Agriculture & Allied Sciences

Organic Agricultural Practices
Alternatives to Conventional Agricultural Systems

Editor: Kimberly Etingoff

Organic Agricultural Practices

Published. Available now.
Pub Date: September 2014
Hardback Price: see ordering info
Hard ISBN: 9781771880824
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-77463-214-7
E-Book ISBN: 9781498706209
Pages: 418pp w/ index
Binding Type: hardbound / ebook / paperback

Now Available in Paperback


This title includes a number of Open Access chapters.

Organic practices are quickly redefining how agriculture is done around the world, as we come to realize how detrimental conventional agriculture is on local and global environments and economies. This book serves as an overview to some of the important topics in organic agriculture; the volume is broken into several sections which explore the effects of organic practices on crop productivity, the use of biofertilizers, plant cultivars, and compare the environmental impact with conventional agriculture. Also covered are the following topics:
  • Organic agriculture as a strategy to combat many of the negative effects of conventional agriculture, such as pollution and loss of soil fertility.
  • How practices such as the use of biofertilizers can enhance plant growth over the use of chemical fertilizers.
  • Vermicompost and the high potential to benefit land in agricultural use.
  • Organic practices’ associations with increased soil fertility, increased biodiversity, and greenhouse gas sequestration.
  • The negative effects of organic agriculture practices, such as an increase in nitrogen pollution or pests.
This easily accessible reference volume offers a comprehensive guide to this rapidly expanding field. Edited by an experienced writer with experience in both food systems and agricultural sociology, Organic Agricultural Practices: Alternatives to Conventional Agricultural Systems is an authoritative and easy-to-use reference, ideal for both researchers in the field and students who wish to gain an overview to this important field of study.

CONTENTS:
Part I: Organic Agricultural Results Compared with Conventional Agriculture
Chapter 1. Evaluating the Sustainability of a Small-Scale Low-Input Organic Vegetable Supply System in the United Kingdom
Mads V. Markussen, Michal Kulak, Laurence G. Smith, Thomas Nemecek, and Hanne Østergård
Chapter 2. Soil Organisms in Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems
Wagner Bettiol, Raquel Ghini, José Abrahão Haddad Galvão, Marcos Antônio Vieira Ligo, and Jeferson Luiz de Carvalho Mineiro
Chapter 3. Localizing the Nitrogen Imprint of the Paris Food Supply: The Potential of Organic Farming and Changes in Human Diet
G. Billen, J. Garnier, V. Thieu, M. Silvestre, S. Barles, and P. Chatzimpiros
Chapter 4. Comparative Growth Analysis of Callistephus chinensis L. Using Vermicompost and Chemical Fertilizer
Dulal Chandra Das
Chapter 5. Comparison of the Farming System and Carbon Sequestration between Conventional and Organic Rice Production in West Java, Indonesia
Masakazu Komatsuzaki and M. Faiz Syuaib

Part II: Biofertilizers
Chapter 6. Residual Influence of Organic Materials, Crop Residues, and Biofertilizers on Performance of Succeeding Mung Bean in an Organic Rice-Based Cropping System
Mohammadreza Davari, Shri Niwas Sharma, and Mohammad Mirzakhani
Chapter 7. Evaluation of Biofertilizers in Irrigated Rice: Effects on Grain Yield at Different Fertilizer Rate
Niño Paul Meynard Banayo, Pompe C. Sta. Cruz, Edna A. Aguilar, Rodrigo B. Badayos, and Stephan M. Haefele
Chapter 8. Effects of Fertilizer and Plant Density on Yield and Quality of Anise (Pimpinella anisum L.)
Mahdi Faravani, Behjat Salari, Mostafa Heidari, Mohammad Taghi Kashki, and Barat Ali Gholami
Chapter 9. Microbial Diversity of Vermicompost Bacteria that Exhibit Useful Agricultural Traits and Waste Management Potential
Jayakumar Pathma and Natarajan Sakthivel

Part III: Plant Cultivars in Organic Agriculture
Chapter 10. Characteristics Important for Organic Breeding of Vegetable Crops
Jasmina Zdravkovic, Nenad Pavlovic, Zdenka Girek, Milan Zdravkovic, and Dejan Cvikic
Chapter 11. Collaborative Plant Breeding for Organic Agricultural Systems in Developed Countries
Julie C. Dawson, Pierre Rivière, Jean-François Berthellot, Florent Mercier, Patrick de Kochko, Nathalie Galic, Sophie Pin, Estelle Serpolay, Mathieu Thomas, Simon Giuliano, and Isabelle Goldringer
Chapter 12. Phenotypic Changes in Different Spinach Varieties Grown and Selected under Organic Conditions
Estelle Serpolay, Nicolas Schermann, Julie Dawson, Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren, Isabelle Goldringer, and Véronique Chable

Part IV: Environmental Effects of Organic Agriculture
Chapter 13. Soil Enzyme Activities, Microbial Communities, and Carbon and Nitrogen Availability in Organic Agroecosystems Across an Intensively-Managed Agricultural Landscape
Timothy M. Bowles, Veronica Acosta-Martínez, Francisco Calderón, and Louise E. Jackson
Chapter 14. Nitrate Leaching from Intensive Organic Farms to Groundwater
O. Dahan, A. Babad, N. Lazarovitch, E. E. Russak, and D. Kurtzman
Chapter 15. Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crops for Sustainable Agriculture
Bertrand Hirel, Thierry Tétu, Peter J. Lea, and Frédéric Dubois


About the Authors / Editors:
Editor: Kimberly Etingoff
Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Kimberly Etingoff’s background includes city and regional planning, farming, food systems programming, sociology, and urban geography. She studied at the University of Rochester, New York, and Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, and has done extensive field work with food systems and agricultural sociology. She has been writing and editing academic and educational books on topics such as nutrition, farming, and aspects of sociology for more than ten years.




Follow us for the latest from Apple Academic Press:
Copyright © 2025 Apple Academic Press Inc. All Rights Reserved.