The question is often asked: What is sustainable agriculture and how is it different from commercial agriculture? Sustainable agriculture means that everything that is grown, raised and cultivated on the farm is consumed by the inhabitants of the farm themselves. They are living off the land and providing all the food they need for their own consumption. In other words, they are pretty self-sufficient when it comes to what they eat. Therefore, you will often hear sustainable farming and self-sufficiency farming used interchangeably, as they are the same thing. The size of the land they own is usually, but not always, quite small, compared to more commercially oriented farmers. Therefore, you will often hear these small farms referred to as mini farms.
Commercial farming, on the other hand, is where crops are grown and livestock are raised for others in order to earn some money. It’s not that farming is a lucrative business to get rich, it’s not, but being a commercial farmer you farm with the intention of having an already known market, the knowledge of what the current prices are for your crops and animals and what niche market will give them a profit, both now and in the future.
The fundamental principle of sustainable agriculture: land management
First of all, as already mentioned, you don’t need a lot of land to be self-sufficient. So how small is small? Well, one can very happily become self-sufficient on an acre of land. One acre of land can be used to create a mini farm that will happily lead to self-sufficiency. However, because it is possible to practice self-sufficiency on small farms, land management becomes crucial. This then becomes the most important principle for sustainable agriculture and the creation of your mini farm. The key, of course, is in the word itself. sustainableit means to keep something going. If the land you use to farm is poorly managed, you will never be able to keep crops or animals at an acceptable level of productivity. Which will end up with sick and diseased plants and animals and your hopes of self-sufficiency will not be fulfilled.
When owning a mini farm, there needs to be a balance between the animals and the plants because ideally you want to create a food chain where each feeds off each other. You need the dung from the animals to enrich the soil so that the soil can produce good crops, and that, in turn, will feed the animals again.
Crop rotation is also necessary. You can’t farm on the same piece of land year after year. Crops dressed like this are soon weakened to disease. However, the problem does not stop here, what happens is that the disease organisms that attack that plant multiply to such an extent that eventually the disease becomes uncontrollable. So plan your small farm carefully and make sure that a part of the land is always kept fallow so that you can implement your crop rotation plan.
If you have animals on your mini farm, you can put them to good use by allowing them to fertilize your crops in a controlled manner. Animals need food, so why not allow them into your crops but keep them inside an enclosed area? That way they are being fed, and at the same time fertilizing the land at the same time. Having chickens works very well. They not only fertilize the soil, but also eat the insects that may be destroying your crops.
Take a look at the land resources you have on your small farm and see how you can improve or utilize them. Do you have enough water on the property? If not, should you build a dam, and if so, where would be the best place to place it? Watering is important and you can’t trust the weather these days. Also look at where the prevailing winds are coming from and plant trees here to create a protective barrier for your crops. Hedge replanting is a must for those interested in organic farming and nature conservation.
Many keen farmers uprooted miles of natural hedgerows in the 1980s and 1990s in England. After such a thoughtless decision of the consequences, what they subsequently found out that these had had many benefits. Not only did they help stabilize the soil and prevent soil erosion, but they were also beneficial in controlling insects and pests. These hedgerows are a natural habitat for many of England’s birds, insects and mammals and have created the very ecosystem that has quietly been highly beneficial to the farmers who owned them. Many of the birds, for example, had fed on the same insects that, after the destruction of the hedge, were spreading in large numbers, the birds no longer being there to keep them in check. As a result, many farmers have now replanted the hedgerows. The inclusion of this example illustrates that as stewards of our planet, as farmers, we must seriously consider any changes we make to the earth and ask ourselves if what we have planned to do will be harmful in any way.
Finally, there is the old adage, Don’t waste, don’t want. In sustainable agriculture and as mini farm owners, the key is not to waste. Don’t waste the natural resources you have. Don’t miss the opportunity to recycle everything. Take your vegetable scraps and start a worm compost bin for vermicompost or start an open compost heap. When you have trimmed your trees and have grass clippings from mowing, add them to your compost. When you have animal manure, add that too, along with any animal waste after slaughter or crop residues after harvests. Don’t waste anything! Land can sustain you, even if you own a small farm, as long as you treat it well.
