Paper Sample on Agricultural Sustainability - A Balanced Perspective

In the field of agronomy, the term sustainability is used as a method of growing crops, maintaining ecosystems like forests or wetlands, or the trade and industry sustainability of commercial- this term is addressed from all perspectives. Cultural sustainability is another element to be reflected. As a country of settlers, we have many abundant and multifaceted impacts intertwined into the history of our nation. The stable food we eat, long weekends we party, and how we generate produces are moulded by cultural characteristics. Farmers markets are playing a fundamental role in sustaining and facilitating these social relations.

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In the tropical region, I visited Mr. Forbes a wheat farmer on his farm. He has 50 hectares of bananas that produce 2500 tons of bananas during high season and 2000 tons in low season. Mr. Forbes uses organic manure and biological control to maintain his plantation. The residents of the region consume bananas as the staple food, many restaurants, hotels have the cultural food in smashed bananas, and sometimes they are roasted. Mr. Forbes is one of the farmers I chose to visit to see how far his agricultural activity is advancing.

In his farm, Mr. Forbes has created some terraces and planted some onions on them. He says that onions act as a mechanism of scaring away safari ants that hinder the bananas suckers, which may generate a big loss. On the edge of the farm, I noticed some gutters running from cattle farm that transports manure from cattle dung. Mr. Forbes has introduced ladybird insects for biological control to act as prey on agricultural pests such as aphids. He alleges that these mechanisms have helped in yielding profit from his large farm.

Mr. Forbes began his business by selling them locally since he had no connection to external markets compared to other farmers. He has plans of extending his plantation and establishing a fruit-blending parlor due to huge demand from the local. Mr. Forbes has made profits from his farm thus his plan is centred on the income he is generating. Local markets order bananas, giving him instant earnings because external markets in most cases take a long time to pay. Mr. Forbes is using the opportunity that the residents always use bananas as their cultural food.

According to the consumers’ demand, Mr. Forbes sells them raw or ripen, on a daily basis, the neighboring people visit the homestead to make orders for ripening bananas. This has made him see many opportunities in making more income as well as meeting his customers demand. During our conversation, a client visited him to make orders for 1000 tons of bananas to make banana wine. Mr. Forbes seemed to be depressed due to this demand; he was contemplating whether he would meet the order. Therefore, his plan had to be implemented with the immediate effect.

Conclusion

I considered Mr. Forbes situation by advising him to discuss the matters with other farmers to see the way forward by purchasing or increasing the plantation to satisfy their consumers. It is the farmers’ happiness always to create a profitable market for their products. Mr. Forbes commented that it is in two ways perspectives; he is happy when he markets his entire produces and at the same time he is worried when his clients miss to get the bananas.