTFOUSE completed his PhD in organic geochemistry in 1989 at the University of Strasbourg. He became engaged as a soil scientist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in 1992. His studies led to the first determination of the dynamics of soil organic molecules in maize field experiments. In 2000 he founded the European Association of Environmental Chemistry and in 2003 the Journal Environmental Chemistry Letters. He has co-edited the book Environmental Chemistry. He is working in Dijon for the INRA Department of Environment and Agronomy as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development. He is teaching scientific writing.
Dr. Mireille Navarrete became engaged as a research scientist at the INRA in 1994. As an agronomist she is currently analysing and modelling of farming systems in order to build innovative and sustainable systems with farmers. She works in the domain of pests and disease management in the market gardening area. Since 2007, she is Associate Editor of the international journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development (EDPS).
Dr Philippe DEBAEKE completed his Ph.D in agronomy in 1987 at the National Agronomical Institute of Paris. He is currently the leader of a research group at the INRA Centre of Toulouse. His main research topics are designing and evaluation of cropping systems, dynamic G x E interactions, integrated pest and water management, and crop modelling. He is associate editor for the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development (EDPS).
Dr. Véronique Souchère completed his Ph.D in agronomy in 1995 at the National Agronomical Institute of Paris. She is currently engaged as agricultural engineer at the INRA Department of Science for Action and Development. Her research interests are soil erosion modelling using participatory approaches, geographic information systems, multi-agent systems and role playing games to promote collective watershed management of erosive runoff. Since 2006, she is field editor for the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development.
Caroline Alberola completed her Master Degree in information sciences in 2004 after biochemical studies. She is currently working as the editorial assistant for the INRA journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development.