THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF FARMING METHODS: ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FARMING IN UGANDA.
Organic and conventional farming are both farming methods used today by different farmers in Uganda. The farmer would either decide to use the organic way of farming which requires the use of natural farming practices or use conventional which is GMO enhanced. In this case, most organic farmers practice subsistence farming while conventional farmers practice commercial scale farming. Therefore there are environmental and economic implications/benefits each of them have depending on what a farmer chooses. To determine the environmental and economic benefits of farming, organic and conventional farming in Uganda are examined using the following criteria: land sustainability and the production costs. (18.73)
Organic farming works to increase sustainability of land and biodiversity (Fuller et al., 2005). This is through practices like crop rotation and the use of compost and biological pest control methods (Fuller et al., 2005). These encourage good soil and reduce soil erosion through avoidance of harmful chemicals with the use of natural farming practice (Fuller et al., 2005). Most societies in Uganda practice this way of farming because it doesn’t exhaust the soil (UNEP, n.d). (10.08)
GMO crops hinder soil sustainability, this is through Soil exhaustion which is brought about by the use of chemicals, synthetics and GMO (Pacini et al., 2003).Continuous use of these methods by conventional farmers to manage weeds and pests is regarded highly unnatural, as this causes soil erosion and decreases on the soil productivity (Pacini et al., 2003) (15.32)
As far as Production costs is concerned in organic farming, the costs are high as its labor intensive and requires a lot of time (Pimentel et al., 2005). This becomes expensive for a farmer who wants to produce more in a short time as...