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Organic farming

What is organic farming?

Organic farming works in harmony with nature rather than against it. This involves using techniques to achieve good crop yields without harming the natural environment or the people who live and work in it.

“An organic farm, properly speaking, is not one that uses certain methods and substances and avoids others; it is a farm whose structure is formed in imitation of the structure of a natural system that has the integrity, the independence and the benign dependence of an organism”

—Wendell Berry, “The Gift of Good Land”.

athe farming methods used in the past are still useful today. Organic farming takes the best of these and combines them with modern scientific knowledge.

 

Major facts in Organic farming

 

To keep and build good soil structure and fertility:

• Recycled and composted crop wastes and animal manures

• The right soil cultivation at the right time

• Crop rotation

• Green manures and legumes

• mulching on the soil surface

 

To control pests, diseases and weeds:

To be a successful organic farmer, the farmer must not see every insect as a pest, every plant out of place as a weed and the solution to every problem in an artificial chemical spray. The aim is not to eradicate all pests and weeds, but to keep them down to an acceptable level and make the most of the benefits that they may provide.

• Careful planning and crop choice

• The use of resistant crops

• Good cultivation practice

• Crop rotation

• encouraging useful predators that eat pests

• increasing genetic diversity

• using natural pesticides

Soil management

Plants need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as micronutrients and symbiotic relationships with fungi and other organisms to flourish, but getting enough nitrogen, and particularly synchronization so that plants get enough nitrogen at the right time (when plants need it most), is likely the greatest challenge for organic farmers. Crop rotation and green manure (“cover crops”) help to provide nitrogen through legumes (more precisely, the Fabaceae family) which fix nitrogen from the atmosphere through symbiosis with rhizobial bacteria. Intercropping, which is sometimes used for insect and disease control, can also increase soil nutrients, but the competition between the legume and the crop can be problematic and wider spacing between crop rows is required. Crop residues can be ploughed back into the soil, and different plants leave different amounts of nitrogen, potentially aiding synchronization. Organic farmers also use animal manure, certain processed fertilizers such as seed meal and various mineral powders such as rock phosphate and greensand, a naturally occurring form of potash which provides potassium. Together these methods help to control erosion. In some cases pH may need to be amended. Natural pH amendments include lime and sulfur, but in the U.S. some compounds such as iron sulfate, aluminum sulfate, magnesium sulfate, and soluble boron products are allowed in organic farming.

 

Mixed farms with both livestock and crops can operate as ley farms, whereby the land gathers fertility through growing nitrogen-fixing forage grasses such as white clover or alfalfa and grows cash crops or cereals when fertility is established. Farms without livestock (“stockless”) may find it more difficult to maintain fertility, and may rely more on external inputs such as imported manure as well as grain legumes and green manures, although grain legumes may fix limited nitrogen because they are harvested. Horticultural farms growing fruits and vegetables which operate in protected conditions are often even more reliant upon external inputs.

Biological research on soil and soil organisms has proven beneficial to organic farming. Varieties of bacteria and fungi break down chemicals, plant matter and animal waste into productive soil nutrients. In turn, they produce benefits of healthier yields and more productive soil for future crops.Fields with less or no manure display significantly lower yields, due to decreased soil microbe community, providing a healthier, more arable soil system.

Weed management

Organic weed management promotes weed suppression, rather than weed elimination, by enhancing crop competition and phytotoxic effects on weeds. Organic farmers integrate cultural, biological, mechanical, physical and chemical tactics to manage weeds without synthetic herbicides.

 

Organic standards require rotation of annual crops meaning that a single crop cannot be grown in the same location without a different, intervening crop. Organic crop rotations frequently include weed-suppressive cover crops and crops with dissimilar life cycles to discourage weeds associated with a particular crop. Organic farmers strive to increase soil organic matter content, which can support microorganisms that destroy common weed seeds.

Other cultural practices used to enhance crop competitiveness and reduce weed pressure include selection of competitive crop varieties, high-density planting, tight row spacing, and late planting into warm soil to encourage rapid crop germination.

 

Mechanical and physical weed control practices used on organic farms can be broadly grouped as:

 

Tillage – Turning the soil between crops to incorporate crop residues and soil amendments; remove existing weed growth and prepare a seedbed for planting;

Cultivation – Disturbing the soil after seeding;

Mowing and cutting – Removing top growth of weeds;

Flame weeding and thermal weeding – Using heat to kill weeds; and

Mulching - Blocking weed emergence with organic materials, plastic films, or landscape fabric.

Some naturally-sourced chemicals are allowed for herbicidal use. These include certain formulations of acetic acid (concentrated vinegar), corn gluten meal, and essential oils. A few selective bio herbicides based on fungal pathogens have also been developed. At this time, however, organic herbicides and bio herbicides play a minor role in the organic weed control toolbox.

 

Combined techniques

On an organic farm, each technique would not normally be used on its own. The farmer would use a range of organic methods at the same time to allow them to work together for the maximum benefit. For example the use of green manures and careful cultivation, together provide better control of weeds than if the techniques were used on their own.

Benefits of organic farming

Organic farming provides long-term benefits to people and the environment.

Organic farming aims to:

• increase long-term soil fertility.

• control pests and diseases without harming the environment.

• ensure that water stays clean and safe.

• use resources which the farmer already has, so the farmer needs less money to buy farm inputs.

• produce nutritious food, feed for animals and high quality crops to sell at a good price.

 

Modern, intensive agriculture causes many problems, including the following:

• Artificial fertilizers and herbicides are easily washed from the soil and

pollute rivers, lakes and water courses.

 

• The prolonged use of artificial fertilizers results in soils with a low organic matter content which is easily eroded by wind and rain.

• Dependency on fertilizers. Greater amounts are needed every year to produce the same yields of crops.

• Artificial pesticides can stay in the soil for a long time and enter the food chain where they build up in the bodies of animals and humans, causing health problems.

• Artificial chemicals destroy soil micro-organisms resulting in poor soil structure and aeration and decreasing nutrient availability.

• Pests and diseases become more difficult to control as they become resistant to artificial pesticides. The numbers of natural enemies decrease because of pesticide use and habitat loss.