Sustainable Agriculture Benefits

Why sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture is an agriculture that enhances the productivity of crops or livestock, reduces the risk of production, protects the natural resource potential, improves the income flow of the given farmer and enhances the health of man and other animals in a given place.

There is an increasing number of population in the world for example its estimated that by 2015, the world population will be 2 billion people coupled with increased hunger across the world due to lack of food especially in the developing countries hence there is need to boost the sustainable agricultural practices in order to increase food and eradicate food insecurity among the world population.

Sustainable agriculture has become of importance

There is use of manures from mulches, green manures, crop residues etc. in order to replenish nutrients into the soil.

Diversification is being carried out in smaller agricultural environment through the growing of various crops on the same field of land to control erosion and improve on fertility.

Zero grazing and exotic chicken rearing is being carried on a small piece of land out where by animals are kept and are provided with food in a specific confined location.

There is an increasing effect of climate change which has led to drought which has led to the withering of the crops and reduction in crop and animal yield.

It’s therefore important to scrutinize agricultural production system for their sustainability because through scrutinizing, it will ensure that proper methods and processes that improve soil productivity are adhered to while minimizing harmful effects on climate, soil and human health.

Scrutanization also ensures that famers use inputs which are from renewable sources and avoid those which are non-renewable and the petroleum based products which enhances a clean

The process of evaluation is based on the long term benefit of the system to the environment and its economic profitability. It also involves assessing those indicators which lead to the attainment of the overall goal of sustainable land management principals or pillars and this can be obtained using the qualitative and quantitative procedures. The indicator for each pillar or principal is analyzed separately in accordance to its contribution to the objective of sustainable land management.

I will therefore base on the following to evaluate the production system based on the based on the following indicators.

Crop yield. At the end the planting season and after harvest, I will be able to determine whether there was an increase in the yield of the maize or not after crop rotation through estimation in the number of bags obtained.

Pest and disease control. Through the use of crop rotation I will assess whether there has been a reduction in the pest and disease incidence compared to the previous seasons when the rotation was not in