Producing more is not the only objective in the agricultural sector

Although the agricultural and livestock sector are considered of great importance in a country's economy, the focus should not be solely on producing more and more. Previously, production was based on exploiting the soil to the maximum and introducing the largest amount of external resources with the firm idea of producing more, since, logically, large quantities of agricultural and livestock products were obtained in the short term, but as time passes, the neglect of ecosystems is noticed, losing soil fertility with the reduction of biological activity.

Due to the aforementioned, some questions arise such as to what extent is the dependence on natural resources in agricultural ecosystems? To this question we can answer that natural resources are a fundamental part to produce food, since agricultural spaces are natural systems where many components such as soil are related where there is a great diversity of microorganisms and all the organic waste generated and that are in contact with the soil are decomposed by these organisms and a recycling of nutrients is generated, because the nutritional components contained in the leaves or other plant or animal components are returned to the soil after decomposition and transformation to inorganic elements easily assimilated by plants.

In the same vein, it can be said that agroecosystems fulfill some fundamental functions, as the main source of resources necessary for the productive process and acts as a repository of organic waste generated in production activities. If natural resources were to be exhausted, economic expenses would increase, since it would depend on synthetic resources outside the system, which is undoubtedly unsustainable from an economic and ecological point of view.

So as we have mentioned in other articles, the real dilemma to be solved is the relationship between economic, productive growth and the protection of ecosystems. Therefore, they have begun to be integrated according to what we know as sustainable development, because, with conventional production models, the quality of life of future generations was being threatened, since attention is paid to the natural resources that keep the environment in balance where agricultural activity takes place.

As mentioned by Peña and Urdaneta (2008), sustainable development is premised on the balance between economic activity, ecological activity and the quality of life of society. Maintaining that balance depends on us, because we are a fundamental component in decision-making when establishing the management of said agro-ecosystem, the ideal would be to establish more ecological management that allows maintaining the functional biodiversity that is responsible for enhancing the processes that develop naturally in agricultural and livestock ecosystems.

Dear readers, it can be seen that in order to produce food, several aspects have to be considered, such as maintaining production in the long term without negatively interfering with the environment. The sustainability of agroecosystems is a responsibility that food producers must assume by working on the search and identification of methods that guarantee production at a lower environmental cost. It is not a secret for anyone, that academic level has begun to socialize the agroecological paradigm based on production techniques or alternatives with local resources, in this way it is possible to identify which of the elements that make up the agricultural ecosystem can be of great help to maintain soil fertility, likewise more ecological tillage techniques that alter the soil resource, because if we have a healthy soil we will also have a healthy crop.