The European Commission’s ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy has set the EU target for 25% of its agricultural land to be organic by 2030.

Recently the Maltese government set its national action plan for the period 2023 till 2030. This action plan is set to increase its share of organic farming from the current 0.6% to 5%.

So this leads to the question, what is organic farming? How is it different from conventional agriculture? And most importantly, is it really as good as it is claimed to be?

In simple terms, organic farming is the production of food using natural substances and processes, and, avoiding the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides or antibiotics. This can be achieved through processes such as crop rotation, free-range livestock, composting and integrated pest management. This sounds good, but what’s the catch?

Organic farming has a lower yield. On average organic farming yields are 70-80% less than conventional agriculture. This reduced yield is a consequence of the avoidance of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.

No fertilisers mean less nutrients or an imbalance of nutrients available to the plants. No pesticides mean that pests are harder to control and eat or damage more crops. In order to offset this difference in yield, organic products are usually 20% more expensive.

A market research report among European consumers identified that most consumers are only willing to pay a premium of 5%, with only 14% of respondents willing to pay more than 10% for organic products. In fact, to offset this expense, Malta’s national action plan also includes the possibility of having photovoltaic panels on greenhouses for the producers to have an additional revenue stream.

One of the attractive claims for organic farming is that it is better for our health due to the lack of pesticides or antibiotics. Control of pests in organic farming is focused on the use of traps or the use of natural products. While these methods are very beneficial to all types of agriculture, sometimes these might not be enough. It is also worth mentioning that pesticides used today break down in a few days and no harmful traces should be found on the crops assuming that sufficient time between date of application and harvesting is permitted.

It is also thought that organic farming has a much less negative impact on the environment, both in terms of land degradation and biodiversity. However, to produce the same amount of food as conventional farming, more land is needed. This may cause more deforestation to convert forest land to agricultural land. In the local Maltese context, land is a very limited resource and one has to tread carefully. Two areas which would surely struggle to shift to organic farming is the egg-laying chicken industry, and, aquaculture, since organic farming place on them a strict maximum stocking density.

As is always the case, nothing is all good or all bad. A study in 2003 between conventional milk production and organic milk production, found that although the organic milk had less environmental impact in terms of energy use and nutrient pollution to the surrounding environment, it had a higher greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of organic milk than conventional milk.

At the end of the day, the question of organic farming is heavily linked to food security and its sustainability. Unfortunately, a case study of organic farming can be seen in Sri Lanka. In April of 2019, the government banned the importation and use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides to shift their agriculture industry to organic farming.

Rice production plummeted by 20% in the first 6 months and tea production was falling rapidly until the government had to reverse most of his policies. The worst is that half a million people who managed to get to the middle-class, were sunk back into poverty.

In conclusion, organic farming practices surely have their benefits and is a good way forward to diversify the local products to include both organic and conventional farming. Although it has a lot of strategies and good practices to offer to conventional agriculture, organic farming is not and should not be the solution for every scenario. Another form of agriculture alternative that could be investigated further is hydroponics, but that is a subject for another time.

Source: CIHEAM Scoop it/Times of Malta