Organic Farming in Sustainable Food Production

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue of the journal Sustainability titled “Organic farming in sustainable food production”.

Introduction and Objectives: Agricultural production during the last several decades has been increasing in the developed countries, accompanied by the increased consumption of fertilizers and pesticides. The rising global trade with agricultural products and the improved access to fertilizers and pesticides have changed agricultural systems. Worldwide green revolution technologies have emerged as the major food production system, but these technologies, at their worst, increased inequality, worsened absolute poverty and resulted in environmental degradation. Presently, a proactive approach known as organic agriculture, which is a combination of innovations, art, science, and business, can help to promote environmental gains and ensure fair relationships along with improved quality of life for all involved in it. It is an agricultural system that uses ecologically based pest controls and biological fertilizers derived largely from animal and plant wastes as well as nitrogen-fixing cover crops. It is completely dependent on natural processes, biodiversity and cycles that are understood by local farmers in their conditions, without making use of external inputs that have negative effects. These practices enhance productivity by the slow release of essential nutrients to plants, and maintain soil biological status without causing any adverse effects on the environment. Ensuring food security, mitigating poverty and conserving essential resources are crucial goals, and are achieved through organic farming without deteriorating natural resources. As compared to conventional agriculture, organic farming produces cost-effective food products that are free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, while providing employment opportunities and economic benefits to local communities. Although the methods applied in organic farming are more costly and labor-intensive, they prove to be more cost-effective in the long run. Since organic agriculture fixes more greenhouse gases in the soil, it enables farmers across the globe to help solve the ongoing climate disaster by switching to organic methods. Organic systems give higher immunity to animals and increased disease resistance to plants, in some cases resulting in a 50% reduction in mycotoxins in crops and a longer shelf life. Organic foods have more plant secondary metabolites, higher micronutrient content, and more conjugated fatty acids, which are associated with better human health with lower incidence of non-communicable diseases. Organic agriculture merges modernism, custom and science to manage shared surroundings, encouraging fair relationships and high quality of life for everyone involved.

Organic agriculture needs to be examined thoroughly regarding the environmental effects of the entire production system and in the context of evaluating different components of agro-ecosystems. A better understanding of organic farming, including its concepts, evolution, process and subsystems, to nurture sustainability and challenges are the need of the hour. This Special Issue aims to discuss organic farming and its potential in sustainable food production, focusing on its scientific background, highlighting its concepts and application in related fields; as well as the retrospective and prospective evaluation of agriculture systems to determine means of ensuring sustainable agricultural development, including improving global food security.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Retrospective and prospective evaluation of environmental footprints of organic farming;
• Comparison of different conventional agricultural technologies with organic farming in sustaining food production;
• Challenges in the use of organic agriculture and food chains;
• Critical points of organic agriculture and means to identify and strengthen them;
• Adoption of organic-agriculture-promoting technologies and related challenges in present agriculture and food chains.

Dr. Manzer Hussain Siddiqui
Dr. R.K. Gupta
Dr. Sohan Singh Walia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• food security
• mitigating poverty
• environmental gains and employment opportunities.