3.2 Sustainable Agriculture
59
sustainable agriculture makes use of natural fertilizers that take time to break down.
Organic materials usually break down at varying rates, thus making the content
of the fertilizer to be inconsistent. Also, many of them are too smelly to use on
indoor plants. Thirdly, collecting natural materials, including leaves and seaweed,
to add to the compost pile is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Finally, it is
also a misconception for one to believe that since fertilizer is organic, it should be
deemed as automatically safer. In case organic fertilizer is not applied correctly, it
could result in groundwater and surface contamination, thus leading to a nutritional
imbalance within the soil and causing salt burns.
On the other hand, chemical fertilizers are manufactured from synthetic ingredients that are designed for stimulating the growth of plants. The advantage of
chemical fertilizers is that they are predictable and reliable because the blending
of formulations is done with accuracy. They also have a balanced distribution of
nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus—the essential nutrients required for optimal
growth of plants. The formulations allow a farmer to know the exact nutrients that
they are giving their plants instead of guessing as maybe the case with organic
formula composition.
(continued)
Case Study 3.1: Sky Greens, Singapore
Fig. 3.2 Vertical farming. Source: Sky Greens (2014)
Due to Singapore’s small size and lack of resources, it imports a large
proportion of its food from the USA, Europe, China, and Indonesia. The
Sky Greens project as shown in Fig. 3.2 above emerged as a technique for
59
sustainable agriculture makes use of natural fertilizers that take time to break down.
Organic materials usually break down at varying rates, thus making the content
of the fertilizer to be inconsistent. Also, many of them are too smelly to use on
indoor plants. Thirdly, collecting natural materials, including leaves and seaweed,
to add to the compost pile is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Finally, it is
also a misconception for one to believe that since fertilizer is organic, it should be
deemed as automatically safer. In case organic fertilizer is not applied correctly, it
could result in groundwater and surface contamination, thus leading to a nutritional
imbalance within the soil and causing salt burns.
On the other hand, chemical fertilizers are manufactured from synthetic ingredients that are designed for stimulating the growth of plants. The advantage of
chemical fertilizers is that they are predictable and reliable because the blending
of formulations is done with accuracy. They also have a balanced distribution of
nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus—the essential nutrients required for optimal
growth of plants. The formulations allow a farmer to know the exact nutrients that
they are giving their plants instead of guessing as maybe the case with organic
formula composition.
(continued)
Case Study 3.1: Sky Greens, Singapore
Fig. 3.2 Vertical farming. Source: Sky Greens (2014)
Due to Singapore’s small size and lack of resources, it imports a large
proportion of its food from the USA, Europe, China, and Indonesia. The
Sky Greens project as shown in Fig. 3.2 above emerged as a technique for