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Important Facts About Organic Farming
Organic farming is an agricultural practice in which no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or other chemicals are used. This farming technique relies on animal manures, biofertilizers, green manures, legumes, crop residues, and crop rotations to maintain soil productivity and tilth and to control pests and weeds.
There are many new emerging and established agritech firms in India that are operating to provide a range of tech-enabled agriculture solutions to farmers. These companies not only help farmers boost their crop production but also help them enable sustainable organic farming practices.
Now, let’s have a look at some important facts about organic farming.
History of organic farming
The concept of organic agriculture emerged in the first half of the 20th century to solve issues like degraded food quality, limited crop varieties, soil erosion and depletion, etc. Agriculture quickly evolved during this period, which dramatically led to increased crop yields and reduced farming costs. The trend toward organic farming was sparked due to the increasing impact of climate change on agriculture.
Keeps the soil healthy
Organic farming can help in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change by reversing the impacts of chemicals on soil. Soil health can be restored and natural microbes can flourish through the application of innovative techniques like biological seed treatment and the latest organic agricultural technologies.
It is environmental-friendly
Organic food has many health advantages even though there is no visible nutritional difference between it and food produced using conventional farming methods. It is beneficial for the soil to use organic farming techniques like minimal tillage and frequent crop rotation to produce soil that is more nutrient-rich and sustainable. When farms switch to organic practices, problems like loss of biodiversity, carbon emissions, and groundwater pollution are all reduced.
Technologies used in organic farming
Many agriculturists argue that crop production through organic farming cannot meet the growing demand for food in the country due to lower crop yields in organic farming. However, the integration of modern-day smart technologies with organic farming can boost crop yield while also maintaining crop health. Technologies used in organic farming include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Satellite Remote Sensing, Data Analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), etc.
Nowadays, many farmers rely on these agricultural technologies to monitor their crop production and soil health and to get information about weather patterns and crop protection.
It helps to boost the country’s economy
The average economic growth has increased significantly in the Indian agriculture sector due to the rising demand for organic food products across the globe. As a result, in the last decade, a lot of farmers switched to organic farming.
India has become a major supplier of basmati rice, spices, and many food products thanks to the huge demand for organic produce. So, organic farming is undoubtedly contributing to the economic development of India.
Food produced by organic farming is not always healthy
Organic food is frequently associated with being healthy, although this association is not always accurate. For instance, despite being organically made, sweets and cookies are not considered healthy due to their high sugar and fat content. The term "organic food" on a label means that the food was produced without using any synthetic fertilizer or hazardous chemicals. This does not imply that the food is packed with vital nutrients.
Final Thoughts
Organic farming is a sustainable farming method that aims to produce chemical-free food products while also maintaining a healthy environment. This farming system makes use of a variety of cutting-edge organic farming technologies to analyse the soil, determine the best crops for specific farmland, effectively harness available natural resources to reduce waste, promote natural predators to control pests and weed proliferation, recycle nutrients, and so on.
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How Technology is Making Indian Agriculture Smarter & More Resilient
India has rapidly advanced in technology in the past four decades. The advancements have enabled us to shift from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy. Our swift approach to becoming a self-secure nation in food security is a testament to our progress in technology and its use. With the support of our farmers, the enormous task of procuring food for a population of 1.2 billion people, though difficult, looks achievable. Let us minutely examine how science and its applications are helping in achieving the goal of climate-resilient agriculture in India.
Technology can help in the Productivity boom.
Using smart farming and modern tools can raise the productivity level by manifolds. The use of modern tools like tractors, rakes, harvesters, separators, sprinklers etc., can enhance the production by manifolds. Using GIS(Geographic Information System) technology can help analyse the historical data and the trends on a particular piece of land over a period. Forecasting the condition of crops and the use of multispectral imagery by using satellite imageries can help farmers with information about soil health and give insights into the plantation patterns to maximize productivity. The use of IoT in smart agriculture enables monitoring the crop field and automates the irrigation system with the help of sensors.
Precision Farming
Climate-smart agriculture technologies are the need of the hour. The use of technology like drones and aerial imagery assists a great deal with precision farming. These drones can monitor crop health, soil health, distribute fertilizers and plan schedules for irrigation. They can help restrict the wastage of seeds, water and fertilizers by optimizing their use efficiently. Aerial imaging will also protect crops from pests and ensure high yields. Analysing data obtained from the satellites' imagery can be compared with the available data on the plant condition, which will enable farmers to precisely apply irrigation and prevent frost or heat damage. In addition to this, using smartphones can enable farmers to receive timely updates and live-monitor the crops.
Protection from hazards
Every year, tons of produce gets wasted due to natural disasters. Natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, cyclones, etc., can be minimized using GIS. GIS systems can predict these disasters and inform the farmers about the regions at risk of disaster, helping them take timely actions. Besides, IoT based smart agriculture monitoring systems that use sensors to detect the exact temperature, humidity, light, soil moisture of the farm and predict the rainfall and temperature conditions in the future can help in timely action by the farmworkers and save the crops from being destroyed. Using artificial intelligence- AI in agriculture in India can help farmers predict weather patterns and be well-prepared to minimize the loss.
Address the supply chain inconsistency
The agriculture supply chain in India has always been unorganized. The main reason for this is the lack of transparency due to complex administrative regulations. Also, the lack of coordination between the stakeholders and the absence of swift technology has added to the grief. The regions that needed the resources were left deprived due to the unavailability of required technology to reach them in time, while the areas that had these supplies in excess got wasted. It has resulted in a large scale wastage of valuable produce. According to research, about 16% of fruits and vegetables and 10% of cereals are wasted each year. Another hurdle in this aspect is the lack of will to share information between stakeholders and corruption, making it tough to improve accountability and transparency. There needs to be open communication among all stakeholders for a reduction in the wastage of resources.
Agriculture is one of those rare sectors where technology exercises immense capability to turn the table and improve the food-security conditions of the nation. The informed use of technology can help our nation build resilient agricultural systems and achieve our food-security goals.
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What is Geospatial information?
Geospatial information is part of geospatial analytics and is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data. Rooted in geographical science, GIS integrates many types of data, analyzes spatial location and organizes layers of information into visualizations using maps and 3D scenes.
Geospatial information supports a wide range of businesses, government and community activities such as helping emergency forces locate addresses and other important information so they can quickly respond and deciding where to build important services like a hospital or a new school and much more.
You would need skilled persons in photogrammetry and GIS processing to help you use these tools.
The information in geospatial data, records in a dataset the locational information tied to geographic data in the form of coordinates, address, city, or ZIP code. GIS data is a form of geospatial data.
All this data is used to acquire, manipulate, and store geographic information. Geospatial is broadly use to refer to all technologies and applications of geographic data.
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What are the risks associated with agriculture?
Agriculture provides most of the world's food. Agriculture also provides wood for construction and paper products. But risk is one of the major threats that always remains concerning amongst farmers.
There are primarily 5 types of risks: production, market, institutional, personal, and financial.
This makes agriculture risk management an important aspect of the farming business.
The quantity and quality of commodities produced through agricultural practices is directly impacted from weather, disease, pests, and other factors like labor strike/lockdown and much more.
Also, less or inadequate information to agricultural producers that force them to make decisions based in haste, which can be detrimental for the crop production.
The production risk can be unbearable at times for farmers therefore several tools must be readily available to reduce the risk of production.
Some such tools that fall under the practice of agriculture risk management include Diversification. Adequate Information, Crop Insurance, Utilization of farming land etc.
Dealing with different risks with the right support tools and frameworks can help attain profit margins and improve farmers income health. Agriculture plays a very important role in the entire life of a given economy which is why is it called the backbone. If this backbone collapses, humanity in its entirety can collapse, which is why immediate action steps are not just crucial but inevitable as well.
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What is risk management in agriculture?
The agricultural industry is exposed to a variety of risks which occur with high frequency
Risk Management Analytics in agriculture helps with the following:
1. Identifies and Evaluates Risk associated with crop and crop health
2. Reduces and eliminates harmful crop threats
3. Supports efficient use of agricultural resources
4. Improves communication between key stake holder
Risk management in agriculture ranges through informal mechanisms like avoidance of high-risk crops, diversification across crops to formal mechanisms like agriculture insurance and MSPs. Risk management as the name suggests, assesses beforehand all the risks probable within a particular crop cycle, hence improving yield productivity and profitability. If you are looking for agri risk management services then do check out Leads Connect Services Pvt Ltd.
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