Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Organic Farming Versus Conventional

"A key question that is often asked about ecological agriculture, including organic agriculture, is whether it can be productive enough to meet the world’s food needs. While many agree that ecological agriculture is desirable from an environmental and social point of view, there remain fears that ecological and organic agriculture produce low yields.

"This short paper will summarize some of the available evidence to demystify the productivity debate and demonstrate that ecological agriculture is indeed productive.

"In general, yields from ecological agriculture can be broadly comparable to conventional yields in developed countries. In developing countries, ecological agriculture practices can greatly increase productivity, particularly if the existing system is low-input, which is the largely the case for Africa. This paper will focus mainly on evidence from developing countries. "

Read the rest of the paper here.

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