ISHS Acta Horticulturae 758: X International Symposium on the Processing Tomato
PROCESSING TOMATO CROPPING SYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY PATHWAYS: STATE OF THE ART AND RULES OF THUMB |
| Author: | A. Battilani |
| Abstract:
Nowadays sustainable development is a strategic objective of the European Union. From the 1990s “sustainability” has become a keyword for most of the social, economic and ecological issues; however, there is no generally acknowledged definition of “sustainable agriculture”. Even thought several attempts to define the sustainable agriculture criteria was made during the last five years, the expression is still used especially in the context of analysing the negative effects of certain crop production methods. Such a “negative approach” to sustainable agriculture causes a sharp reduction of the overall view, focusing to some specific, and often partial, targets such as pest management, fertilisation and water use for irrigation. As a result, much of the applied sustainable agriculture techniques were relied on a simple input substitution, rather than an ecological system approach. A more holistic understanding of the cropping system and of the whole production chain is needed. To reach and keep a good balance among sustainability’s factors is quite difficult in a complex reality such the processing tomato production chain. Some aspect are highlighted and discussed. | |
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