Today we make an exaggerated use of chemical products, which is polluting the planet, destroying, faster than we imagine, the few green areas that we have left. Fortunately, more and more of us are opting for the organic farming; that is, by one that takes advantage of natural resources to grow plants.
The techniques it uses are very interesting, not only because they produce much healthier crops, but also because they taste better than those that have been treated with toxic chemicals. Would you like to know more about this agrarian system?
Organic farming is a farming system that is based on the optimal use of natural resourcessuch as water and compost. Pesticides, fertilizers, not even genetically modified plants will be used by these farmers, since the main objective that is sought is to obtain healthy food with higher nutritional quality.
How many times have you eaten a fruit just bought from the supermarket and it didn't taste like anything? I once tasted a pear that tasted like plastic to me. Naturally produced foods, that is, those that have been cared for as was done before all over the world, taking advantage of available resources, have a much more pleasant taste.
How is the soil maintained?
The soil is the base of everything. A large number of insects, fungi, bacteria and of course also plants live in it. All of them have a very important role in the ecosystem, so when it comes to growing vegetables, what is done is:
- Use cut grass as mulch or as natural compost.
- Perform crop rotation: consists of alternating plants of different families and with different nutritional needs in the same place during different cycles. In this way, the soil is prevented from being depleted and the risk of plants being affected by pests and / or diseases is minimized. More information here.
- Associate crops: consists of growing several different species in the same plot that can help each other, such as onion and carrots.
What is used to fertilize?
To fertilize the plants, and incidentally the soil, what is done above all is to produce compost. Although the cut grass, as we mentioned before. Other things that are very useful are the vegetables that are no longer suitable for consumption, wood ash, egg and banana peels, and their own leaves falling from trees.
How are pests and diseases controlled?
Of course with insecticides and natural products, such as pyrethrins, which are extracted from the dried flowers of chrysanthemum, or the Bacillus thuringiensis which are aerobic bacteria that produce an insecticidal toxin.
In any case, another objective of organic farming is to have healthy, well-fertilized plants, since over time experience tells us that if we take good care of a plant being, it will be difficult for it to become ill.
What did you think of this topic? 🙂