SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

The goal of Sustainable Agriculture is to meet society’s needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Agriculture in Malaysia is characterised by high levels of fertilizer and manure applications and consequently environmental pollution. Sustainable agriculture and organic farming are being promoted by the government as a way of eliminating unsustainable agriculture. Despite the benefits that organic farming brings to farmers and environments, its adoption rate is still low among Malaysian farmers.

  • from (Organic Farming and Sustainable Agriculture in Malaysia: Organic Farmers' Challenges towards Adoption)

FUTURE FARMING

AUTONOMOUS AGRICULTURE


One of the most interesting feature areas at our future agricultural show might be the ‘Driverless and Autonomous’ exhibition hall. Autonomous, or even semi-autonomous vehicles can improve sustainability in several ways. First, with autonomous farm vehicles comes greater accuracy. Even the most experienced tractor driver comes to rely on ‘eye’ and ‘feel’ for many operations, metrics that are often not consistent for one driver, let alone several.


Smart vehicles use sensors, field maps and machine-learning to deliver entirely repeatable actions, positioning tyres, spreaders, spray booms and seed drills to far greater levels of accuracy. Spray and drilling overlaps become a thing of the past, hugely increasing resource-use efficiency, while in-field obstacles such as pylons and waterways can be avoided accurately and safely.

SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION

Sustainable intensification encompasses specific agriculture methods that increase production and at the same time help improve environmental outcomes. The desired outcomes of the farm are achieved without the need for more land cultivation or destruction of natural habitat; the system performance is upgraded with no net environmental cost.

ALTERNATIVE AGRICULTURE

One approach to sustainability is to develop polyculture systems using perennial crop varieties. Such varieties are being developed for rice, wheat, sorghum, barley, and sunflowers. If these can be combined in polyculture with a leguminous cover crop such as alfalfa, fixation of nitrogen will be added to the system, reducing the need for fertilizer and pesticides.

Additional Info

Pillars of Sustainable Development