Imagine there is a small island, like Malta, and the ecosystem has no external inputs (no fertilizer delivery, etc).
What does a sustainable plant based agriculture system look like? Are there already existing examples?
I’m very interested in how top soil is maintained without external fertilizer inputs?
One area of concern, I have, with modern monocrop farming techniques is the depletion of top soil, with something like 60 crop cycles left before we are current system falls over.
Hmm, I’m definitely out of my depth with that question.
Personally, I wouldn’t expect animals to perform a vital chemical transformation, since plants are likely to need the same form of nutrients for growing like a fully grown plant would contain when it goes onto the compost.
I guess, the animals may eat grass or hay, which’s nutrients then get concentrated onto the field with their manure. It doesn’t typically happen that all the human manure is delivered back onto the field, so you would lose nutrients with each harvest. So, it’s probably good to cut grass/hay specifically for composting. to help close the cycle more quickly.