Organic farming is an alternative agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved. It is defined by the use of fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged. Organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances.
Advantages of organic farming
Reasons for advocation of organic farming include advantages in sustainability, openness, self-sufficiency, autonomy/independence, health, food security, and food safety. Organic methods can increase farm productivity, repair decades of environmental damage and knit small farm families into more sustainable distribution networks leading to improved food security if they organize themselves in production, certification and marketing. During last few years an increasing number of farmers have shown lack of interest in farming and the people who used to cultivate are migrating to other areas. Organic farming is one way to promote either self-sufficiency or food security. Use of massive inputs of chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides poisons the land and water heavily. The after-effects of this are severe environmental consequences, including loss of topsoil, decrease in soil fertility, surface and ground water contamination and loss of genetic diversity..
How is organic farming different from conventional farming?
While conventional agriculture uses synthetic pesticides and water-soluble synthetically purified fertilizers, organic farmers are restricted by regulations to using natural pesticides and fertilizers. An example of a natural pesticide is pyrethrin, which is found naturally in the Chrysanthemum flower. The principal methods of organic farming include crop rotation, green manures and compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation. These measures use the natural environment to enhance agricultural productivity: legumes are planted to fix nitrogen into the soil, natural insect predators are encouraged, crops are rotated to confuse pests and renew soil, and natural materials such as potassium bicarbonate and mulches are used to control disease and weeds. Genetically modified seeds and animals are excluded.
While organic is fundamentally different from conventional because of the use of carbon based fertilizers compared with highly soluble synthetic based fertilizers and biological pest control instead of synthetic pesticides, organic farming and large-scale conventional farming are not entirely mutually exclusive. Many of the methods developed for organic agriculture have been borrowed by more conventional agriculture. For example, Integrated Pest Management is a multifaceted strategy that uses various organic methods of pest control whenever possible, but in conventional farming could include synthetic pesticides only as a last resort.
Nutrient management in organic farming
In organic farming, it is important to constantly work to build a healthy soil that is rich in organic matter and has all the nutrients that the plants need. Several methods viz. green manuring, addition of manures and biofertilizers etc can be used to build up soil fertility. These organic sources not only add different nutrients to the soil but also help to prevent weeds and increase soil organic matter to feed soil microorganisms. Soil with high organic matter resists soil erosion, holds water better and thus requires less irrigation. Some natural minerals that are needed by the plants to grow and to improve the soil’s consistency can also be added. Soil amendments like lime are added to adjust the soil’s pH balance. However soil amendment and water should contain minimum heavy metals. Most of the organic fertilizers used are recycled by-products from other industries that would otherwise go to waste. Farmers also make compost from animal manures and mushroom compost. Before compost can be applied to the fields, it is heated and aged for at least two months, reaching and maintaining an internal temperature of 130°-140°F to kill unwanted bacteria and weed seeds. A number of organic fertilizers / amendments and bacterial and fungal biofertilizers can be used in organic farming depending upon availability and their suitability to crop.
Limitations of organic farming
- Proponents of organic farming have claimed that organic agriculture emphasizes closed nutrient cycles, biodiversity, and effective soil management providing the capacity to mitigate and even reverse the effects of climate change and that organic agriculture can decrease fossil fuel emissions
- Nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions, ammonia emissions, eutrophication potential and acidification potential were higher for organic products. Excess nutrients in lakes, rivers, and groundwater can cause algal blooms, eutrophication, and subsequent dead zones. In addition, nitrates are harmful to aquatic organisms by themselves.
- Organic farming requires 84% more land for an equivalent amount of harvest, mainly due to lack of nutrients but sometimes due to weeds, diseases or pests, lower yielding animals and land required for fertility building crops.While organic farming does not necessarily save land for wildlife habitats and forestry in all cases.
- The variable nature of food production and handling makes it difficult to generalize results, and there is insufficient evidence to make claims that organic food is safer.
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