Can sustainable agriculture feed the world?

The booming global population has triggered intense competition for limited resources worldwide. One such severe crisis the world is facing currently is the shortage of enough food to feed each mouth in the world. The intense pressure on the agriculture industry, aggravated by the dwindling area of cultivable land and resources has called for the adoption of sustainable agriculture and forest management methods.

Even though the trending method appears a promising solution in the face of the current crisis, it’s feasibility is still debatable. Here is an analysis of the pros and cons of sustainable agriculture. 

It is a well established fact that industrial methods of farming over- exploited natural resources like water and also reduced the nutrient quality of the soil through erosion of the top layer and the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These practices have further impacted the nutrient quality of the food on our plates.  Sustainable agriculture ensures chemical-free nutritious agricultural output thus raising the quality of production.

 

Adoption of natural farming methods like mixed cropping restores the nutrient content of the soil without extra human efforts. Moreover, usage of plants as pesticides, ensures crop protection without harmful chemicals entering the food chain. Other methods like agroforestry allows diverse crops to be grown in one area together with trees and shrubs, hence, coupling agriculture and forestry and promoting biodiversity. 

Sustainable agriculture encourages judicious use of water by choosing crops adaptable to the weather of a particular region. The benefits of sustainable agriculture are not only limited to the environment but its impacts can be seen socially too. These environment-friendly methods offer humane working conditions to farmers. The energy efficiency and reliance on nature for bulk production reduces costs, thereby enriching the social life of farmers. 

While the decades-old farming methods are known to offer a bundle of disadvantages today, it still offers a tough competition to the sustainable farming market. Sustainable farming often encourages less use of machines, thereby relying more on physical labor. Moreover, produce obtained through natural methods is usually expensive for the general population. 

Effective cropping and rotation requires extensive knowledge and observation for efficient applications. Also, restoring nutrient quality of soil naturally is a slow and cumbersome process which is often not ideal to meet today’s fast-paced demands for production. High dependence of sustainable farming methods on geographic conditions makes it unsuitable for environmentally poorer sections of the planet. Moreover, the unpredictable yield makes it a tough choice for large scale production.

 

 

 

 

 

Sustainable farming has a lot of potential to alleviate the world’s hunger but the method alone is not enough to address the problem. The lack of uniformity of yield and variation would increase the dependency on the food supply chain which would further demand the participation of farmers, traders, consumers and individuals at all levels of the food supply chain. Successful implementation of this method would also require strict guidelines and regulations agreed on by the international community.  Thus, transformation of sustainable farming into a weapon against hunger would require global collaboration and understanding.