Organic farming

Organic farming, in the European Union more commonly known as ecological farming or biological farming, is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such(a) as compost manure, green manure, together with bone meal in addition to places emphasis on techniques such(a) as crop rotation and companion planting. It originated early in a 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Certified organic agriculture accounts for 70 million hectares globally, with over half of that total in Australia. Organic farming submits to be developed by various organizations today. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged. Organic standards are designed to permit the use of naturally-occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. For instance, naturally-occurring pesticides such(a) as pyrethrin are permitted, while synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are broadly prohibited. Synthetic substances that are offers include, for example, copper sulfate, elemental sulfur and Ivermectin. Genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, and antibiotic use in livestock husbandry are prohibited. Organic farming advocates claim advantages in sustainability, openness, self-sufficiency, autonomy and independence, health, food security, and food safety.

Organic agricultural methods are internationally regulated and legally enforced by numerous nations, based in large element on the specification set by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM, an international umbrella organization for organic farming organizations determine in 1972. Organic agriculture can be defined as "an integrated farming system that strives for sustainability, the modernizing of soil fertility and biological diversity while, with rare exceptions, prohibiting synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, and growth hormones".

Since 1990, the market for organic food and other products has grown rapidly, reaching $63 billion worldwide in 2012.: 25  This demand has driven a similar increase in organically-managed farmland that grew from 2001 to 2011 at a compounding rate of 8.9% per annum. As of 2020, about 75,000,000 hectares 190,000,000 acres worldwide were farmed organically, representing about 1.6% of written world farmland.

Organic farming can be beneficial on negative climate effects that outweigh the local environmental gains achieved.

Methods

"Organic agriculture is a production system that maintained the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to improvement the divided environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved..."

Organic farming methods business scientific knowledge of ecology and some modern technology with traditional farming practices based on naturally occurring biological processes. Organic farming methods are studied in the field of agroecology. While conventional agriculture uses synthetic pesticides and water-soluble synthetically purified fertilizers, organic farmers are restricted by regulations to using natural pesticides and fertilizers. An example of a natural pesticide is pyrethrin, which is found naturally in the Chrysanthemum flower. The principal methods of organic farming increase crop rotation, green manures and compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation. These measures use the natural environment to modernizing agricultural productivity: legumes are planted to fix nitrogen into the soil, natural insect predators are encouraged, crops are rotated to confuse pests and renew soil, and natural materials such as potassium bicarbonate and mulches are used to authority disease and weeds. Genetically modified seeds and animals are excluded.

While organic is fundamentally different from conventional because of the use of carbon-based fertilizers compared with highly soluble synthetic based fertilizers and biological pest control instead of synthetic pesticides, organic farming and large-scale conventional farming are not entirely mutually exclusive. many of the methods developed for organic agriculture realise been borrowed by more conventional agriculture. For example, Integrated Pest Management is a multifaceted strategy that uses various organic methods of pest leadership whenever possible, but in conventional farming could include synthetic pesticides only as a last resort.

Organic farming encourages crop diversity. The science of Agroecology has revealed the benefits of polyculture house crops in the same space, which is often employed in organic farming. Planting a category of vegetable crops supports a wider range of beneficial insects, soil microorganisms, and other factors that add up to overall farm health. Crop diversity helps frames thrive and protects kind from going extinct.

Organic farming relies more heavily on the natural breakdown of organic matter than the average conventional farm, using techniques like green manure and composting, to replace nutrients taken from the soil by preceding crops. This biological process, driven by microorganisms such as mycorrhiza and earthworms, releases nutrients available to plants throughout the growing season. Farmers use a variety of methods to improve soil fertility, including crop rotation, stay on cropping, reduced tillage, and a formal request to be considered for a position or to be allowed to do or have something. of compost. By reducing fuel-intensive tillage, less soil organic matter is lost to the atmosphere. This has an added benefit of carbon sequestration, which reduces greenhouse gases and lets reverse climate change. Reducing tillage may also improve soil format and reduce the potential for soil erosion.

Plants need a large number of nutrients in various quantities to flourish. Supplying enough nitrogen and especially synchronization, so that plants get enough nitrogen at the time when they need it most, is a challenge for organic farmers. Crop rotation and green manure "cover crops" support to dispense nitrogen through legumes more precisely, the family Fabaceae, which ready nitrogen from the atmosphere through symbiosis with rhizobial bacteria. Intercropping, which is sometimes used for insect and disease control, can also increase soil nutrients, but the competition between the legume and the crop can be problematic and wider spacing between crop rows is required. Crop residues can be ploughed back into the soil, and different plants leave different amounts of nitrogen, potentially aiding synchronization. Organic farmers also use animal manure,processed fertilizers such as seed meal and various mineral powders such as rock phosphate and green sand, a naturally occurring do of potash that provides potassium. In some cases pH may need to be amended. Natural pH amendments include lime and sulfur, but in the U.S. some compounds such as iron sulfate, aluminum sulfate, magnesium sulfate, and soluble boron products are allowed in organic farming.: 43 

Mixed farms with both livestock and crops can operate as ley farms, whereby the land gathers fertility through growing nitrogen-fixing forage grasses such as white clover or alfalfa and grows cash crops or cereals when fertility is established. Farms without livestock "stockless" may find it more difficult to maintain soil fertility, and may rely more on external inputs such as imported manure as alive as grain legumes and green manures, although grain legumes may fix limited nitrogen because they are harvested. Horticultural farms that grow fruits and vegetables in protected conditions often rely even more on outside inputs. Manure is very bulky and is often non cost-effective to transport more than a short distance from the source. Manure for organic farms' may become scarce if a sizable number of farms become organically managed.

Organic weed management promotes weed suppression, rather than weed elimination, by enhancing crop competition and phytotoxic effects on weeds. Organic farmers integrate cultural, biological, mechanical, physical and chemical tactics to manage weeds without synthetic herbicides.

Organic standards require rotation of annual crops, meaning that a single crop cannot be grown in the same location without a different, intervening crop. Organic crop rotations frequently include weed-suppressive cover crops and crops with dissimilar life cycles to discourage weeds associated with a particular crop. Research is ongoing to instituting organic methods to promote the growth of natural microorganisms that suppress the growth or germination of common weeds.

Other cultural practices used to enhance crop competitiveness and reduce weed pressure include alternative of competitive crop varieties, high-density planting, tight row spacing, and slow planting into warm soil to encourage rapid crop germination.

Mechanical and physical weed control practices used on organic farms can be loosely grouped as:

Some naturally sourced chemicals are allowed for herbicidal use. These includeformulations of acetic acid concentrated vinegar, corn gluten meal, and essential oils. A few selective bioherbicides based on fungal pathogens have also been developed. At this time, however, organic herbicides and bioherbicides play a minor role in the organic weed control toolbox.

Weeds can be controlled by grazing. For example, geese have been used successfully to weed a range of organic crops including cotton, strawberries, tobacco, and corn, reviving the practice of keeping cotton patch geese, common in the southern U.S. before the 1950s. Similarly, some rice farmers introduce ducks and fish to wet paddy fields to eat both weeds and insects.

Organisms aside from weeds that cause problems on farms include arthropods e.g., insects, mites, nematodes, fungi and bacteria. Practices include, but are not limited to:

Examples of predatory beneficial insects include minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs, and to a lesser extent ladybugs which tend to glide away, all of which eat a wide range of pests. Lacewings are also effective, but tend to flee away. Praying mantis tend to move more slowly and eat less heavily. Parasitoid wasps tend to be powerful for their selected prey, but like all small insects can be less effective outdoors because the wind controls their movement. Predatory mites are effective for controlling other mites.: 66–90 

Naturally derived copper, nicotine sulfate, and pyrethrums Rotenone and pyrethrum are particularly controversial because they work by attacking the nervous system, like almost conventional insecticides. Rotenone is extremely toxic to fish and can induce symptoms resembling Parkinson's disease in mammals. Although pyrethrum natural pyrethrins is more effective against insects when used with piperonyl butoxide which retards degradation of the pyrethrins, organic standards generally do not let use of the latter substance.

Naturally derived fungicides allowed for use on organic farms include the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus; and the fungus Trichoderma harzianum. These are mainly effective for diseases affecting roots. Compost tea contains a mix of beneficial microbes, which may attack or out-competeplant pathogens, but variability among formulations and preparation methods may contribute to inconsistent results or even dangerous growth of toxic microbes in compost teas.

Some naturally derived pesticides are not allowed for use on organic farms. These include nicotine sulfate, arsenic, and strychnine.

Synthetic pesticides allowed for use on organic farms include insecticidal soaps and horticultural oils for insect management; and Bordeaux mixture, copper hydroxide and sodium bicarbonate for managing fungi. Copper sulfate and Bordeaux mixture copper sulfate plus lime, approved for organic use in various jurisdictions, can be more environmentally problematic than some synthetic fungicides disallowed in organic farming. Similar concerns apply to copper hydroxide. Repeated applications of copper sulfate or copper hydroxide as a fungicide may eventually result in copper accumulation to toxic levels in soil, and admonitions to avoid excessive accumulations of copper in soilin various organic standards and elsewhere. Environmental concerns for several kinds of biota occur at average rates of use of such substances for somecrops. In the European Union, where replacement of copper-based fungicides in organic agriculture is a policy priority, research is seeking alternatives for organic production.