Management Strategies for Organic Vegetable Cultivation:Potential and Problems

Agriculture in the past is generally considered to be organic by default or tradition, but the modern organic farming combines traditional farming knowledge with different modern agrotechnologies, such as the use of enriched composts, high yielding varieties suitable for growing under organic farming conditions, biofertilizers, green manuring, mulching, bioformulations, crop rotations, mixed cropping with systematic integration of leguminous crops, etc. Organic agriculture in India has a great potential as an important livelihood option for small and marginal farmers looking for low input cost, ecologically sustainable farming in rainfed areas. Besides, various ecological services and other benefits of organic agriculture, the organic crops also suffer less from the attact of insectpests and diseases and give higher profitability. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and water resources have resulted in poor quality of food produced with heavy pesticide residues and overall environmental degradation. Keeping in view the great potential of organic agriculture, there is an urgent need to promote organic farming in the country, which requires strong financial support to the farmers and R&D activities.