Farmer participatory procedures for managing and monitoring sustainable farming systems

Abstract

This paper aims to devise a farmer participatory method that not only improves farmer management of natural resources, but also monitors the impact of improvements. This assessment is made in terms of: economic efficiency, biological material recycling, species biodiversity and material input-output balance. Results suggest that high performance in all indicators can occur simultaneously and that economic loss from crop failure does not jeopardise performance in biodiversity and recycling. It is suggested that the methods proposed will help farmers better manage natural resources, though it is admitted that more time series data on more farms is needed to develop better indicators.