Sustainability and peasant farming systems: Observations from Zimbabwe

Author

B.M. Campbell, P. Bradley and S.E. Carter

Agriculture and Human Values, 1997, vol. 14, issue 2, pages 159-168

Abstract: Many authors suggest the need to define ‘sustainable development’in operational terms. This paper looks at the problems ofattempting to ask whether peasant farming systems are sustainable.Any attempt at sustainability assessment needs to consider issuesrelated to the selected indicators or performance criteria, spatialscale or boundaries, and temporal scale. While there is certainlya need for more rigorous analysis of sustainability issues, thereis limited outlook for an approach based on indicators. Even if themany purely technical problems associated with specific indicatorscan be surmounted, will accurate bio-physical data advance ourknowledge about sustainability? Peasant systems arepolitically-guided management systems, whose boundaries are the state,not the field or the farm. Given the dynamic nature of peasant farmingsystems, where do we draw the line in assessing sustainability?Attempts at sustainability assessment 100 years ago or even 20–30years ago would have been completely superseded by events. We drawattention to the system as a whole, to a web of interconnections,causes and effects – of varying significance over both time andspace. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1997

Keywords: Peasant farming systems; Sustainability; Zimbabwe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (1) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1007358823524 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:14:y:1997:i:2:p:159-168

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10460

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture and Human Values is currently edited by Harvey S. James Jr.

More articles in Agriculture and Human Values from Springer, The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS)
Series data maintained by Sonal Shukla (sonal.shukla@springer.com).

For further details log on website ;
http://econpapers.repec.org/article/spragrhuv/v_3a14_3ay_3a1997_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a159-168.htm