PRT2009

Agriculture and Life

Pertanian dan Kehidupan
By
Ts. Dr. Ahmad Suhaizi Mat Su
asuhaizi@upm.edu.my

1
 LECTURE 6

SUSTAINALBLE
AGRICULTURE
• Definition
• Goals
• Action taken to achieve the goals
 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
• DEFINITION:
• ‘farming systems that are capable of
maintaining their productivity to society
indefinitely without causing irreversible
damage to ecosystem health’

• ‘sistem perladangan yang mampu

mengekalkan produktiviti kepada masyarakat
utk beberapa lama tanpa merosakkan
ekosistem’
 3 MAIN GOALS

• 1) economic development
• 2) environmental conservation
– 1) Energy flow
– 2) water cycles
– 3) mineral cycles
– 4) ecosystem dynamics
• 3) socio-political benefits
 Environmental Conservation
(http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-4051899-environmental-conservation.php)

Economic Development
(http://www.agricultureinformation.com/mag/2010/06/usa-eu-and-japan-
alone-give-massive-219-billion-dollar-farm-subsidies-to-their-farmers/)

Socio-political benefits
(http://ediz11.wordpress.com/category/ilmu-sosial-dasar/)
 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• Farming that make profit (keuntungan)
Characteristics involved are:
– Net financial worth of the family increase
consistently through savings.
– Family debt (hutang) decreases.
– Less reliance on government subsidies.
– Farm enterprise reaps profits (dapat keuntungan) year
after year.
– External purchase of feed (makanan haiwan) and fertilizer
decreases.
 How to do so?
• i) selecting profitable enterprises
• Alternative crops like herbs or mushrooms
• Mixed cropping
• Integrating plant and animal production
• contract farming of seeds of vegetables, rice
(involve small hecterage)
• organic farming
• ii) good financial planning (perancangan
kewangan yg baik)
• iii) marketing plan
– Direct selling, passive marketing etc
• iv) market research
– analyzing competition
– consumer trends
– prices.
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
• involves keeping the four ecosystem processes
in good condition:
– 1) Energy flow,
– 2) water cycles
– 3) mineral cycles
– 4) ecosystem dynamics
• if these processes functioning properly, will
conserve soil and water resources and
eventually reduce the overall operating costs.
 1) ENERGY FLOW
• non-cyclical path of solar energy (sunlight)
• What to manage? how much sunlight
captured and put to good use on farm

One way
energy flow
• HOW TO CAPTURE MORE SOLAR ENERGY??
– growing off-season cover crops
– growing perennial vegetation
– intercropping.

Capturing sunlight and converting it to

dollars is the original source of all
wealth……
 2) WATER CYCLE
• Effective water cycle:
– little soil erosion
– fast water entry into the soil
– capacity of the soil to store large amount of
water.
• How to do so?
• Manage good irrigation (reduce water runoff)
• Keep soil covered with plants or mulch (speed
water intake and reduce evaporation)
 • Eliminate/reduce tillage
• Adding compose or manure (increase organic
matter  increase water-hold capacity)

Effective water cycle:

managing good irrigation
(http://www.unesco-ihe.org/Project-Activities/Project-Portfolio/Water-
Resources-and-Irrigation-Management-Capacity-Building-Network-
Project)

Slope covered with

mulch
(http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm04712335/)
 Reduce tillage

Reduce tillage or no-till application

 3) MINERAL CYCLE
• A Well Functioning Mineral Cycle:
– The movement of nutrients from the soil  the
crops and animals  back to the soil
– reducing the need for fertilizer and feed.

Soil-plant-animal
mineral cycle
(http://accessscience.com/overflow.aspx?searchStr=Soil+c
hemistry&stype=10&term=Soil+chemistry&rootID=797086)
 4) Ecosystem Dynamics
• Effective ecosystem dynamics:
–high diversity of plants and animals
both above and below ground.

• Greater diversity produces greater

stability within the system and minimizes
pest problems.
Tools and their effects on biodiversity.
______________________________________________
Tools Effects on biodiversity
______________________________________________
Intercropping Increased
Crop rotation ”
Cover crops ”
Multi-species grazing ”
Monocropping Decreased
Tillage ”
Herbicides ”
Insecticides ”
 INTERCROPPING
• Cultivate more than one crop at a time
• Increase sunlight capture
• Benefit:
• 1) higher natural enemies population in
mixture crops
• 2) reducing the ability of the pest insects to
recognize their host plants.
• Eg: intercrop onion and carrot: carrot flies
(pests) confuse because of the onion smell.
 Banana intercropped
with vegetables
(http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/intercropping.html)

Coffee with pepper

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercropping)
 CROP ROTATION
• break weed and pest life cycles
• provides complementary fertilization among
the crops in sequence with each other
• EG:
– i)cultivate nitrogen-fixing legume crops before
grain crops (corn), prevent buildup of pest insects
and weeds.
– forage crops (tanaman utk makanan ternakan) in
the rotation will reduce soil erosion and increase
soil quality.
Sample of crop rotation plan
(http://www.dannylipford.com/vegetable-garden-crop-rotation-made-easy/)
 Sceneries of crop
rotation’s farms
http://www.supergreenme.com/go-green-environment-eco:Crop-Rotation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plodozmian.jpg
COVER CROPS, COMPOST AND FERTILIZERS

• Cover crops (selalunya jenis pokok kekacang) :

– any annual, biennial, or perennial plant grown as a
monoculture or polyculture to manage soil
fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests diseases,
and diversity and wildlife in agroecosystems
• Compost:
– decomposition of diverse mixture of organic
matter that (those with plant and animal origins)
used in gardening and agriculture as a soil
amendment and erosion control
• Cover crops
– i) maintains soil structure, prevents erosion
– ii) prevents and moderates temperature
extremes
– iii) increases water penetration and storage
– iv)enhances soil aeration.
 Cover crops: Beans were
seeded in between of rye &
vetch crops

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/perrywinkle3.html

Cover crops: 1 month later,

the beans are taking off
 COMPOST
The Composting Process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost

Compost contains thousand of

micro organisms and nutrients:
are organic & totally sustainable

http://www.justmeans.com/Local-Compost-for-Local-Sustainable-
Agriculture/35945.html
 BENEFIT
• Destroys weed seeds and pathogens.
• Lighter (ringan) compared raw manure (estimated
volume reduction of 50 – 70 per cent).
• consistent soil-like quality, easier to handle and apply.
• Stabilizes nutrients as organic compounds.
• Stable organic nutrients release more slowly, providing
plants with a more sustained source of nutrients for
growth.
• Odourless (tak berbau), potentially marketable product.
 TILLAGE
• DEF: preparation of the soil by digging it
up.
• The moldboard plough brings subsoil to
the surface and buries the crop residue
layer so deep it is unable to decay
properly.
• exposing the soil to erosion
• impairing the water and mineral cycles.
 Tillage: preparation of
soil by mechanical
agitation
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillage)

Deep ploughing
using a tractor
(http://www.avanzi.unipi.it/ricerca/quadro_gen_ric/so
lil_tillage/Soil_tillage_ENG.htm)
 Zero Burning
• currently implemented in oil palm and rubber
plantations
• old oil palm and rubber trunks are not burned,
but sliced thin and left to decompose.
• Nutrients such as N,P,K and Mg are recycled
• 50% reduction in fertilizer cost
• trunk can be marketed for furniture industry.
 Zero Burning
(http://asiacleantech.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/ind
onesia-slash-and-burn-deforestation-may-trigger-
climate-bomb-greenpeace-says/)

Rubber tree left to

decomposed
(http://www.isplc2006.org/b2b/energy/1/)
 Pest Management
• What is PEST?: any organism judged as a
threat to human beings or to their interests.
• Prevention of pest problems is a fundamental
component of management
• Chemical pesticides can be effectively
employed to suppress pests; however, there
are more environmental friendly methods of
control.
 Various researches
conducted to make
pesticides environmental
friendly
(http://www.pestcontrol.in/chemical-methods-of-pest-control.html /)

Examples of eco-friendly
pesticides
(http://www.biotech-
weblog.com/50226711/ecofriendly_pesticides_derived_from_herbal_essentail_oil
s.php)
 How to manage weed

• Cover crops, mulch

• Minimum tillage
• Introduce cattle in plantation field to feed on
weeds
 Cover cropping practices to
improve weed management
(http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/elements/view.aspx?ID=3079)

Cattle can be trained to eat

weeds
(http://www.farmandranchguide.com/news/cattle-can-be-trained-to-
eat-weeds-control-noxious-growth/article_00234574-330d-11e1-
a7ba-001871e3ce6c.html?mode=image&photo=0)
 How to manage insect pest
• Use biocontrol agents
• crop barriers
• Nectariferous (secreting nectar) shrubs
• intercropping
• crop rotation
 How to manage plant disease
• adding biologically active compost with
balanced mineral levels.
• microbial antagonists to control pathogens.
• Use of resistant cultivars
• Use clean seeds

Seeds cleaning process

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/4657296105/in/photostream
)/
 INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT
(IPM)
• a pest control strategy that uses an array of
complementary methods: natural predators
and parasites, pest-resistant varieties, cultural
practices, biological controls, various physical
techniques, and pesticides as a last resort
(cara terakhir).
• It is an ecological approach that can
significantly reduce or eliminate the use of
pesticides.
 GOAL OF IPM
• give growers management guidelines in order
to make pest control as economically and
ecologically sound as possible.

• Monitoring, record keeping, and life-cycle

information about the pests and their natural
enemies are used to rationalise which control
measures are needed to keep pests below an
economic threshold.
 Integrated Pest
Management (IPM)

http://www.bestapples.com/varieties/varieties_ipm.aspx

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/pests/pp863w.htm
 SOCIO-POLITICAL BENEFITS
• Social benefits are provided for the farm family and
the community
• Keep the money circulating in the community
• Eg: buying supplies locally rather than ordering from
out of state, networking with local consumers
• Marketing strategies involving direct marketing
through farmers markets or road side stalls have a
positive impact on the local community.
• choose to support local producers or their
neighbours by paying a little more
(http://www.ediblesadvocatealliance.org/sustainable-
learning-journey-blog/?Tag=local%20food%20web)

Benefits for the

farm families Roadside stall
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajayanivas/4862093137/)

http://pertanianselangor.wordpress.com/tag/padi-selangor-2/
Thank You