AN ECONOMIC AND PRODUCTIVITY COMPARISON OF ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FARMING IN SASKATCHEWAN Jennifer

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AN ECONOMIC AND PRODUCTIVITY COMPARISON OF
ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FARMING IN
SASKATCHEWANJennifer Bromm and Brad Wilson

• INTRODUCTION
• Organic farming has been around since farming
  first began, before the invention of chemicals
  and synthetic fertilizers organic farming was the
  only way to farm. During the beginning of the
  1900s farming began to change as a result of two
  main factors. First, urban development throughout
  the prairies began to increase as the population
  grew. Larger urban centers require more food
  therefore farming had to become more productive
  and efficient (Halweil, 1999). Secondly there
  was the introduction of new farm equipment, new
  farming techniques as well as the addition of
  farm chemicals and fertilizers, many of which
  were developed after WWII. These new innovations
  not only changed the way people farmed, they
  changed the way people viewed farming as a whole.
  Farming turned into a business called
  conventional/industrial farming. This type of
  farming requires high inputs from fossil fuels,
  chemicals, and fertilizers. The transition into a
  business instead of a way of life has resulted in
  a drive to become more efficient regardless of
  the cost to the environment or more specifically
  the soil and at the same time these changes have
  not come without a price. Changes in food
  quality, environmental pollution and the loss of
  small farming communities have all come as a
  result this transition. At the same time there
  has been a re-emergence of organic farming across
  Canada and the rest of the world. Organic farming
  not only changes a farmers attitude towards the
  land it builds a relationship with it. The
  National Organic Standards Board (1995, 2) wrote
  the following definition about organic farming
• Organic agriculture is an ecological production
  management system that promotes and enhances
  biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil
  biological activity. It is based on minimal use
  of off-farm inputs and on management practices
  that restore, maintain and enhance ecological
  harmony. The principal guidelines for organic
  production are to use materials and practices
  that enhance the ecological balance of natural
  systems and that integrate the parts of the
  farming system into an ecological whole. The
  primary goal of organic agriculture is to
  optimize the health and productivity of
  interdependent communities of soil life, plants
  animals and people.
• The purpose of this study is to provide evidence
  that organic farming is more financially
  successful and equally as productive as
  conventional farming. In addition the soil
  systems of both conventional and organic farming
  techniques will be examined for potential
  indicators of sustainability.
• METHODS
• Of the 35 organic farmers that received a survey,
  14 were completed and returned. Almost all of
  the organic farms were located in the black zone
  as a result it was decided that the comparison
  between the two farming methods would be done
  based on black soil statistics. There were no
  official organic farming statistics to be found
  with Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food.
  Therefore an organic farm survey was created
  based on the formatting of conventional farm crop
  planning guide. The organic survey requested all
  the information necessary to determine the
  expenses and revenues of putting the seed into
  the ground on a per acre basis. SOCA provided a
  producer list and from it 35 organic farmers were
  mailed surveys and 14 were returned. From the 14
  returned surveys approximately 50 individual
  organic fields were used for the study. Based on
  the fact that the majority of the farmers were
  from the black soils it was decided that all the
  organic data would be averaged and compared to
  just the black soil conventional data.
• In order to compare the two types of farming a
  four-year rotation was created. Several farmers
  were consulted for a rotation that would be
  feasible for both farming methods. The rotation
  was somewhat restricted in that the crops had to
  be based on the results from the organic farm
  survey. For that reason it was decided that
  based on the survey information and the
  consultation with farmers the basic rotation used
  in this study would be flax, wheat, oats and
  barley.
• The conventional statistics on yields, market
  prices, and expenses for the 2000 growing season
  were taken from a crop planning guide put out by
  Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (2000).
  Conventional grain prices were determined by a
  survey that Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
  prepared and distributed to farm suppliers. The
  results of these surveys were averaged to find
  the prices for the 2000 season. The fertilizer
  rates were based on the recommended levels for
  each specific crop. While the chemical costs
  were based on estimates that 50 of the
  conventional fields would be sprayed for wildoats
  and 100 would be sprayed for broadleaf weeds.
  Additional statistics were taken from crop
  insurance records. In the crop-planning guide
  there were three different methods of seeding.
  There are fallow seeded, seeded stubble and
  direst seeded. All three of these seeding
  methods were included in the study as each method
  results in somewhat different yields and
  conventional farmers use all three methods. It
  should also be mentioned that all the information
  in the crop-planning guide was calculated on a
  per acre basis.

Expenses Market Price Market prices for organic
products have maintained a high economic value as
a result of the market demand. On the other hand
the conventional market has continued to decline
causing conventional farmers to re-examine
organics due to the higher economic value. Ikerd
(1999) determined that the low economic return is
a result of industrialization. The above results
also indicate that the largest difference in
expenses between organic and conventional
farming methods is a consequence of the chemical
and fertilizer use by the conventional farmers.
Table 1 illustrates the differences in expenses
between conventional and organic farm inputs. As
a percentage the difference between conventional
expenses for flax ranges between 52 and 77 more
than organic expenses. The percentage difference
in expenses for growing conventional wheat and
oats was approximately the same as the flax. It
is interesting to note that as the conventional
farmer reduces the amount of time spent working
the field through practices like fallow the
greater the expense per acre. The farmers that
continuous crop by either method (seeded stubble
or direct seeded) end up applying greater amounts
of fertilizer and chemical. The use of pesticides
and fertilizers has not only increased the costs
a conventional farmer puts towards one acre of
land it has also caused conventional farmers to
become specialized. Originally standardized
application of fertilizers and chemicals gave
conventional farmers the ability to become more
productive and therefore move away from organic
farming (Ikerd, 1999). As conventional farming
has become more specialized the large
agribusiness corporations have been able to
increase control over the amount of economic
returns the farmer receives. Organic farmers
expend far less in terms of dollar inputs per
acre than their conventional neighbours. The
areas in which organic farmers spend more than
conventional farmers per acre are on fuel and
repair costs. The cost of fuel per acre for an
organic farmer was found to be 10.67 and for
repairs about 12.87. In comparison the
conventional fuel costs range from 7.00 to
11.00 and for repairs it ranges between 6.00
and 9.60 per acre depending on the seeding
method. Even with the slightly higher fuel and
repair expenses organic farmers have higher
returns and cause less environmental damage than
their conventional counterparts. A comparison of
the market prices between organic and
conventional farming was found to be drastically
different (See Table 2). Organic flax can receive
market values of 16.60 per bushel or 200 more
than conventional market prices of 5.55/bu.
Organic wheat and oats can have market values of
approximately 100 more than the conventional
wheat and oats. Returns During any four-year
organic rotation for a specific field there will
be one year of green manure, therefore not every
field on an organic farm will be productive
during that growing season. Some will argue that
because of this one year of rest (green manure
year) the organic farmer will not be able to make
the same profit as a conventional farmer over the
four year rotation. Returns for the organic and
conventional farming methods over the four years
were totalled and put into a graph for comparison
(See Figure 1). Based on this graph it can be
clearly seen that organic farming has the highest
returns of about 592.56/ac. The several
different methods of conventional farming do not
even make half of what the organic farmer does
per acre in returns. The largest conventional
return came close to 200/ac in total over the
four years. If the total returns over four years
is about 600 that would be on average 150/ac a
year. In comparison the conventional farmer who
has continuous cropped for the four years would
on average make 50/ac a year. CONCLUSION Many
farmers and consumers a like have become
concerned with the way in which industrial
agriculture is moving. These same people want
farming to be sustainable and economically
profitable to many, instead of a few large
businesses making all the profit. Organic
farming may be able to provide this
sustainability through the philosophy that
farming should be done in harmony with nature
rather than trying to conquer and control nature.
At the same time organic farming allows small
farmers to be economically successful and highly
productive. The Standing Committee on Environment
and Sustainable Development (2000) had this to
say about organic farming Apart from protection
of the environment, biodiversity and ecological
equilibrium, organic agriculture is designed to
respond to concerns about food quality, human
health and animal welfare. It is also intended to
protect natural resources and maintain the
ecological viability of agriculture. With the
present changes occurring in the environment,
loss of biodiversity and very little new
agricultural land to develop it is important that
sustainable agriculture becomes the foundation
for food production in the future. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
S I would like to thank all the producers from
SOCA who helped me to complete this research
without them it would not have been possible.
Reference Bromm, Jennifer 2002 An Economic and
Productivity Comparison of Organic and
Conventional Farming in Saskatchewan undergrad
honours thesis, Lakehead University.
Table 1 Total Expenses
Table 2 Market Prices
Table 3 Yield
1 Conventional yield source was Saskatchewan
Agriculture and Food.
Total /acre
RESULTS Yields The productivity of organic
farmers was found to be very similar to
conventional yields only slightly lower (see
Table). Overall organic flax had the smallest
yield difference at 21 bushels per acre in
comparison to the three conventional methods with
yields of 21.3 to 22.3 bushels per acre. As
mentioned in the results this works out to 94 as
high as the conventional yields. The organic
wheat yields were the lowest when compared to the
conventional yields. Other studies have also
found that organic yields will be lower but not
for every crop grown. Research done on organic
and conventional farming between the years of
1974 and 1978 in the United States Corn Belt
region found that organic yields were lower per
acre for major crops such as corn, soybeans and
wheat but the yield declines were approximately 7
to 15 in most of the studies (Lee, 1992).
Another review conducted on the world yield
values for organic and conventional farming found
that organic yields for a wide range of crops was
on average within 10 of those obtained by
conventional methods (Stanhill, 1990). Still,
conventional farmers for the most part believe
that the application of chemicals and
particularly fertilizers are needed in order to
keep the yields high and farms running a maximum
efficiency. Unfortunately the drive to keep
yields high has caused conventional farmers to
become dependent on technology and agribusiness.
The downside to this dependence on technology is
that prices for commodities have not changed very
much and input prices have become much higher.
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