The role of animal in organic farming
Sponsored LinksIn organic farming, agriculture is often referred to as an agroecosystem. An agroecosystem is a community of plants and animal interaction with their physical and chemical environments that have been modified by people to produce feed, fibers and other products for human consumption and processing. The goal of organic farming is to design a quilt of agroecosystems within a landscape unit, each mimicking the structure and function of local, natural ecosystems, thus acquiring their resilience and sustainability. Ideally, the organic farmer manipulates the natural ecosystem to achieve sustainable production, using an understanding of ecological relationships while trying to minimize the use of external inputs and harm to the environment.
Although it is possible to create agroecosystems without farm animal, animal provide substantial advantages for system productivity and sustainability. For example, farm animal have an important role in processing biomass and recycling nutrients. Organic farming systems with herbivores are generally more productive than those without them. The animals can fill trophic niches that otherwise would not be utilized, for example marginal lands otherwise unsuitable for agriculture. However, in order to create sustainable agroecosystems, the animal component must meet certain requirements:-
1. The selection of species and breeds must be adapted to crop production suitable for the area, to available resources on the farm or in the region, and to local agro-climatic conditions.
2. The number of animals must be balanced in relation to the possible crop production and available resources.
3. Rearing systems must be designed to avoid harming the environment and to minimize the use of fossil energy.
Ruminants, such as cattle and sheep, have a particularly important role in agroecosystems since they process leguminous forage plants. These are the backbone of organic crop production because of their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. To obtain sufficient nitrogen in an organic crop rotation, about one-third of the crops should be legumes. In practice this means that organic animal production must be based on ruminants (and that these are fed like ruminants). In contrast, monogastric animal, such as pig and poultry, require high quality protein in their diets. These animals can be considered as competing with humans for food, at least to the extent they use protein sources suitable for direct human consumption. Thus, it is sometimes argued that monogastric animals should be considered marginal in organic farming, primarily to be fed on agricultural wastes. They also can contribute to the agroecosystem by producing useful services, such as biological weed or pest control.
March 10 2008 12:36 pm | Article