Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the most important human activities, one closely asociated with nature. Thus, the man-nature relationship, shich is guided by a worldview, plays a significant role here in determining the methods for using nature to human ends. The dominance of industrialism (a utilitarian, materialistic and mechanistic approach) as a worldview in agriculture has led to man´s operating as an exploiter of natural resources through use of technical aids. Such an approach has produced a rapid decline both in social systems and in the natural environment. Due to problems of this sort, as well as the growing scepticism regarding the ability of technology to increase productivity sufficiently to meet future demands, modern agriculture can be considered unsustainable. Understanding existing traditional farming systems that have their roots in the more distant past, having emerged and developed in quite different social and cultural contexts than those dominating most of agriculture today, could help highlight issues of sustainability. The traditional farming system in the Ghouta, which has been an integral part of the social life and has contributed to the food supply of Damascus for millenia, was selected for this purpose. The objective was to re-examine the potential that traditional agriculture of this type has for contributing to sustainability of agricultural systems and for redirecting modern agriculture towards a sustainable path. Four key terms best summarize the major features of the methodology adopted in the research project: a system orientation, an interdisciplinary, a participatory approach and the use of quantitative methods in a qualitative context. Elderly farmers in the Ghouta using on the one hand, human knowledge and experience, so-called tradition and, on the other hand, divine guidance, are able to keep their farming system alive, both biophysically and economically. Their worldview plays a significant role in setting an overall objective, that of maintaining the existecne of their system and in adopting an altruistic approach, that of their being nurturers of the farm components including non-agricultural living vessels. Agriculture is thus carried on in a productive rather than an extractive way that is both meaningful and sustainable. The integration of diversity and the socio-cultural context with a high level of market orientation that stimulate diversity, all of them driven by a spiritual orientation, form the pillars of the sustainability of this system, which might justifiably be called the original farming system.