BOTANY Higher Secondary Second Year - Textbooks Online

This will affect millions of uneducated farmers. Hence, to remedy this
situation, we will have to find alternative permanent arrangements in
sustainable agriculture.
To protect the interest of the farmers on their agricultural lands and
capital investments, sustainable agriculture which is the best source of
alternative method should be compulsorily taken up and practiced by the
traditional farmers. Sustainable agriculture can be carried on without any
threat to our soils, environment, plants and animal communities. Excessive
drainage of our energy and material resources can be considerably saved
and protected when sustainable agriculture is intensively taken up by the
farmers and practiced. This can be achieved by
1. Maintaining a healthy soil community which can automatically
regenerate soil fertility by providing organic manures, increasing fallow
periods, avoiding excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
2. Infusing bio-diversity in agriculture by sowing mixed crops, crop
rotation etc.
3. The use of alternative food sources which may reduce
overdependence to certain crops.
Men are exploiting only few species of crop plants as food and cultivate
only about 15 species of plants as food crops to feed 90 per cent of the
world’s population. There are thousands of species of plants with useful
and edible parts which can serve as a food source for the mankind. This
will widen our resource base on food crops and add sustainability to supplies
by reducing the dependence on a few species. eg. Winged bean which has
high protein and oil. Leaves of Ilex paraguriensis, which can be a substitute
for tea and powdered seeds of Cola nitida instead of coffee.
Farmers should practice ‘organic farming’ so that it will not disturb
the ecosystem of the cultivable area and leads to sustainable yields at low
costs, both to the farmer and to nature. Chemicals, minerals, pesticides
and insecticides are now categorised under non-renewable resource
materials. Therefore, in the long-term strategy, these materials will make
farming non-sustainable and non-productive. Shifting to original and
excessive use of organic manure, rotation of leguminous or nitrogen fixing
crops, use of VAM fungi, transgenic crop and application of biofertilizer
are being encouraged and practiced.
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