How Sustainable Agriculture Helps Fight Poverty

Sustainable agriculture is using nature's bounty in the most optimal way. It means creating a system of agriculture that uses natural phenomena such as nitrogen fixation, natural pest control, regeneration of soil, and nutrient cycling to generate a higher output

Sustainable agriculture means limiting the use of non-renewable resources such as pesticides that degrade the soil and cause multiple forms of pollution.

• 1.Sustainable Agriculture creates self reliant farmers
• 2.Better Use of Natural Capital
• 3.Improvement in Lifestyle

Using sustainable agriculture methods allows farmers to rely on processes that are easier to use. Reliance on Agro-chemicals would decreases, and at the same time, the crops they would plant would tend to sell well but also be used as fertilizer once recycled.

Using sustainable agriculture methods such as water harvesting and irrigation scheduling, small scale farmers can conserve their natural capital and make the most out of the least. They may also increase their overall cultivable land by reclaiming land lost to soil degradation. This increases their natural capital in the form of land – increasing dry land crops – as well as their water resource, giving them sufficient water for current use and reserved water in the case of delayed rains.

Integration of sustainable agriculture systems at a rural level has shown for increased social and human capital.

A system with norms and rules as such gives the farmers an efficient system to work within, equipping them with the skills necessary to pragmatically come up with and implement efficient solutions to problems that may arise.

Research has shown that sustainable agriculture practices have also reduced malaria incidences in rice-fish areas, leading to less wastage of crops due to afflictions. Improved rainfall harvesting has opened up new seasons for agriculture as well as new crops that are now accessible. These have also increased the demand for labor in areas such as Nigeria.

These outcomes make it apparent that sustainable agriculture reforms start at the grass root level, affecting the water table and soil health and have far reaching effects such as increasing employment, children’s health, and alleviating global poverty.