Organic farming explained easy

Organic farming explained easy

The idea of organic farming was started years ago when farmers in the ancient time used to cultivate crops with the available resources. Organic farming uses techniques to achieve good crop yields without harming the environment or people who work in it. Organic farming uses methods like crop irrigation, recycled and composted crop wastes and manures, using natural pesticides etc. Thus, reducing the investment of resources. Organic Farming concentrates on building up the biological fertility of the soil so that the crops take the nutrients and reduce the harmony with the need of the plants.

"The health of Soil, Plant, Animal, and man is one and inseparable"

When compared to other farming techniques organic farming provides long-term benefits like increasing the soil fertility, produce high-quality nutritious food, use of already available resources and good soil structure. Further, organic farming through its eco-friendly techniques protects the environment. Artificial fertilizers provide only short-term nutrient that is not good for health. Organic farming not only provides healthy crops but also dairies can be benefitted from it. Dairies feed their cows organic food and graze them on organic fields.

Side-Effects of Organic Farming

Organic farming uses more land for the cultivation of crops than traditional conventional methods. More than 40% of the land is already being used for farming. As the world population grows we need to think of techniques that helps in growing more food from the same amount of land. Another negative shade of organic farming is that there was no significant difference between carbon footprints of organic food and conventional diet. As per the recent report, organic farmers complained of lower productivity during the transition from conventional farming to organic farming. Most importantly, the high prices of organic food discourage people from purchasing them.

The Verdict

According to the world of organic agriculture 2018 report, 30% of total organic producers are present in India but accounts just 1.5 million hectares of total organic cultivation area of 57.8 million hectares in India. Organic Framing can be a grand success when farmers think to keep all the pests and weeds down to an acceptable level instead of trying to completely eradicate them. However, organic farming preserves environmental balance and preserve biodiversity.

PROS AND CONS OF ORGANIC FARMING

Despite the good things about organic farming why do most farmers still operate by industrialized agriculture?

Here i will try ti explore the pros and cons organic farming presents for consumers and producers, as well as examining the environmental effects of organic farming.

CONSUMER BENEFITS:

1.Nutrition

The nutritional value of food is largely a function of its vitamin and mineral content. Besides organic farming does not affect soil ecosystem.

2.poison free

A major benefit to consumers of organic food is that it doesn't contain any kind of toxic chemicals loke pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

According to a survey by the New South Wales Central Cancer Registry, in new south wales the new cases of cancer has risen 50% in just 32 years.

3.Food quality

Humans can taste the food they ingest. organically grown food tastes better than that conventionally grown. The tastiness of fruit and vegetables is directly related to its sugar content. Besides organic foods can be stored longer.

GROWERS ADVANTAGES

1.Disease and Pest Resistance

Organically cultivated foods have more resistance than normally cultivated food.

Organic foods usually dont get affected by pests.

2.Lower Input Costs

By definition, organic farming does not incur the use of expensive agrichemicals. The greater resistance of their crops to pests and the diseases save farmers significantly in expensive insecticides, fungicides and other pesticides.

Fertilizers are either created in situ by green manuring and leguminous crop rotation or on-farm via composting and worm farming. Biodynamic farmers use a low cost microbial solution sprayed onto their crops.

3.Drought Resistance

Organically grown plants are more drought tolerant. chemical fertilizer is soluble, plants are forced to imbibe it every time they are thirsty for water. They can and do enjoy good growth as long as water is readily available. As soon as water becomes limited, however, the soluble nutrient salts in the cells of chemically fed plants are unable to osmotically draw sufficient water to maintain safe dilution. They soon reach toxic concentrations, and the plant stops growing. So organic foods are better to cultivate in drought affected areas.

ORGANIC FARMING DISADVANTAGES

1.productivity

Though industriliazed farming is more productive but over the longer time frame, productivity advantages dwindle. In my years working with broadacre farmers in the wheatbelt of WA, it was common for them to remark on how much richer pastures and crops were in their youth.

Industrialized agriculture thrashes the land, and diminishes its soil life to the point where it can no longer function to convert available organic matter into soil fertility. Productivity begins to wane, and attempts to bolster it with increasing chemical inputs (common advice from farm consultants) has a similar effect to flogging a dead horse.

Because it relies on living soil to build fertility, the benefits of organic farming for soil life is fundamental to its methods.

Organic farming benefits food production without destroying our environmental resources, ensuring sustainability for not only the current but also future generations.

3.Cultivation

While their conventional counterparts may sow by direct drilling of seed into herbicide treated soils, organic farmers are usually at least partly dependent on cultivation to remove weeds prior to sowing. In contrast to cultivation, direct drilling does not mechanically disrupt soil structure and removes the risk of exposed soil being lost to wind or water erosion.

Its a major disadvantage of organic farming.

4.GM Crops

Organic growers do not use genetically modified or engineered food crops, some of which are engineered to tolerate herbicides (e.g. "Roundup Ready Canola") or resist pests (e.g. Bollworm resistant cotton). Conventional growers, on the other hand, are free to "take advantage" of GM crops.

5.Time

Indeed, organic farming requires greater interaction between a farmer and his crop so that, naturally a single farmer can produce more crop using industrial methods than he or she could by solely organic methods.

6.Skill

It requires considerably more skill to farm organically. Organic farmers do not have some convenient chemical fix on the shelf for every problem they encounter. They have to engage careful observation and greater understanding in order to know how to tweak their farming system to correct the cause of the problem.

The idea of organic farming was started years ago when farmers in the ancient time used to cultivate crops with the available resources. Organic farming uses techniques to achieve good yields without harming the environment or people who work in it.