Sustainable Agriculture | BiotechStudies

What Is Sustainable Agriculture 

If you had to choose, which would you prefer to eat: food that is grown more naturally or food that is enhanced by spraying it with pesticides or applying chemical fertilizers? Most people would prefer the natural food that is free of chemicals and artificial enhancements. Unfortunately, the majority of food we consume is produced using Industrialized agriculture, which is a type of agriculture where large quantities of crops and livestock are produced through industrial techniques for the purpose of sale. This type of agriculture relies heavily on a variety of chemicals and artificial enhancements, such as pesticides, fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms. This type of agriculture also uses a large amount of fossil fuels and large machines to manage the farm land. Although industrialized agriculture has made it possible to produce large quantities of food, due to the negative aspects of this technique, there has been a shift towards sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture is a type of agriculture that focuses on producing long-term crops and livestock while having minimal effects on the environment. This type of agriculture tries to find a good balance between the need for food production and the preservation of the ecological system within the environment. In addition to producing food, there are several overall goals associated with sustainable agriculture, including conserving water, reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and promoting biodiversity in crops grown and the ecosystem. Sustainable agriculture also focuses on maintaining economic stability of farms and helping farmers improve their techniques and quality of life.

There are many farming strategies that are used that help make agriculture more sustainable. Some of the most common techniques include growing plants that can create their own nutrients to reduce the use of fertilizers and rotating crops in fields, which minimizes pesticide use because the crops are changing frequently. Another common technique is mixing crops, which reduces the risk of a disease destroying a whole crop and decreases the need for pesticides and herbicides. Sustainable farmers also utilize water management systems, such as drip irrigation, that waste less water.

Benefits Of Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is an approach of farming that includes a wide range of methods of ranching and farming, which result in the benefits for farmers, their families, the environment, and farm animals. The methods involved in sustainable agriculture produces food, which is healthy for users, causes no harm to the environment, humanitarian for workers, and treats animals with respect. It also gives financial benefits to the farmers, and boosts up the rural communities.

1. Contributes to environmental conservation

The environment plays a major role in fulfilling our basic necessities of life. It is therefore out duty to return some of these things back so that our future generations may not remain deprived. Sustainable farming helps in putting back some of these things back to the environment. This helps to replenish land and other resources like soil, water, and air to make them sufficiently available for the coming generations.

2. Prevents pollution

When sustainable farming is carried the waste so produced remains inside the farmer ecosystem. Thus it cannot in any way cause pollution or buildup in the external environment.

3. Reduction in cost

Sustainable agriculture minimizes the use and cost of purchasing fossil fuel and reduces the transportation costs. This helps in reducing the overall cost involved in the process of farming.

4. Biodiversity

Sustainable agriculture results in Biodiversity as the farms produce different kinds of animals and plants. Plants are seasonally rotated about the fields, which results in enriched soil, prevention of diseases and outbreaks of pests.

5. Beneficial for animals

Animals are cared for, treated humanely and with respect. All animals living in the farm are facilitated to exhibit their natural behaviors like grazing, pecking or, rooting. This helps them to grow in a natural way.

6. Economically beneficial for farmers

When farmers engage themselves into sustainable agriculture they receive a fair wage for their effort. As a result their dependence on government subsidies is reduced, thereby strengthening the rural communities.

7. Social equality

When sustainable agriculture is practiced workers are offered competitive salaries and benefits. They are treated with humanity; provided with safe work environment, food and proper living conditions.

8. Beneficial for environment

Sustainable agriculture decreases the use of non-renewable environmental resources and is thus quite beneficial for the environment. This special type of agriculture and farming technique makes utmost use of the environment and that too without causing any harm to it. Products obtained do not contain any inorganic chemicals like insecticides and pesticides. All these factors make sustainable agriculture a preferred choice of farmers all over the world.

Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is a broad concept that covers a number of different approaches. Every-one tries to achieve Environmentally sound, Economically profitable, Ethically acceptable and socially responsible form of the Land husbandary.

1.      Integrated Pest Management (IPM):

IPM is a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks.

2.      Rotational Grazing

New management-intensive grazing systems take animals out of the barn and into the pasture to provide high-quality forage and reduced feed costs while avoiding manure build up.

3.      Soil Conservation

Many soil conservation methods, including strip cropping, reduced tillage and "no-till," help prevent loss of soil due to wind and water erosion.

4.      Water Quality/Wetlands

Water conservation and protection have become important parts of agricultural stewardship.Many practices have developed to improve quality of drinking and surface water, as well as to protect wetlands.Wetlands play a key role in filtering nutrients and pesticides, in addition to providing wildlife habitat.

5.      Cover Crops

Growing plants such as rye, clover or vetch in the off season after harvesting a grain or vegetable crop can provide several benefits; including weed suppression, erosion control, and improved soil nutrients and soil quality.

6.      Crop/Landscape Diversity

Growing a greater variety of crops on a farm can help reduce risks from extremes in weather, market conditions or crop pests.Increased diversity of crops and other plants, such as trees and shrubs, also can contribute to soil conservation, wildlife habitat and increased populations of beneficial insects.

7.      Nutrient Management

Proper management of nitrogen and other plant nutrients can improve the soil and protect the environment.Increased use of on-farm nutrient sources, such as manure and leguminous cover crops, also Reduces purchased Fertilizer costs.

8.      Agroforestry

Trees and other woody perennials are often underutilized on farms and ranches.Agroforestry covers a range of tree uses on farms, including interplanting trees (such as walnuts) with crops or pasture, better managing woodlots, and using trees and shrubs along streams as riparian buffer strips.

9.      Marketing

Farmers and ranchers across the country are finding that improved marketing provides a key way to enhance Profitability.Direct marketing of agricultural goods to consumers is becoming much more common, including through farmers’ markets, roadside stands and community-supported agriculture.

Disadvantages of Sustainable Agriculture

1)      Income that is generated from farming is also very limited due to sparingly use of land.

2)      It is also hard to maintain the fertility of soil by simply rotating crops.

3)      This is because it resources advocates for the use of productive sparingly.

4)      It also hinders the full exploitation of land, labor and capital.

5)      It limits the proper use of land.

Conclusion

As my view, Sustainable Agriculture is good and we do sustainable Agriculture but it is not necessary at today time.

We can use Sustainable farming in home like in garden

Benefits to sustainable agriculture is more, there are also some issues associated with it. One of the main concerns is that sustainable agriculture does not produce as much food as industrialized agriculture