Why most of the farmers are not ready to adopt organic farming system for the betterment of entire human being?
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Question by Prabodh C: Why most of the farmers are not ready to adopt organic farming system for the betterment of entire human being?
Every one knows that chemical fertilising and use of pesticides in agriculture is harmful even then most of the farmers are using it. Why and what can be done to stop it.
What do you think? Answer below!
13 Responses to Why most of the farmers are not ready to adopt organic farming system for the betterment of entire human being?
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Man is greedy for money. To get more money he will do anything. If he is using organic manure, the output he get will be less. If he uses chemical fertilizers, the output will be more and profit will be more. Nowadays who worries about others?
Truthlover Trinity
December 8, 2011 at 11:03 pm
ORGANIC FARMING WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PRODUCE SUFFICIENT FOOD FOR THE MANKIND.
Mukesch Kaley
December 8, 2011 at 11:56 pm
golly….most people would rather not STARVE,ding-dong!
duh
“Everyone knows…” you’re full of manure.
Above Average
December 9, 2011 at 12:03 am
Is it really as harmful as you claim though? No, and that’s largely why many have not adopting an “official” organic setup. The problem is that much of the consumer standpoints that are forcing policies in organic production are based on knee jerk reactions and not sound science. You’re example of chemicals and fertilizer is a good one for that. Whether you are using “chemical” or manure fertilizers, you still have the same result. Manure has it’s benefits, but so does other fertilizers (they’re still naturally produced fertilizers so it’s tough to call many of them synthetic). When it comes to their problems they’re about the same. Organic also uses pesticides, something that most people outside of agriculture do not realize. Not all pesticides are equal harmful, so the pesticide = bad mantra is not based on scientific findings. In both systems, pesticide use is being cut down on in order to prevent pest resistance and make more effective use of the pesticide while spending less money.
The argument you are trying to make is one coming from a person who doesn’t have a background in agriculture and has instead been educated by the public opinion of “organic”, not the science behind what makes specific practices in it effective. If possible, it would be helpful for you to take something like a Farm Management course to see exactly what decisions come into play for the actual farmer for topics like these. Many of the perceived conflicts you are looking at are rather moot point when you look at what’s actually happening in real life.
Others have mentioned it too, but one of the main reasons for not adopting an official “organic” farm is that you do produce less food. We’re already dealing with food shortages, so it’s not easy to just say it’s perfectly fine to reduce food production in the short term. What you should be asking is about specific practices within organic farming. Many of the ones that do work within organic are being adopted by conventional farms even though they do not qualify for organic status. Other practices imposed with organic aren’t feasible or truly supported by the scientific research, so you really need to take a case by case basis and consider why a specific practice isn’t being used. The organic label itself doesn’t not automatically mean better even though there have been improvements that caused it to become popular with the public.
Tony
December 9, 2011 at 12:14 am
The biggest reason is because of decreased yields. For example organic corn averages about 15% less bushels per acre when compared to conventional corn, soybeans a very similar spread and wheat an 18% loss, and the gap is growing. Conventional corn allows for increased efficiency, and the breeding programs also allow for advancements in genetics to come at a much faster rate. In talking to a corn breeder the average time to test a particular hybridization can be taken to about 1/3 of the original based on how stops in the maturation process can be used. Additionally the development of is much faster. In organic farming these advancements can occur nearly as quickly. Additionally most farmers practice very good techniques when using fertilizer and and pesticides. Look up GAAMPs, or generally accepted agricultural management practices and you can get an idea of some the the things that are used. Additionally keep in mind that a vast majority of pollution from pesticides is actually from golf courses and residential usage, and the pollution per acre in those realms is astronomical in comparison to agriculture.
Pigguy
December 9, 2011 at 12:33 am
Truthlover’s statement, “If he is using organic manure, the output he get will be less. If he uses chemical fertilizers, the output will be more” is absolutely true. And if US farmers stopped using commercial fertilizers and pesticides, we’d might produce enough to feed our own people but that means that millions of people in the rest of the world would be without food. Starving people overseas doesn’t really sound like a very good trade off.
And besides, there isn’t anywhere near enough manure produced in this country to meet the needs of the crops planted. And often times areas where there is a lot of manure may be hundreds of or even thousands of miles from where it’s needed. That would require lots of fossil fuels to transport it, contributing to global warming.
One other thing you need to understand, and that is that most farming done today uses herbicides to control weeds, meaning no tillage is needed before planting and no cultivation (more tillage) is after planting and before harvest. I grew up before herbicides and it was common to have to make at least 3 tillage passes before planting and 3-4 cultivations during the growing season. All that tillage uses a lot of fossil fuel, tillage causes soil microbes to release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (global warming?) and reduces soil organic matter (microbes break down organic matter into carbon constituents when oxygen is introduced) and worst of all, all that tillage promotes soil erosion. Much of the pollutants in rivers and streams are carried there by them hitchhiking on the soil particle. Keep the soil out of the water and you keep other pollutants out.
I don’t condem you for not knowing any better, but you are a perfect example of just how misinformed and ignorant (of agriculture) the American public is these days.
bikinkawboy
December 9, 2011 at 1:10 am
most farmers have millions invested and get very little return on their investment and long hours of work
some years they even lose money.
go organic, produce less, lose more
Voice of Reason
December 9, 2011 at 1:43 am
organic farming is not a solution to feed 6.5 billion odd people on earth.organic farming is a philosophy and not a production system aimed at high yields of crops
krishan
December 9, 2011 at 2:30 am
First your statement “chemical fertilising and use of pesticides in agriculture is harmful” has not been proven to be utterly true. There is evidence these methods negatively affect some biological organisms. However, they do not negatively affect all biological organisms, and they have been proven (using proper replication and experimental design) to positively affect some biological entities (humans, for example). Whether these methods affect most biological organisms, either positively or negatively, has yet to be determined.
Second, the use of these non “organic” methods (from an chemical viewpoint, many of these methods are carbon based, thus organic) has allowed the human population to expand, more humans to enjoy careers outside of agriculture and for obesity to become a major disease (takes lots of food, good food, for people to become obese)
Consequently the desire to stop the use of these methods is highly illogical.
Your attitude, not to mention your spelling, indicates you need to increase your efforts in acquiring adequate knowledge levels and skill sets rather than trying to save the world.
Texas R
December 9, 2011 at 2:45 am
I AGREE, ORGANIC FARMING WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PRODUCE ENOUGH FOOD FOR MANKIND. I didn’t mean that as shouting, just, wanted to… emphasize it.
its hard enugh with the growing populatins, to grow enough food. too many people are moving to the country and buying property and crowding the really country people out. go back to the city! stay there and pollute the earth with your vehicles and do whatever ‘job’ in the city you suposably do, so we have enough room to grow enough food to feed all the city people.
it is a good Q, but thats like asking why people drive cars, and are not ready to readopt the horse drawn buggy system for use of transportation, for the betterment of the entire human being. and the ENTIRE WORLD…
not trying to be mean or rude, even though that probably sounded mean and rude 🙂 sorry!
cowgirlzrock1
December 9, 2011 at 3:13 am
Man need results fast so they use chemical
asdfghjklqwert
December 9, 2011 at 3:44 am
With the exception of a couple answers ALL GOOD ANSWERS !!
The message each has said sounds a little different but the MESSAGE is EXACTLY THE SAME!
You really need to educate yourself and Stop listening to whackco’s who want to scare uneducated people such as yourself.
Yah well I didn’t expect any bonus points anyway.
logicalanswer
December 9, 2011 at 4:03 am
First thing organic farming requires more expense for mass farming.Second thing people(both farmers and consumers) don’t know the advantage of organic one.
Sam Wills
December 9, 2011 at 4:37 am