With respect to resource management and environmental impact, organic farming offers rationales for agricultural sustainability. However, agronomic productivity is usually higher with conventional farming. This work aimed at investigating two factors of major importance for the agronomic productivity of organic crop husbandry, nitrogen (N) supply through symbiotic N fixation (SNF) and weed occurrence. Perennial red clover-grass leys and spring cereal crops subjected to regular agricultural practices were studied on 34 organic farms located in the southern and the north-western coastal regions of Finland. Herbage growth, clover content as a proportion of the ley and extent of SNF in perennial leys, and the occurrence of weed species and weed-crop competition in spring cereal stands were related to climate conditions, soil properties, and management measures. The herbage accumulated from the first and the second cut of one- and two-year-old leys averaged 7.5 t DM ha-1 (SD ± 1.7 t DM ha-1); the clover content averaged 43.9% (SD ± 18.8%). Along with the clover content, herbage production decreased with ley age. Radiation use efficiency (RUE) correlated positively with clover proportion but despite low clover contents, three-year-old leys were still productive with regard to RUE. SNF in the accumulated annual growth of one- and two-year-old leys averaged 247.5 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (SD ± 114.4 kg N ha-1 yr-1). It was supposed that if red clover-grass leys constituted 40% of the rotation, then the mean N supply by SNF would be able to sustain two or three succeeding cereal crops (green manure and forage ley, respectively), yielding 3.0 to 4.0 t grain ha-1. Being a function of clover biomass, the SNF increased from the first to the second cut and thereafter declined with ley age. Coefficients of variation of clover contents (and SNF) between and within fields were around 50%, which was about twice as high as those of herbage production. The lower were the clover contents, the higher were the within-field variations of clover as a proportion of the ley. Low clover contents in one-year-old leys and increasing variability with ley age suggested that red clover growth was limited by poor establishment and poor overwintering. The proportions of clover in leys were lower and their variability was higher in the northwest than in the south. Soil properties, primarily texture and structure, had a major impact on clover proportion and herbage production, which largely explained regional differences in ley growth. Within-field variability of soil properties can be amended through site-specific measures, including drainage, liming, and applications of organic manures and mineral fertilizers. Overwintering and the persistence of leys can be improved by the choice of winter-hardy varieties, careful establishment and the appropriate harvest regime. Mean grain yields of spring cereal crops amounted to 3.2 t ha-1 in the south and 3.6 t ha-1 in the northwest. At 570 and 565 m-2 for the south and northwest respectively, mean weed densities did not differ between the regions, whereas the respective mean weed biomass of 697 and 1594 kg dry weight ha-1, respectively did differ. Weed abundance varied remarkably between single fields. The number of weed species was higher in the south than in the northwest. For example, Fumaria officinalis and Lamium spp. were found only in the south. Frequencies and abundances of Lapsana communis, Myosotis arvensis, Polygonum aviculare, Tripleurospermum inodorum, and Vicia spp. were higher in the south, whereas those of Elymus repens, Persicaria spp. and Spergula arvensis were higher in the northwest. The number of years since conversion to organic farming, i.e. long-term management, was one of the variables that explained the abundance of single weed species. E. repens was the weed species whose biomass increased most with the duration of organic farming. Another significant variable was crop biomass, which was affected by short-term management. The presence of different weed species was related to the duration of organic farming and to low crop yield. This finding demonstrated that it was not the organic farming regime per se, which resulted in high weed infestation and low yielding crops, but failures in the understanding and the management of organic farming systems. Successful weed control relies on farm- and field-specific long- and short-term management approaches. The agronomic productivity of ley and spring cereal crops managed by full-time farmers with an interest in organic farming was on the same level as of the mean for conventional farming. Given the many options for further improvements of the agronomic performance of organic arable systems, organic farming offers foundations for the development of sustainable agriculture. The main threat to the sustainability of farming in Finland, both conventional and organic, is the spatial separation of crop production and animal husbandry by region, along with the simplification of associated crop rotations.

This study investigates the effects of oil palm smallholding, wealth, and ecosystem services produced by oil palm dominated agroecosystem in the villages of Tanjung Bering and Betung in Sumatra, Indonesia in 2008. The cultivation of oil palm has many environmental and socio-economic impacts. In particular, indigenous peoples are vulnerable stakeholders between the expanding oil palm plantations. Oil palm industry has sought to find sustainable models for palm oil production: the inclusion of indigenous peoples to oil palm development is an essential part of this. The purpose of the study is to chart the situation and to investigate the impact of the oil palm smallholding for the well-being of local indigenous people, and to provide information for the sustainable decision-making. The study is based on household interviews in the area of the Petalangan ethnic group. The interviews were added to a relational database, which was used to provide variables on ecosystem services, economy and well-being for statistical analysis. Statistical analysis was carried out mainly by cross-tabulating the mentioned variables with wealth and the oil palm smallholding status, significance has been defined with the Pearson’s khii-test. Interpretation and analysis of the results has been made in the framework of ecosystem services by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Oil palm smallholding highly significantly increased households’ income, and wealth increased highly significantly household’s well-being. The fragmented oil palm dominated agroecosystem was still providing ecosystem services to households. The wealth reduced households’ dependency on most ecosystem services as well as substituted many of them. It is concluded based on this study that in the oil palm dominated agroecosystem, oil palm smallholding and higher income affects very favourable to the households’ well-being, and vice versa non-oil-palm-smallholding and poverty predicts ill-being.

This thesis focuses on the responses of bumblebees and diurnal Lepidoptera (butterflies and diurnal moths) to habitat establishment on farmland. In the first paper, I studied the benefits of long-term set-aside establishment for the focal species groups. Focusing on another on-field measure, sown wildflower strips, I studied the ability of sown strips to promote three different aspects of flower-visiting insect diversity: pollination service availability, species diversity and species of conservation concern. As an off-field measure, I studied the benefits of logging in field-forest ecotones in terms of the same three aspects of insect diversity. Finally, I studied differences in butterfly and moth mobility as well as the role of species traits in butterfly mobility in a release experiment. Based on my results, long-term set-asides and wildflower strips are very effective in enhancing pollination service availability, as long as they are sown with nectar and pollen plants favored by bumblebees. Species diversity also increased rather quickly in the wildflower strip and logging experiments. Furthermore, my results showed that habitat specialist butterflies of conservation concern are best promoted in relatively forested landscapes and that logging in field-forest ecotones promotes them more effectively than establishing wildflower strips on cultivated fields. As regards to diurnal Lepidoptera in general, set-aside field parcels should be left in place for several, preferably for at least for five years, as it takes time for less mobile species to disperse to the created habitat patches and to establish local populations. The set-aside experiment showed that the colonization speed in butterflies and diurnal moths was strongly connected with body size measured by wingspan, and that diurnal moths were on the average slower colonizers than butterflies. The results of the mobility experiment confirmed the important role of wingspan in butterflies, but also connected mobility with release habitat suitability: those species for which the experimental set-aside was most suitable habitat, namely grassland species, showed less tendency to disperse after the experimental releases. All three studied measures can be applied in conventional agriculture in Finland. Combining different measures at landscape and regional levels is likely to promote multiple aspects of flower-visiting insect diversity. The potential of habitat creation in field-forest ecotones in particular is substantial in the Finnish countryside, as many farmers are also forest owners. Furthermore, as habitat establishment adds different grassland patches into the landscape, also less mobile species and species with specific habitat requirements are likely to benefit.

Agriculture is an economic activity that heavily relies on the availability of natural resources. Through its role in food production agriculture is a major factor affecting public welfare and health, and its indirect contribution to gross domestic product and employment is significant. Agriculture also contributes to numerous ecosystem services through management of rural areas. However, the environmental impact of agriculture is considerable and reaches far beyond the agroecosystems. The questions related to farming for food production are, thus, manifold and of great public concern. Improving environmental performance of agriculture and sustainability of food production, sustainabilizing food production, calls for application of wide range of expertise knowledge. This study falls within the field of agro-ecology, with interphases to food systems and sustainability research and exploits the methods typical of industrial ecology. The research in these fields extends from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, a holistic approach being the key tenet. The methods of industrial ecology have been applied extensively to explore the interaction between human economic activity and resource use. Specifically, the material flow approach (MFA) has established its position through application of systematic environmental and economic accounting statistics. However, very few studies have applied MFA specifically to agriculture. The MFA approach was used in this thesis in such a context in Finland. The focus of this study is the ecological sustainability of primary production. The aim was to explore the possibilities of assessing ecological sustainability of agriculture by using two different approaches. In the first approach the MFA-methods from industrial ecology were applied to agriculture, whereas the other is based on the food consumption scenarios. The two approaches were used in order to capture some of the impacts of dietary changes and of changes in production mode on the environment. The methods were applied at levels ranging from national to sector and local levels. Through the supply-demand approach, the viewpoint changed between that of food production to that of food consumption. The main data sources were official statistics complemented with published research results and expertise appraisals. MFA approach was used to define the system boundaries, to quantify the material flows and to construct eco-efficiency indicators for agriculture. The results were further elaborated for an input-output model that was used to analyse the food flux in Finland and to determine its relationship to the economy-wide physical and monetary flows. The methods based on food consumption scenarios were applied at regional and local level for assessing feasibility and environmental impacts of relocalising food production. The approach was also used for quantification and source allocation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of primary production. GHG assessment provided, thus, a means of crosschecking the results obtained by using the two different approaches. MFA data as such or expressed as eco-efficiency indicators, are useful in describing the overall development. However, the data are not sufficiently detailed for identifying the hot spots of environmental sustainability. Eco-efficiency indicators should not be bluntly used in environmental assessment: the carrying capacity of the nature, the potential exhaustion of non-renewable natural resources and the possible rebound effect need also to be accounted for when striving towards improved eco-efficiency. The input-output model is suitable for nationwide economy analyses and it shows the distribution of monetary and material flows among the various sectors. Environmental impact can be captured only at a very general level in terms of total material requirement, gaseous emissions, energy consumption and agricultural land use. Improving environmental performance of food production requires more detailed and more local information. The approach based on food consumption scenarios can be applied at regional or local scales. Based on various diet options the method accounts for the feasibility of re-localising food production and environmental impacts of such re-localisation in terms of nutrient balances, gaseous emissions, agricultural energy consumption, agricultural land use and diversity of crop cultivation. The approach is applicable anywhere, but the calculation parameters need to be adjusted so as to comply with the specific circumstances. The food consumption scenario approach, thus, pays attention to the variability of production circumstances, and may provide some environmental information that is locally relevant. The approaches based on the input-output model and on food consumption scenarios represent small steps towards more holistic systemic thinking. However, neither one alone nor the two together provide sufficient information for sustainabilizing food production. Environmental performance of food production should be assessed together with the other criteria of sustainable food provisioning. This requires evaluation and integration of research results from many different disciplines in the context of a specified geographic area. Foodshed area that comprises both the rural hinterlands of food production and the population centres of food consumption is suggested to represent a suitable areal extent for such research. Finding a balance between the various aspects of sustainability is a matter of optimal trade-off. The balance cannot be universally determined, but the assessment methods and the actual measures depend on what the bottlenecks of sustainability are in the area concerned. These have to be agreed upon among the actors of the area

As the world's population keeps growing, it is vital to focus on efficiency of agriculture. At this moment, food production is happening at the cost of natural resources. Significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus flow in nature as waste and enhance climate change and eutrophication of waters. Nutrient recycling is an essential part of sustainable and responsible agriculture. By combining animal and crop production it is possible to recycle some of the nutrients in an agroecosystem, since manure and other animal waste include nutrients that were given to the feed plants. Meat bone meal (MBM) includes 50 % protein, 35 % ash and 8–12 % fat (NPK 8–5–1). Previous fertilization experiments with MBM have already given promising results. The aim of this study is to find out, if there are significant differences between the fertilization potentials of mineral and MBM fertilizers, and if the dosage of these fertilizers affects the mean yields of malt barley (Hordeum vulgare var. distichon). The fertilization effects of two MBM fertilizers, “Viljo” and “Kana-Viljo”, were compared to mineral fertilizer and chicken manure on malt barley in a field experiment in 2015. Each fertilizer was applied on two nitrogen levels (80 and 160 kg N/ha). The mean yields per hectare and hectolitre weights were compared to the ones given by an unfertilized control member. Although none of the organic fertilizers gave as much improvement in the yield as the mineral fertilizer, all the fertilized yields were significantly bigger than the control member’s. Between the hectolitre weights there was no significant difference and doubling the supply of N did not give significant difference to yields. There was also no interaction between the N supply and the fertilizer type. Applying a lot of N on malt barley increases the quantity of protein in a grain, so the higher N supply may even affect the quality of the yield. The challenge of MBM is its slowly releasing P, so the results on the same field could have been different if the test had been repeated the following year. The used barley Streif is known to be an early cultivar and the field was fertilized just before sowing, so all the N in MBM may not have had enough time to release for the crop to use in this study. It is to be noted that significant results of MBM fertilization were gotten with this little data, it is recommended to keep on researching the potential of MBM as an organic fertilizer.

Besides farms’ main plant and animal products, meat and bone meal (MBM) represents agroecosystems’ biggest outward flow of nutriuents. MBM contains plenty of the main plant nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium (N ~8%, P ~5%, Ca usually ~10-15%, depending of the amount of bone matter), plus a little potassium (~1% or less). MBM has been proven efficient fertilizer on many plants, and it is also allowed for use in organic farming in EU. The most notable risk of MBM use relates to TSE-diseases (BSE for cattle, scrapie for sheeps and goats, and vCJD for humans). Its feed usage has been restricted in many countries since the BSE-crisis emerged in 1980’s. The rise of BSE was attributed to feeding cattle with MBM of cattle origin. Also feeding MBM to fur animals might pose a TSE-risk. However, assessing on the base of the studies included in this thesis, the TSE-risk from fertilizer use of MBM appears to be rather small. Still, a prerequisite of this is that all appropriate precautions are followed in the production and handling of MBM as well as when using it. By increasing the fertilizer use of MBM we would be able to considerably improve the nutrient cycle of phosphorus and other nutrients in our food systems. MBM is a renewable resource. The fertilizer use of MBM would also diminish the dependency on non-renewable phosphorus-rich rocks, that are commonly used in fertilizers today. MBM-fertlization was compared with mineral fertilizers in sugar beet field trials located in Southwestern Finland in the years 2008 and 2009. The cultivars used were ‘Jesper’ in 2008 and ‘Lincoln’ in 2009. The MBM source was Honkajoki Oy’s Viljo Yleislannoite 8-4-3, of which 10% was a combination of potassium sulphate fertilizer (42% K, 18% S) and plant-based side products. Viljotrials of 2009 also included added potassium sulphate to cover the nutrient requirements of sugar beet (60 kg K/ha). The plain Viljo-fertilizer produced yields that were significantly lower than control, but still above the Finnish average yields. When used in combination with mineral fertilizer (10-25% of the N content) the Viljo-trials produced yields close to the level of mineral fertilizers. The MBM-fertilization had a positive effect on beet quality in 2008 (measured in amino-N, K, and Na-concentrations), but in 2009 this effect was not present. Also, in 2008 one of the combinations (Viljo77%+NK1) produced a significantly higher sugar concentrations than the control. The sugar concentrations in 2009 didn’t differ significantly between fertilizers used but were excellent in all trials. These field trials indicate that MBM supplemented with potassium suphate has good potential for use as a fertilizer for sugar beet in Finnish conditions.

The use of fossil fuels and external nutrient inputs in food production have created a need for systems which will produce enough food for a growing population while simultaneously reducing the environmental impacts from food production. In order to move towards sustainability, the relatively short history of fossil fuel use in food production needs to be left in the past and food production returned to a reliance on renewable energy without food-fuel competition. The aim of this thesis was to provide a design for circular food production which utilizes the synergies of the interconnected nexus of biomass-nutrients-energy. To do that, I studied the biophysical and economic impacts of such an integrated food and energy production design through case studies ranging from the farm scale to the regional food system scale in the context of Finnish food systems. This thesis provides a design for circular food production which relies on localized resources. In this design, biomass-energy-nutrients integration takes place at a feasible spatial scale that enables efficient nutrient recycling and integrated energy production. I propose the concept of Agroecological symbiosis (AES) as a design for circular food production. Multiple AES systems together form a Network of Agroecological symbiosis (NAES). These concepts represent a place-based food production network thereby providing an alternative to the current consolidated commodity chains. At the regional food system scale, I propose a novel concept of Nested Circularity to understand the circularity in the context of food system. Informed by the results of this thesis, I propose that a circular food production system design is built from the following elements 1) the integration of biomass-nutrient-energy, 2) the multifunctional use of perennial leys, and 3) the horizontal and vertical integration of actors and operations at the food systems scale which is functional both from the biophysical and physical perspective. Finally, I propose six steps that need to be taken simultaneously and to be implemented across all actors in the food system to transform the current food system towards circularity.

Plant invasions cause a serious threat to native biodiversity. Agricultural habitats are highly disturbed and often invaded by the alien plant species. Generally, the success of a plant invader depends on the abiotic (e.g. climate, habitat properties) and biotic factors (e.g. the characteristics of the invader and interaction with the resident species). In this thesis, I determined the invasion level of alien plant species in Finnish agricultural habitats. In addition, I assessed the environmental conditions and species characteristics affecting plant invasions, and the alien species impact on native species richness and diversity. The invasion level of alien plant species varied between different types of semi-natural agricultural habitats, geographical regions and study years. Generally, more frequently disturbed and more intensively managed habitats (e.g. field and road verges) were more often invaded by alien plants than infrequently disturbed and managed habitats (e.g. grassland). However, the effect of disturbance regime tended to depend on residence time of the alien plant species, and vary among the alien plant species. The invasion level decreased towards north with decreasing temperature and increased towards east with increasing continentality. The geographical trends may be explained by climate, migration history and land-use intensity. In addition, alien plant species diversity increased with higher native plant species diversity. Thus, the results suggest that species interactions, especially competition, with resident plant species do not limit plant invasions in semi-natural agricultural habitats. The positive relationship between native and alien species may be caused by both suitable environmental conditions and spatial heterogeneity in environmental conditions partly created by disturbance of agricultural habitats. The species traits of alien plant species are habitat-specific and strongly related environmental conditions. I did not find evidence that alien plants species cause a severe threat to native plant diversity in Finnish semi-natural habitats. The most harmful invasive plant species are still rare in Finnish agricultural landscape. In the future, the pressure of establishment and spread of alien species can be assumed to increase. Thus, regular monitoring is needed for early detection of new species and detection of the changes in the distribution and the spread of established alien species. The fact that plant invasions are species-specific and depended on environmental characteristics calls for habitat- and species-specific studies on the impacts of alien species and on the determinants of plant invasion at multiple spatial scales.

The aim of this Thesis was to analyze Finnish food policy from a sustainability point of view. Changing operational environment, both globally and nationally, place food systems under a variety of economic, socio-cultural and ecological pressures. In addition to meet the basic objectives, such as ensuring food security, food systems are expected to fulfill a number of other goals. The drivers and goals, as well as means to food system change are defined in food policy. Considering the ecological, economic and sociocultural dimensions of sustainability in the food system analysis can also be viewed as an agroecological approach. A content analysis, using Atlas TI software was done for three most recent and topical Finnish food policy documents: Food2030 - government report on food policy, and the government programs for local and - organic food sectors. The food policy documents were analyzed with the following research questions in mind: how well is the need for systemic change recognized in the Finnish food policy; what are the main drivers for change; how are different dimensions of sustainability taken into account; is the change anticipated as gradual improvements to the current food system or are there any references suggesting radically reformed food system? The recently renewed Finnish food policy is specifically drafted with the current and forecasted changes in the operational environment in mind. The main drivers were mainly identified as sociocultural trends such as globalization, urbanization and changes in consumer behavior. The economic drivers, especially the competitiveness and export orientation of the food sector emerged as important goals for the future. The ecological dimension to food system reform gave the lowest share in all three categories (drivers, means and goals). A change in a complex system such as a food system takes place by affecting one partof the system at a time. The current Finnish food policy does not present radical changes or radical means to change the current system. However system-level changes can often be identified only afterwards.