Publikationen rund um das Thema Permakultur-Landwirtschaft
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121 Publikationen gefunden
Masterarbeit
Mai 2019
Universität Bern
Mila Susanne Laager
In der Schweiz werden die Ansätze der Permakultur, trotz ihrem Potenzial für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung in der Landwirtschaft, kaum angewandt. Aus diesem Grund soll mit dieser Arbeit nach Handlungsoptionen gefragt werden, welche die Förderung der Permakultur in der Schweizer Landwirtschaft unterstützen könnten. Diese Fragestellung sowie der Forschungsprozess wurden transdisziplinär entwickelt. Dies bedeutet, dass Akteur*innen ausserhalb der Wissenschaft, in die Gestaltung der Arbeit und die Beantwortung der Forschungsfragen von Anfang an miteinbezogen wurden. Ein erster Untersuchungsschritt hat die Übereinstimmungen der Ziele, die von Permakulturakteur*innen verfolgt werden, mit den politisch definierten Nachhaltigkeitszielen nachgewiesen und so diese Grundannahme bestätigt, die aus der Literatur der agrarökologischen Forschung abgeleitet worden war. Für die weitere Forschung wurde das Konzept des landwirtschaftlichen Wissenssystems genutzt, das besagt, dass Innovation in der Landwirtschaft eng an Wissen gekoppelt ist. Akteur*innen des Landwirtschaftlichen Wissenssystems wurden nach der Herkunft ihres Permakultur-Wissens befragt. So konnten Personen identifiziert und interviewt werden, die Wissen zu Permakultur in der Landwirtschaft erarbeiten, weitergeben und anwenden. Es wurden Fragen nach der Definition des Begriffes Permakultur, den Potenzialen, Herausforderungen und dem Wissensbedarf für die Förderung der Permakultur in der Schweizer Landwirtschaft beantwortet. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen, wurden an einem Fokusgruppentreffen durch Akteur*innen Handlungsoptionen formuliert, diskutiert und bewertet.
Artikel
April 2019
Encyclopedia of Ecology (Second Edition) Volume 4, 2019, Pages 559-567
Kevin Morel, François Léger, Rafter Sass Ferguson
Permaculture is an international grassroots network founded in Australia in the late 1970s that focuses on the sustainable design of human settlement. This decentralized and little institutionalized movement disseminates a distinct worldview, design system, and set of associated practices. Permaculture׳s central concept is that humanity can reduce or replace energy and pollution-intensive industrial technologies, especially in agriculture, through intensive use of biological resources and thoughtful, holistic, design, patterned after natural ecosystems. To create autonomous, resilient, and equitable living spaces permaculture proposes pragmatic methodological principles informed by scientific ecology, traditional indigenous knowledge, observation, and experimentation. In the design of farming systems, permaculturists promote complex multistrata polycultures involving perennial plants, crop-animal integration, high levels of habitat diversity, whole-landscape water management, and sustainable on-site energy production. Beyond scientifically-informed ecological design, permaculture encourages practitioners to develop emotional and subjective links with the earth, and develop their imagination and creativity as valuable parts of the design process. The originality and specificity of permaculture are discussed, along with critics, controversies and research perspectives.
Artikel
Februar 2019
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 2020;35(3):342-351
Sarah Hirschfeld, Rene Van Acker
Abstract Permaculture is an international sustainability movement and agroecological design system. Using ecological management practices and locally-adapted solutions, permaculture claims to benefit several ecosystem services including provisioning of diverse crop yields, regulating hydrological cycles and soil quality, supporting wildlife conservation, and biocontrol of pests, weeds and diseases. Despite limited attention by the academic community, grassroots permaculture adoption has been reported in at least 45 countries worldwide thus creating a unique opportunity for in-situ research. This study characterized plant communities on ten applied permaculture farms and found that independent adopters consistently implemented predominately perennial species (73% of species richness), polycultures (mean 42 crop species per site), and zone design. These practices resulted in commercial farms characterized by perennialization, crop diversification, landscape heterogeneity and nature conservation. Grassroots adopters were remarkably consistent in their interpretation and application of an unregulated agricultural model suggesting that such movements may exert considerable influence over local agroecological transitions. While this characterization does not provide an exhaustive depiction of applied permaculture, it is recommended that future research acknowledge these traits as a minimum for study designs investigating the effects of permaculture management on ecosystem function.
Thesis
Januar 2019
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Lieve Borremans
In this chapter we introduce AF as a traditional farming system that has been reinvented. We elaborate on how AF systems contribute to addressing challenges in modern agriculture, how AF can be interpreted as a transformative solution, and how AF systems in Europe are currently supported through the Common Agricultural Policy. Afterwards we zoom in on AF adoption and development in Flanders, which is the case study this thesis focuses on. We conclude with the general objective of this thesis, which is to gain a better understanding of the current implementation gap with respect to AF by investigating AF adoption and development making use of a farming systems research approach. This overall objective is translated into four research questions, which are answered in the course of this thesis.
Thesis
September 2018
Kevin Morel
In the context of the environmental and social challenges of the Anthropocene, microfarms are organic market gardens which are questioning the principles of agricultural modernisation. They are characterised by a high level of crop diversity on small acreages, low motorisation, holistic ecological approach and marketing through short supply chains. My PhD work examined the viability of these atypical farming systems which are raising an increasing interest in industrialised countries. It was based on the study of 20 cases in rural Northern France and 10 cases in the urban context of London. An inductive approach was carried out combining qualitative analysis of interviews with farmers and quantitative modelling based on field data.A conceptual framework was developed to analyse farmers’ strategic choices in the light of their life project embracing various aspirations where ethics and subjectivity played a central role. The fulfilment of these aspirations is determinant for the viability of these fams. A stochastic simulation model of income and workload was created to explore the chances of economic viability of contrasted microfarms scenarios integrating technical, commercial and investment strategies. Simulations were run for the French and London context and were discussed with stakeholders. Although viability chances vary among scenarios, this work shows that microfarms can be viable.
Artikel
September 2018
Sustainability 2018, 10(9), 3218
University of Koblenz-Landau, Technical University Braunschweig
Julius Krebs, Sonja Bach
Modern industrial agriculture is largely responsible for environmental problems, such as biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and alteration of biogeochemical cycles or greenhouse gas emission. Agroecology, as a scientific discipline as well as an agricultural practice and movement, emerged as a response to these problems, with the goal to create a more sustainable agriculture. Another response was the emergence of permaculture, a design system based on design principles, as well as a framework for the methods of ecosystem mimicry and complex system optimization. Its emphasis, being on a conscious design of agroecosystems, is the major difference to other alternative agricultural approaches. Agroecology has been a scientific discipline for a few decades already, but only recently have design principles for the reorganization of faming systems been formulated, whereas permaculture practitioners have long been using design principles without them ever being scrutinized. Here, we review the scientific literature to evaluate the scientific basis for the design principles proposed by permaculture co-originator, David Holmgren. Scientific evidence for all twelve principles will be presented. Even though permaculture principles describing the structure of favorable agroecosystems were quite similar to the agroecological approach, permaculture in addition provides principles to guide the design, implementation, and maintenance of resilient agroecological systems.
Artikel
August 2018
Front. Environ. Sci., 30 October 2018
de Tombeur F, Sohy V, Chenu C, Colinet G, Cornelis J-T
The limitations of conventional agriculture have accelerated the need for a transition to an environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural model. In this regard, the role played by soil organic matter (SOM) is key. Here, we aimed to study the impact of permaculture and biointensive micro-gardening practices, characterized by intensive cultivation, the use of large and localized organic inputs and the non-use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, on soil physicochemical properties and SOM distribution in aggregate-size fractions. The physicochemical properties of soils in permaculture farming implemented for 7 years were compared with a soil under pasture. A soil experiencing conventional agriculture practices in similar geopedoclimatic conditions was simultaneously studied. Soils were separated into four aggregate-size fractions, into which organic carbon (OC) concentrations have been measured. The major soil physicochemical properties were measured on the bulk soils. The concentrations of total OC and nitrogen (N) in bulk soils were higher under permaculture practices, due to significant inputs of manure and compost, resulting in higher concentrations of the bioavailable nutrients Ca, Mg, K, and P. The permaculture practices sustained a level of macroaggregation similar to that of the pasture, and well above that of conventional practices. OC concentrations increased in the 250–2,000, 50–250 μm and occluded 50–250 μm fractions, but not in the <50 μm fraction compared to pasture. This can be explained by the too short duration of permaculture practices for allowing the decomposition of coarse particulate organic matter (POM) into fine sized SOM that is more associated with mineral particles. The higher OC stocks in permaculture are therefore mainly governed by the coarse POM fraction. Our results show that permaculture/biointensive micro-gardening practices enhance SOM storage and modify the distribution of SOM in aggregate-size fractions, while substantially improving nutrient bioavailability and suggest that these practices strongly affect soil properties. The effects of permaculture practices on soil properties would certainly vary depending on geopedoclimatic context, justifying the need to implement the approach for other soil types. Finally, we recommend to compare biogeochemical budget and nutrients use efficiency of permaculture gardening with conventional horticulture gardening.
Artikel
Oktober 2017
Agroforest Syst 92, 285–299 (2018)
Louisiana State University, The Pennsylvania State University
Andrea De Stefano & Michael G. Jacobson
Agroforestry systems may play an important role in mitigating climate change, having the ability to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in plant parts and soil. A meta-analysis was carried out to investigate changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks at 0–15, 0–30, 0–60, 0–100, and 0 ≥ 100 cm, after land conversion to agroforestry. Data was collected from 53 published studies. Results revealed a significant decrease in SOC stocks of 26 and 24% in the land-use change from forest to agroforestry at 0–15 and 0–30 cm respectively. The transition from agriculture to agroforestry significantly increased SOC stock of 26, 40, and 34% at 0–15, 0–30, and 0–100 cm respectively. The conversion from pasture/grassland to agroforestry produced significant SOC stock increases at 0–30 cm (9%) and 0–30 cm (10%). Switching from uncultivated/other land-uses to agroforestry increased SOC by 25% at 0–30 cm, while a decrease was observed at 0–60 cm (23%). Among agroforestry systems, significant SOC stocks increases were reported at various soil horizons and depths in the land-use change from agriculture to agrisilviculture and to silvopasture, pasture/grassland to agrosilvopastoral systems, forest to silvopasture, forest plantation to silvopasture, and uncultivated/other to agrisilviculture. On the other hand, significant decreases were observed in the transition from forest to agrisilviculture, agrosilvopastoral and silvopasture systems, and uncultivated/other to silvopasture. Overall, SOC stocks increased when land-use changed from less complex systems, such as agricultural systems. However, heterogeneity, inconsistencies in study design, lack of standardized sampling procedures, failure to report variance estimators, and lack of important explanatory variables, may have influenced the outcomes.
Konferenz Artikel
Oktober 2017
Immo Fiebrig
The presentation was part of workshop No. 4 with the aim of finding pathways for collaboration between the representative groups of permaculture and agroecology in Europe.
Bachelorarbeit
August 2017
Peter Kriegel
Die vorliegende Arbeit soll eine möglichst detaillierte Erfassung des gegenwärtigen ökologischen Zustands eines neu angelegten Agroforstsystems beschreiben. Das System wurde auf einer Fläche begründet, welche über Jahre hinweg zur kultivation von Mais für Biogasanlagen genutzt wurde. Diese Bachelorarbeit dient dem Ziel eine langjährige Untersuchung zu ermöglichen, welche den ökologischen Wandel nach wechselnder Bewirtschaftungsform beschreiben kann. Zum Erreichen dieses Ziels wurden bodenkundliche-, vegetative- und faunistische Elemente untersucht und anhand wichtiger Indikatoren interdisziplinär diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen typisch degradierten Ackerstandort und weisen auf mögliche Vorteile von gesteigerter Biodiversität und dem damit zusammenhängenden ökologischen Wert der Fläche hin, welche durch die Anlage eines Agroforstsystems erzielt werden können.
Artikel
Juli 2017
Koert van Bemmel, Katharina Grimm, Sandra van der Maas, PJ Beers
As western European agriculture students in the year 2017, the first three authors of this report live in a world that reaps the full benefits of the successes of industrial agriculture. We do not grow our own food; in fact we grew up having nothing to do with food production. We have never experienced hunger and have no idea what food insecurity feels like. We cannot even imagine supermarkets ever running out of anything. Our situation is uniquely luxurious. Thanks for that, and good job everyone!
Through this unprecedented situation of abundance and stability, we have the luxurious position to be able to look at the existing systems surrounding us, not from a perspective of need, but from one of purpose. And as students of agriculture, we wonder what the purpose of it actually is. Does agriculture only serve to satisfy our need to eat, or does it encompass more functions?
The Industrial Revolution, amongst other things, has provided most of the world with sufficient, safe food. Even more than enough, in many developed places. Too little of it in other places, but most agree: we are producing enough food to feed every human being on earth. It is the practice of politics and international trade that function unfavourably for some.
Artikel
März 2017
Science Progress (2017), 100(1), 80 – 129
Christopher J. Rhodes
A review is made of the current state of agriculture, emphasising issues of soil erosion and dependence on fossil fuels, in regard to achieving food security for a relentlessly enlarging global population. Soil has been described as “the fragile, living skin of the Earth”, and yet both its aliveness and fragility have all too often been ignored in the expansion of agriculture across the face of the globe. Since it is a pivotal component in a global nexus of soil-water-air-energy, how we treat the soil can impact massively on climate change – with either beneficial or detrimental consequences, depending on whether the soil is preserved or degraded. Regenerative agriculture has at its core the intention to improve the health of soil or to restore highly degraded soil, which symbiotically enhances the quality of water, vegetation and land-productivity. By using methods of regenerative agriculture, it is possible not only to increase the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) in existing soils, but to build new soil. This has the effect of drawing down carbon from the atmosphere, while simultaneously improving soil structure and soil health, soil fertility and crop yields, water retention and aquifer recharge – thus ameliorating both flooding and drought, and also the erosion of further soil, since runoff is reduced. Since food production on a more local scale is found to preserve the soil and its quality, urban food production should be seen as a significant potential contributor to regenerative agriculture in the future, so long as the methods employed are themselves ‘regenerative’. If localisation is to become a dominant strategy for dealing with a vastly reduced use of fossil fuels, and preserving soil quality – with increased food production in towns and cities – it will be necessary to incorporate integrated (‘systems’) design approaches such as permaculture and the circular economy (which minimise and repurpose ‘waste’) within the existing urban infrastructure. In addition to growing food in urban space, such actions as draught-proofing and thermally insulating existing building stock, and living/working on a more local scale, would serve well to cut our overall energy consumption. In order to curb our use of fossil fuels, methods for reducing overall energy use must be considered at least equally important to expanding low-carbon energy production. In synopsis, it is clear that only by moving from the current linear, ‘take, make, dispose (waste-creation)’ model for resource-consumption, to the systemic, circular alternative of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle, regenerate’, are we likely to meet demands for future generations.