An evaluation of community-based integrated farming systems creating conditions for sustainability

Traditional approaches to rural community development have not adequately addressed the production and consumption needs of some small limited-resource farm communities. Community-based Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) provide an approach that focuses on the unique conditions and interrelationships that exist in small limited-resource farm communities.;Community-based IFS projects have been adopted in some areas in the U.S. and abroad. Whether these projects are creating conditions for economic and environmental sustainability is still to be proven.;A framework is needed to help assess the extent to which farming practices are changing, the kinds of changes most commonly made, and the reasons farmers give to explain why they have or have not made changes. A framework is needed also to help assess the resulting economic and environmental outcomes the IFS projects help to generate.;Such a framework is set forth and is used to evaluate an IFS project located in Brinkley, Arkansas. The conclusions reached are that this Community-based IFS fosters continuation and increases in the production practices that advance agricultural sustainability and it fosters increased awareness of farm production practices to increase agricultural sustainability. However, the analysis found little change in either the cost of production or the income generated by farm operators.