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Farm Ecosystem Management
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| Sustainable farm management tries to be environmentally friendly while providing a fair profit to the farmer. Farm management addresses the farm's watershed (including runoff, sedimentation, and off-farm impacts on water and air quality); inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, biocontrols, weeds); soil health (including crop rotations, manures, plowing, compaction); water and soil moisture balance; as well as the technology and machinery used. The goal is long-term improvement of farming practices and soil fertility as well as least harm to biodiversity. Farm ecosystem management is the management of all living species and their interactions with a farm and the farm's watershed-in the largest sense, management of inputs to the farm so as not to harm the ecosystems in which the inputs were extracted or produced. Ecosystem management includes control of pests, pathogens, and invasive species. It includes nurturing the "living soil" of the farm, protecting in-stream flows and water quality required by aquatic plants and animals, and encouraging the continued existence of rare and sensitive species. use of biological control agents and soil solarization with plastic sheeting as opposed to agro-chemicals are typical tools for farm ecosystem management. |
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Keywords seeds, agrochemicals, organic fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers, manures, cover crops, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, farm machinery, crop rotations, nutrient cycles, energy inputs, biocontrols, crop diversity, off-farm environmental impacts, tillage, no-till farming, humus, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), weeds, invasives, agricultural wastes and by-products, habitat conversion, water pollution, air pollution, filter strips, field borders, hedgerows, agriculture, farming, biocontrol, Bacillus thuringensis, integrated pest management (IPM), pest control, invasives, in-stream flows, hedgerows, set-asides, safe harbor planning, soil solarization, riparian vegetation, buffer strips, ecosystem stability, apiculture, field borders, sustainable agriculture, sustainable farming, healthy soil, soil conservation, integrated green systems |
