Sustainability is a word that is used across all businesses and industries today, because people are becoming more aware of the impact that they are having on the environment.
One of the most critical industries is and has always been the agriculture industry. Unfortunately, some farming practices that have been used for decades are not as sustainable or eco-friendly as one would hope. These practices are slowly being phased out as those who are in both regulatory roles, and active farming roles realize the environmental impacts that they have had.
Some of how this is being accomplished involves all areas of the industry, from cultivating crops to selling and distributing the end products. Even how waste is disposed of is changing to have a smaller environmental impact.
If you are one of the new agricultural property buyers who are looking for ways to become sustainable, here are a few of the main ways in which pole building barns and other structures have helped the agriculture industry in going green.
Reducing Pesticide Use
Pesticides are the substances that farmers use to protect their crops from harmful bugs, illnesses, and other harmful things. While it is true that without pesticides, a vast number of crops would be lost each year to pests and disease, the adverse effects of pesticides are hard to ignore.
Not only are those whose job it is to apply these products to crops putting themselves at certain health risks in being in proximity to large amounts of pesticides, but also other organisms are often harmed unintentionally.
To cut back on the adverse effects of pesticides, many farmers are trying to drastically reduce the number of such products that they use regularly. Furthermore, scientists and engineers around the world are working to discover newer and more natural alternatives to pesticides that will have a smaller environmental impact in the long run.
More Sustainable Crops
It is no secret that certain crops have more of an impact on the environment than others. Some, like rice, take a considerable amount of water to grow compared to other crops. Others, like sugar, are just simply grown on such a large scale that a substantial environmental impact is inevitable.
For these reasons, farmers have been not only working to develop methods for producing such crops to cut back on the harm they can do to the environment, but many have also been making the switch to crops that have a smaller impact overall. By producing certified hemp seed for sale, for instance, farmers can produce a product that has multiple applications, and that can grow without much water consumption or the need for pesticides.
Water Conservation
The amount of water used each year in agriculture has been a cause for concern for some time now. The fact will always remain that people need food from farming and that food needs water to be grown. There are many innovations in agriculture, though, that are going a long way to conserve and reduce the amount of water that crops need.
Traditional irrigation methods are being replaced by such practices as drip irrigation and dry farming, both of which drastically reduce the amount of water being used. Farm developers like AG Land Partners – farming can help you start with agricultural management and development. Learn more here.