What is
Sustainable Agriculture and What are its types?
When people
talk about sustainable agriculture, it’s often in terms of what you can do to
make the world better.
Most people
think that sustainable agriculture has something to do with energy consumption
and greenhouse gases, and while these things are certainly important, they
aren’t the whole story behind this movement.
First of
all, sustainable agriculture doesn’t focus just on farming; it also includes
fishing and forestry. Second of all, sustainable agriculture isn’t about making
the world better; it’s actually about making the world more stable over time.
What is
Sustainable Agriculture
First, what
does sustainable mean when we use it about agriculture or environmental
sustainability in general?
It’s simply
a way of producing enough food and other products for everyone without
destroying our land base or natural resources.
The idea
behind sustainable agriculture goes beyond environmentally friendly or
responsible farming—it aims to produce abundant food without harming essential
natural resources such as soil, water, air, plants, animal life, or fertile
ground.
This
encompasses not only reducing water and fossil fuel consumption but also
addressing issues such as food security (ensuring that people have access to
healthy, affordable foods), climate change (including greenhouse gas
emissions), disease resistance in crops and animals, ensuring farmers can make
a living wage off their harvest and much more.
Crop
Rotation.
Crop
rotation helps increase sustainable farming practices by restoring soil nutrient
depletion, reducing pests in crops, making better use of natural resources
(including water), creating natural habitats for animals, and more.
Many people
don't realize that crop rotation has been used for thousands of years. While
some of these methods may have been based on superstition or folklore rather
than real science (as is common with ancient remedies), there's no doubt that
crop rotation has played a major role in agricultural success over time.
As far back
as 450 B.C., Greek philosopher Xenophon wrote about rotating crops in one of
his books, Oeconomicus; similarly, Pliny spoke highly of crop rotation during
ancient Roman times as well.
Permaculture
Originally
a portmanteau of permanent agriculture, permaculture became a movement when Bill
Mollison, who studied zoology at Oxford University, began developing what he
called permaculture.
From
Wikipedia: Permaculture, sometimes abbreviated as PC, is a system of
agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or
directly utilizing patterns observed in natural ecosystems.
Permaculture
designs strive to create sustainable human habitats by observing ecological
relationships between components and then reproducing those relationships in a
deliberately constructed landscape.
The central
concept behind permaculture can be stated simply: If it works once, it will
work again—and if it works again, you don't have to keep doing it yourself.
Cover
Crops
When a farm
crop is grown over an extended period, it can deplete soil nutrients. Cover
crops offer an alternative method for enriching the soil.
These
plants serve a variety of purposes on farms including attracting beneficial
insects, preventing erosion, and keeping weeds at bay.
Many cover
crops also allow farmers to protect their main crop from harsh weather
conditions like frost or drought.
Some common
cover crops include clover, buckwheat, alfalfa, and rye. For more information
about cover, crops visit our page on sustainable agriculture.
Soil
Enrichment
In
agricultural science, soil enrichment refers to a set of practices to improve
soil health by increasing levels of beneficial components while reducing
negative components.
The goals
are increased fertility, better crop yields, and improved conservation of
natural resources. Fertility may be increased by adding materials directly to
soils (e.g., compost) or indirectly through plants in a farming system (e.g.,
green manure).
In organic
farming systems, which place great importance on ecological balance, organic
fertilizers can be added to soils so that they will supply adequate nutrients for
crops without the use of toxic chemicals.
Natural
Pest Predators
One of
nature’s best pest management solutions, insect predators like ladybugs,
nematodes, and syrphid flies provide an environmentally-friendly solution to
pests like aphids.
These natural
predators can be used in conjunction with pesticide sprays to maintain a
healthy garden while still preventing further damage.
For
example, you could use a regular pesticide spray once a week to eliminate
immediate threats. Then, on days when rain or other weather conditions prevent
the proper application of pesticides, release natural predators into your
garden for secondary pest control.
Bio
intensive Integrated Pest Management
In
sustainable agriculture, weed management can be a challenge. After all, weeds
compete with crops for resources such as soil water, nutrients, light, and
space.
So, it’s
essential to have an effective approach to controlling them. One-way IPM might
work is by focusing on the biology of pests and targeting those aspects to minimize
and eventually eliminate the need for pesticide use.
This method
uses a variety of strategies for controlling weeds in ways that benefit both
people and crops by avoiding or reducing chemical herbicides and pesticides.
Polyculture
Farming
Polyculture
means growing several different crops in one area, rather than focusing on one
or two. In a polyculture farm, farmers plant a wide variety of crops to
maximize food production.
A
modern-day example of polyculture farming can be seen in grass-fed cattle
operations. By mixing cows with chickens, garden crops, and other livestock,
sustainable ranchers know that their animals will be healthier as well as
produce more meat for local markets.
Polyculture
practices also help prevent monoculture diseases from spreading because there
are not one species all living close to each other.
Instead,
animals are rotated into different areas so they don’t overgraze a particular
spot or have contact with each other too frequently.
Agroforestry
A mix of
agriculture and forestry in which trees or shrubs are grown to supply products
such as timber, fruits, nuts, herbs, or fuelwood.
The land
between rows may be plowed or left fallow; it may also contain scattered
natural vegetation or a mixture of both.
In essence,
agroforestry combines elements of both sustainable farming (crop production)
and forestry (growing trees).
It's
considered one of six 'sustainable land management methods defined by the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
Agroforestry
is sometimes seen as a middle ground between conventional monoculture farming
methods and more agrarian systems like permaculture that use no external inputs
such as chemical fertilizers.
Biodynamic
Farming
There’s a
reason Whole Foods makes a point of saying that everything in their store is
naturally grown, sustainable, and organic.
Sustainability
can be difficult to pin down. The definition varies from farm to farm,
depending on what type of farming it is and which specific methods or resources
each farmer uses.
Many
experts say that ecological farming is one way to describe sustainable farming
because it takes into account environmental impacts across all aspects of food
production; however, other organizations make a distinction between those two
terms (and still others simply use sustainable agriculture to mean ecological
farming).
There's no
one definition of sustainable agriculture—different organizations define it
slightly differently—but there are some general principles that many farmers
who practice sustainable agriculture follow.