• PDF / 476,361 Bytes
• 21 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
• 47 Downloads / 319 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT

---

Organic Agriculture: Principles, Current Status, and Significance Peer Saffeullah, Neelofer Nabi, Saima Liaqat, Naser Aziz Anjum, Tariq Omar Siddiqi, and Shahid Umar

Abstract  Agriculture is facing the pressure to grow high in order to feed burgeoning world population. Intensive agricultural activities have impacted soil fertility and decreased crop productivity and quality. Organic agriculture has been proposed as a holistic and alternative production system that principally disallows the usage of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, livestock feed additives, and growth hormones. Combining science, tradition, and innovation, organic agriculture nurtures ecosystems and soil health and helps in accomplishing the global food and ecosystem security. This paper (i) introduces organic agricultural system by highlighting major concepts and principles and also its current status and (ii) overviews the role of organic agriculture in sustainably improving crop productivity/yield, and quality parameters, and in environmental and human health. In addition, major challenges to organic agriculture and aspects so far unexplored in the current context have also been highlighted. Outcomes of the discussion may provoke future research in the current direction. Keywords  Crop quality · Environmental sustainability · Human health · Organic agriculture · Sustainable agriculture

P. Saffeullah (*) · S. Liaqat · T. O. Siddiqi · S. Umar Department of Botany, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India N. Nabi Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India N. A. Anjum Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 K. R. Hakeem et al. (eds.), Microbiota and Biofertilizers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48771-3_2

17

18

P. Saffeullah et al.

2.1  Introduction 2.1.1  Concept and Principles A matter of contentious since its advent, organic agriculture has been debated as an ineffective approach to ensure food security (Connor and Mínguez 2012; Pickett 2013). The extent of organically managed farmlands, numbers of organic farms, and global market size for organically grown foods have increased steadily (Willer and Lernoud 2017). The sales of organic foods and beverages have enormously been increased by almost fivefold between 1999 and 2013 to US$ 72 billion and are expected to double by 2018 (Willer and Lernoud 2017). Focused mainly on harmonizing multiple sustainability goals, organic farming has been recognized as an innovative production system, and its importance is expected to increase in accomplishing the global food and ecosystem security (De Schutter 2010). Organic agriculture is a holistic and alternative farming system that evades or largely excludes the usage of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, livestock feed additives, growth hormones, and more recently the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) (Lairon 2010; Goh 2011). It enriches biodiversity and promotes biological activity of soil (USDA-NOSB 1995; Gold 2007). Organic agri