Smart Management of Conservative, Organic and Integrated Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is targeted towards achieve food security, while maximizing the socio-economic benefits and minimizing environmental drawbacks. Among sustainable farming practices, organic and integrated farming systems are widely recognized as effective farming systems, in terms of global warming mitigation and contrast to soil desertification. As a matter of fact, certified organic land in Europe has increased by almost 75% in the last decade.

Globally, the increasing demand for environmental sustainability, safety and food quality surely encourage farmers to change their agricultural strategies moving from “conventional” (i.e., intensive, market-oriented, agro-industrial systems) to integrated and organic farming. The first step of this transaction is a reduction in the use of external chemical inputs (e.g. mineral fertilizers, synthetic pesticides). However, both organic and integrated farming require a complete shift in the agricultural management approach, to fully express their potential.