Food is life. The foods we grow and eat characterize our culture while keeping our bodies alive and are among the defining factors of what we are.
“Ecological agriculture; It protects soil, water and climate, ensures healthy agriculture, produces healthy foods for today and tomorrow, supports biodiversity, does not harm the environment with chemical drugs and genetic engineering.” Greenpeace Research Labs Dr. This is how Reyes Tirado defines ecological agriculture.
One of the necessary priorities for making ecological farming is applying to the certification committee. There is no limitation on the basis of variety and species for the product to be planted in the field, but the product to be planted must be produced without the use of chemical pesticides and hormones. Diseases and pests should be controlled in the soil to be planted and planting should be started after this control stage. Another issue to be considered during planting is that the same crop should not be planted in the same field in agricultural areas. This situation causes the soil to become poorer, the nutrient resources in the soil to decrease and the diseases to increase in the planted plant. For this reason, monoculture applications should be avoided and crop rotation planning should be done. Then, attention should be paid to irrigation in the planting area, and resources should be used efficiently and in a planned manner.
Another point to be considered in organic farming is the equipment to be used. There is no limitation on the basis of equipment, but the condition to be considered when using the equipment is that the equipment to be used should be designed in a way that does not disturb the organic structure of the product and field.
In organic agriculture, all stages during the production stages, that is, from production to reaching the consumer, are inspected and certified by authorized independent certification bodies. When the product reaches the end consumer, thanks to the certificate logo, the consumer can easily follow the conditions under which that product was produced and the stages of the production. Ecological production is not limited to vegetables and fruits only. In addition to these, many product types such as cotton, wool, toothpaste, shampoo and cosmetic products are produced and certified according to the principles of ‘ecological production’.
As a result, organic or ecological agriculture includes human and environment-friendly production systems aimed at re-establishing the natural balance lost with faulty practices as a result of intensive agriculture. With this system, it is aimed to make a quality production by applying organic and green fertilization and crop rotation, as well as using inputs that do not affect the produced product in the agricultural land.
