Organic Farming

Organic farming does not mean going ‘back’ to traditional methods. Many of the farming methods used in the past are still useful today. Organic farming takes the best of these and combines them with modern scientific knowledge. In this way the farmer creates a healthy balance between nature and farming, where crops and animals can grow and thrive.

There are plenty of reasons to farm organic, but we will list you only few of them. Organic farming:

Reduces the toxic load: keeps chemicals out of the air, water, soil and our bodies

Buying organic food promotes a less toxic environment for all living things. Artificial fertilizers and herbicides are easily washed from the soil and pollute rivers, lakes and water courses. If applied in greater quantity, 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.

Builds healthy soil

Mono-cropping and chemical fertilizer dependency has taken a toll with a loss of top soil. Add to this an equally disturbing loss of micro nutrients and minerals, the soil balance is totally disrupted. Feeding the soil with organic matter instead of ammonia and other synthetic fertilizers has proven to increase nutrients in produce, with higher levels of vitamins and minerals found in organic food.

Tastes better and truer flavor

According to scientists, organic food often tastes better. New research verifies that some organic produce is often lower in nitrates and higher in antioxidants than conventional food. Let the organic feasting begin!

Assists family farmers of all sizes

Family farms that are certified organic farms have a double economic benefit: they are profitable and they farm in harmony with their surrounding environment. Whether the farm is a 4-acre orchard or a 4,000-acre wheat farm, organic is a beneficial practice that is genuinely family-friendly.

Creates a sense of place

Organic has proven to use less energy (on average, about 30 percent less), is beneficial to soil, water and local habitat, and is safer for the people who harvest our food. Eat more seasonally by supporting your local farmers market while also supporting a global organic economy year round.

Promotes biodiversity

Visit an organic farm and you’ll notice something: a buzz of animal, bird and insect activity. These organic oases are thriving, diverse habitats. Native plants, birds and hawks return usually after the first season of organic practices; beneficial insects allow for a greater balance. A good farm must be one where the native flora and fauna have lost acreage without losing their existence. An organic farm is the equivalent of reforestation.

Celebrates the culture of agriculture

Food is a ‘language’ spoken in every culture. Making this language organic allows for an important cultural revolution whereby diversity and biodiversity are embraced and chemical toxins and environmental harm are radically reduced. The simple act of saving one heirloom seed from extinction, for example, is an act of biological and cultural conservation. Organic is not necessarily the most efficient farming system in the short run. It is slower, harder, more complex and more labor-intensive. But for the sake of culture everywhere, from permaculture to human culture, organic should be celebrated at every table.

To farm in organic way, farmers should follow some principles:

· To produce food of high nutritional quality in sufficient quantity

· To encourage and enhance biological cycles within the farming system, involving micro-organisms, soil flora and fauna, plants and animals

· To maintain and increase long term fertility of soils

· To use, as far as possible, renewable resources in locally organised agricultural systems

· To work with materials and substances which can be reused or recycled, either on the farm or elsewhere

· To minimise all forms of pollution that may result from agricultural practices.

Cradit:- Tanja Folnovic(Agronomy Expert)