Sustainable agriculture is an integrative approach to livestock, fruits, and vegetable farming that makes use of soil science, agronomy, ecology, and microbiology concepts to yield foodstuffs that are better for the environment. These environment-friendly techniques limit the use of agrochemicals while encouraging the use of traditional practices that mimic the natural ecosystem functions. Reducing post-harvest spoils of agricultural products and the development of suppressive soil are two main aspects of agricultural production to be factored into sustainable agricultural strategies.
Suppressive Soils to Foster Plant Defense
There are two categories of soil groups, namely conductive and suppressive soils. For soil type to be characterized by distinct archaeal, fungal, and bacterial communities that populate the rhizosphere and contribute to plant disease resistance through several mechanisms (Khatri et al., 2021). Another interpretation of suppressive soil suggests that non-virulent microbes surpass pathogenic microbes for nutrient intake and outcompete niche surroundings, limiting pathogen growth. Organic soil modifications have been shown in previous research to produce suppressiveness in soils. Pathogens like Aphanomyces euteiches, Fusarium oxysporum, Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici are controlled by the suppressive soils.
Post-Harvest Prevention Spoils
Post-harvest spoils of agricultural products during harvesting, transportation, storage, and processing have proved to be a major setback economically. Most of the post-harvest spoils are caused by a variety of saprophytic fungi and bacteria. Scientists are working to create post-harvest treatment techniques that do not rely on chemical additives but instead use naturally existing defense components (Hulse,2021). To prevent post-harvest spoils in fruits like mangoes, pear, cherries, pears, and pineapples, exogenous salicylic acid therapies could be utilized to boost fungal resistance in such fruits (Hulse, 2021). Promoting and popularizing sustainable agricultural practices should be a priority. This is because it utilizes ecological principles to encourage ecological and biological diversity and the maintenance of healthy soils.
References
Hulse, J. D. (2021). Sustainable methodologies to promote plant health and post-harvest waste prevention. Acta Scientific Agriculture Volume 5 Issue 8: 32-35
Khatri, S., Bhattacharjee, A., & Sharma, S. (2021). “Omics” approaches for understanding soil suppressiveness in agriculture. In omics science for rhizosphere biology (pp. 53-72). Springer.