Lecture 11

Agriculture and the Environment

HRh

Agriculture and the Environment

95% of human populations protein & most of its calories are
obtained from traditional land-based agriculture of crops and
livestock
Crops
Worlds food is provided by only 14 crop species
Six crops provide >80% of the total calories
Types of Crops
Cash crops grown to be sold or traded, e.g. jute
Subsistence crops used directly for food by the farmer or
sold locally, e.g., rice

Seasonal crops of Bangladesh

Mainly two seasons Rabi and Kharif

Kharif Kharif 1 & Kharif 2
Overlapping occurs
Many are grown in all seasons
Crops are divided into cereals, pulses, fiber crops, oil seeds,
root crops, vegetables, spice crops, fruit crops
Rice and maize are grown in all seasons whereas wheat is
grown in Rabi season (rainfed & irrigated), barley & kaon in
Rabi season
Lentil, khesari, chickpea, balckgram all pulses grown in Rabi
season
Mungbean, another pulse crop grown in both Rabi & Kharif
seasons

Soil

Collection of natural body occupying portion of the Earths crust

that supports plant growth which have acquired properties due to
the integrated action of climate and vegetation upon parent
material as conditioned by relief over a period of time
Four major components of soil are air (25%), water (25%),
mineral matter (45%), and organic matter (5% by volume)
Type of soil at a particular site depends on soil-forming factors :
(1) Parent material, (2) Climate, (3) Topography, (4) Living
organism, (5) Time
Soil fertility refers to the capacity of a soil to supply the nutrients
and physical properties necessary for plant growth
Ironically, agriculture depends heavily on soil quality, but
agriculture can lead to a decline in that quality a dilemma

Soil

A high-quality soil has all the nutrient elements, a physical structure

conducive to plant growth, and high organic matter content
Organic matter includes dead, partially or completely decomposed
crop or plant and animal remains, forest litter, leaves, twigs, etc
OM is the store house of nutrients and provides good structure
Good structure is key to soil fertility
When original vegetation is cleared, soil becomes exposed to more
sunshine and oxidation results
Rapid oxidation results decline in OM
Soil begins to lose fertility
Soils also lose fertility through surface and subsurface runoff of
dissolved nutrients
Loss of fertility is faster in warmer & wetter climates than it is in colder
or drier climates

Soil Plowing & Erosion

Plowing is the shattering soil uniformly with partial to

complete inversion
Plowing opens the soil to erosion even more than removal of
the original vegetation
Erosion is the wearing away and transportation of land
surface by running water, wind, ice, or other natural agents
Soil loosened by plowing can blow by wind when dry & wash
away with rain water
Plowed lands loose upper layers containing the most fertile
organic matter
The less OM present in the soil, the more vulnerable the soil
is to further erosion
Once erosion starts, the process can easily accelerate

Tillage operation in soil to receive the crop

Soil
Erosion

Soil Plowing & Erosion

Population pressures have led to overgrazing, deforestation,

destructive crop practices like clearing & burning steep, forested
slopes and plowing grasslands
All these activities degrade or remove natural vegetation causing
the underlying soil to become much more susceptible to the
destructive action of erosion
The result is a vicious downward cycle of deteriorationland
degradation
Such land degradation results in a reduced productive potential
and a diminished capacity to provide benefits to humanity
All forms of agriculture lead to soil loss
Loss varies with the crops and the methods of agriculture
Land used for row crops & small grains without conservation
practices result in greater erosion loss
Worldwide, erosion removes about 25.4 billion tonnes of soil
each year

Sediment Damage

Much of the eroded soil

ends up in waterways
causing
downstream
sedimentation
Sediments
fill
in
productive waterways
Nitrate,
ammonia,
phosphates,
&
other
fertilizers
carried
by
sediments can cause
eutrophication
in
downstream waters

Making Soils Sustainable: Contour Plowing

With good management soil is continuously formed at the rate of

1 mm/yr
Ideal farming would result in soil loss no greater than the
formation of new soil
One way to counter soil erosion is to promote new soil formation
Another way to counter erosion from plowing is contour plowing
In contour plowing, the land is plowed along the contours
perpendicular to the slope and as much in the horizontal plane
as possible
Contour plowing is the single most effective method for reducing
soil erosion loss owing to water runoff

C
o
n
t
o
u
r
p
l
o
w
i
n
g

Windbreak

Making Soils Sustainable: Mixed, Strip, Terracing,

Rotation, No-till agriculture

Other practices that can aid in the sustainability of soils include

mixed cropping, strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation
An even more efficient technique to slow erosion is to avoid
plowing altogether
No till agriculture or conservation tillage is a recent form of
combination of farming practices that includes not plowing the
land, using herbicides to keep down the weeds
In no-till agriculture the land is left unplowed most years

Mixed
cropping

Steep
Terracing

Strip
cropping

Thai tea
plantation

Conservation
Tillage

No Tillage

Mulch Tillage/Conservation tillage

In mulch tillage plant residues or other materials are left to

cover the surface and allowed to decay in place
Besides soil conservation, conservation tillage suppresses &
controls the weeds
These practices greatly
(a) reduce soil & water loss
(b) reduce traffic operations over the field
(c) reduce the use of fuel
(d) reduce soil compaction
(e) increase profit

Approach to Sustainable Agriculture

Population pressures & the availability of arable land are the

most important
factors determining sustainability of
agriculture
Maintenance and management of soil fertility is central to the
development of sustainable food production systems
The wisest approach to sustainable agriculture involves
a combination of different kinds of land use as
Use best agricultural lands for crops
Poorer lands for pastures and rangelands
Avoid using best lands for grain production for animal feed

End of Slides
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