When most people hear about farming the methods it does not really concern them because one the end result is food everyone is happy.

But as we shall see, farming practices have a major effect on the health of our ecosystems and biodiversity, so much so that ecological farming practices have been developed. One of the best definitions of ecological farming I have found comes from a paper from the University of Exeter which states that "ecological farming ensures healthy farming an healthy food for today and tomorrow, by protecting soil, water and climate, promotes biodiversity and does not contaminate the environment with chemical inputs or genetic engineering".

So we can see the extent of the effect traditional farming practices have on our environment and by implementing environmentally friendly practices we can gain by getting food and preserving our environment.

Of course this is just one of the benefits of ecological farming; there are more benefits to this type of farming which I will explore in this article.

I will also look at some of the detrimental effects on the environment due to traditional farming practices and how they are alleviated with ecological farming methods.

Traditional farming practices include slash and burn agriculture, where the natural vegetation is cleared by cutting and burning.

Ecological farming practices protect the soil from erosion and degradation thereby ensuring soil fertility. One ecological farming practice is inter-cropping.

Using this method, rather than growing a single crop over and over on the same area of land (monoculture), a variety of crops are planted. The disadvantage of monocultures is that only a certain nutrient is being constantly removed from the soil.

After this has been done for a few years, one would notice that the crops are not as healthy or abundant as before.

This is because different crop species take up certain nutrients from the soil, so by constant planting of the same crop the same nutrient is being removed and not replaced.

However, when a variety of crops are planted the soil is not drained of a particular nutrient and what one crop removes the other puts into the soil, therefore preserving soil fertility. Other ecological methods of increasing soil fertility include growing legumes, adding compost or animal manure.

Also since the crops have different harvesting times, no large area of land is left exposed to the elements and thus susceptible to erosion by wind or water which removes the valuable top soil layer.

If left unchecked heavy rains can further loosen the soil causing landslides. Heavy rains can also wash this loose soil into rivers causing sedimentation. This in turn will reduce the volume of water the river can hold. Also, the water becomes cloudy, preventing plants from photosynthesising.

Without plants there is no food source for other organisms in the ecosystem.

The inter-cropping method is also profitable to the farmer as there are always crops present so that he can generate a steady income.

Of course these different crops also have different tolerance levels when it comes to the weather, thereby making the farm resilient to erratic weather changes.

So having a diverse range of crops can be thought of as a natural insurance policy against major ecosystem changes.

Intercropping also has the added advantage of conserving the natural habitat, we are not destroying the carbon sinks (vegetation) that will absorb and remove greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.

Traditional farming has also seen a decrease in the biodiversity of crops grown and their existence on the planet. Have you ever noticed that certain food you ate decades ago taste different, or the fruits from your neighbour's tree which has been around for decades taste different.

Well it may not be your mind playing tricks on you, there is a difference. With genetically modified foods if the majority of the population say they like a sweeter variety of corn or carrots for example, then that is what the farmers are going to sell and the way to ensure this is through genetic modification.

This means that the less sweet varieties are not promoted and may become extinct thus resulting in a loss of biodiversity.

However, there are some crops that need to be grown on a large scale in a monoculture setting like wheat and rice. Crop rotation is another method where after a crop is harvested another type is planted in its place.

This has the effect of replacing the nutrients removed by the last crop species. It also disrupts insects, disease and weed cycles which are usually attached to a certain crop species. By using this method one is able to apply ecological faring to large scale monoculture farms.

One of the main problems of agriculture today is its dependence on non-renewable and artificial resources, for instance, fossil fuel, chemical and genetically engineered seed. Synthetic fertilizers incorporate natural gas, coal and heavy fuels in their composition.

Fossil fuels are also needed to operate the machinery to produce chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides and to run machinery used on the farm. These chemicals eventually are washed into nearby rivers and streams poisoning the organisms found there.

The fertilisers cause eutrophication of plants so that they flourish but in the process use up much of the oxygen available to that there is little left for the other organisms present resulting in their local extinction or migration from the area. Therefore, the biodiversity of nearby aquatic ecosystems decreases.

The use of biological control agents rather than relying on pesticides is another ecological farming practice, where the presence of the biological control agents is encouraged by growing the plant which is their favoured habitat nearby.

However, ecological farming is more labour intensive, but the money saved on not using chemicals like pesticides and fertilisers can go toward hiring more labour.

This has the added advantage of creating more employment.

I hope after reading this article you realise that although the main goal of farming is to feed the world it also seriously affects our environment around the world as well.