• by Lim Li Ching
• Tuesday, March 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

While few question that ecological agriculture is environmentally and socially desirable, there are fears it is insufficiently productive. This is not the case, writes Lim Li Ching, a Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute.

In this analysis, the author cites recent studies showing that yields from ecological agriculture are broadly comparable to conventional yields in developed countries and significantly higher in developing countries, particularly where the existing system is low-input, which is largely the case for Africa.

Organic methods could hypothetically produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without putting more farmland into production. Moreover, contrary to fears that there are insufficient quantities of organically acceptable fertilisers, the data suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen in the soil to replace the amount of synthetic fertiliser currently in use.

(*) Lim Li Ching is a Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute and works with the biosafety programme at Third World Network (TWN).

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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