ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: ECOSYSTEM SUSTAINANBILITY

INNOCENT O. ODU
Abstract
Organic agriculture is a simplified farming system that is geared towards sustaining the
ecosystem through the use of environmental friendly none agro-chemicalsto preserve and protect
the present and the future food needs of humans; a major human necessity isfood. The continuous
production of food via organic agriculture is a step forward towards combating climate change,
existence, survival, safety and good health of the agro-ecosystem. The absence of pollution
fromheavy agricultural machines and synthetics coupled with the compaction of the soil by
these machines sustains the environment because of their negative long term effect on the
members/components of the ecosystem. The ecosystem is maintained through recycling
agricultural wastesthat are high in some nutrient elements beneficial to the healthy living of man.
Production cost are reduced to the barest minimum, hence the high profit to farmers, the
encouragement on the use of local varieties of crops and breeds of animals in the agricultural
sector. The little level ofskills and technical-know-how of organic agriculture can be imbibed and
practiced by both the educated and illiterate farmers. Cultural practices are used to replenish the
soil nutrients via organic agriculture. The method of organic agriculture encourages the
interaction of the different components of the ecosystem by harnessing waste-to-wealth which is
amaximumuse ofresourcesto the benefit ofman and the ecosystem, hence itssustainability.
Introduction
Organic agriculture started in the 20th century with the perception of rapid changes in the
farming systems (practices). Organic agriculture was first propounded by Sir Albert Havard,
King, F.H., Ruduff Steiner and others (Reddy, 2000 and Kirchman, et al., 2008). In the 90s, over
60 – 70million hectares ofland accountfortrue organic agricultureworldwide.
Organic agriculture takesinto consideration organic matter, humans, animals and ensures
economically profitable farming, ecosystem (environmentally safe) and sustainable practicesthat
are created in the course of crop and animal (food) production. The ecosystem comprises of the
soil (micro-organisms, minerals); plants (arable crops, forages, trees and shrubs, etc); animals
(domesticated and wild) and humans. These members of the ecosystem work in synergy to
produce natural resources (organic manure, crop residues and generally waste from farms;
preferred to agro-synthetics (agricultural chemicals) growth and yield activators which are
detrimental to the ecosystem. It harnesses the different components of the ecosystem to
biologically produce food without ecological harm, provide for the present generation and the
needs for the future generations guarantee (Nwajiuna and Akinsamii, 2002). In 1994, there was a
clarion call in the sustenance of the ecosystem that saw to its popularity. In the same vein, Daniel
Guckman, the Secretary of America declared that United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) is geared towards working economically with the ecosystem. Kaweem, (2010) declared
that organic agriculture has the capacity to balance the sole aim of upgraded (improved) and
profitable agriculture based on biological resources from the ecosystem and ultimately enhance
the vitality of the rural communities.