The Role of Soil Quality Criteria in Assessing Farm Performance

Neil Southorn

No 24301, 14th Congress, Perth, Western Australia, August 10-15, 2003 from International Farm Management Association

Abstract: The environmental impact of industrial agriculture is under close scrutiny, by Governments, concerned citizens, and farmers. This paper discusses the need to incorporate environmental factors in measures of farm performance, as part of the continuous review of long term sustainability. The concept of natural capital allows natural resources to be considered in similar ways to other assets of the farm business. It is suggested that soil quality criteria, selected to match the site characteristics and purpose of the landowner, be included in these measures, despite continuing disagreement about the concept and difficulties in its application. The intuitive appeal of a soil quality paradigm is the potential to integrate the many dimensions of sustainability, encouraging responsible land management. It is further suggested that soil structure is a key indicator of soil quality, and methods for its assessment are summarised.

Keywords: Farm Management; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/24301/files/cp03so01.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ifma03:24301

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.24301

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 14th Congress, Perth, Western Australia, August 10-15, 2003 from International Farm Management Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search (aesearch@umn.edu).