SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistans economy. It has a total area of 79.61 million hectare, and the total area used for crop production is only 22 million ha. Of which about 18 million ha (80 percent) are irrigated. Pakistan agriculture accounts for 24 percent of the growth domestic product (GDP), employs 48 percent of the labor force and contributes about 60 percent to export earnings. Pakistan is a developing country with the world's sixthlargest population. The current population of Pakistan is about 160 million, which is growing at the rate of almost two percent annually. The major population of the country (67 percent) lives in rural areas and depends mainly on agriculture, and about 32 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. GDP growth continues to depend on crop performance. Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. It has been defined as "an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term: Satisfy human food and fiber needs
Make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm

resources and and controls

integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles

Sustain the economic viability of farm operations Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole What does it actually mean? Sustainable agriculture takes many forms, but at its core is a rejection of the industrial approach to food production developed during the 20th century. This system, with its reliance on monoculture, mechanization, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, biotechnology, and government subsidies, has made food abundant and affordable. However, the ecological and social price has been steep: erosion; depleted and contaminated soil and water resources; loss of biodiversity; deforestation; labor abuses; and the decline of the family farm. The concept of sustainable agriculture embraces a wide range of techniques, including organic, free-range, low-input, holistic, and biodynamic. The common thread among these methods is an embrace of farming practices that mimic natural ecological processes. Farmers minimize tilling and water use; encourage healthy soil by planting fields with different crops year after year and integrating croplands with livestock grazing; and

avoid pesticide use by nurturing the presence of organisms that control cropdestroying pests. Beyond growing food, the philosophy of sustainability also espouses broader principles that support the just treatment of farm workers and food pricing that provides the farmer with a livable income. Critics of sustainable agriculture claim, among other things, that its methods result in lower crop yields and higher land use. They add that a wholesale commitment to its practices will mean inevitable food shortages for a world population expected to exceed 8 billion by the year 2030. There's recent evidence, though, suggesting that over time, sustainably farmed lands can be as productive as conventional industrial farms. Objectives of sustainable agriculture These are basic objectives of the sustainable farming on which whole working and the capabilities of the farm and the resources depend. These three objectives are as follows; environmental protection, it can provide social responsibility and also the viability of the economy Protection of environment: Sustainable farming provide protection to the environment as it is used to reduce the pollution of different kinds such as the air pollution spread by the different types of fertilizers when sprayed on the crops for their better growth. Basically the main purpose of the sustainable farming is to save the natural resources and also keep them for the future use. As we know tat whole agricultural system depends on the water and all type s of natural resources. Sustainable farming rally helpful in keeping the soil in place and helps to keep it fertility. It also protect the environment in such as way that it can reduce the different types of pollution such as water pollution, air pollution and many other pollutants that can pollute the agricultural system. We can also enhance the irrigation system with the help of different protective measures of the sustainability. Social responsibilities: The second objective of the sustainable farming is the social responsibility in which we discussed about some safety measures that are keep in mind while faming. First of all keep the workers of the farm well and healthy and do different types of safety measures to protect them from different pollution. We should only use the protective products to keep the protection of the crops on. Social responsibility also use to recreate the farm on the used land and with the help of sustainability improve the production of the yield as much as they can because no artificial resources are used to establish such farms. Sustainable farming also helps to improves woodland or forestry etc.

Economic viability: Sustainability also used to increase the profit over the small working in the farm and also save the expenses over seedling in the farms. Sustainable farming improve the economy by producing the food with the help of little expense so the cost of the product is also low therefore any one can purchase the product easily such different fruits and vegetables etc.

Key principles of sustainable agriculture

Maximize organic matter production and contents: Little by little, work in a dozen countries has convinced us that the vast majority of soils can be made highly fertile. Conrados particular approach, however, was anti-economic. The cost of using compost on basic grains exceeds the benefit. But intercropped green manure/cover crops (gm/cc) can produce from 50 to 140 T/Ha (green weight) of organic matter with very little work: no transporting of material and no cutting up or layering or turning over of compost heaps. In fact, sometimes, because of the gm/ccs control of weeds, net labor costs decrease. And soil quality often improves visibly each year. Then, as often happens, we found we were far from the first to employ intercropped gm/cc. Gradually, between 1985 and 1992, we learned that villager farmers from Veracruz State in Mexico through Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras were intercropping velvet beans (Mucuna pruriens), cowpeas (Vigna spp.) and jack beans (Canavalia ensiformis). Keep the soil covered: To our amazement, these systems, virtually all of them in the supposedly infertile humid tropics, allow farmers to plant maize every year for decades, with productivity increasing over time up to 4 T/Ha. In other words, these farmers have found an answer to slash-and-burn agriculture. Migratory agriculture is most frequently motivated by decreasing fertility, increased weed problems, or both. In the Mesoamerican gm/cc systems, nitrogen fixation and biomass recycling maintain soil fertility. Mulches of crop residues and fast-growing gm/ccs drastically reduce the weed problem. We had learned a second principle: keep the soil covered. Gm/cc mulches provide a whole series of additional benefits. They protect the soil from irradiation and the heat of the tropical sun, thereby also reducing burn out of organic matter. They save a tremendous amount of work; farmers can sow into the plant residue rather than tilling the soil. They keep the excess nitrogen from acidifying the upper soil horizons. And they largely prevent soil erosion, even on slopes of 40%. In the meantime, we had been reading Fukuokas book, The One-Straw

Revolution. However, his recommendation of zero tillage failed to convince us. After all, most of the traditional agriculture in Latin America uses zero tillage, yet is far from productive. Zero tillage: Brazilian farmers, after some four years of applying gm/cc to the soil, are able to quit ploughing. (This is now outdated, as corroborated recently by Vladimir: "We now know that plowing down green manure is a much, much slower way to improve soil structure than going straight to zero tillage. The enhanced biological activity under zero tillage is the key to soil structure renovation.") Advantages of zero tillage: The advantages of zero tillage, in terms of better soil structure, reduced soil compaction, higher fertility, and decreased cost, are impressive. Interestingly, farmers often use non-leguminous gm/cc to increase biomass in order to quit ploughing sooner. Maintain biological diversity: EPAGRIs investigation and dissemination of over 60 species of gm/cc partly to avoid diseases and insect pests, confirmed another, more widely known principle: maintain biological diversity. Feed plants through mulches: The last principle was discovered by Martha Rosemeyer, a Cornell doctoral candidate working in Costa Rica. For several years, agronomists working with a low-cost, traditional, mulched-bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) system had been trying to solve a phosphorus deficiency problem. With highly acid (pH = 4.0 to 4.5) soils, virtually all the phosphorus applied became tied up almost instantly. Farmers harvests averaged 500 kg/Ha. Martha and a group of farmers tried broadcasting the phosphorus on top of the mulch. The results, since confirmed in numerous additional experiments, were astounding. Bean yields rose to between 1.5 and 2.5 T/Ha. This phenomenon has not yet been validated with other crops. Yet it would help explain the success of Mesoamericas gm/cc systems, and coincides with the fact that plants as diverse as maize, manioc, and tropical trees tend to develop a heavy mass of feeder roots immediately under thick mulches. These five principles enjoy a nice synergy. For example, if we are going to feed our plants through mulch, we certainly cannot plough our fields. Nevertheless, the most important relation between these principles is precisely the one that took us the longest to figure out: they describe quite well the way a humid tropical forest functions.

Components of sustainable agriculture

Farming and natural resources:

The physical aspects of sustainability are partly understood. Practices that can cause long-term damage to soil include excessive tillage (leading to erosion) and irrigation without adequate drainage (leading to salinization). Long-term experiments have provided some of the best data on how various practices affect soil properties essential to sustainability. The most important factors for an individual site are sun, air, soil and water. Of the four, water and soil quality and quantity are most amenable to human intervention through time and labor. Although air and sunlight are available everywhere on Earth, crops also depend on soil nutrients and the availability of water. When farmers grow and harvest crops, they remove some of these nutrients from the soil. Without replenishment, land suffers from nutrient depletion and becomes either unusable or suffers from reduced yields. Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas (used in converting atmospheric nitrogen into synthetic fertilizer), or mineral ores (e.g., phosphate). Possible sources of nitrogen that would, in principle, be available indefinitely, include:
1. 2.

Recycling crop waste and livestock or treated human manure

Growing legume crops and forages such as peanuts or alfalfa that form symbioses with nitrogenfixing bacteria called rhizobia Industrial production of nitrogen by the Haber Process uses hydrogen, which is currently derived from natural gas, (but this hydrogen could instead be made by electrolysis of water using electricity (perhaps from solar cells or windmills)) or
3.

4. Genetically engineering (non-legume) crops to form nitrogenfixing symbioses or fix nitrogen without microbial symbionts.

Water In some areas, sufficient rainfall is available for crop growth, but many other areas require irrigation. For irrigation systems to be sustainable they require proper management (to avoid salinization) and must not use more water from their source than is naturally replenished, otherwise the water source

becomes, in effect, a non-renewable resource. Improvements in water well drilling technology and submersible pumps combined with the development of drip irrigation and low pressure pivots have made it possible to regularly achieve high crop yields where reliance on rainfall alone previously made this level of success unpredictable. Several steps should be taken to develop drought-resistant farming systems even in "normal" years, including both policy and management actions: 1) Improving water conservation and storage measures 2) Providing incentives for selection of drought-tolerant crop species 3) Using reduced-volume irrigation systems 4) Managing crops to reduce water loss, or not planting at all. Indicators for sustainable water resource development are: Internal renewable water resources. This is the average annual flow of rivers and groundwater generated from endogenous precipitation, after ensuring that there is no double counting. It represents the maximum amount of water resource produced within the boundaries of a country. Soil Soil erosion is fast becoming the one of the worlds greatest problems. It is estimated that "more than a thousand million tones of southern Africa's soil are eroded every year. Experts predict that crop yields will be halved within thirty to fifty years if erosion continues at present rates." Soil erosion is not unique to Africa but is occurring worldwide. The phenomenon is being called Peak Soil as present large scale factory farming techniques are jeopardizing humanity's ability to grow food in the present and in the future. Without efforts to improve soil management practices, the availability of arable soil will become increasingly problematic. Some Soil Management techniques
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

No-till farming Keyline design Growing wind breaks to hold the soil Incorporating organic matter back into fields Stop using chemical fertilizers (which contain salt)

Economics Socioeconomic aspects of sustainability are also partly understood. Regarding less concentrated farming, the best known analysis is Netting's study on smallholder systems through history. The Oxford Sustainable Group defines sustainability in this context in a much broader form, considering effect on all stakeholders in a 360 degree approach. Given the finite supply of natural resources at any specific cost and location, agriculture that is inefficient or damaging to needed resources may eventually exhaust the available resources or the ability to afford and acquire them. It may also generate negative externality, such as pollution as well as financial and production costs. The way that crops are sold must be accounted for in the sustainability equation. Food sold locally does not require additional energy for transportation (including consumers). Food sold at a remote location, whether at a farmers' market or the supermarket, incurs a different set of energy cost for materials, labor, and transport. Methods adapted for sustainability of components What grows where and how it is grown is a matter of choice. Crop rotations and soil amendments: Two of the many possible practices of sustainable agriculture are crop rotation and soil amendment, both designed to ensure that crops being cultivated can obtain the necessary nutrients for healthy growth. Soil amendments would include using locally available compost from community recycling centers. These community recycling centers help produce the compost needed by the local organic farms.

Recycling of materials: Many scientists, farmers, and businesses have debated how to make agriculture sustainable. Using community recycling from yard and kitchen waste utilizes a local area's commonly available resources. These resources in the past were thrown away into large waste disposal sites, are now used to produce low cost organic compost for organic farming. Other practices

includes growing a diverse number of perennial crops in a single field, each of which would grow in separate season so as not to compete with each other for natural resources. This system would result in increased resistance to diseases and decreased effects of erosion and loss of nutrients in soil. Exploitation of biological cycles: Nitrogen fixation from legumes, for example, used in conjunction with plants that rely on nitrate from soil for growth, helps to allow the land to be reused annually. Legumes will grow for a season and replenish the soil with ammonium and nitrate, and the next season other plants can be seeded and grown in the field in preparation for harvest. Suitable and balanced cropping patterns: Monoculture, a method of growing only one crop at a time in a given field, is a very widespread practice, but there are questions about its sustainability, especially if the same crop is grown every year. Today it is realized to get around this problem local cities and farms can work together to produce the needed compost for the farmers around them. This combined with growing a mixture of crops (polyculture) sometimes reduces disease or pest problems but polyculture has rarely, if ever, been compared to the more widespread practice of growing different crops in successive years (crop rotation) with the same overall crop diversity. Cropping systems that include a variety of crops (polyculture and/or rotation) may also replenish nitrogen (if legumes are included) and may also use resources such as sunlight, water, or nutrients more efficiently (Field Crops Res. 34:239). Maintenance of genetic and bio diversity: Replacing a natural ecosystem with a few specifically chosen plant varieties reduces the genetic diversity found in wildlife and makes the organisms susceptible to widespread disease. The Great Irish Famine (18451849) is a well-known example of the dangers of monoculture. In practice, there is no single approach to sustainable agriculture, as the precise goals and methods must be adapted to each individual case. There may be some techniques of farming that are inherently in conflict with the concept of sustainability, but there is widespread misunderstanding on impacts of some practices. Today the growth of local farmers' markets offer small farms the ability to sell the products that they have grown back to the cities that they got the recycled compost from. Soil treatment

Soil steaming can be used as an ecological alternative to chemicals for soil sterilization. Different methods are available to induce steam into the soil in order to kill pests and increase soil health. Community and farm composting of kitchen, yard, and farm organic waste can provide most if not all the required needs of local farms. This composting could potentially be a reliable source of energy.

Advantages of sustainable agriculture

Less water pollution, as all sources of contamination (pesticides,

fertilizers, sediment, wastewaters, garbage, fuels and so on) is controlled. Less soil erosion, as farms implement soil conservation practices such as planting on contours and maintaining ground cover. Reduced threats to the environment and human health, as the most dangerous pesticides are prohibited and all agrochemical use is strictly regulated, farmers must use mechanical and biological pest controls where possible and strive to reduce both the toxicity and quantity of chemicals used. Wildlife habitat is protected, as deforestation is stopped, the banks of rivers are protected by buffer zones, critical ecosystems such as wetlands are protected and forest patches on farms are preserved. Less waste, as farm by-products such as banana stems, coffee pulp, orange peels and un-marketable foliage are composted and returned to the fields as natural fertilizer. Other wastes, such as plastics, glass and metals are recycled whenever possible. Less water used, as water conservation measures are applied in washing and packing stations, housing areas and irrigation systems. More efficient farm management, as the certification program helps farmers organize, plan, schedule improvements, implement better practices, identify problems and monitor progress. Improved conditions for farm workers, who get fair wages, decent housing, clean drinking water, sanitary facilities and a safe and wholesome work area. Workers and their families also have access to schools, health care, transportation and training. Improved profitability and competitiveness for farmers, who have increased production, improved quality, reduced worker complaints and increased worker efficiency. The Rainforest Alliance Certified seal of approval offers farmers more leverage at the time of sale, product differentiation, premium prices and improved access to credit. More collaboration between farmers and conservationists. Parks alone cannot save the world's biodiversity; we have to ensure that wild flora and fauna find refuge outside of protected areas. Because farmers control the fate of so much land and so many critical

habitats, their ideas and willingness to participate are essential to any local or regional conservation strategy. Constraints to sustainable farming in Pakistan There are several important constraints to sustainable agriculture and causing low productivity. They include soil degradation (soil salinity, alkalinity, erosion and soil fertility depletion), depletion of water resources, mismanagement of irrigation systems, the distribution of the land holdings and poor farming practices. The use of farm inputs, particularly of fertilizers, is inadequate and inefficient. Farm energy use is low. The availability of quality seed is limited. Agricultural research is lagging behind the new challenges. Agricultural extension services are not tuned to modern technology. The flow of information from research to farmers is inadequate. Coordination between policy, research, extension and farmers could be improved. Disbursement of agricultural credit amounts to over Rs.50 billion per annum, but is less than the requirements and is not reaching small farmers. An inadequate marketing infrastructure results in high marketing costs and losses. The fertilizer recommendations are too general. Soil testing laboratories are not adequately equipped in terms of manpower and equipment. As a result, the majority of the farmers become resource-poor and can not get benefit and therefore, our crop yields are one of the lowest in the world.

Drawbacks of sustainable agriculture

Productivity Proponents of industrialized agriculture point to its superior productivity. In the short term, this yield is possible by expending massive inputs of chemicals and machinery, working over bland fields of a single crop (monoculture).However, over the longer time frame, productivity advantages dwindles. In my years working with broad acre farmers in the wheat belt of WA, it was common for them to remark on how much richer pastures and crops were in their youth. Industrialized agriculture thrashes the land, and diminishes its soil life to the point where it can no longer function to convert available organic matter into soil fertility. Cultivation While their conventional counterparts may sow by direct drilling of seed into herbicide treated soils, organic farmers are usually at least partly dependent on cultivation to remove weeds prior to sowing. In contrast to cultivation, direct drilling does not mechanically disrupt soil structure and removes the risk of exposed soil being lost to wind or water erosion. This is a valid argument where farmers are working marginal quality soils. However, the

structure of agrichemically-deadened soils is weakened by the corresponding loss of soil life and thus unable to maintain its integrity under occasional cultivation. So its a circular argument! Structurally sound (life-rich) soils may be cultivated regularly without significant damage, particularly if protected appropriately by windbreaks and Keyline soil conservation measures. GM Crops Organic growers do not use genetically modified or engineered food crops, some of which are engineered to tolerate herbicides (e.g. Roundup Ready Canola) or resist pests (e.g. Bollworm resistant cotton). Conventional growers, on the other hand, are free to take advantage of GM crops. According to a report from the Directorate-General for Agriculture of the European Commission, productivity gains attributed to GM crops are usually negligible when growing conditions, farmer experience and soil types are factored in, and are often in fact negative. The main advantage farmers using such crops gain is convenience only. There are worrying indications that GM crops may be associated with harm to both human health and the environment. The main concern is that once they are released it is nigh impossible to un-release them. Time Indeed, organic farming requires greater interaction between a farmer and his crop for observation, timely intervention and weed control for instance. It is inherently more labor intensive than chemical/mechanical agriculture so that, naturally a single farmer can produce more crop using industrial methods than he or she could by solely organic methods. Skill It requires considerably more skill to farm organically. However, because professional farming of any sort naturally imparts a close and observant relationship to living things, the best organic farmers are converted agrichemical farmers. Organic farmers do not have some convenient chemical fix on the shelf for every problem they encounter. They have to engage careful observation and greater understanding in order to know how to tweak their farming system to correct the cause of the problem rather than simply putting a plaster over its effect. This is a bigger issue during the conversion period from conventional to wholly organic when both the learning curve and transition related problems are peaking (it takes time to build a healthy farm ecosystem that copes well without synthetic crutches). Organic farmers I have interviewed report that their most valuable remedies and advice come from other organic farmers.

Future of sustainable agriculture: a conclusion Sustainability affects overall production, which must increase to meet the increasing food and fiber requirements as the world's human population expands to a projected 9.3 billion people by 2050. Increased production may come from creating new farmland, which may ameliorate carbon dioxide emissions if done through reclamation of desert as in Palestine, or may worsen emissions if done through slash and burn farming, as in Brazil. Additionally, genetically modified organism crops show promise for radically increasing crop yields, although many people and governments are apprehensive of this new farming method. Some advocates favor sustainable agriculture as the only system which can be sustained over the long-term. However, organic production methods, especially in transition, yield less than their conventional counterparts and raise the same problems of sustaining populations globally.

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