This note is a part of my Zettelkasten. What is below might not be complete or accurate. It is also likely to change often.
20th August, 2020

Organic Farming

Organic Farming is a the practice of farming while employing a set of principles trying to emulate pre-industrial sustainable farming and adapting some of the advances in farming and sciences since then.

Some principles of organic farming include:

  • Using local varieties which may be more resilient than hybrid varieties
  • Start using crop rotation
  • Multi-cropping
    • Good against pest attack (pests attack specific crops and dont generally attack all)
  • Challenges
    • Lower yield during transition period from organic to un-organic
    • Even after transition, the yields are generally lower
    • Markets are not availlable which value organic produce higher
    • Organic fertilizers are not subsidized
    • Farmers reduced the amount of cattle they keep in the past 50 years. This has reduced availability of organic fertilizers
    • Commercially produced organic fertilizers is not a solution to the problem of fragility

For organic farming to become relevant in large-scale agriculture, reform is needed in:

  • Market structures
  • Government Policies
  • Livestock Rearing
  • Pastoral Systems
  • Social Norms
  • Food and buying choices