Sustainable Agriculture: The Integrated Crop Management Approach
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) promotes Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as the preferred approach to crop protection and regards it as a pillar of both sustainable intensification of crop production and pesticide risk reduction.[6] IPM, thus, is one indispensable element of Integrated Crop Management, which in turn is one essential part of the holistic integrated farming approach towards sustainable agriculture.
Forum des Agriculteurs Responsables Respectueux de l'Environnement (FARRE)[7] defines a set of common principles and practices to help farmers achieve these goals:
Principles:
Producing sufficient high quality food, fibre and industrial raw materials
Meeting the demands of society
Maintaining a viable farming business
Caring for the environment
Sustaining natural resources
Practices:
Organization and management
Monitoring and auditing
Crop protection
Animal husbandry
Soil and water management
Crop nutrition
Energy management
Waste management and pollution prevention
Wildlife and landscape management
Crop rotation and variety choice
Keller, 1986 (quoted in Lütke Entrup et al., 1998 1) highlights that integrated crop management is not to be understood as compromise between different agricultural production systems. It rather must be understood as production system with a targeted, dynamic and continuous use and development of experiences which were made in the so-called conventional farming. In addition to natural scientific findings, impulses from organic farming are also taken up.
