How to make organic farming sustainable
Organic farming is surely a good shift from harmful petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers which badly affect the human body and makes the soil acidic over time.
But organic farming, which is being promoted worldwide as a safe and sustainable livelihood, also has its challenges and setbacks that could affect viability of surrounding non-organic farms and cause the multiplication of plant and human pests and diseases.
Sure, organic farm products are vogue in most countries, especially among vegetarians. In fact, organic farm products are so pricey that only a few rich and healthconscious people can afford to buy them continuously.
A new study published in Science on March 21 found that expanding organic crop lands can lead to increased pesticide use in surrounding, non-organic fields, thereby offsetting some environmental benefits.
These harmful “spillover effects” can be mitigated if organic farms are clustered together and geographically separated from conventional farms, the researchers found.
Organic farming, often hyped as a more sustainable solution for food production, leverages natural forms of pest control to promote ecofriendly cultivation.
“Despite policy pushes to increase the amount of organic agriculture, there remain key knowledge gaps regarding how organic agriculture impacts the environment,” said lead author Ashley Larsen, of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Although organic agricultural practices generally improve environmental conditions such as soil and water quality, the trade-offs aren’t very well understood.
For example, organic fields could harbor more beneficial species that prey on insects, such as birds, spiders and predatory beetles and fewer pests. Or, the lack of chemical pesticides and genetically modified seeds could mean they harbor more pests. The researchers analyzed data on some 14,000 fields in Kern County, California, for seven years.
Kern County produces high-value crops including grapes, watermelons, citrus, tomatoes, potatoes and much more, making it one of the most valuable crop producing regions in the United States.
Data on the Philippines as of 2023 showed that there are 85 certified organic farms in the country in a total area of 981.63 hectares planted to different fruits and vegetable varieties. The certification body was the Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Organic Program.
“Surrounding organic agriculture leads to an increase in pesticide use on conventional fields, but also leads to a larger decrease on nearby organic fields with the effect manifesting primarily in insecticides, which specifically target insects, Larsen said.
The level of pesticides in conventional fields decreased the farther away they were from organic fields.
But the situation could be completely remedied if organic fields were grouped together based on a less-detailed national level analysis they also carried out, the research found.
“Spatially clustering organic fields and spatially separating organic and conventional fields could reduce the environmental footprint of both organic and conventional cropland,” the study concluded.
Larsen’s group research is titled “Spillover effects of organic agriculture on pesticide use on nearby fields, which was released this year.