Sustainable agriculture research has been widely discussed recently. It is a time of rapid change as farmers, industrialists, researchers and educators adapt to new ideas. The objectives of this overview are to identify the course that research has taken to date and discussed, largely by example, the process that will be needed to maintain the rapid pace of discovery that has occurred over the past few years. The starting point for a more ecologically oriented agriculture is the development and application of new, integrated production systems. Instead of aiming at maximizing the production of a single crop with high inputs of energy and agro-chemicals, such systems should make optimal, sustainable use of available natural resources. Integrating crop livestock (including fish) and tree production can minimize the loss of natural nutrients and pollution. Instead of relying almost exclusively on using chemical fertilizer to replenish soil, nutrients taken out of the system should be recycled through organic waste such as crop residues, livestock manure, recycling of agro-industrial by-products and compost from urban refuse, and from the use of green manure and other nitrogen-binding crops. Instead of wide spread use of chemical pesticides for the elimination of pests, diseases and weeds, integrated plant protection should be based to the extent possible on biological measures, including the use of resistant crop varieties, natural enemies of pests, crop rotation and intercropping.
