This paper was prepared by Ms. Els Wynen, consultant, under the guidance of the Environment and Natural Resources Service (SDRN). The first draft of this paper was shared with experts throughout FAO and IFOAM's Head Office for comments. The paper has been further reviewed by Ms. Kathleen Merrigan. In light of the many views expressed, SDRN has brought the document to its present form.

The ambition of this paper is not to give an answer to the extent of the contribution of organic agriculture to farm sustainability but to raise attention to the factors requiring special consideration in such evaluations. The FAO position on organic agriculture will be the subject to its governing bodies' recommendations following their discussions on the issue in January 1999. A number of studies are foreseen in the coming future to provide a better information base for the many aspects of organic agriculture. A particular point to be developed (and not sufficiently addressed in the present paper) will be the nutrient and energy balance - one of the important parameters in evaluating the sustainability of production systems.

The thoughts advanced in this paper are based on existing data and information on organic agriculture in developing countries which are, as many would expect, rather scarce. More focused statements would need extensive field research. This paper has therefore attempted to offer a conceptual framework that could be used for evaluating the sustainability and productivity of existing or potential organic agriculture systems, under different bio-physical and socio-political settings.

In a complex world subject to continuous change and new information and experience, we can only provide a tentative approach to reality. The participatory and adaptive nature of these findings makes this paper an "evolving" document, subject to further refinement. Any feedback on eventual gaps and usefulness of this document would be welcome for its development.