The Need for Sustainable Agriculture

The green revolution was a period of extreme innovation that occurred in agriculture predominantly in the 1960's and 1970's, although commenced in the 1940's. During this period huge amounts of research and development were undertaken that increased agricultural productivity significantly, the benefits of which we continue to enjoy today. Initiatives included the development of higher yielding crop varieties, the introduction of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides as well as improving and modernising farm management.

It was these innovations that enabled more food security in the developed world than previously possible. Huge yields were achieved from relatively small areas of land, making food easy to come by in the developed world for most people. As modern farming practices developed, the need for sustainable agriculture was broadened from economic and food sustainability to environmental and social sustainability. While the level of investment in agricultural research and development has been substantially reduced since the green revolution, the knowledge within the sector has greatly increased and agricultural businesses have adjusted their practices to deliver agriculture sustainability.

Sustainable agriculture program

Today all agricultural industries including grains, horticulture, fisheries, sugar and meat are concerned with sustainable agriculture. Agriculture land is not as plentiful as it was during the green revolution and to ensure the sustainability of the industries and importantly the global food supply, sustainable agriculture practices have to be at the forefront of everything the food industry does. In Australia research and development corporations, that represent farmers, invest in research and development to improve the sustainable agricultural practices. Often this is jointly funded with the federal government.

Agricultural Mortgage Loans

Agricultural mortgage loans have an important role in the development of mortgage loan financing. Before the onset of industrial revolution, people used to opt for rural mortgage loans on a regular basis. However, after the industrial revolution and the development of real estate properties, the mortgage companies shifted their stress from a rural mortgage loan to a residential property mortgage or home mortgage loan. The downfall in agricultural growth has further pushed the market farther away from the agricultural mortgage loans.

This situation has led the governmental economic policies to take serious steps for reviving agricultural mortgage finance. The efforts from both the governmental and private financial sectors have built new structure of agricultural loans, keeping in mind the changing demands of the new age farmers.

A mortgage loan is a kind of loan that can provide you with a considerable amount of money by taking any property as the security of that loan. An agricultural mortgage loan is one which uses the borrower's agricultural property as the collateral for the loan. This means, if after taking an agricultural mortgage loan you fail to pay it off, then the agricultural property that has been given as the security for the loan, can be seized by the lender.

The agricultural mortgage loans can help you in both purchasing a new property and developing the existing one. The lenders offer this loan to buy new lands for farming, or to buy new machineries to improve the production rate of the current business. Few rural mortgage loans offered by the rural mortgage lenders provide a lump sum to start agricultural business with lower interest rates. This is done mainly with an aim to encourage people to invest in agricultural business and thus to strengthen the national agricultural growth. There are specialized agricultural mortgage lenders for this particular proposition.

The interest rates offered by a lender can be of varied interest rates and of different term periods. The principal amount is generally decided through a property evaluation of the rural land by the lender. In most of these cases, any location with good commute flexibility plays a more important role than the total production value of the land or property. The mortgage interest rates can be both of fixed rate and variable rate. The repayment options also can be of different types; for example you can choose interest only mortgage loans to pay only the interest amount for initial period. The tenure period can be stretched from one year to 30 years.