Biology
Organic farming (OF) has been believed to be capable of curtailing some hazardous effects associated
with chemical farming (CF). However, debates also exist on whether OF can feed a world with increasing
human population. We hypothesized that some improvements on OF may produce adequate crops
and reduce environmental pollutions from CF. This paper makes comparative analysis of crop yield,
soil organic matter and economic benefits within the practice on Biodiversity Management of Organic
Farming (BMOF) at Hongyi Organic Farm (HOF) over eight years and between BMOF and CF. Linking
crop production with livestock to maximal uses of by-products from each production and avoid
xenobiotic chemicals, we have achieved beneficial improvement in soil properties, effective pest and
weed control, and increased crop yields. After eight years experiment, we have obtained a gradual
but stable increase in crop yields with a 9.6-fold increase of net income. The net income of HOF was
258,827 dollars and 24,423 dollars in 2014 and 2007 respectively. Thus, BMOF can not only feed more
population, but also increase adaptive capacity of agriculture ecosystems and gain much higher
economic benefits.State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxincun 20, Xiangshan, 100093, Beijing, China
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep23816
Courtesy: https://www.nature.com
Copyright: DOI: 10.1038/srep23816 © 2016 copyright
