ECHO FIELD TRIP

On this wonderful tour, I learned a large amount of sustainable agricultural approaches. Crop rotation was one of them. It’s where the farmer grows different crops in the same field, in succession. Apparently, there are repercussions to planting the same crop over and over. This avoids those challenges. One challenge in particular is reducing the pest issue that most farmers face. These pests usually explode in population due to the continual availability of their food source. These pests tend to prefer one certain crop and by changing it yearly, the pest population stays down. These farmers also tend to plant crops that replenish the nutrients in the soil. Crops like soybeans and legumes reduce the need for the farmers to use fertilizer because it keeps the soil healthy. Farmers also use a method called “cover crops.” This method involves always having something growing in the soil. This prevents the soil from eroding, the weeds from growing, and it improves the quality of the soil. You will also see a large amount of farmers introduce “pest predators” onto their fields. Insects, birds, and spiders eat a lot of the pests that terrorize the crops of these farmers. These are just a few of the sustainable methods farmers use to keep their farms afloat.
The biggest problem farmers’ face is the fact that there is an overgrowth of these pests. These pests are evolving and some pesticides are failing to work at this point. This forces farmers to introduce predators onto their fields. The even bigger problem is that the pesticides kill off those predators relatively simply.
I noticed that ECHO had a compost on the tour. This allows them to put back into the earth the organic items that they use. It was by the lake and they said it enriches the soil, which in turn feeds the fish in the lake. They actually have to control the population of the lake