Which is known for self-sufficient agroecological unit

Dear readers, in our blog we have always shared aspects related to the ecological and sustainable management of agricultural systems, nowadays there is a lot of talk about it and a series of terms have been generated to allude to sustainable agricultural systems, one of these terms is known as self-sufficient agroecological unit. It is called a self-sufficient agroecological unit, to those agricultural ecosystems that are diversified with agricultural, livestock and forestry items, it is managed as a true system where each component is used for the benefit of the other, for example, the use of livestock component manure to generate fertilizers and fertilize the agricultural component, in this way they reduce dependencies on external resources.

In this sense, agroecological units can be diversified by sowing crops of cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruit trees, forage species among others, different species of animals such as cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, worms among others can also be integrated; when these plant and animal species are integrated, some benefit from others, since some of the crop species could be used as alternative food for animals and animal manure can be used as mentioned above incorporating it into the soil and improve the presence of organic matter; as for the forest component the plants can be used in the boundaries and use wood when necessary to obtain wooden poles that will serve to delimit the forage areas.

On the other hand, some of these agroecological farms use the manure produced by animals to establish biodigesters for the production of methane gas that is used for domestic use in kitchens, manure is also used for feeding worms, we have verified that bovine manure is well accepted by worms, which is quickly degraded to obtain a compost and humus of very good quality.

Also set associations of crops for the use of the surface, it generates a greater production of organic matter and in the case of associate it with plants belonging to the family of legumes these provide benefit to the soil, because, they have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through its roots with a symbiotic process that you do with some nitrogen-fixing bacteria, that element is essential for the growth of the plants.

In this same order of ideas, are also referred to as farms self-sufficient because the owners (family), allocate part of the production for your power, for this aspect also plays an important role in the diversification of crops of vegetable and animal origin; it generates a kind of a sustainable economy because with the production obtained not only feed, but also derive economic benefits from the sale of crops.

In general, the units agro-ecological self-sufficient, enhance the utility of the local resources, where the ratio input – production becomes more favorable in terms of cost – benefits, on the other hand, the diversification allowed from the economic point of view that if one of the items produced low price in the market can be used within the system, whether processed or as food for animals, depending on the item it also maintains the balance of the system increased biodiversity.

This type of agricultural system starts from what is possible to implement to achieve what is desired, it begins by minimizing costs with the use of internal resources and as it becomes more productive, there will be resources to finance seeds, equipment among other inputs of agricultural importance to gradually increase production.