Introduction:
With each evolutionary time, the population of humans has been on the rise and is ever exploding. With it came the need to feed the growing population with as much lower farm land availability as more and more land are diverted for infrastructural, industrial and other purposes. The question here is will the human civilization be able to survive the obvious future we are and have been creating over the ages? The only solution to it is Sustainable Productive Farming, which is extremely superior to the traditional farming methods in various ways:
Land exploitation: Unlike the traditional farms which uses land horizontally for expansion, Sustainable Productive Farming(hereinafter referred to as SPF) aims at vertical expansion of farm ensuring highest potential exploitation of land. 1 Hectare of land may be multiplied to 10× to 100× depending on how much a farmer wants to expands, while in reality the horizontal land expansion is reduced to 90% . That will enable Humans to have more land available for other purposes such as forest cover, etc.
Water Utilisation: Fresh water availability has been a concern for many countries around the globe since the past 4-5 decades. And therefore optimal utilisation of water for fresh water becomes important as most plants and animals also requires water to survive. The better the optimization rate, the better the over all availability. With techniques such as Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Deep Water Culture, NFTs, DFTs, water optimization can be brought to over 60% which is way better optimisation rate than the traditional methods.
Healthy produce: Over time, humans have been inventing and discovering methods to boost yield productivity which led to the introduction of fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides etc which we now consume almost every day. I call them 'slow poison' as they are not a real food. But with SPF, there is no need to use such toxic chemicals as the production process is carried out in a controlled environment. This will also enable a healthy eating habit among humans and thus leading a healthy civilization.
Logistics and supply chain: When we talk about SPF, it is important to mention the logistics and supply chain part. Most traditional farms are located far off from the mainland/cities where most population are located thus incurring a huge loss in transportation cost and time alongside the CO2 emissions from the vehicles. But a SPF farm can be located and relocated anywhere in the city or near the mainland, thereby cutting the transportation cost,time and the CO2 emissions and availing fresh produce all year round. This will bring evolutionary changes in the supply chain of produce.
Food scarcity solved: The SPFs as mentioned above operates in a controlled environment which enables it to produce more food for less time and that too, all year round. Say for example, we brocolli took a time of 4-5 months from seedlings to harvest under normal conditions. But under controlled environment, it will be market ready in less than 2 months, which enables a farmer to have ×6 output per year. This situation becomes more promising in hugely populated areas/countries with minimal food output.
Environmental impact: It is obvious that every action has equal and opposite reaction. To put this together, the more land, water or any other resources we put in stake for any purpose, we have to remind ourselves that we are changing the way how nature works. Not only that, traditional farming involves use of fossil fuels for operation which inturn releases huge amount of Green house gases. This will have extreme Environmental impact such as Global warming, frequent flood/drought, pandemics, epidemics and many more. There will be a time when Earth will become inhabitable. Thus opting for the SPF is much more promising for the long run of human civilization in general.
Conclusion:
From the arguments above, it is evident that the future of human civilization is literally Sustainable Productive Farming (SPF) and that the more and earlier we understand it, the better for us humans.
