Moving Towards Sustainable Agriculture Through Higher Education

Farming is an integral part of sustainability. The agricultural products farmers grow help to maintain an ever increasing world population. Nonetheless, over the past years, farmers may have adopted some unsustainable practices, which have helped increase their yield and guaranteed better income. But at what cost? This paper presents a local analysis of farming and sustainability in Malta by gathering farmers’ knowledge of their agricultural practices through their life experiences. Additionally, through university outreach it tries to understand farmers’ perceptions on sustainable development and to seek the most viable means of moving towards more sustainable agricultural practices. A particular focus of the research is to explores the farmers’ attitudes in view of sustainable development and whether they are willing to implement sustainable strategies and the role of universities in achieving this. Through the research findings, a number of recommendations are suggested to aid farming practices become more sustainable. The results from this research and the university outreach activities will also help policy makers in the agricultural sector to seek the best means to collaborate with farmers and to give them the opportunity to voice their opinions and to help in the designing of a training programme for farmers. This paper will be useful to anyone interested in how university research can be successfully applied to increase the sustainability of conventional farming across communities.