THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE FARMING IN THE CONTEXT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AGRICULTURE

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze and evaluate relations between sustainable agriculture and environmental agriculture programmes. Sustainable agriculture covers not only environmental, but social and economic activities which are not typical for environmental agriculture. It is also analyzed development of sustainable agriculture as well as agri – environmental programmes. In spite that sustainable agriculture cover social and economic activities, but it cannot be compared with traditional agriculture. Agri – environmental measures are wider used in the European Union countries, meanwhile sustainable agriculture is no very popular between farmers. It is discussed different scientific viewpoints and reasons why agri – environmental programmes are not sustainable. The article evaluate why implemented agri – environmental and conventional farming are not sustain in Lithuania. In order to investigate Lithuanian farmer’s willingness to participate in sustainable farming, interviews with farmers were conducted. The results discovered that lack of knowledge on sustainable farming is main barrier and farmers are practices traditional farming. The investigation also discovered that insufficient understanding is main reason not to participate in voluntary programmes and farmers are willing to participate in more attractive social and economic measures.