Organic Management Practices - FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization identified organic management practices as follows:
Soil management practices include increasing humus content and biological activity as well as meeting mineral deficiency of soils:
- manipulation of crop rotations and strip-cropping: deep and shallow rooted plants bring different nutrients to the surface; different crops require different nutrients;
- growing green manure;
- undersowing;
- application of rock dust, manure, crop and agro-industry residues, household waste, compost;
- soil tillage, such as use of an implement which aerates the soil.
Pest management practices include:
- manipulation of crop rotations, to minimize survival of crop-specific pests (in the form of, for example, insect eggs, fungi) which can infest the next crop;
- strip cropping, to moderate spreading of pests over large areas;
- manipulation of pH-level or moisture level of the soil (in irrigated areas);
- manipulation of planting dates, to plant at a time most optimal for the crop, or least beneficial for the pest;
- adjustment of seeding rates, to achieve an optimal rate given the need to crowd out weeds or avoid insects;
- use of appropriate plant varieties and livestock breeds for local conditions;
- implementation of stock culling programmes, which emphasize genetic resistance against certain diseases;
- use of stock buying programmes, which minimize the import of diseases onto the farm;
- limiting field size, which aids in weed management by livestock;
- biological control methods, to encourage natural enemies of pests by providing habitat (for example hedges) or by breeding and releasing them in areas where they are required;
- trapping insects, possibly with the use of lures such as pheromones;
- biological pesticides (for example, derris dust, pyrethrum, rotenone) of which the active ingredient is
- short-lasting, and which may be produced locally.
Post-harvest practices include:
- in temperate countries, grains can be well conserved when harvested and stocked in conditions which allow air circulation (in jute sacs, ventilated silos, etc.);
- in tropical countries, humidity and high temperatures pose problems which can be overcome through: harvesting at complete maturity and during dry weather; storing without stripping off the bark; drying of grains under the sun before storing; mixing sand, china-clay, or wood ash to grains; adding little quantities of nut oil to niebe grains (very effective on weevil); addition of smoke or certain plants to repel insects; etc.;
- in ancient Europe and the Mediterranean basin, grains were stored in buried pits for several years: the anaerobic conditions of these pits prevented insect proliferation and the grains underwent an initial fermentation which protected it from insects and mouldiness, despite the high degree of humidity;
-
traditional procedures allow conservation and enhancement of the nutritional value of cereals and leguminous, such as: fomenting rice (rice is bathed, steamed and dried) destroys insect eggs; transforming wheat in bourghoul (wheat is germinated, boiled, dried and crushed) enriches the cereal with vitamins and essential amino-acids (lysine) and pre-digest starch; fermenting certain leguminous (for example, soy in the Far East and nere in Africa) gives high nutritional quality products which can be conserved for years; fermented fish sauce (nuoc-nam) allows simple fish conservation and offers an alternative to fish drying, especially that the latter entails inevitable losses in tropical conditions.
Philippine Organic Agriculture Information Network
Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research
and Development (PCARRD)
©2006