Is organic farming is just hobby ?
I want to discuss whether organic farming is just a hobby, or whether it can be a profitable business like chemical farming.
Hi,
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I am a farmer and pesticide shop owner too. I do both organic and chemical farming.
In organic farming I face the following problem :
* Weed control : cost is high (have to use manual labor to take out weed from the crop)
* NPK content low : Well, organic soil is rich in good living microorganisms, but organic soil has very low NPK content as compared to chemical NPK, which decreases production significantly by around 40-60% in a long duration crop (which take 4–5 months crop grow like rice, wheat, cron).
* Disease control : In organic farming there is no effective cure for disease for fungus, virus, bacterial and other pest diseases. Most organic pesticides work best in preventive spray. This also causes a significant decrease in production and if any disease gets out of control then you may lose your whole crop production.
*The cost of organic fertilizer and pesticides is very high : making vermicomposting takes a lot of time, labor & land and buying vermicomposting is also expensive. Organic pesticides also cost a minimum of 30% more than traditional chemical pesticides.
* Selling your production : For organic production maximum, you can get 30% more value compared to chemical production.
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From my experience
* There are very limited options where you can sell your organic production. And if you are lucky, you can get max to 30% value more from your production compare to chemical production. Also, remember in the long-duration crop, we see a 40%–60% drop in production.
* Organic farming needs a lot of pre-planning (like making vermicomposting and other things), lots of labor and organic pesticides cost a lot.
* Profit : Most of the time I make equal profit from the organic crop and the chemical crop. Sometimes I get 10 -25% more value from an organic crop.
Finally, I want to say : organic farming is very risky, labor-intensive and needs top-notch management.
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For me, it seems like organic farming is just a hobby. For those who have a lot of time in their hand.
In profitability view : Chemical farming is just
more profitable and less risky.
I want to see other farmer's view on this too.