National organic standards for Iran: I. Concepts, principles and aims of organic production and standards for agronomic and horticultural products

بوم شناسی کشاورزی

Article 12, Volume 1, Issue 1, March 2009   

Document Type: Scientific - Research

DOI: 10.22067/jag.v1i1.2660

Authors

Reza Ghorbani^* ; Alireza Koocheki; Mohsen Jahan; Mehdi Nassiri Mahallati; Parviz Rezvani-Moghadam

Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Traditional agriculture and non-chemical crop production have a long story; however organic agriculture which relies on local and in-farm inputs, with the aim of protecting ecological balances and developing biological cycles on the one hand while regarding regulations and specific standards on the other hand, doesn’t have a very long history. There are numerous environmental reasons for the priority of organic agriculture to conventional systems such as increasing biodiversity, reducing chemical residue in plant and animal products, reducing greenhouse gases and air temperatures; and socio-economic factors like equity and sustainability. Worldwide, in 2006 about 31 million hectares were managed organically with estimated international sales of over 38 billion US dollars. There are very specific standards, regulations and criteria for organic agriculture for the security of producers and consumers, suitable competition between producers and clear regulations for international trades of organic products. Standards in organic agriculture are principles, regulations and criteria that must be considered from production up to processing and consumption. Although Iran has a very long history in agriculture and a variety of cereals and pulses have been domesticated in its regions, unfortunately, there are no organic production plans and standards for this country. During these recent years, there have been international interests especially on behalf of European countries towards exporting some organic products such as pistachio, walnut, date, fresh fruits and saffron from Iran, but the main reason for the refusal of our products could be the absence of organic standards which are to be considered during the production of those products. The present paper recommends the principles and standards, considering IFOAM standards for organic plant products in Iran.

Keywords

Organic farming; Organic food; Sustainable agriculture

References

Gehlot, D., 2005. Organic Farming: Standards, Accreditation, Certification and Inspectation. Agrobios Publishing,

India. pp. 357. ISBN: 81-7754-237-0

2- Ghorbani, R., Koocheki, A., 2006. Necessity of compilation of organic agriculture standards. Engineering

Inspectation Seasonal. 24: 28-31. (In Persian with English summary).

3- Guthman, J., 2001. Organic production in California: Ideal and real. California Institute for Rural Studies, Report,

Davis, CA. 37p.

4- Harris, L., 1990. Organic index. Louis Harris and Associates.

5- IFOAM. 2001. First draft of 2002 IFOAM basic standards, for organic production and processing. Online report.

IFOAM, Thoely-Theley, Germany, Retrieved October 2002 from http://www.ifoam.org

6- IFOAM. 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2008, from http://www.ifoam.org

7- Koocheki, A., 2004. Organic Agriculture: opportunities and challenges. Acad. Sci. 24, 25: 55-95.

8- Koocheki, A., Ghorbani, R., 2005. Traditional agriculture in Iran and development challenges for organic

agriculture. Int. J. Biodiv. Sci. Manag. 11: 1-7.

9- Koocheki, A., Khajehosseini, M., 2008. Modern Agronomy. Jahad Daneshgahi Pub. Mashhad. ISBN: 964-324-168-

8. (In Persian with English summary).

10- Lampkin, N.H., Padel, S., 1994. Organic farming: sustainableagriculture in practice. In: The economic of organic

farming. Lampkin, N.H., and Padel, S. (Eds.). CAB Waltingford, UK. pp. 3-8.

11- Lotter, D.W., 2003. Organic agriculture. J. Sustain. Agr. 21(4): 59-128.

12- NBJ. 1999. Organic and fucntional foods pump natural food sales. Nutrition Business Journal, IV (3), March: 1-

2.Retrieved June 2007 from http://www.nutritionbusiness.com

13- Padel, S., Lampkin, N.H., 1994. Conversion to Organic farming. An overview. In: The economics of organic

farming. Lampkin, N.H., and Padel, S. (Eds.). CAB, Wallingford, UK. pp. 295-313.

14- Scofield, A.M., 1986. Organic farming, the origin of the name. Biol. Agric. Hortic. 4: 1-5.

15- Spence, P., 1999. National products consumer reports: Nationwide samples of 52000 houseledds matched to U.S.

census figures. In: Organic growing into the 21st century. Berkeley, CA. Aug. 1-3 Organic Farming Research

استانداردهای ملی کشاورزی زیستی (ارگانیک) ایران … 141

Foundation.

16- Willer, H., 2001. Organic agriculture in the five continents. Stiflung Okologie and Landbau. Bad Durkheim,

Germany. www.soel.de

17- Willer, H., Yussefi-Mazle, M., Sorensen, M., 2008. The world of organic agriculture; statistics and emerging trends.

IFOAM, Fibl. Earthscan, London, UK.