Organic farming

The IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) defines organic farming as follows: “All agricultural systems that promote the production of food and fibersin a socially, economically and environmentally healthy way.

These systems have inherent soil fertility as their production capacity basis and, while respecting the nature of the plants, animals and the landscape, they streamline all these interdependent factors.

Organic farming severely cuts down the use of external inputs by ruling out fertilizers, pesticides and synthetic chemical products. Instead, it relies on the force of natural laws to increase yields and disease resistance”.

In a nutshell, “organic” is everything that is obtained through a production method that does not resort to synthetic products and that complies with a set of rules binding the producer in their own way of operating.

What’s alfalfa

The medicago sativa is a perennial plant with a tap-root system that can reach a 3 m length; it has a basal crown from which more or less erect stems originate that can reach one meter in height, hollow on the inside. Leaves are trifoliate and differ from those of clovers in that central leaf is not sessile but petiolate.

Alfalfa properties

Forage plant par excellence, it can be used as hay crop, silage and to produce dehydrated flour.

As forage it is the most popular legume species since it has a high protein and vitamin content (carotenes, B complex), high palatability and the possibility of being stocked in the form of hay, silage, flour or fresh.

If artificially dried it reaches concentrate-worthy protein values ​​up to 20%, whereas for silage it is necessary to adopt some precautions such as pre-wilting or the addition of lactobacilli or organic/inorganic acids.

Due to its nitrogen-fixing nature, its cultivation also produces the result of naturally enriching the soil again with nitrogen after it has been deplenished by previous cultivations of other vegetable families.

What’s biogas?

Biogas is a mixture of methane gas and carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation of organic matter in the absence of oxygen (or anaerobic digestion). The production of biogas occurs spontaneously in nature in the digestive system of animals and whenever there is a transformation of organic matter in the absence of oxygen.

A spontaneous and natural process paved the way to the development of an Italian supply chain that has already established itself as an opportunity to produce renewable energy in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way.

Biogas is not just energy production: it also mitigates the environmental impact by transforming livestock effluents into renewable fertilizers, thus giving a “resource” status to the by-products of livestock and agro-industrial activity and promoting innovation in agricultural techniques through the development of efficient systems in the management of local resources and the territory.

The power of anaerobic digestion is therefore linked to its ability to fit seamlessly into the current agricultural fabric. Biogas is, in fact, a circular and efficient supply chain in the use of agricultural land, capable of using not only vegetable biomass but also livestock effluents, agricultural and agro-industrial by-products to feed the plants.

If biogas is done right #itsgoodforeveryone

Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dawolsizwb4

https://terraevita.edagricole.it/energie-rinnovabili/digestato-e-agricoltura-biologica-una-sinergia-per-lambiente/