Chapter 6

Sustainable Agriculture
 What is sustainable agriculture?

• Farming systems that are capable of maintaining their

productivity to society indefinitely

• Such system must be resource-conserving, socially

supportive, commercially competitive and
environmentally sound

• Produce abundant food without depleting the earth’s

resources or polluting its environment
Three main goals to achieve sustainable agriculture

1) Economic development

2) Environmental conservation
• energy flow
• water cycles
• mineral cycles
• ecosystem dynamics

3) Socio-political benefits
 Three main goals

SOCIETY (PEOPLE)

FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY

FARMERS SKILLS
RURAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

CROP & ANIMAL

HELATH AND WELFARE

FOOD SUPPLY SOIL/WATER/AIR/

FARMERS INCOME ENERGY
SUSTAINABLE FOOD PRODUCTS BIODIVERSITY

ECONOMY (PROFIT) ENVIRONMENT (PLANET)

 1) Economic Development
• Farming that make profit
• Characteristics:
• Net financial worth of the family increase
• Consistently through savings
• Family debt decreases
• Less reliance on government subsidies
• Farm enterprise reaps profits year after year
• External purchase of feed and fertilizer decreases
 How to achieve it?
a) Selecting profitable enterprises
 Alternative crops like herbs or mushrooms
 Mixed cropping (less risk)
 Integrating plant and animal production
 Contract farming of seeds of vegetables, rice or specialty
crops which involves only small hectare Organic farming
b) Good financial planning
c) Marketing plan
 Direct selling, proactive marketing etc.
d) Market research
 Analyzing competition
 Consumer trends
 Prices
2) Environmental Conservation
 2) Environmental Conservation
• It involves keeping the four ecosystem processes in good
condition
• Farms become and stay environmentally sustainable by
imitating the complexity of natural ecosystems, nature tends to
function in cycles, so that waste from one process or system
becomes input for another
• Industrial agriculture, in contrast, tends to function in a linear
function, similar to a factory production line whereby inputs are
at one end, and products and waste (such as suspended soil,
nitrates, phosphates, and pesticides) come out at the other end
• In sustainable agriculture, the farm is a nature-based system,
not a factory
 Energy Flow
• Non-cyclical path of solar energy (sunlight)
• All organisms require energy:
 For growth, maintenance, reproduction, locomotion, etc.
• Hence, for all organisms there must be:
 A source of energy
 A loss of usable energy
 Energy Flow

• On the farm, energy capture is enhanced by maximizing space

and time, the leaf area available for photosynthesis, and by
efficiently cycling the stored solar energy through the food chain
• How to capture more solar energy?
 growing off-season cover crops
 growing perennial vegetation
 intercropping

Capturing sunlight and converting it to dollars is the original source

of all wealth……
 Water Cycle
• Effective water cycle:
 little soil erosion
 fast water entry into the soil
 capacity of the soil to store large amount of water

• How to do so?
 Manage good irrigation (reduce water runoff)
 Keep soil covered with plants or mulch (speed water intake and reduce
evaporation)
 Minimize/reduce tillage, growing cover crops and adding compose or
manure maintains groundcover and builds organic matter  increase
water-hold capacity)

Managing good irrigation Slope covered with mulch

 Mineral Cycle
• A well-functioning mineral cycle:
 The movement of nutrients from the soil  the crops and
animals  back to the soil
 Thus, reducing the need for fertilizer and feed

Soil-plant-animal
mineral cycle
 Ecosystem Dynamics
• Effective ecosystem dynamics:
 high diversity of plants and animals both above and below ground
• Diversity refers not only to numbers of species but also to genetic
diversity within species, and to habitat diversity
• Greater diversity produces greater stability within the system and
minimizes pest problems
• Our choices of practices and tools directly affect the level of
biodiversity we have on the farm
 Intercropping
• Cultivate more than one crop at a time
• Increase sunlight capture
• Benefits:
 higher natural enemies population in mixture crops
 reducing the ability of the pest insects to recognize their
host plants
• E.g. intercrop onion and carrot: carrot flies (pests) confuse
because of the onion smell

Banana intercropped with vegetables Coffee with paper

 Crop rotation
• Break weed and pest life cycles
• Provides complementary fertilization among the crops in
sequence with each other
• Examples:
 cultivate nitrogen-fixing legume crops before grain crops
(corn), prevent buildup of pest insects and weeds
 forage crops in the rotation will reduce soil erosion and
increase soil quality
 Crop rotation

Sample of crop rotation plan

 Cover crops, compost and fertilizers
• Cover crops:
 any annual, biennial, or perennial plant grown as a
monoculture or polyculture to manage soil fertility, soil
quality, water, weeds, pests diseases, diversity and wildlife in
agroecosystems

• Uses:
i. maintains soil structure, prevents erosion
ii. prevents and moderates temperature extremes
iii. increases water penetration and storage
iv. enhances soil aeration
Cover crops, compost and fertilizers

Cover crops: Beans were seeded in between of rye

& vetch crops

Cover crops: One month later, the beans are taking

off
 Cover crops, compost and fertilizers
• Compost:
 decomposition of diverse mixture of organic matter that
(those with plant and animal origins) used in gardening and
agriculture as a soil amendment and erosion control
 Ideal resources for nutrient recycling

Compost bin
 Cover crops, compost and fertilizers
• Benefits
 Destroys weed seeds and pathogens
 Lighter compared to raw manure (estimated volume
reduction of 50 – 70 %)
 Consistent soil-like quality, easier to handle and apply
 Stabilizes nutrients as organic compounds
 Stable organic nutrients release more slowly, providing
plants with a more sustained source of nutrients for growth
 Odorless, potentially marketable product

Compost contains thousand of microorganisms

and nutrients: organic and totally sustainable
 Cover crops, compost and fertilizers
• There are several conventional fertilizers that should be avoided
in sustainable farming due to their harmful effects on soil
organisms, structure and acidity

• Include ammonium sulphate – will result in increasing of soil

acidity (<pH)
 Tillage
• Preparation of the soil by digging it up
• Soil is damaged considerably whenever it is turned over
• The moldboard plough brings subsoil to the surface and buries
the crop residue layer so deep - it is unable to decay properly
• Exposing the soil to erosion
• Impairing the water and mineral

Preparation of soil by mechanical agitation Deep ploughing using a tractor

 Zero burning
• Currently implemented in oil palm and rubber plantations
• Old oil palm and rubber trunks are not burned, but sliced thin
and left to decompose
• Nutrients such as N, P, K and Mg are recycled
• 50% reduction in fertilizer cost
• Trunk can be marketed for furniture industry

Zero burning Rubber tree left to decompose

 Pest Management
• What is PEST?
 Any organism judged as a threat to human beings or to their
interests
• Prevention of pest problems is a fundamental component of
management
• Chemical pesticides can be effectively employed to suppress
pests; however, there are more environmental friendly methods
of control

Examples of eco-friendly pesticides

 Pest Management
• How to manage weed?
 Cover crops, mulching
 Minimum tillage
 Introduce cattle in plantation field to feed on weeds

Cover cropping practices to Cattle can be trained

improve weed management to eat weeds
 Pest Management
• How to manage insect pest?
 Use biocontrol agents
 Crop barriers
 Nectariferous (secreting nectar) shrubs
 Intercropping
 Crop rotation

Syrphus hoverfly larva (below) feed

on aphids (above), making them natural
biological control agents
 Pest Management
• How to manage plant disease?
 Adding biologically active compost with balanced mineral
levels
 Microbial antagonists to control pathogens
 Use of resistant cultivars
 Use clean seeds

Seeds cleaning process

 Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
• A pest control strategy that uses an array of complementary
methods: natural predators and parasites, pest-resistant
varieties, cultural practices, biological controls, various physical
techniques, and pesticides as a last resort
• It is an ecological approach that can significantly reduce or
eliminate the use of pesticides
• Goals:
 Give growers management guidelines in order to make pest
control as economically and ecologically sound as possible

 Monitoring, record keeping, and life-cycle information about the

pests and their natural enemies are used to rationalize
 3) Socio-Political Benefits
• Social benefits are provided for the farm family and the
community
• Keep the money circulating in the community
• E.g. buying supplies locally rather than ordering from out of
state, networking with local consumers
• Marketing strategies involving direct marketing through farmers
markets or road side stalls have a positive impact on the local
community
• Choose to support local producers or their neighbors by paying
a little more

Benefits for the farm families Roadside stall