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The sustainability of phosphorus (P) fertilization in cropping systems is an important issue because P resources on earth are limited and excess P in soils can lead to ecological damage such as eutrophication. Worldwide, there is an increasing interest in organic farming (OF) due to its good environmental performance. However, organic cropping systems are suspected of generating negative P budgets, which questions their ability to provide sustainable P management. The design of agricultural systems at a broader scale also largely influences the shape of the P cycle and the possibility of its recycling to cropland. In this context, the aim of this study was to assess the relative influence of (i) OF versus conventional farming (CF) practices and (ii) the structure of agro-food systems at the regional scale, on P cycling and availability on cropland. For this purpose, we examined P budgets and soil P status of 14 organic and conventional cropping systems in commercial farms located in the Paris Basin. Available P was analyzed using two different methods: resin P and Olsen P. The results revealed no significant differences between CF and OF in available P stocks. Phosphorus budgets were always negative and significantly lower in CF systems, indicating that P was mined from soil reserves. In parallel, we estimated P budgets over cropland in all French regions for two distinct periods, 2004-2014 and 1970-1981, and showed that specialized intensive cropping systems in the Paris Basin led to a high, positive P budget in the latter period. However, this trend was reversed in the 2004-2014 period due to a sharp reduction of the mineral fertilizer application rate. The shift from very high P budgets to much lower and sometimes negative P budgets would not be a threat for agriculture due to the current high level of Olsen P in these regions, which was consistent with our measurements at the plot scale. Overall, these results suggest that OF would not lead to more P deficiency than CF. Instead, they emphasize that sustainable P management not only depends on farmers' choices but mainly on the structure and specialization of agro-food systems., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Low-intensity, diversified agricultural land use is needed to counteract the current decline in agrobiodiversity. Landscape ecology tools can support agrobiodiversity assessment efforts by investigating biodiversity-related ecological functions (pattern–process paradigm). In this study, we test a toolkit of landscape ecology analyses to compare different farm management models: polyculture agroforestry (POLY) vs. conventional monoculture crop management (CV). Farm-scale analyses are applied on temperate alluvial sites (Po Plain, Northern Italy), as part of a broader multi-scale analytical approach. We analyze the landscape ecological quality through landscape matrix composition, patch shape complexity, diversity, metastability, and connectivity indices. We assess farm differences through multivariate analyses and t-tests and test a farm classification tool, namely, a scoring system based on the relative contributions of POLY farms, considering their deviation from a local CV baseline. The results showed a separate ecological behavior of the two models. The POLY model showed better performance, with significant positive contributions to the forest and semi-natural component equipment and diversity; agricultural component diversity, metastability; total farm diversity, metastability, connectivity, and circuitry. A reference matrix for the ecological interpretation of the results is provided. Farm classification provides a quick synthesis of such contributions, facilitating farm comparisons. The methodology has a low cost and quickly provides information on ongoing ecological processes resulting from specific farm management practices; it is intended to complement field-scale assessments and could help to meet the need for a partially outcome-based assessment of good farm practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pivotal role of farmers' cropland conservation behavior (CCB) in advancing green agricultural practices is well-recognized. This paper underscores the critical role of stable land tenure in enhancing farmers' CCB, exemplified by the practice of mulch recycling. Drawing on a survey of 349 cotton farmers in Xinjiang, Northwest China, it offers a systematic examination of how land tenure stability influences CCB and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal a significant positive correlation between land tenure stability and CCB. Notably, this relationship is mediated by the facilitation of land mortgages, wherein written contracts and extended land tenure durations enhance farmers' participation in land mortgages, thereby bolstering CCB. Furthermore, the stabilizing effect of land tenure on CCB also mitigates the negative impacts of risk aversion and time preference. The study additionally highlights the differential effects of land tenure stability based on farm size and technical training; its facilitative role in CCB is more pronounced among larger-scale farmers and those engaged in technical training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the relationships between farmers' land-use and management decisions, and plant diversity is a challenge. It requires characterization of plant diversity within and between fields and investigation of land-use allocation to fields. To analyse how grassland functional composition [mean plant trait and functional diversity index ( FD)] varies according to scale (field, land-use type: cutting, grazing, farm), grasslands were characterized according to leaf dry-matter content (leaf DM) and FD computed from leaf DM values. A leaf DM-α FD framework was used to analyse how leaf DM-based plant strategies were distributed at land-use type and farm scales (β FD). The study was conducted on eight dairy and beef farms (169 grasslands) differing in their stocking rate. At field and land-use type scales, leaf DM was significantly decreased and increased with N fertilizer rate and field elevation respectively. It was significantly higher for grazing than for cutting. At the farm scale, the main differences between farms resulted from differences in plant strategy distribution between land-use types within a farm and among farms for a given land-use type in relation to management intensity. Farms that contributed the most to α FD had the highest stocking rate, and those which had the most contrasting grasslands for management intensity had the highest β FD. Management practices need to be examined at a land-use type scale for evaluating the within- and between-field plant functional compositions. By contrast, the value of the analysis was reduced if data were collected and averaged at the farm scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key strategy in reducing ecological damage from livestock manure is to improve farms' adoption of sustainable manure management technologies (SMMTs). However, designing policies to promote SMMTs' adoption is challenging due to the heterogeneity in farm scale and technology characteristics. Based on a questionnaire-based survey of 686 hog farms in the Poyang Lake Region—one of the biggest ecological wetlands in Asia and the largest freshwater lakes in China, this paper adopted a multivariate probit model to empirically investigate the impact of farm scale and technology characteristics on SMMTs' adoption. The results show that there is significant heterogeneity in the SMMTs' adoption across farm scales. Small-scale farms are more likely to adopt land-intensive and labor-intensive SMMTs, while medium-scale and large-scale farms are more likely to adopt capital-intensive and knowledge-intensive SMMTs. The main determinants of the adoption heterogeneity can be explained by the characteristics of farm and technology in labor, capital, land, and knowledge. Small-scale farms' decision to adopt SMMTs is mostly associated with labor availability and land area; variables expressing capital constraints have the highest effect on medium-scale farms' decision to adopt SMMTs, while land area is the key constraint for large-scale farms to choose SMMTs. We suggest that policies designed to promote SMMTs' adoption need to be carefully planned and tailored to different scales of farms rather than being standardized. Image 1 • A multivariate probit model was used to investigate the impact of farm scale and technology characteristics on SMMTs' adoption. • Small-scale farms are more likely to adopt land and labor-intensive SMMTs, while medium and large-scale farms are more likely to adopt capital and knowledge-intensive SMMTs. • Small-scale farms' decision to adopt SMMTs is associated with labor availability and land area; capital constraints have the highest effect on medium-scale farms' decision to adopt SMMTs, while land area is the key constraint for large-scale farms to adopt SMMTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to evaluate a practical method for estimating nitrogen emissions on the scale of a group of farms, to be used in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The method rests on the estimation of nitrogen inputs and outputs to calculate the surplus of the annual nitrogen balance on the scale of a farm. The different gaseous nitrogen losses (NH3, NO, N2O, N3) are then estimated for each livestock or cropping system. The leaching losses in the form of NO3 are assumed to correspond to the surplus of the apparent nitrogen balance to which are added the atmospheric depositions, minus the gaseous losses. The feasibility of this method was studied on 24 farms in the Naizin catchment area (Brittany, France). An analysis of the sensitivity of NO3 estimates to different parameters used to calculate gaseous losses was carried out. Lastly the robustness of the NO3 estimates was examined by comparing them with measurements of NO3 collected within this catchment area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]