Beginner's Guide to Organic Farming

There are a small number of producers who can meet the conditions of organic production. Especially in the beginning, it gives less yield than industrial agriculture. Still, the quality of products and prices, as well as the possibility of placement and export, well compensate for this seemingly great shortcoming.

Less investment in production and higher sales value of products make organic agriculture competitive and profitable.

Organic agriculture fits into the concept of sustainable development because a series of measures that include overall management strives for environmentally friendly, economically viable, ethically acceptable, and socially just agricultural production and allows the formation of a significant new area in agriculture with the prospect of reorienting existing economies in ecological and profitable terms. Especially suitable for specialized family farms, the opening of a special market for organically produced products of special quality and the domestic market's supply with these products. It also creates the possibility of selling in foreign markets through tourism and exports, increased employment in agriculture, processing, sales, and better agricultural land utilization.

In the last thirty years in Europe, the share of areas under organic farming has increased to 3 million hectares. Organic agriculture has the most success in EU countries, where state administration measures enable more intensive involvement in agricultural production.

Italy is a country with approximately a third of all organic land in Europe. This way of producing food in Italy has become a way of economic development of the southern regions, which are economically less developed than the northern parts of the country. Agriculture has become a push factor in agrotourism, keeping young people in rural communities while increasing economic, cultural, and social standards.

Most of the areas under crops are olives and vines, and on the islands under pastures for sheep farming. The market for organically produced food at the national level is still developing. Western Europe, the United States, and Japan are the largest consumers of organic agricultural products from Southern Europe.

Organic products are produced from natural raw materials without artificial foreign impurities. Demand for organically produced products is far greater than supply because the quality and taste are far different from the offered industrial products. The end consumer is willing to pay a much higher price.

The trend is an increase in demand for organically produced products in Europe and records a steady increase in consumption of 20-30% per year. To start ecological production, the initiative of a local self-government unit is necessary, which will, with cooperatives or regional development centers and the profession, start education and pilot production. The process requires multiple smaller investments and much more knowledge, for which existing associations and already completed programs should be used.

Organic agriculture refers to a special system of sustainable management in agriculture and forestry, including the cultivation of plants and animals, food production, raw materials, natural fibers, and the processing of primary products. It includes all ecologically, economically, and socially justified production-technological methods, interventions, and systems, most favorably using soil fertility and available water, natural properties of plants, animals, and landscapes, increasing yields and resistance of plants by natural forces and laws, with prescribed use of fertilizers, means for the protection of plants and animals, all by internationally accepted norms. Crop rotation and intermediate crops, biological nitrogen fixation, compost application, mechanical weed destruction, soil cover, linking plant, livestock production, etc., are important.

The actual organic product is marked with the "organic product mark," which is a unique prescribed designation of products produced by the Act and regulations adopted based thereof. The main purpose of organic production is to protect human health and life, protect nature and the environment, and protect consumers. In the constant understanding of natural processes, the aim is to preserve nature, especially from chemical preparations, heavy metals, and genetically modified organisms. According to other principles described in-laws and regulations, all to preserve natural resources and balance.