Info About Agriculture

Organic Farming

Organic farming is a type of farming with uses green manure, crop rotation, compost, biological pest control and mechanical cultivation in order to control pests and keep high soil productivity. Organic farming also uses a small, if they use any at all synthetic means of grow, for example synthetic fertilizers or additives.

Ever since 1990 the demand for organic goods has risen dramatically, and now around 32.2 million hectares across the world are farmed organically. In 2005 it was estimated that around on 62 million hectares of land organic wild produce is now harvested on, organic wild produce means organic products that are gathered from wild land.

Organic farming first start back in 1930 due to people becoming increasing worried about the amount of artificial fertilizers people were starting to use and come dependent on. These fertilizers were made using a mass producing technique from WW I. The fertilizers were cheap to both produce and to buy, they were also easy to transport in big amounts. To start with organic farming made up a tiny amount of the total agricultural output, however as the environment and general public became more aware of the farming style the demand for it saw a huge increase. This allowed organic farms to offer the top prices for their organic produce, the government also tried to persuade farmers to change to organic means of production. Many farmers in developing countries have also switched to organic production as it allows them to sell their food to other countries, but the number of farmers doing this in these sorts of countries is still fairly limited.

Organic farming uses the traditional methods of getting a high yield soil by ploughing it, making the soil break down making it not so compact which limits the amount of air and water that is able to get to a plant's root's. By doing this it also rotates the crops meaning there is less chance of them suffering from any crop diseases or pests building up in them, killing the crops. Another way in which they prevent this in organic farming is by producing cover crops that add nutrients to the soil. Organic farming also means using physical or biological ways of solving weed problems without the use of chemicals; instead farmers can pick weeds out manually or use machinery to do so. Some also use insects such as Ladybirds which each weeds such as aphids. Without any chemical use farmers also don't have to worry about harmful chemicals getting into local rivers polluting the water supply.

Organic farmers also raise their livestock organically; they are only feed organic foods along with victims, although for each animal it varies depending on their needs. Its been found that this form of feeding is not only a lot better for the animals than grain feeding but is it also better for the environment, though some animals like chickens and pigs are still given some grains to ensure they get the right nutrients, though in many cases the grain is grown organically also. On the whole farmers don't tend to give their animals any antibiotics or artificial growth tablets on organic farms however if any of their animals get ill and need to them medication they are required to do so, the food later produced by that animal however maybe not be called organic'.

Organic farming comes with many advantages for the farmers, animals and for us as consumers. The food that we are getting from these farms is free of any contamination of harmful chemicals like pesticides. As a result of this it also means that the food is highly nutritious as it has a high amount of victims and minerals in it, therefore making it extremely healthy.

However organic farming is very labour intensive as there is the need for greater crop observation and interaction needed from the farmer, therefore there is more work to be done needing more machinery and more of a workforce than is needed on a non organic farm. An organic farm also needs a high amount of skill for his crops and animals to be successful; however as professional farming needs a good amount of skill anyway you tend to find that most organic farmers started of just doing just general farming.

Agriculture & Farming


    The production of food and goods through farming and forestry.

Resources



  • Farmers can purchase hydrated lime from Hydrated Lime Suppliers and add it to the back of cubicle beds to absorb moisture, kill bacteria and help prevent the spread of mastitis.

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