Ecological farming is recognised as the high-end objective among the proponents of sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...

. The goal of ecological farming is not only sustainable food production, but is to optimise the provision of ecosystem services

Ecosystem services

Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and include products like clean drinking water and processes such as the decomposition of wastes...

, both in the design of the farm and by significant reduction of the ecological footprint

Ecological footprint

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...

 made by the post-harvest consumers of the farm produce.

Benefits

Ecological farming involves the introduction of symbiotic species, where possible, to support the ecological sustainability of the farm. Associated benefits include a reduction in ecological debt

Ecological debt

Ecological debt is a term used since 1992 by some environmental organizations from the South. The first one to use this term was the Instituto de Ecologia Politica from Chile . J.M. Borrero, from Colombia, a lawyer, wrote a book on the ecological debt in 1994...

 and elimination of dead zones.

Ecological farming is a pioneering, practical development which aims to create globally sustainable land management systems, and encourages review of the importance of maintaining biodiversity in food production and farming end products.

One foreseeable option is a greater reliance on automation. Accordingly, conversion to ecological farming may best utilize the information age, and become recognised as a primary user of robotics and expert systems.

Challenges

The challenge for ecological farming science, is to be able to achieve a mainstream productive food system that is sustainable. To enter the field of ecological farming, location relative to the consumer, is an important factor to help minimise transportation damage to the ecosystem.

Design of the ecological farm is initially constrained by the same limitations as traditional farming: local climate, soils, budget, manpower and available automations. however longterm water management by ecological farming methods is likely to conserve and increase water availability for the location..

Principles

Certain principles unique to ecological farming need to be considered.

• Food production should be ecological in both origin and destinyHere, the term destiny refers to the post-harvest ecological footprint
  Ecological footprint
  The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
  
  which results in getting produce to the consumer.
• Integration of species that maintain ecosystem services whilst providing a selection of alternative products
• Minimise food miles, packaging, energy consumption and waste.
• Define a new ecosystem to suit human needs using lessons from existing ecosystems from around the world