The properties of agroecosystems

doi:10.1016/0308-521X(87)90056-4

Agricultural Systems

Volume 24, Issue 2, 1987, Pages 95-117

https://doi.org/10.1016/0308-521X(87)90056-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Agroecosystems may be regarded as true cybernetic systems whose goal is increased social value. This is achieved through a variety of strategies that combine different levels of productivity, stability, sustainability and equitability. Agricultural development thus involves making trade-offs between these properties. The point is illustrated by selected examples from agricultural history, including the origins of agriculture, manorial and modern western agriculture, and the Green Revolution in Indonesia. It is suggested that these properties may be used normatively as combined criteria for evaluating the performance of agricultural development programmes and projects.

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^∗: On leave from the Centre for Environmental Technology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London SW7 2PE, Great Britain.

View full text

The properties of agroecosystems

Abstract

J. Econ. Theory

Agric. Admin.

An ecological basis for the development of alternative agricultural systems for small farmers in the Third World

American Journal of Alternative Agriculture

Measuring the rate of spread of early farming in Europe

Man

The origins of the manor in England

The economics of inequality

Open field husbandry and the village community—Study of agrarian by-laws in Medieval England

Trans. Am. Philos. Soc.

Discourses on British field systems

Agric. Hist. Rev.

Ecological determinants of aboriginal Californian populations

Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. and Ethnol.

Farming in prehistory: From hunter-gatherer to food-producer

The conditions of agricultural growth

Agriculture, the countryside, and land use: An economic critique

Prehistoric investigation in Iraqi Kurdistan

Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilisation

From foragers to farmers in early Mexico

Soil erosion: Quiet crisis in the world economy

Poverty in India: Concepts, research and reality, an exploration

Systems thinking, systems practice

Man makes himself

The agricultural revolution in northern Europe, 1750–1880: Nitrogen, legumes and crop productivity

Econ. Hist. Rev.

Domestication and social evolution

Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London B

Radiocarbon dating and the expansion of farming from the Near East over Europe

The contradictions of the Green Revolution

Amer. Econ. Rev.

The food crisis in prehistory

Technology and peasant production: A discussion

Development and Change

Recent changes in rice harvesting methods

Bull. Indonesian Econ. Stud.

Agricultural technology and institutional change in Java

Food Research Institute Studies

KKU-Ford Cropping Systems Project

Applying ecology

Rural resource conflicts in the UK and Third World-Issues for research policy

Agricultural ecology and farming systems research

Agroecosystem analysis for research and development

Intensifying tropical agriculture: The Indonesian experience

Nature

The agroecosystems of Buhi: Problems and opportunities

An agroecosystem analysis for the Northern Areas of Pakistan

Resource and environmental effects of US agriculture

Prehistoric settlement and land use in Southern Bulgaria

The noncybernetic nature of ecosystems

Amer. Nat.

English farming: Past and present

Poverty, inequality and development

Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and Near East

India's Green Revolution: Economic gains and political costs

The estimation of the Lorenz Curve and Gini index

Rev. Econ. Stat.

Variabilità e mutabilità

Induced innovation, green revolution and income distribution: Reply

Econ. Dev. Cultural Change

A history of agriculture

English field systems

The political economy of agrarian change: An essay on the Green Revolution

Plant strategies and vegetation processes