Environmental impact of agriculture

en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Environmental_impact_of _agriculture T he environmental impact of agriculture varies based on the wide variety of agricultural practices employed around the world.

Contents
1 Issues 1.1 Climate change 1.2 Def orestation 1.3 Genetic engineering 1.4 Irrigation 1.5 Pollutants 1.6 Soil degradation 1.7 Waste 1.7.1 Issues by region 2 Sustainable agriculture 3 See also 4 Ref erences 5 External links
Wate r p o llutio n in a rural s tre am d ue to runo ff fro m farming ac tivity in Ne w Ze aland .

Issues
Climat e change
Main article: Climate change and agriculture Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes, both of which take place on a global scale. Global warming is projected to have signif icant impacts on conditions af f ecting agriculture, including temperature, precipitation and glacial run-of f . T hese conditions determine the carrying capacity of the biosphere to produce enough f ood f or the human population and domesticated animals. Rising carbon dioxide levels would also have ef f ects, both detrimental and benef icial, on crop yields. T he overall ef f ect of climate change on agriculture will depend on the balance of these ef f ects. Assessment of the ef f ects of global climate changes on agriculture might help to properly anticipate and adapt f arming to maximize agricultural production. At the same time, agriculture has been shown to produce signif icant ef f ects on climate change, primarily through the production and release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, but also by altering the Earth's land cover, which can change its ability to absorb or ref lect heat and light, thus contributing to radiative f orcing. Land use change such as def orestation and desertif ication, together with use of f ossil f uels, are the major anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide; agriculture itself is the major contributor to increasing methane and nitrous oxide concentrations in earth's atmosphere.[1]

Def orest at ion

Main article: Def orestation One of the causes of def orestation is to clear land f or pasture or crops. According to British environmentalist Norman Myers, 5% of def orestation is due to cattle ranching, 19% due to overheavy logging, 22% due to the growing sector of palm oil plantations, and 54% due to slash-andburn f arming.[2] In 2000 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) f ound that "the role of population dynamics in a local setting may vary f rom decisive to negligible," and that def orestation can result f rom "a combination of population pressure and stagnating economic, social and technological conditions."[3]

Genet ic engineering
See also: Genetically modif ied f ood controversies Genetic engineering has caused controversies. Seed contamination is problematic.

Irrigat ion
Main article: Environmental impact of irrigation Irrigation can lead to a number of problems:[4] Depletion of underground aquif ers through overdraf ting. Ground subsidence. Groundwater recharge an ecological restoration, mitigation, and remediation technique. Underirrigation gives poor soil salinity control which leads to increased soil salinity with consequent build up of toxic salts on soil surf ace in areas with high evaporation. T his requires either leaching to remove these salts and a method of drainage to carry the salts away. Overirrigation because of poor distribution unif ormity or management wastes water, chemicals, and may lead to water pollution. Deep drainage (f rom over-irrigation) may result in rising water tables which in some instances will lead to problems of irrigation salinity requiring watertable control by some f orm of subsurf ace land drainage. Irrigation with saline or high-sodium water may damage soil structure owing to the f ormation of alkaline soil. Runof f causing surf ace water and groundwater-aquif er hydrologic cycle water pollution. Bioretention an ecological restoration, mitigation, and remediation technique.

Pollut ant s
See also: Environmental impact of pesticides A wide range of agricultural chemicals are used and some become pollutants through use,

misuse, or ignorance. Pesticide drif t soil contamination groundwater and water pollution air pollution spray drift Pesticides, especially those based on organochloride Pesticide residue in f oods Pesticide toxicity to bees List of crop plants pollinated by bees Pollination management Bioremediation

Soil degradat ion

Main article: Soil degradation soil contamination erosion sedimentation

Wast e
Plasticulture, the use of plastic materials in agriculture, raises problems around how to carry out the recycling of agricultural plastics.

Issues by region
Hedgerow removal in the United Kingdom. Soil salinisation, especially in Australia. Phosphate mining in Nauru Methane emissions f rom livestock in New Z ealand. See Climate change in New Zealand. Some environmentalists attribute the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico as being encouraged by nitrogen f ertilization of the algae bloom.

Sustainable agriculture
Main article: Sustainable agriculture T he exponential population increase in recent decades has increased the practice of agricultural land conversion to meet demand f or f ood which in turn has increased the ef f ects on the environment. T he global population is still increasing and will eventually stabilise, as some critics doubt that f ood production, due to lower yields f rom global warming, can support the global population. Organic f arming is a multif aceted sustainable agriculture set of practices that can have a lower impact on the environment

Other specif ic methods include: permaculture; and biodynamic agriculture which incorporates a spiritual element. Category: Sustainable agriculture Biological pest control

See also
Agricultural pollution Agro-hydro-salinity model (f or environmental impacts of irrigated agriculture) List of environmental issues Habitat Holistic management Livestock's Long Shadow Environmental Issues and Options Report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Principles of Organic Agriculture Research Institute f or Organic Agriculture Spatial agro-hydro-salinity model 9=(f or environmental impacts of irrigated agriculture) Stock-f ree agriculture

Ref erences
1. ^ UN Report on Climate Change. Retrieved 25 June 2007. 2. ^ Hance, Jeremy (May 15, 2008). "Tropical def orestation is 'one of the worst crises since we came out of our caves' ". Mongabay.com / A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face. 3. ^ Alain Marcoux (August 2000). "Population and def orestation". SD Dimensions. Sustainable Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 4. ^ ILRI, 1989, Ef f ectiveness and Social/Environmental Impacts of Irrigation Projects: a Review. In: Annual Report 1988, International Institute f or Land Reclamation and Improvement (ILRI), Wageningen, T he Netherlands, pp. 1834 . On line: [1]

External links
[2] Holistic Management International Environmental Issues in Animal Agriculture Choices magazine article [3] Website with f ree articles and sof tware on environmental impacts of irrigated agriculture like waterlogging and salinization Environmental Planning on Livestock and Poultry Operations describes several dif f erent planning processes that can be used on f arms. It also includes links to several webcasts. Part of the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center T his page was last modif ied on 8 April 2014 at 07:19. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prof it organization.