A Survey of Organic Farming in Australia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Alternatives to contemporary agricultural practices are urgently required if the increasing degradation of Australia's agricultural lands is to be halted and reversed. One such alternative is the group of practices encompassed by the term ‘organic farming’. A predominantly questionnaire survey identified 50 commercial, organic farms, covering a wide range of farm types, sizes and environments throughout Australia. The majority are run by experienced farmers, applying a broad range of techniques, although only a few farms are wholly organic if purist criteria are used. Most of the respondents are manifestly successful farmers, demonstrating that organic methods are applicable in Australia's harsh pedological and climatic environments relative to those parts of the world in which organic farming methods have long been applied. Moreover these methods are environmentally benign, and a wider adoption of them by more conventional farmers would be beneficial in relation to the objectives of maintaining soil and environmental quality. Nevertheless, all organic farmers experience difficulties, of which the most important is the lack of sound advice and information. If these farmers had available to them a supporting infrastructure similar to that enjoyed by their conventional counterparts, then it seems reasonable to expect that a marked improvement in their performance would follow.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: