Organic Farming with Principles : Agrilearner

Organic Farming

Organic farming “is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. To the maximum extent feasible, organic agriculture systems rely upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manure, legumes, green manure, off-farm organic wastes, mechanical cultivation, mineral bearing rocks, and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity, tilt, to supply plant nutrients, and to control insects, weeds, and other pests”. (USDA, 1980).
The concept of the soil as a living system which must be “fed” in a way that does not restrict the activities of beneficial organisms necessary for recycling nutrients and producing humus is central to this definition.

“Organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including bio-diversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs, taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems. This is accomplished by using wherever possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfil any specific function within the system”.

(Organic Farming)

Principles of organic farming

1. To produce food of high nutritional quality in sufficient quantity
2. To interact in a constructive and life enhancing way with all natural systems and cycles
3. To encourage and biological cycles with in the farming system, involving micro-organisms, soil flora and fauna, plants and animals and careful mechanical intervention
4. To maintain and increase long-term fertility of soils
5. To promote the healthy use and proper care of water, water resources and all life therein
6. To help in the conservation of soil and water
7. To use, as far as is possible, renewable resources in locally organized agricultural systems
8. To work, as far as possible, within a closed system with regard to organic matter and nutrient elements
9. To work, as far as possible, with materials and substances which can be reused or recycled, either on the farm or elsewhere
10. To give all livestock conditions of life which allow them to perform the basic aspects of their innate behaviour
11. To maintain all forms of pollution that may result from agricultural practices
12. .To maintain the genetic diversity of the production system and its surroundings including the protection of wild life habitats
13. To allow everyone involved in organic production and processing a quality of life confirming to the UN Human Rights Charter, to cover their basic needs and obtain an adequate return and satisfaction from their work, including a safe working environment
14. To consider the wider social and ecological impact of the farming system
15. To produce non-food products from renewable resources, which are fully degradable
16. Weed, disease and pest control relaying primarily on crop rotation, natural predators, diversity, organic maturing, resistant varieties, and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention
17. To create harmonious balance between crop production and animal husbandry
18. .To encourage organic agriculture associations to function along democratic lines and the principle of division of powers
19. .To progress towards an entire production, processing and distribution chain which is both socially just and ecologically responsible.