Year of publication 2009

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Author Office of Assistant Director-General (Natural Resources Management and Environment Department)

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Category Technical study

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Edition 1

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Synopsis (short abstract) Organic agriculture has triggered a controversial debate in the last decades, most importantly because it shed light on the darker sides of chemical-intensive conventional farming by offering an alternative. By now, there is a strong body of evidence showing that organic farming is more environmentally friendly: potential benefits from organic production arise from improved soil fertility, organic matter content and biological activity; better soil structure and reduced susceptibility to erosion; reduced pollution from nutrient leaching and pesticides; and improved plant and animal biodiversity (Kasperczyk and Knickel, 2006). As more and more attention has been put on determining whether organic systems are environmentally better or not, it is not clear whether organic agriculture could be economically attractive enough to trigger wide spread adoption. If organic farming offered a better environmental quality, and potentially healthier foods, but not sufficient econ omic returns to the majority of farmers, it would obviously remain a luxury way of food production available to a very tiny fraction of farmers. However, the continued growth of organically managed lands worldwide, especially in developing countries, does not support this hypothesis. The number of studies devoted to the question of how profitable organic agriculture is when compared to non-organic management is over hundred; however long-term studies analyzing the development of prof its in comparative studies are much less numerous. Regrettably, the geographical distribution of these studies is very much biased towards developed countries (mainly U.S.A) and certain cash crops (e.g. corn, soy, wheat). Still, a general trend can be identified when considering economic comparisons made in the last three decades. The aim of this paper is to analyze existing literature on the economic performance of organic versus conventional (defined as non-organic) farms, to determi ne the critical factors for success in the evaluation of organic agriculture in different socio-political settings, and to offer some critical insights into how comparative studies differ. Only studies using data from certified organic farms have been considered, covering a minimum of three years (for developed countries) after conversion and undertaken after 1980 (see Appendix). Due to the lack of availability of long-term economic studies in developing countries, the minimum length r equirement was not taken rigidly and studies covering one and two years have also been included from these countries. Studies evaluating yields and certain production costs, but not analyzing profits were not considered. Although an effort was made to compile as many available economic studies as possible, the list in the Appendix is not exhaustive.

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Language English

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