SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Sustainable agriculture is the act of farming based on an understanding of ecosystem services, 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".

Sustainable agriculture is very important for us to maintain it's sustainability because it does not deplete the earth's resources, does not pollute the environment, profitable and so on. There are three main goals that can help to maintain the sustainability and they are as follows :

• Socio-political benefits ~ where benefits are provided for the farm family and the community. Having good and proper marketing strategies involving direct marketing, making economic decisions that can give both side the benefits and so on.
• Economic development ~ where farmers can explore more income opportunities. There must be a comprehensive financial planning in an enterprise, learn many different ways of marketing such as considering organic supplies, GMO-free output and other "GREEN" markets.
• Environmental conservation ~ where where farmers should help to maintain the natural ecosystem to function well in the cycles and the input of a certain field should be an output and advantage to the other field and  it also involves keeping the 4 ecosystem in good condition ( Energy flow, water cycles, mineral cycles and ecosystem dynamics )

                                
                              Water Cycle
                 
                                Energy flow

                     
                             Mineral cycles

     
                           Economic system
                                   

Practices that can be done to maintain agriculture 
sustainability:
Inter cropping
cultivate more than one crop at a time and increase the sunlight capture. Example is coffee inter cropped with pepper.

Crop rotation 
provides complementary fertilization among the crops in sequence with each other. Example, forage crops in the rotation will reduce soil erosion and increase soil quality.  
Zero burning 
acknowledged by the world as an environment - friendly that is sustainable. Example is when old oil palm and rubber trunks are  not burned, but sliced thin and left to decompose.

Pest management 
consists of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which is a basic framework to decide when and how pests are controlled. Helps to monitor and survey, record keeping and life-cycle information about the pests and their natural enemies.

Planning and Decision Making to Maintain Agriculture Sustainability

To manage the three objectives, economics, environment and society by providing tools for farmers such as for goal setting, decision making, monitoring, and many more in order to make sure their goals can be achieve .

That's all for now and till we meet again for the next topic next week. Bye and thank you for viewing our blog. Have a great day ahead (=

Industrial Crops

Industrial crops is a crop grown or cultivated plant that used as raw material to produce goods that used in production sector rather than food for consumption and it will impact the economic in the country by providing product to lessens the need for us to imports goods from other country.


1) Oil Palm

• Largest crop in country
• World's leading vegetable oil crop and its very high yielding crop
• Hard kernel(seed) within a shell(endocarp) serounded by mesocarp
• Mesocarp made up 49% oil & 50% kernel
• Palm oil from mesocarp & palm kernel oil from kernel

ISSUES IN OIL PALM PLANTATION

i) Impacts on environment

• 90%of animals habits has been destroyed
• deforestation for palm oil contributes to climate change

ii) Impacts on animals 

• animals injured, killed and displaced during deforestation
• orangutans often killed and their babies taken to be sold, used for entertaiment in wildlife tourism parks or kept as pets 

iii) Impact on people

• child labor in remote and rural area 
• children have to carry heavy fruit,weed fields and spend hours time bent over to collect oil palm from plantation floor

2)Rubber

• the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis come from Amazon Basin,Brazil
• second largest crop in country
• natural rubber(latex) & synthetic rubbber (made artificially in chemical plant or laboratory)
• most natural rubber come from Far East, synthetic from France, United States & Germany

3)Rice

• third largest crop in country
• oryza sativa is generally an annual grass 
• originated from Thailand, India & Southern China
• nowadays in wet tropical, semi-tropical, or warm temperate areas
• for human consumption and wheat 

4)Coconut

•  4th largest crop in country
•  originated from Americas
• natural source of medicinal aid(improves hormone balance and support thyroid)

Centre of Origin

The center of origin (or centre of origin) is a geographical area where a group of organisms, either domesticated or wild, first developed its distinctive properties. Centers of origin are also considered centers of diversity.

World centers of origin of Cultivated Plants

1) South Mexican and Central American Center

• Grains and Legumes: maize, common bean, lima bean, tepary bean, jack bean
• Melon Plants: malabar gourd, winter pumpkin, chayote
• Fiber Plants: upland cotton, bourbon cotton, henequen (sisal)
• Miscellaneous: sweetpotato, arrowroot, pepper, papaya, guava, cashew, wild black cherry, chochenial, cherry tomato, cacao.



common bean



chayote

2) South American Center

• Root Tubers: Andean potato, other endemic cultivated potato species
• Grains and Legumes: Starchy maize, lima bean, common bean
• Vegetable Crops: pepino, tomato, ground cherry, pumpkin, pepper
• Fiber Plants: Egyptian cotton

Egyptian cotton

Ground Cherry

3)Mediterranean Center

• Cereals and Legumes: durum wheat, emmer, sand oats, pea
• Forage Plants: Egyptian clover, white clover
• Oil and Fiber Plants: flax, rape, black mustard, olive
• Vegetables: garden beet, cabbage, turnip, lettuce, asparagus

durum wheat

egyptian clover

4) Middle East

• Grains and Legumes: einkorn wheat, common wheat, common oats
• Forage Plants:
  alfalfa, Persian clover, vetch
• Fruits: fig, pomegranate, apple, pear, cherry

alfalfa

pomegranate

5) Ethiopia 

• Grains and Legumes: Abyssinian hard wheat, barley, grain sorghum, cowpea
• Miscellaneous: sesame, castor bean, coffee, indigo

grain sorghum

castor bean

6) Central Asiatic Center

• Grains and Legumes: common wheat, club wheat, shot
• Fiber Plants: hemp, cotton
• Vegetables: onion, garlic, spinach, carrot
• Fruits: pistacio, pear, almond, grape, apple

hemp

pistacio

7) Indian Center

• Cereals and Legumes: rice, chickpea, rice bean
• Vegetables and Tubers: eggplant, cucumber, radish, taro
• Fruits: mango, orange, tangerine, citron
• Sugar, Oil and Fiber Plants: sugar cane, coconut palm, tree cotton
• Spices, Stimulants, Dyes and Miscellaneous: hemp, black pepper, cinnamon tree, bamboo

tangerine

cinnamon tree

8) Chinese Center

• Cereals and Legumes: broomcorn millet, Japanese barnyard millet, soybean
• Roots, Tubers and Vegetables: Chinese yam, raddish, Chinese cabbage, onion, cucumber
• Fruits and Nuts: pear, Chinese apple, peach, apricot, cherry, walnut, litchi
• Sugar, Drug, and Fiber Plants: sugar cane, ginseng camphor, hemp 

chinese yam

apricot

Agro-ecological System

1. CLIMATE, WATER, SOIL AND HUMAN RESOURCES

A. Climate
• Tropics
 Lies between the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Capricorn in the south
 Based on the amount of rainfall and temperature
 Divided into ; super humid, humid and dry zone
 Humid and super humid; very high average daily ambient temperature and heavy rainfall – hot and humid throughout the year
 Grow plants

• Temperature
 Neither too warm nor too cold
 Neither too wet nor too dry
 Four seasons are identified; summer, winter, spring and autumn
                                       
 Crops are usually planted I. Spring and harvested during summer
 But during winter, they plant under controlled environment such as glass-house
 For livestock so, temperate climate appears the most suitable for all animals farming

• Tundra
 Very low temperatures and short growing season with little water and sunshine
 Three types ; Arctic, Antartic, Alpine
 Dominant vegetation; grasses, mosses, lichens
 Crops are hardly be grown, but farming is possible but in restricted enclosures with adequate water supply
                           

• Deserts
 Receive very little precipitation <250mm annually
 Extreme diurnal temperature range , very high in the day and very low at night
 Plants: xerophytic type

B. Water
• Needed for seed germination, root development, and subsequent growth
• The earliest civilation started at the river banks : the Nile Valley in Egypt and Tigris-Eupharates in Mesopotamia

C. Soil
Nutrient cycle
• Rain water > ground soaked up by soil > plants > loses to air through evaporation
• Factors of soil formation: parent material, climate, topography, vegetation and time

2. HUMAN RESOURCE

• Need mans with knowledge and skills at different level
• Today’ s agricultural need strong science and technology
• Needs scientist and researcher to do research from production until marketing level
• Also need labor for land  works

3. ENVIRONMENT

• Global agro-ecological zones
- Due to varying soils and climatic conditions, specific sites are only suitable for some commodities, crops or animals.

 Tundra – ( very cold climate, low biotic diversity)
 Grassland ( low fertile land, mild climate)
 Deserts – ( very little precipitation,extreme diurnal temperature barren land)
 Tropics – ( rain and sunshine all year round, rainforest)

                                     

• Impact of climate change

 Global warming
- Extensive use of fuels releases carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and methane which increase the global temperature and caused climatic instability
- Led to hurricanes, floods, droughts
- Melting polar ice cause to lowlands

 Desertification
- Expansion of desert land due to climatic change
- Less arable land for agriculture
• Impact of pollution

 Acid rain

- Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitted to atmosphere translate into rain acid
- Low pH of water, leave impact on forest, less water and soil,affecting crops and animal production


 Heavy metals

- Zinc copper and lead that involved in pollution
- They bound to negative charges of some soil particles rendering them less soluble in water

 Pesticides
-excessive use of chemical pesticides led to undesirable health effects and reduces biodiversity

 Nitrates
- Led to excessive enrichment of the water ( eutrophication) , help to rapid algal growth creates an oxygen deficit aquatic ecosystem and killing off aquatic life.