Organic farming has been practised probably since man learned to cultivate the soil for food. That means thousands of years ago. Sure, ancient civilisations such as the Sumerians, Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Chinese, Elamites, didn’t have any idea as to what nitrate or phosphate or sulfate was. Neither did they know what organic elements were such as nitrogen, potassium or phosphorous.
The method of farming that came to be known today as ‘conventional farming’ was actually not introduced until the wartime world where food was scarce. In order to feed the millions of hungry populations, especially during and after WWII, food production should be quick and abundant. Thus the introduction of synthetic fertilizers and farm mechanizations..
The use of these inorganic fertilizers, along with mechanization, was easily associated with modern technology in farming. The subsequent introduction of chemicals to control pests and diseases in crops and livestock encouraged millions of people around the world to become farmers. Several countries became major exporters of agricultural products as a result of bumper harvests that created a glut in local supply.
As a consequence, thousands of hectares of primary rainforest in the tropics were lost. The natural habitat of some of the world’s plant and animal species were wiped out forever. Then, as if it wasn’t enough, farmers indiscriminately apply synthetic fertilizers and chemicals to the soil that inadvertently kill other organisms that might be useful to the plants and animals who live within the ecosystem. The natural ecological balance was in a shamble. But most farmers, especially small and marginalized farmers, don’t realize the adverse impact modern farming has on the environment. Sadly, some governments have even subsidized the farmers for these inorganic farm inputs to fight rural poverty.
These farmlands become less and less productive year after year, if not completely barren and sterile due to massive loss of essential nutrients as a result of soil contamination. Today, hundreds of hectares of farmlands have been abandoned and become wastelands. They are grim reminders of human indifference towards nature.
The modern concept of organic farming started when agricultural scientiss and farmers reacted against the industrialization of agriculture in developed countries. Organic farming is a form of ‘primitive’ agriculture in the real sense because it avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. It relies on nature, per se.
Organic farming can better be viewed as a natural farming. Although the growth rate of plants or crops is dependent upon the nutrients available in the soil, it doesn’t necessitate you to use unnatural growth enhancers or pest or weed control.
Organic farming aims to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to human beings.
If available nutrients in the soil do not compensate the requirements needed by the plants to grow you can add natural elements to the soil such as animal manure and compost. You can’t possibly eliminate weeds, pests or diseases in crops completely by using chemicals. In fact, you’re doing more harm than good to the environment because other insects and organisms might be useful to the health of the ecosystems would also die. The only way is control. Using chemicals may be a form of controlling pests or weeds or diseases but microorganisms that are present in the atmosphere and soil are also affected.
Microorganisms are vital to humans and the environment, as they participate in the Earth’s element cycles such as the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle, as well as fulfilling other vital roles in virtually all ecosystems, such as recycling other organisms’ dead remains and waste products through decomposition which is essentially a growth medium as soil.
When all the essential elements are adequately available in soil, plants will have no problem growing. And if livestock are fed with fodder from plants grown organically, they would grow into happy and healthy animals.
