Browsing by Subject "Agricultural enterprises"

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    Nachhaltigkeit der russischen Landwirtschaft - die Region Tambov und das Betriebsbewertungssystem RISE
    (2017) Komzolova, Marina; Doluschitz, Reiner
    Agriculture is currently being faced by great challenges. It must meet to the ever increasing demand for food and at the same time meet to the growing demand on product quality, use resources efficiently while simultaneously ensuring that environmental impact is reduced in the long run. For this reason, the concept of sustainable development and sustainable agriculture is becoming prominently important in the international discussions. The Sustainability aspect is becoming increasingly important in communicating with the society and in politics. Also, demand for sustainability is becoming stronger for agricultural enterprises. However, there is no universal agreement on what sustainable agriculture means. In Russia, a common understanding of sustainability and the sustainability concept in agriculture is also missing. The aim of this thesis is therefore to present a model for sustainable agriculture in general and for Russia in particular. The actual status of sustainable agricultural enterprises in Russia is not known. To comprehensively solve this issue, 20 agricultural enterprises in the Tambov region in Russia were surveyed and analyzed. For this purpose, RISE-program, an indicator-based method for holistic assessment of sustainability of agricultural production at the operational level, was applied. The improved version “RISE 2.0” evaluates the ecological, economic and social sustainability of agri-cultural production using ten indicators, each calculated from four to seven parameters. The results of the present work shows that all surveyed enterprises in the Tambov region have deficits in the ecological, social and economic areas. The overall RISE assessment showed that sustainability is limited by various aspects of soil protection, nutrient flow, plant protection and biodiversity, working conditions, quality of life as well as economic viability. The current subsistence strategy can be improved with regard to these areas. Using the RISE-assessment, it was found out that the ecological aspect of sustainability was particularly deficit in the surveyed enterprises, and especially in regard to land use. It was established that agricultural production had a very negative impact on the soil condition. This is why it is important to point out to the political decision-makers and farmers the economic consequences of soil degradation and support this with figures and concrete examples. Costs associated with soil quality degradation as a consequence of water erosion were also calculated in this thesis. Results of the present study indicate that the possible costs of soil quality degradation due to water erosion ranges from 8.5 to 8.8 million Euros per year in the Tambov region, 152 million Euros per year in the Volgograd region and 2.49 billion Euros per year in Russia. However, these figures are based on assumptions due to lack of quantitative and qualitative data. Yet, even rough estimates shows that increasing soil quality degradation leads to utility and social welfare losses in Russia and therefore the urgency to invest in sustainable land use. Several soil conservation measures have been developed and supported by agricultural research. The available methods of soil conservation are often not used. A cost-benefit analysis for soil conservation measures was carried out in this study. The study demonstrated that there are numerous possibilities to provide soil conservation through farming strategies without accruing high costs. These include soil-conserving tillage, use of organic fertilizers, intercropping plants for fertilization and use of grain legumes in crop rotation. The framework requirements (institutional, financial, political and knowledge management and the flow of information) for compacting land degradation in Russia were pointed out. Additionally, recommendations for agricultural practices, advice, administration and policy could be derived in order to improve on sustainability, and in particular, sustainable land use in the Russian agriculture. As was already indicated above, these measures have higher single operational benefits than associated costs. This should encourage managers to reduce prejudice against environmental specifications and to get them more involved in soil conservation. In the case of the farmers, they have to develop a “soil awareness” for the most important factors of production. Advisory organizations are recommended to improve on communications regarding soil conservation measures and to optimize on research findings implementation. Politicians and the administration must shape the Russian’s soil conservation political framework in order to spread the application of soil conservation measures. This can be achieved through direct support for the application of sustainable technologies. This encourages and leads to increased motivation in the use of environmentally-friendly techniques and practices.