Putting the system together
Measuring the sustainability and profitability of farming systems: Quantifying how ‘sustainable’ and profitable one system is versus another has been a challenge faced by our researchers. The concept of measuring the component layers of the farm system over time has led to the development of indices integrating each of the components and time trends.
This work has been extended to working with farmer groups to investigate farm system performance at a scale which has been found to be credible to farmers, and yet small enough to allow for a realistic level of data acquisition by researchers.
Understanding the complexity of sustainable farming is what the Sustainable Farming group is all about. By engaging with farmer groups, we aim to bring about more profitable and environmentally benign farming systems.
