Sustainable agriculture

Instead of growing a single crop on a large scale, growing different crops on the same land, copying the variety of the natural environment, is mixed cropping. It lowers the risk of the whole crop being destroyed by a spreading disease and reduces the development of resistant pests.

Using another plant, animal or micro-organism that does not harm the crop to destroy pests is biological pest control. For example, the coconut leaf miner (Promecotheca cumingii), a major pest of coconut, has been successfully controlled by an insect parasite (Dimokia javanica).

Using as fertiliser the materials made by turning the complex organic compounds in plant and animal parts into simple compounds is good for the environment. Organic fertiliser is decomposed natural animal and plant matter; it improves soil structure and porosity and speeds up the life processes of the soil.

Build a story about the good these farming practices do for the environment.

As people changed the environment to suit themselves, forest cover gradually fell — mainly through paddy and highland cultivation, tea and rubber plantations and large development projects. We now feel the harmful effects of that loss, so replanting forests in suitable areas is essential to restore the lost balance.