What
is Organic Farming?
Whenever I tell someone that I have been certified by the Malta Standards
Authority that I am working under conversion to organic farming, the first
question I get is What is Organic Farming?
Organic Farming is a system of growing
agricultural produce which generally excludes the use of artificial
fertilisers, pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Organic Farming is
practiced by: -
1.
Using the crop
rotation method, whereby crops from the same family are not grown in the same
area more than once every four years at least.
2.
Crops are rotated in
such a way so that they help each other. For example potatoes can be
grown after sweet corn as the latter leaves nutrients in the soil that are
beneficial to potatoes. Sweet corn follows brassicas because this crop
shows no sign of loss in production compared to other crops that follow
brassicas. Nitrogen hungry brassicas follow legumes which leave plenty of
nitrogen in the soil. Whilst tomatoes have to be kept in a rotation of
four years away from any soil that has been planted with potatoes as they are
of the same family and therefore are both attached by the same pests.
Potatoes and squash are easy to clear of weeds and thus help in reducing the
density of weeds and therefore it is good to sow underground crops after them.
3.
Intercropping is
practiced, where crops which are known to be beneficial to each other are
planted together, like for example basil helps tomatoes by repelling
mosquitoes, flies and hornworms; leeks help carrots and roses by repelling
aphids, mites and nematodes; dill helps cabbages, lettuce, sweet corn and
cucumber by repelling aphids and mites; garlic help roses and stone fruit by
repelling the Japanese beetle, aphids, boring insects, caterpillars and
mosquito larvae. Then there are crops which dislike each other, for
example onions and garlic dislike legumes; sweet corn dislikes tomatoes, etc
and therefore these should not be intercropped.
4.
Organic farmers need
to get to know more about beneficial insects like the lacewing, ladybug,
praying mantis, tachinid fly, trichogramma wasp, soldier beetle, ground beetle,
assassin bug, etc. These are all predators or parasitic insects which kill the
bad bugs and therefore every organic farmer must do his utmost to create the
right environment for these beneficial insects to thrive. The more beneficial insects there are the
less pests we have to attack our crops
5.
In an organic farm it
is important to have farm animals which apart from giving the farmer produce
like eggs and milk and meat, they also produce manure. It is important
for an organic farm to be as independent as possible from importing foreign
matter into the farm which might not always prove to be free of
chemicals. Apart from this goats can be great at lawn mowing and weeding,
whilst poultry for eating fallen fruits and their insects.
In other words organic farmers are actually practicing Permaculture
(permanent agriculture) which is the design and maintenance of
agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and
resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape
and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material needs in a
sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a
stable social order.
Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual,
material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life
in all its forms.
The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with,
rather than against, nature; of thoughtful observation rather than thoughtless
action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only
one yield of them; and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.
Mary Mallia