Organic Agriculture is a comprehensive agricultural production system that promotes and enhances the agro-ecosystem health by sustaining the health of soils, environment and people. It includes ecological processes, biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. Organic farming basically combines the traditional methods of farming with the modern & innovative approach to promote the non-hazardous farming techniques ensuring healthy environment and nutrient-rich crops.
Organic farming uses nature as a model for agricultural system:
An organic agricultural system consumes less energy than conventional farming methods and produces more biomass per unit of energy consumed. It includes only the use of organic additives like animal manures, organic waste and bio fertilizers. Organic farming can be effectively used to grow many vegetables & cash crops like soybeans, cotton, sugarcane, etc. Even Pulses are being grown successfully through organic farming to ensure their maximum nutrients and better health of soil.
Pulses & Their Benefits
Pulses are the subgroup of legumes. Widely used for human and animal consumption, these pulses are the plant species members of the pea family producing edible seeds. Some commonly consumed pulses are kidney beans, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, mungs, cowpeas and several varieties of lentils. Pulses offer numbers of benefits like follows:
- Improves the Health: Pulses offer high protein & mineral content that helps in improving the human health and nutritional level.
- Enhances the Soil: Pulses when used as cover crops for intercropping can enhance the fertility of soil by fixing the nitrogen problem and freeing the phosphorous. Pulses improve the soil structure and its water retention capacity.
- Increases the Food Security: Dried seeds of pulses can be stored for longer period of time without losing their nutritional values. They provide flexibility and increases food availability between multiple harvests.
- Promotes Sustainability: Pulse farming reduces the need of harmful & unhealthy chemical fertilizers and pesticides hence contributing to the sustainable agricultural farming.
- Offers Employment: Processing of pulses can offer employment opportunities to many in rural areas. The trading, selling & exporting of pulses further increases the employment level in the nation.
Importance of Pulses in Organic Agriculture
Pulse crops plays a significant role in organic agriculture offering some of the epoch-making benefits like they are able to free soil-bound phosphorous which is very important for the nutrition of plants and food we eat. Organic farming includes crop rotation, intercropping, over crops, ley farming, etc. and pulses can be efficiently used for all of the above. Due to their root structures, they offer efficient underground utilization of the soil. With the use of organic fertilizers for pulses in organic farming, there is no further need of using any kind of chemical fertilizers that can be harmful to the soil as well as the crops.
There are many bio fertilizers manufacturers in India offering some of the comprehensive products for organic agriculture to help and promote sustainable farming. To improve the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil and reducing the salts present in them, Minfert have introduced BLK, a natural product to enhance the growth of the plants.
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