Agriculture and sustainability

Sustainable development has become the paradigm to be followed in the production processes taking into account that anthropogenic activities have generated great imbalances in the environment. Agriculture has not escaped this situation due to the conventional methods used to increase food production in the short term, one of the fundamental pillars of conventional agriculture is the use of synthetic substances that generate short-term solutions, but as time passes natural ecosystems begin to show signs of degradation of certain resources such as soil biology and pollution of important resources such as water.

In this sense, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are one of the most important challenges that humanity has to face in these times. Although there have always been species extinctions in the history of the evolution of life on earth, the current novelty is the rate at which they are occurring and the indisputable effect that different human activities have on this phenomenon. On this Altieri and Nicholls (2000), mentions that in most countries, a large part of the ecosystems have been transformed into agroecosystems, so the characteristics in terms of extension and intensity of agriculture have a direct impact on biodiversity.

On the other hand, Berroteran (2000), pointed out that conventional agriculture, based on chemistry, mechanics and genetics, began to consolidate at the beginning of the twentieth century, based on a series of scientific discoveries such as chemical fertilizers, the selection of high-production plants in addition to the development of combustion engines, which allowed intensifying productive systems, abandoning rotation systems and moving to monoculture separating animal and vegetable production.

Our country Venezuela does not escape from this situation, since agriculture is based on the exploitation of monoculture with resistant plant varieties, supported by the use of a range of artificial synthetic chemicals and high technology, which are usually not available to most farmers and which have caused the loss of the fertile layer of soils, decrease in biodiversity, pollution, reduction of labor and serious alterations to health..

However, for some years the need to build a sustainable productive economic model, based on a harmonious relationship between man and nature, that guarantees the rational use and exploitation of natural resources, respecting environmental processes and cycles, has been raised as an objective.

For this, the institutions related to agricultural activity have tried to include Venezuelan agriculture ecological practices such as integrated pest management (IPM) based on biological control in fruit trees, participatory research has been carried out including as a main actor the producer oriented to the incorporation of biological agents in different areas of the country, of which the southern area of Lake Maracaibo can be highlighted, specifically the municipalities Francisco Javier Pulgar, Sucre and Colón.

Finally, dear readers, it is necessary to ask ourselves, will we be able to get farmers out of the long crisis that has entered with Moderna industrialized agriculture?, we definitely consider that yes!, reversing the situation, moving from a development based on quantitative terms (economic growth) to a type of qualitative development where the links between economic aspects are tightened, social and environmental that is considered sustainable development at the global level and that does not escape from the agricultural productive reality that sometimes does not direct the hand management of natural processes but with the use of external inputs.