Agriculture in modest terms has been advancing in the past decades to meet the growing consumer base. The government and the agricultural sector have intensely debated the sustainability of agriculture. Aside from producing food from the countryside, it also provides more jobs. More and more agricultural projects are community supported, to the point that new farm insurance policies are being implemented.
Economics plays a major role in the agricultural process. A main factor to consider is the amount and quality of crops produced in a season from a particular field while avoiding losses due to inevitable natural disasters such as flooding, erosion, crop diseases and pests.
The widespread use of monoculture, or a method of raising one kind of crop at a time in a given field, is widespread practice. This tradition has continued for centuries and across cultures. However, there are problems with its sustainability. The most productive forms of monoculture are limited to the kind of crop in a given field.
A popular alternative being introduced is polyculture. This system implies the raising of a wide variety of crops in a given field. As harvest times differ, each crop would give yields at different seasons with the consideration that it should not compete with each other for soil nutrients, growth space and adequate sunlight. Although this is a very effective method for increased sustainability, the only hindrance it plays is the complication of harvesting that particular kind of crop.
The advantages of growing various kinds of crops in a single field helps improve ecological balance in the growing environment. Crops cultivated this way develop healthy budding parts and increased resistance to diseases. Polyculture also lessens the impact of erosion, which leads to the loss of nutrients in the soil. Legume crops are beneficial to cultivation of other crops within a field. They enable nitrogen fixation for stable growth. This enables the land to replenish its plant-bearing nutrients and bear perennially or more. In a season, legumes grow and fill the soil with nitrates and ammonium. Both are necessary compounds essential for plant development. This method allows other kinds of crops to be planted alongside the legumes and develop sustainability in terms of anticipating multiple harvests in different seasons. Other plants can be sown and matured in the fields for the preparation of new harvests.
Overall crop diversity in polyculture also improves the soil density as well as the resistance to common pests, thus serving as a natural pest control. Growing a mixture of crops reduces the need of fertilizers to enhance the nutritive value of the soil.
Another effective method of sustainable agriculture is diversified crop rotation. In this system, the particular field is subdivided into plots. Each plot has it own kind of crop. The effectiveness of this system reduces the competition of nutrients with dissimilar kinds of crops and uniformity of acquiring the harvest during select seasons. Depending on the type of crops, they are cycled to the other plots as the seasons come and go. Cropping systems must integrate legumes in either one of the plots to disseminate soil nutrients such as nitrate and ammonium. Proper irrigation plays a major role in the agricultural domain. If utilized properly, soil erosion is minimized and plants can endure the intense heat of the sun.
These methods in sustainable agriculture are enhanced through the use of modern technological processes that help growth and high quality yield in a systematic process.
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