Organic Farming

With our global population increasing our needs for food and shelter are growing too. And to meet that need we are clearing off farmlands and chopping down forests at an alarming rate. Further, to feed this population we are forcing high yielding fertilizers and pesticides on the land in order to grow a bumper crop year after year.

Seeing the consumption figures of artificial fertilizers, one thing is certain, we are “over-extracting” the produce from the soil; which in a short time will not be able to suffice even the bare minimum produce.

Remedy: switch over to organic farming techniques.

Organic farming is the type of agriculture which uses non-conventional techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, vermin compost and biological pest control. It discourages the use of chemical fertilizers and the over-excessive use of pesticides. Plant growth regulating hormones, livestock antibiotics or food additives are not used in this type of farming.

In addition, relying on techniques such as drip farming helps as it reduces the wastage occurring when fields flood with water. It ensures that the correct amount of water is given to a plant and ensures that the right amount of fertilizer is induced into the plant, rather than clogging the soil (and therefore the field) with it.

When reading these techniques casually, it appears that these techniques are just out of junior school textbooks and are quite bookish. But, when practiced in bulk, they give much better results in the long run. Usage of organic agriculture techniques helps restore the soils natural immunity and helps in maintaining the natural “porous” nature of the soil, which keeps degrading otherwise by excessive usage of fertilizers.

Using artificial farming techniques may lead to a good produce over the short term, but when the same is practiced repeatedly over time, the quality of the soil degrades. Also, the use of chemical pesticides leads to the induction of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in our food chain.

Using organic techniques leads to the growth of “healthy” food and helps in retaining the balance of nature.