WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION
Food output needs to increase by 40% in the 2000”s in order to keep up with world population growth, according to the united nation and Food and Agriculture Organization. Many believe that further gains will not come from technological strides but from a better use of inputs, natural farming methods and increased production from relatively unexplored areas such as aquaculture.
Several years ago 15 households in the village of Rasulia, in Indians Madhya Pradesh state, decided to abandon hi-tech farming. They stopped using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, sold their communally owned tractor and even reduced plough. They found varieties of Soya beans and rice that grow well on uncultivated land and discovered that plants such as clover help to eliminated weeds. The villagers left 1.4ha of their least productive farmland untilled and the crops grew so well that they then extended the area to 2.4ha. After four years the villagers reported that yields had risen so much that their net profits had increased up to eightfold.
What the people of Rasulia did in the 1980s most countries need to emulate in the 2000’s. According to the UN, Food and Agriculture Organization food output will need to rise by 40 percent in the next decade, just fewer than 4 percent a year. A return to natural farming is needed to achieve this because of declining soil fertility in many parts of the developing world.
In Nigeria ,West Africa for example it is estimated that excessive use of chemical fertilizers in some regions and mono-cropping have made nearly 80% of the soil deficient this make the use of chemicals compulsory if anything is to be harvested from the soils and most of the farmers here are not yet educated as to the adverse effect of this chemicals as those in the southern region are agitating to be included in the chain of distribution instead of investing on farm implement that will reduce human labor they thought this chemical will reduce human labor example such as weed killing chemical are new arrival to the southern regions.
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There are also sound financial reasons for move towards natural farming in a worsening economic situations, most farmers cannot afford to buy expensive inputs and labor shortages occur as a result the absence of this inputs that can allow a farmer cultivate larger pieces of land without using human labor.
Sustainable agriculture using low input farming methods which assure stable yields by maintaining or improving fertility will depend on inter-cropping rather than mono-cropping, on organic manure rather than chemical fertilizers and by integrating trees into field in arid regions, for example water requirements of plants can be reduced.
Finally the farmers all over the world will be expecting the scientists the engineers in 2000’s to solve the problems of smaller farm inputs that reduces their stress in planting rather than in discoveries of newer chemicals that erodes the soils of it natural chemical that are active ingredients that makes them safe and nutritious for human consumption.
Food output needs to increase by 40% in the 2000”s in order to keep up with world population growth, according to the united nation and Food and Agriculture Organization. Many believe that further gains will not come from technological strides but from a better use of inputs, natural farming methods and increased production from relatively unexplored areas such as aquaculture.
EXAMPLE
Several years ago 15 households in the village of Rasulia, in Indians Madhya Pradesh state, decided to abandon hi-tech farming. They stopped using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, sold their communally owned tractor and even reduced plough. They found varieties of Soya beans and rice that grow well on uncultivated land and discovered that plants such as clover help to eliminated weeds. The villagers left 1.4ha of their least productive farmland untilled and the crops grew so well that they then extended the area to 2.4ha. After four years the villagers reported that yields had risen so much that their net profits had increased up to eightfold.
What the people of Rasulia did in the 1980s most countries need to emulate in the 2000’s. According to the UN, Food and Agriculture Organization food output will need to rise by 40 percent in the next decade, just fewer than 4 percent a year. A return to natural farming is needed to achieve this because of declining soil fertility in many parts of the developing world.
CASE STUDY
In Nigeria ,West Africa for example it is estimated that excessive use of chemical fertilizers in some regions and mono-cropping have made nearly 80% of the soil deficient this make the use of chemicals compulsory if anything is to be harvested from the soils and most of the farmers here are not yet educated as to the adverse effect of this chemicals as those in the southern region are agitating to be included in the chain of distribution instead of investing on farm implement that will reduce human labor they thought this chemical will reduce human labor example such as weed killing chemical are new arrival to the southern regions.
blogarama.com
PROFFERED SOLUTIONS
There are also sound financial reasons for move towards natural farming in a worsening economic situations, most farmers cannot afford to buy expensive inputs and labor shortages occur as a result the absence of this inputs that can allow a farmer cultivate larger pieces of land without using human labor.
In 2000’s farmers will be looking anxiously for ways of getting the best from their own resources.
Sustainable agriculture using low input farming methods which assure stable yields by maintaining or improving fertility will depend on inter-cropping rather than mono-cropping, on organic manure rather than chemical fertilizers and by integrating trees into field in arid regions, for example water requirements of plants can be reduced.
On poor soils trees can improve the availability of nutrients for crops by tapping otherwise inaccessible reserves.
Finally the farmers all over the world will be expecting the scientists the engineers in 2000’s to solve the problems of smaller farm inputs that reduces their stress in planting rather than in discoveries of newer chemicals that erodes the soils of it natural chemical that are active ingredients that makes them safe and nutritious for human consumption.
