Conventional agriculture has relied heavily on chemical inputs that have negatively impacted the environment and increased production costs. Transition to agricultural sustainability is a major challenge and requires that alternative agricultural practices are scientifically analyzed to provide a sufficiently informative knowledge base in favor of alternative farming practices. Agricultural research in the past century made significant strides toward developing improved germplasm, devising integrated pest management, and defining cultivation practices. This has led to increased crop production and contained losses caused by pests. Thus, conventional agriculture used knowledge-based technologies to produce food crops that were safe, high yielding, and cost effective. Conventional agriculture depends on synthetic nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous fertilizer, pesticides, and heavy machinery driven by fossil fuels. Heavy reliance on chemical inputs has, unfortunately, resulted in increased production costs and has detrimentally impacted ecosystems by introduction of agrochemicals, raising serious concerns for human and animal health. There has been a continuing reliance on the use of pesticides, particularly for fruits and vegetables, as a means of preserving yield and quality. Concerns about the environment and ecosystem have catalyzed efforts to seek alternative agricultural practices for long-term sustainability of agriculture. The alternative systems approach based on enhancing biological interactions to sustain and enhance production agriculture has had some success. This approach has innovatively reduced off-farm chemical inputs, and put emphasis on improved farm management and conservation of soil, water, energy, and biological resources.
“I have been doing farming for the past 10 years mainly planting pepper, coffee, areca nut, and some coconut trees in a little farm I own. And in another land I took on lease, I grow banana and tapioca. I grow my pepper plants in areca nut trees to make efficient use of the little […]
Nasira Habib shares the lessons she learnt from growing potatoes with corn.
Chitra steps into her field of half an acre as she readiesto entertain an interview and winds up a work-related call. She is a busy lady who wears many hats – a mother of two, wife, farmer, trainer, SHG leader, health worker – and dons them truly admirably. At 43, Chitra is brimming with energy […]
Mrs. Arul Mouzhi is a woman farmer living in Kongathiranpatti village who owns three acres of dry land and one acre of irrigated land. Arul and her family eat millet twice a week. She gets her millet and vegetable seeds from Kolunji Ecological Farm and Training Center,an IPAM Field Learning Site managed by Kudumbam. Kolunji […]
For the longest time, irrigated High-Yielding Variety (HYV) rice has been Abdul Hamid’s primary source of income like many others. But for the last five years, he planted only half the amount that he did in the previous years. The HYV rice is extremely wa• ter-consuming to grow. During harvest time, Hamid experienced terrible water […]
Cauliflower and broccoli are superfoods. Nasira Habib shows her harvest in this video. She stresses the importance of building living soil in growing nutrient-dense brassicas in home gardens. She also draws attention to the fact that the more nutrient balance soil has, the less the pest attack in your garden will be.
“gachpala, mati, pani, pakhi, goru sob niyei amader grameen sangsar. Eikhane ekjoner kothe bhable hoina, sobar kotha bhabte hoi. Ei shiksha ami amar gram theke paichi. BARCIK theke ami atmabiswas paichi, amader goriberje nana sampad ache seita niya kibhabe bhalo bhave kaj kora jai seita bujhte parchi. Ami ekhon bhalo achi, amake dekhe gramer onek […]
Nasira Habib explains in this video how to maximize your harvests of broccoli.
You can protect eggplants from frost during fall and winter; Nasira Habib shares her experience in this video. She is growing and harvesting eggplants around the year. You can protect eggplants from frost during fall and winter; Nasira Habib shares her experience in this video. She is growing and harvesting eggplants around the year.
