Organic EprintsOrganic Agriculture and Food AvailabilityChristineZundelauthorLukasKilcherauthorIntroduction Food availability, access, stability and utilization are all part of the multi-dimensional nature of food security. The “availability” aspect, discussed here, refers to the availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or inputs. Productivity is usually considered the ultimate benchmark when comparing the performance of agricultural systems. For example, those involved in agricultural research and development want to know how much yield would be reduced if conventional agriculture were converted to organic agriculture. While rigorous research has been done in developed countries to address this question, scientific evidence from developing countries is rare. This paper compiles the information available on productivity of organic systems and draws on current experiences to make assumptions. However, measurement of productivity alone is not sufficient to evaluate the performance of an agricultural system. When natural resources are limited and production decisions are made on the basis of the economic resources available, resource efficiency is as important a criterion as productivity for evaluating a system’s performance. Thus, this paper discusses adapted technologies considers the achievements of organic agriculture in terms of both productivity and resource efficiency. Specific attention also is given to peri-urban agriculture. In terms of the high and rapidly increasing population density in urban areas, peri-urban agriculture has the potential to minimize transportation of food products and organic waste, yet supply food to a large part of the population. Finally, the paper discusses how organic agriculture makes diverse food available at household, community, national and international levels. Furthermore, a summary of the organic food market is provided with most recent figures on market size and available organic food. Food security, food quality and human health Biodiversity and ecosystem services2007Conference paper, poster, etc.

Deposit Agreement

In depositing this eprint (a collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata), I grant Organic Eprints the right to make it permanently available on-line, with open access to all or in accordance with any access restrictions that I have specified. (Removal of eprints from the public archive is strongly discouraged, but will be granted upon request.)
I understand that Organic Eprints does not assume any responsibility if there is any breach of copyright in distributing these files or metadata.

For work being deposited by its own first author: I declare that this eprint is my own intellectual property and that I have the right to make it available in Organic Eprints in the manner chosen.

For work being deposited by someone other than its first author: I declare that I have gained the proper permissions from someone with the right to make this eprint available in Organic Eprints in the manner chosen - or that the material is in the public domain.

Clicking on the deposit button indicates your agreement to these terms. If you do not wish to deposit the eprint right now you can return to your user area, where you will find this eprint in your workspace. You can then later edit, clone and deposit it.