شاخص هاي پايداري، ابزاري براي كمي كردن مفاهيم كشاورزي بوم شناختي

Sustainability Indices: Tools for Quantifying Concepts of Ecological Agriculture

Recent trends indicate that agrotechnological inventions during last decades have resulted in unfavourable consequences which are reflectant of human activities. So, there is a need to shift dominant thinking in conventional agriculture toward a sustainability - based thinking. Ecological agriculture is an alternative for conventional agroecosystems, and based on sustainability. The principles of ecological agriculture are using biological approach, maintaining matter and nutrient cycling in soils, utilization of complex biological interactions and developing self - reliant and self - resilient agroecosystems. In this article, the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development have described and quantifying and application of sustainability indices which have designated in Iran and other countries are discussed. The essay shows that sustainability indices will become an important element in the incoming agroecosystems.