As the world population grows, the demand for food production is increasing. The agriculture industry has been boosting its productivity for years by making adjustments through sustainable agriculture.
Those adjustments included incorporating new technology, mechanization, and expanding chemical use. There are developments by adopting government policies that favor maximizing production and lowering food prices. These changes lead to the movement of sustainable agriculture practices.
Disadvantages of Current Agricultural Systems
Before sustainable agriculture practices, farmers could produce more food and fiber for less money. However, they have an impact on the environment.
Although agriculture has undergone many good improvements and innovations, there are instances when these changes necessitate making short-term sacrifices that have long-term consequences.
Topsoil loss, tainted groundwater, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, poor treatment of agricultural laborers’ living and working circumstances, and the spread of novel viruses harming public health and safety are among the most significant issues.
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
Land management for long-term productivity for the community’s future well-being is known as sustainable agriculture. If proper planning and methods are employed, it is possible to implement ideas like integration, variety, following the patterns of nature, recycling and reusing energy, and waste management.
Additionally, agriculture is known to cause and contribute significantly to climate change. Live crops and land management practices that use a lot of nonrenewable resources emit methane, making climate change contributors.
Obstacles to Implementing Sustainable Agriculture
The main obstacles facing sustainable agriculture are the growing scarcity and rapid deterioration of natural resources, combined with the rising demand for crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, and other goods and services.
Due to the development and poor management of metropolitan cities, topsoil resources run out quickly.
Ironically, climate change reduces the resiliency of industrial systems and adds to the depletion of natural resources. The frequency of extreme weather occurrences like drought and flood threaten healthy agricultural growth, which also increases as the earth’s temperature rises.
In light of this, sustainable agriculture can lessen these dangers and make a near-future reality.
Read more: Indonesia’s Rapid Development for the Green Energy Transition
Sustainable Agriculture Practices and Incentives
Sustainable agricultural methods increase the capacity for adapting to climate change and variability while enabling more effective use of natural resources and reducing the environmental impact of agriculture.
Some practices for sustainable agriculture are:
- Precision farming,
- Sustainable agroforestry methods,
- Crop rotation,
- Greater crop diversity,
- Use of cover crops,
- No-till and reduced-till systems,
- Integrated pest management (IPM),
- Blending livestock and crops.
Achieving environmental sustainability in agriculture requires sound management of the natural systems and resources on which farms depend. These resources and strategies can produce significant public goods, notably in the form of ecosystem services.
Farmers typically have to invest a lot of time or money into sustainable agriculture techniques. They only do so in response to transparent market and policy incentives, as well as the backing of local, state, and federal governments and public-private partnerships.
Farmers’ preferences for the environment, market variables, and socioeconomic and cultural traits influence the adoption of sustainable techniques.
Sustainable Agriculture in Indonesia
Modern agriculture is advancing technology and innovation to boost output and effectiveness. This approach is a technique to maintain rising global food security in pace with population expansion.
Indonesia now practices modern agriculture as well. Farmers mostly used the method during the green revolution. However, due to knowledge and technological advancement, there are many ways to create sustainable agriculture.
Organic farming uses natural resources. It takes biodiversity, biological cycles of the environment, and their effects into account. This procedure does not use chemical components that are harmful to the environment.
The mutual symbiosis of agriculture and waste management is in integrated agriculture. It is a low-waste, environmentally friendly way to produce varieties. For animal feed, it uses agricultural waste. Farms also have food items like meat, eggs, and milk, as well as livestock dung for fertilizer and biogas.
Given the debate around modern agriculture discussed above, we realize that modernization is only sometimes beneficial. Modernity still allows people to make changes to unsustainable agricultural systems, nevertheless.
Developing a more environmentally friendly approach will give farmers and the community optimism that they can engage in ethical production and consumption. Therefore, the myth that agriculture worsens climate change and harms the environment will no longer exist.
Additional support is required to set up business licenses and company registrations to support sustainable agriculture in Indonesia. InCorp handles the processing and obtains the appropriate services from professional consultants.
The Outlook of Food Estate in Indonesia
The “food estate initiative” has been expanded, according to President Joko Widodo, to secure domestic food supplies and reduce Indonesia’s dependency on imported food crops.
The provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and Papua in the east, as well as North Sumatra and South Sumatra in the west, are among those to develop into agricultural hubs.
In the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan, the declaration comes as the government prepares to plant this year on the site of the ongoing national food estate project.
Before extending to other areas, Widodo stated that the government would concentrate on developing the plantations in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra.
Conclusively, various attempts are undertaken by the Indonesian government the Indonesian government undertakes various attempts to ensure that agricultural practices in Indonesia remain sustainable in an attempt to meet the ever-increasing demand for food production.
