Environmentally Friendly Agriculture: Development Issues in Latvia

Environmentally Friendly Agriculture: Development Issues in Latvia

Ligita Melece

Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economics, Latvia, Riga, Struktoru street 14, LV-1039

Abstract

Organic farming as the method and organic food nowadays plays more and more important role in providing sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural and food production. Organic production should combine environment friendly practices, support a high level of biodiversity, utilize natural processes and ensure appropriate animal welfare standards. The paper analyzes the development and issues of future perspectives of organic farming in the Latvia. Some findings of organic agriculture development are given, estimating the primary information on organic farming in Latvia regarding the trends of the organic farms' number, utilized organic agricultural land and share of organic land in the total agricultural land. Furthermore, the state policy and support for organic farming have been analyzed and compared with European Union (EU) and its Member States. The influence of Latvia's accession to the EU on the organic farming development is assessed. Some issues of further perspectives of development of Latvian organic agriculture are evaluated.

Key words: organic farming, development, policy, support, Latvia.

Introduction

Research problem and relevance. The twenty-first century is called ‘green' century and it faces increasingly serious environmental and natural resources problems, and all countries concerned, particularly in Europe (Willer & Kilcher, 2010), should take actions on the basis of sustainable development strategy, with priority given to food production. In connection with organic farming, sustainability must be understood as ‘functional integrity', or the ability of a system to reproduce itself and thereby survive on a long-term scale (Alrøe, 2008). The global development of organic agriculture as well as the practice and extension of alternative agriculture, whether lower exterior input agriculture are the outcome of the search for the models of sustainable food production and consumption. The organic production also plays important role for further entrepreneurship's development in the rural areas and the forming value added products of agri-food chain. Furthermore, organic farming has particular advantages for small-scale farmers.

The newest definition of organic agriculture has been approved by General Assembly of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in Vignola in June 2008 – "Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity