Agriculture for Sustainable Development
In the modern age, the increasing population in every sphere is a critical challenge in the sustainable development of our environment. The agricultural system is also affected by pollution. Modern farming techniques (such as the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc. to maximize crop yield) disturb the nutrient balance of the soil and reduce soil fertility. Organic farming is an environment-friendly, animal and plant-based organic resource that enriches nutrients that are required for crop plants. Organic agriculture is an efficient and promising agricultural approach for environmental sustainability as it provides yield stability, improves soil health, no environmental concerns, organic food and reduction in the use of synthesized fertilizers.
The Connection Between Sustainable Development and Organic Farming
Organic agriculture does not harm our ecosystem. With the arrival of green and the golden revolution, India became self-reliant and a significant producer of various crops. Output-oriented technologies like HYV seeds, new fertilizers, pesticides, etc were also introduced. Sustainable development is defined as economic development conducted without depletion of natural resources. Fundamentally, organic farming is closely related to sustainable development. Organic agriculture is helping us to restore the ecological balance.
Sustainable Development for Agriculture
The production systems and the policies along with the institutions that determine the regulations are inadequate. Healthy ecosystems and sustainable management of land, water, and natural resources while ensuring world food security must be developed with sustainable agriculture. It should ensure profitability, a healthy environment and social and economic growth and also meet the needs of present and future generations for its products and services. A global transition to sustainable food and agriculture will require significant improvements in the efficiency of resource use, environmental protection and systems resilience.
Smart Farming Technologies for Sustainable Agricultural Development
There have been several revolutions in agriculture, starting from the domestication of animals and plants a few thousand years ago to the systematic use of crop rotations and other enhancements in farming practices or the “green revolution” with systematic breeding and the widespread use of human-made fertilizers and pesticides a few decades ago. Farming practices have now been eased with robotic vehicles like mechanical weeding, application of fertilizer, or harvesting of fruits. Aerial vehicles have been developed with auto flight control along with ultra-lightweight and powerful snapshot cameras that can be used to calculate biomass development and check the fertilization status of crops, opening the field for farm management advice. Cattle herd management based on remote-sensing signals and sensors or actuators attached to the livestock can be done through virtual fence technologies.
Smart Farming
Smart farming refers to farm management using modern IT technologies to increase the quantity and quality of products while reducing the human labor required for farming. The driving force of smart farming is IoT, which connects intelligent machines and sensors integrated on farms to make farming processes data-driven and data-enabled. IoT (Internet Of Things) refers to the data that can be drawn from things and transmitted it over the internet. IoT devices can fasten the farming process by installing them on a farm, where collecting and processing of data can be done in a repetitive cycle. It enables farmers to react quickly to issues and changes in weather conditions.
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Solved Example on Sustainable Development and Organic Farming
How Sustainable Development is Achieved Through Organic Farming?
Answer: Organic farming does not use the harmful practices of conventional agriculture like the use of synthetic fertilizers. In essence, organic agriculture is an agricultural technique that sustains, maintains and enhances the quality of the ecosystem. Therefore, it is intimately related to sustainable development.
Mention the Downsides of Organic Farming?
Answer: The disadvantages of organic farming are as follows: When compared to traditional techniques, organic farming has an output on the lower side. As a result, the yield per hectare of this technique is lower in comparison to traditional ones. The application of organic techniques requires adequate infrastructure and awareness among farmers. But our country is trailing far behind the levels needed in all aspects. The financial matter of organic farming is low relative to conventional agriculture. It makes it unsustainable for small and marginal farmers.
Sustainable development and organic farming is a concept that carries significant weightage in the study of commerce. Sustainable development and organic farming are taught in economics in the commerce stream of class 12, it is taught in schools that follow the curriculum set by the Central Board of secondary education, the concept can be studied in depth in chapter 6 rural development.
After studying sustainable development and organic farming students will be able to understand what rural development is and the various issues that are associated with it, they will have the know-how of The immediate development that needs to take place in rural areas for India’s overall development, order to understand the concept of sustainable development and organic farming students need to have knowledge about the role of credit and marketing systems in rural development which they will be studying in relation to sustainable development and organic farming, students will learn that in order to sustain a livelihood, diversification of productive activities is extremely important, and most importantly they will be able to understand the need of organic farming in sustainable development.
Why Vedantu?
The study material provided on Vedanta‘s website on the topic of sustainable development and organic farming is an extremely important resource for students as it acts as a study guide that students can refer to during or before exams to clear the basic concepts. These notes are very precise and detailed and they are curated according to the needs of the students. The Vedanta team has prepared these notes through extensive research as they are expert teachers in the field of commerce and economics and have years of experience in this field which makes them well-versed in the topic of sustainable development and organic farming. The notes are prepared through a critical analysis of the previous year's question papers and therefore this kind of research makes the study material up to date as the Central Board of secondary education keeps making changes in the curriculum every year. Students don’t need to worry about any details that they might miss as after going through the study notes provided by Vedanta they can get ahead in the exam preparation phase. These study notes provided by Vedantu’s study notes are written in an extremely simplified language which helps students to grasp even the most complex concepts in a much easier and efficient manner, this technique enables them to answer the questions in the exam with ease. The study notes provided by Vedanta on sustainable development and organic farming mainly deal with topics like agriculture for sustainable development, the connection between sustainable development and organic farming, sustainable development for agriculture, smart farming technologies for sustainable agricultural development, and smart farming.
Important concepts related to sustainable development and organic farming-
What is rural development,
credit and marketing in rural areas,
Credit,
rural banking,
agricultural market system,
emerging alternative marketing channels,
diversification into productive activities,
animal husbandry,
fisheries,
horticulture,
other alternate livelihood options,
sustainable development and organic farming,
benefits of organic farming
FAQs on Sustainable Development and Organic Farming
1. What are the Golden and Green Revolutions?
Green Revolution- The green revolution led to a sudden boom in the agricultural industry of our country. Due to this, we became not only self-sufficient but also a leading producer of food grains. The driving factors of this revolution are the introduction of the HYV seeds, new and effective fertilizers and pesticides, etc.
Golden Revolution- Golden revolution has been the scenario that brought India on the world map about crops like fruits, vegetables, spices etc. India is now producing different varieties of crops in its backyard due to the golden revolution. In essence. The golden revolution was the precursor of the news that India had established itself in the international horticultural market.
2. What is the Need for Organic Farming?
Organic Farming is essential for the following reasons:
Maintaining ecological balance is the main motto of organic farming.
The organic outputs are healthier and possess more nutritional value as compared to their traditionally grown counterparts.
Organic techniques are more labour intensive. So, it is favorable in countries with an abundance of work like India.
Export of organic outputs brings at higher prices as compared to standard agricultural outputs because of their health benefits, and farming is also cheaper and can be grown locally. Effectively, they result in an inflow of adequate foreign currency reserves.
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides accumulation degrade soil fertility and lead to soil erosion. On the contrary, organic techniques do not use fertilizers hence are eco-friendly.
3. What is sustainable development?
Sustainable development can be defined as the form of development that meets the needs of the present generation while simultaneously sustaining the natural resources and ecosystem services for future generations. The use of fertilizers and pesticides have increased throughout the years and therefore it is necessary to keep a check on the effects that are caused by this chemical-based life and pesticides. In order to have a sustainable Environment, there is an urgent need to have evolving technologies that are eco-friendly.
4. What is organic farming?
Organic farming is an eco-friendly technology that helps in sustainable development. Nowadays there has been an increase in the use of chemical-based fertilisers and pesticides that have extremely harmful effects on the environment and these chemicals enter the food supply chain and Harm the livestock and deplete the soil which then divides states of the natural ecosystem. This is where organic farming is seen as a saviour as it is a form of agricultural system which uses fertilisers that are of organic origin, for example bone meal, compost manure, green manure and adopt sustainable habits such as crop rotation and companion planting. This type of farming originated in the early 20th century.
5. How is sustainable development related to organic farming?
Organic farming is closely related to sustainable development in the sense that it is the most preferred form of farming as it uses fertilisers that are organic in nature for example green manure, bone meal, compost manure and organic farming adopt habits of sustainable development such as crop rotation and companion planting. Organic farming doesn’t involve any sort of chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides that ruin the crops in the long term and are extremely harmful as they deplete the soil and are washed away in rivers.
6. What are the benefits of organic farming?
Organic farming has several benefits, as organic farming is locally produced it helps to substitute the costlier agricultural inputs like chemical fertilisers, pesticides, HYV seeds, organic farming is Way cheaper and generates good returns in the long run. Nowadays there is a rise in the demand for organically grown crops and therefore organic farming generates income through exports.
7. What is smart farming?
Smart farming is a form of management that mainly focuses on providing the agricultural industry with technology kill infrastructure so that it acts as leverage in modern farming, this type of farming includes big data, the cloud and the internet of things IoT, these are responsible for automating, monitoring, tracking and analysing various operations related to farming. These modern technologies help to reduce human labour. Smart farming helps to detect The problems much quickly to the farmers according to which they can make changes wherever necessary.