Advances in Crop Science and Technology
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Organic farming is an agricultural strategy that emphasises crop rotation and companion planting while utilising organic fertilisers such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal. It began in the early twentieth century as a reaction to rapidly changing agricultural techniques. Globally, certified organic agriculture covers 70 million hectares, with Australia accounting for more than half of that total. Various organisations are still working to improve organic farming today. Biological pest control, mixed cropping, and insect predator breeding are all encouraged. Organic guidelines are intended to allow the use of naturally occurring compounds while forbidding or severely restricting the use of synthetics. Natural insecticides like pyrethrin and rotenone, for example, are permissible, whereas synthetic fertilisers and pesticides are often prohibited. Copper sulphate, elemental sulphur, and Ivermectin are examples of synthetic chemicals that are permitted. GMOs, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, and antibiotics are all examples of genetically modified organisms.

The organic food and other product business has risen fast since 1990, reaching $63 billion in 2012:25 This demand has resulted in a similar increase of organically managed agriculture, which rose at an annual compounding rate of 8.9% from 2001 to 2011.

Organic farming covered around 72,300,000 hectares (179,000,000 acres) of global farmland in 2019, accounting for about 1.5 percent of total global cropland.

Agriculture has been performed without the use of artificial chemicals for thousands of years. Artificial fertilisers were invented in the mid-nineteenth century. These early fertilisers were inexpensive, effective, and easy to transport in large quantities. In the 1940s, similar advancements in chemical pesticides occurred, earning the decade the moniker "pesticide age." While these new agricultural techniques were beneficial in the short term, they had major long-term consequences such as soil compaction, erosion, and overall soil fertility reductions,as well as health concerns about harmful chemicals entering the environment.

Rudolf Steiner offered an eight-part lecture series on agriculture in 1924, focusing on the moon, planets, non-physical entities, and elemental forces. (They were convened in response to a request from committed farmers who had seen deteriorating soil conditions as well as a decline in the health and quality of crops and livestock as a result of chemical fertiliser use) The lectures were initially published in November 1924, and the first English translation, The Agriculture Course, was published in 1928.

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, the author of the standard work on biodynamic agriculture (Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening), visited the United Kingdom in July 1939 at the invitation of Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, to speak at the Betteshanger Summer School and Conference on Biodynamic Farming at Northbourne's farm in Kent. One of the main goals of the conference was to bring together proponents of diverse organic agriculture systems so that they could collaborate.

Howard's An Agricultural Testament was released in 1940. He used Northbourne's phrase of "organic farming" in this book. For his work in bringing scientific knowledge and principles to diverse traditional and natural practises, Howard became regarded as the "father of organic farming." [: 45 In the United States, Rodale, who was fascinated by both Howard's theories and biodynamics, established the Rodale Institute and the Rodale Press in the 1940s to teach and support organic methods to the general public. These factors had a significant impact on the spread of organic agriculture. Lady Eve Balfour (the Haughley Experiment) in the United Kingdom, as well as many others around the world, did more research.

Charles Walters, the founder of Acres Magazine, developed the phrase "eco-agricultural" in 1970 to describe agriculture that does not use "toxic man-made substances."