Sustainable farming solutions

Farming has a very important role to play in all our lives. Not only does it provide the main diet in all our lives, it’s actually tied up to the environment and several factors that are directly relevant in our lives. The weather, the climate, our healthy etc, everything depends directly or indirectly on the way farmers carry about their business. In India, it is such a shame that most of our agriculturists end up killing themselves due to drastic changes in the weather. We must all strive to help farmers achieve their goals by making our contributions, whether in cash or kind, regularly.

The idea is to replace chemical fertilizers with natural and plant-based fertilizers so that the soil can reduce all the harmful effects of the pure chemicals on it, on the air, in animals’ guts and all over the surface of the earth.

The degradation of the soil has been due to the vast and sustained success of the rotation of a hybrid crop variety. This depletion of the soil layers has resulted in excessive drought, disease, and pest infestations. This is a pertinent and stubborn problem that has arisen for all our farmers.

 Biodiversity means a balance between all the life forms on earth, from a worm to a bacteria, to a whale and an elephant. These diverse life forms and water, animal and food cycles award us with food, fuel, fiber, and medicines.

Human beings have to take care of the balance in the water bodies, and they have to ensure that the waste gets adequately decomposed so that it can be taken back into use. Agricultural biodiversity is very important for plant and soil health.

Water is such an important facet of human life. Clean, clear and water filled with minerals is a rare commodity over which even battles are waged, and over which states feud. Agriculture uses water to the maximum.

Good agricultural practices can enhance the water supply going to humans all over the world.

Safe and useful practices to maintain the utility of the top soil are that farmers can use manure and plant residues. Just as water is important to the farmers, the nature of the soil is also very important, and it is all due to the poor practices of the human race that natural soil and water qualities are declining.

Chemical fertilizers are known factors that result in the erosion of the top layers of the soil. The loss of variety in the crop structures is known as genetic erosion. Genetic erosion is supposed to be one of the most serious problems that agriculturists face. An overuse of artificial fertilizers has led to soil erosion, and an overuse of the nitrogenous fertilizer urea has resulted in the acidification of the soil.

An increase in nitrogen increases the fungi in the roots of the plants leading to an increased intake of phosphorous. An excess in modulation increases the weeds in the farm, and also increases the incidence of pests.