Organic Agriculture Systems

Benefits and Weaknesses of Organic Agriculture Systems

Currently, organic farming is a good option for farmers who want to conduct sustainable agriculture and for people who want to apply a healthy life.

Understanding Organic farming is a holistic system of agricultural production and integrated, which optimize health and productivity of agro-ecosystem naturally, so it can produce enough food and fiber, quality, and sustainable. In practice, organic farming is done by, among others:

1. Avoid the use of seed / seedlings genetically modified (GMO = genetically modified organism)

2. Avoid the use of synthetic chemical pesticides.Control weeds, pests and diseases were done by mechanical, biological, and crop rotation.

3. Avoid the use of growth regulators and synthetic chemical fertilizers. Soil fertility and productivity enhanced and maintained by adding crop residues, animal manure, and natural mineral rocks, and planting of legumes and crop rotations.

4. Avoid the use of growth hormone and synthetic additives in animal feed.

There are a number of barriers and benefits of organic agriculture in general.

Constraints of organic agriculture are:

1. Organic fertilizers are used as fertilizer in some countries complement, in addition to chemical fertilizers, because of the production target.Many farmers believe that organic fertilizers can not meet the nutritional needs of plants and have a slower response. Actually, there are reports from America, which the effect of organic manure at 14 tons a year per unit area during the eight years will still be there even after 40 years of the last fertilizer application.

2. Biological pest control is still deemed costly and less effective for farmers generally.

3. Organic farming region that is not isolated by conventional agriculture, organic farming makes more vulnerable to pests.

4. The production is still below the results of conventional farming.

5. Organic agricultural products are still considered expensive.

6. The farmers are reluctant to use organic fertilizers as a whole because it causes a lot of compost to grow weeds.

Benefits of organic farming include:

1. Improve plant resistance against pest attack a number.
2. Increasing the activity of antagonistic microorganisms that can help improve soil fertility.
3. Prevent erosion.
4. Improve the taste of agricultural products.
5. Improving the nutrition content.
6. Improving the texture of the fruit.
7. Increasing storage time.