The Introduction

To be able to have food over the long term, we need a sustainable resource – so that we can cultivate crops and food longer. How can that happen? Let’s find out.

What is sustainable agriculture?

Sustainability means the ability to hold on to something or preserve something of value. In the context of sustainable agriculture, it is the act of adopting or practicing agricultural techniques that fulfill society's primary needs, food, and the at the same time sustaining the natural resource like soil, water, air quality, and land nutrients for future generations.

Sustainable agriculture involves preserving the ecosystem's natural resources, which have been degraded for a long time due to unsustainable agricultural practices.

The Details

Why is sustainable agriculture needed?

Good question, right? To answer that, we have to go through what unsustainable agricultural practices have done to the ecosystem.

  • Chemical warfare:
    Not as much warfare as destruction, the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers has led to the contamination of natural groundwater sources. The presence of pesticide traces in crops is a health hazard, and pesticides also cause poisoning in humans and animals.
  • Irrational agricultural practices:
    Tilling of soil eventually harms the structure of soil and leads to easy soil erosion. Farming practices like monoculture are called non-traditional because the soil is not rotated with three of four crops, which can cause diseases and pathogens.
  • The need for perfect crops:
    The prevalence of GMO crops and modified crops in the market is significant. Although these crops do have advantages, the adoption of newer agricultural practices employing complex technology is interfering with traditional farming.

Methods of sustainable agriculture

  1. Intensive Farming:
    This type of agricultural method involves increasing the input of resources in farming and thereby obtaining a higher output in the same stretch of agricultural land. Intensive agriculture is a response towards increasing human population, food insecurity, and loss of natural resources.
  2. Resource conservation:
    Various farming methods are used to preserve resources like water, soil and nutrients, and air quality. Drought resistant crops and reducing soil evaporation rate is a step to preserve water. Similarly, abstinence from tilling and adopting compost use is a step towards soil conservation and increasing its effectiveness.
  3. Mixing new and traditional methods:
    Methods like crop rotation, soil steaming, alternative agriculture variants, regenerative agriculture, and traditional agriculture methods like slash-and-burn are also sustainable agriculture practices.

Policy for sustainable agriculture in the United States

Everything comes down to the policymakers, farming bills, and laws. How does the USDA fare towards sustainable agriculture?

The federal and allied departments assist in financing and technical know-how to aid interested farmers in sustainable agriculture. The USDA has even set up a program called Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE).

Conclusion

Sustainable agriculture is the need of the hour; it is needed so that the future generation has something to work towards and look forward to; only education, awareness, and timely change is beneficial.