Concepts in Organic Fruit and Vegetable Production

More PowerPoint presentations from cem yilmar

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Seeds of suicide: lest you've forgotten or don’t know.

I have always tried to underscore the importance of agriculture and I fully concur with whoever said that is in the agricultural sector that the battle for long-term economic development will be won or lost. Agriculture plays a paramount role in the developing countries' economies.

A battle of supremacy is being wedged in the sector over control of seeds between the corporates and the peasant farmers resulting in fatal consequences for the defenseless farmers. Going by the happenings in India where lives were lost due to the effects of giving seed companies a free hand through privatization and deregulation that lead to increasing cost of seeds and agrichemicals for farmers, increasing farm debts and crop failure, the magnitude of this statement is evident.

One such victim is the 68 year Karnail Singh in 1998. His inability to repay his loan demeaned his being driving him – proud, stoic, and immersed in traditional values of trust and honesty to desperately consume poison.

These companies that drove people to their graves are there with us and we need to be careful as we deal with them lest we become on other statistic on the many farmers who’ve committed suicide as a consequence of their dealings. More can be found here

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The path Agriculture should take

Though not the magic bullet for instant solutions, I strongly believe that improvements in Africa's food security can and should be based on ecological principles and the empowerment of local rural communities to keep and develop their own rich wealth in technologies, practices and innovations combined with sound modern scientific research.

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Why farmers have to choose between organic farming and using greenhouses.

The advent of greenhouses has been occasioned by the hostile weather conditions and is geared towards reducing the risks associated with climate change on crop production and increase productivity but thats not just it.  

Tomatoes in a greenhousesystem

Principles upon which greenhouse systems operate promote cultivation of high economic value crops in order to make up for the systems’ high cost. To this effect, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants have monopolized the systems leaving out other useful plants that nourish the soils. These systems therefore employ intensive use of chemicals to make up for natural regeneration of soil fertility.

One of the organic farming principles - Cyclical principle encourages collaboration with nature through the establishment and build-up of a cyclical principle that ensures versatility, diversity and harmony, and the re-cycling and use of renewable resources. It is upon this principle that conflict between the two farming systems arises; Greenhouse farmers who have attempted to go organic have reverted back to the use of chemicals after two or three seasons. One has to make a choice

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The Organic Farmer (TOF); providing home grown solutions generated by the farmers themselves. The use of facebook makes it even more accessible for the youths.

Click on this image to see how farmers find solutions to their problems on facebook

Ecologically sound farming holds the key to environmental resource conservation

Success of any endeavor is largely determined by access to information. - accurate and sufficient information. Agricultural undertakings are not exceptional and therefore here is a source of agricultural information. http://www.infonet-biovision.org/
infonet-biovision.org is a web-based information platform offering trainers, extension workers and farmers in East Africa a quick access to up-to-date and locally relevant information in order to optimise their livelihoods in a safe, effective, sustainable and ecologically sound way. 
As we engage in various agricultural practices there is need to take care of the environmental resources considering that the future generations will also depend on these resources. Organic agriculture holds the key to this. For more information, visit here http://www.infonet-biovision.org/