Widespread environmental pollution and the need to produce more and more agricultural products to feed the world pose problems for the agricultural sector, which environmental activists constantly accuse of violating the harmony of nature.
Organic farming is increasingly being offered as an alternative to traditional farming, but how realistic it is to abide by strict organic rules without the risk of lowering the yield, this is a question.
Recent analytical work by The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) for The German Environment Agency (UBA) shows: “Organic farming is good, but not perfect.”
Scientists confirm the value of organic practices, but consider it appropriate to introduce a new standard – environmentally-friendly integrated production.
Digitalization implies a number of advantages for optimization in crop production: precise control of weeds, early diagnosis of crop diseases, proper application of fertilizers, especially nitrogen.
In animal husbandry, innovation should be directed towards resolving existing conflicts between animal welfare and productivity. There are opportunities for this in improving the keeping and feeding of animals in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The weaknesses of “pure” organic farming, scientists include:
lack of tools to protect against plant diseases and pests
deficiency of seeds and seedlings for organic farming
lack of natural sources of essential amino acids (e.g. methionine, lysine) for feeding livestock (pigs and chickens)
organic food processing principles can lead to increased consumption of raw materials and increased production costs emphasis on old agricultural practices as an integral feature of organic farming leads to a negative attitude towards technical and technological innovations.
Finally, organic farming costs farmers much more expensive than traditional, as a result, products are also expensive and not affordable to everyone.
The proposed new standard for farming – the environmentally-friendly integrated production – should be fundamentally open to technology and not have any prohibitions while measures are approved by the authorities. The main features of the standard are stricter rules on fertilizer application and pesticide treatments, and mandatory crop rotation. Thus, agriculture is moving closer to its green goals with a relatively small decrease in productivity.
Source: www.agroxxi.ru