(Module 41) Cosequences of Agricultural Practices

Pesticide Pollution:

  • As much as 95% of pesticide spray may not reach its target but instead is dispersed into the surrounding environment (many pesticides are dispersed by small airplanes which can lead to the wind moving and polluting it elsewhere).

  • Some pesticides kill all insects indiscriminately, including bees, necessary for pollination of many crops.

  • Many pesticides have negative health effects on humans, including hormone disorders, skin and neurological diseases, and cancers.

  • Pesticides may enter the larger environment in runoff from farms, and may ultimately reduce aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. Synthetic fertilizers also enter the environment through runoff from cultivated farm fields or CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations).

Nutrient Pollution:

  • Nutrient pollution occurs when excess nutrients seep into groundwater or are carried as runoff, which can result in algae blooms, sudden spurts of algae growth that turn bodies of water green.

  • Some algae blooms produce poisonous substances that kill animals, raise the cost of treating water, and caused. Illnesses in humans who swan in the water or ate tainted fish.

Dead Zones: sections of a body of water where there is very little aquatic life.

Land Transformation:

Deforestation: Clearing and destruction of forests to clear land for agricultural use.

Desertification: The process by which once-fertile land becomes desert as a result of climate variation or human activities.

  • Soil Salinization is also a problem in the World’s arid region, such as the US West, contributing to a change in the land cover from cropland to barren ground.

Conservation Agriculture:

  • Individuals, groups, nations and global organizations seek to minimize soil disturbance and maximize species diversification.

  • They also seek to create permanent soil organic cover, which is created when crop residues are left on the ground or a crop is planted to hold the soil until the next commercial crop is planted.

Shifting Cultivation:

  • Shifting cultivation occurs whena. Plot of ground becomes infertile an dfarmer sneed land for new gardens.

  • Trees are cut down and vegativation is often burned, leaving a layer of ash that contrivuted to soil fertility. When the patch of land is abandoned or left fallow, the forest regrows, but with secondary vegetation that is not native to the…

Paddy Rice Terraces

  • Terracing alters the landscape in different ways than flatland rice [addis,

  • Both creat productive rice paddies but the mountain terraces alter then landscape at a greater scale then flatland rice paddies.

Nomadic Pastoralism:

  • Is a substiistence agricultural system and a social system in which grousp of famillies travel together with their herds.

  • Many pastorialists have been forced off their tradition land by competition from other land uses, suhc as sedentary agriculture.

  • In some areas, the activities of nomadic pastoralists have also created such environmental issues as desertification, hardening of topsoil, and loss of soil fertility.

Draining Wetlands:

Water Control Land Reclamation: the process of draining land inundated with either fresh water or salt water to increase areas for agricultural production

  • Wetlands provide habitat for a wide range of species and are among earths most biologically productive and diverse ecological communities.

  • because draining threatens wetlands species with extinction worldwide, most countries now have regulations inhibiting further wetland drainage.

Irrigation:

Irrigated Agriculture: farming that relies on the controlled application of water to cultivated fields.

  • Over the past century, the amount of land under irrigation has expanded with the development of new technologies that facilitate the capture and delivery of water, including dams.

Water Mining: The use of deep-well drilling technology and powerful industrial pumping systems to remove water in the ground.

Aquifer: Underground deposited hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Impacts On The Landscape:

  • Vast areas of natural habitat and associated biodiversity are lost when they are submerged by water held behind dams.

  • Downstream, dams block fish from migrating to spawn and reproduce. They also alter water quality, creating unlivable conditions for many native aquatic species.

  • The once-huge Aral Sea is now only a fraction of its size 40 years ago due to large-scale irrigation. The rerouting of water from the rivers flowing into its has created dry and exposed areas of the lakebed.

Changing Diets:

  • the globalization of agriculture and concern for health has led to changes in diet in the industrialized world, including an increase in chicken consumption and an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

  • Integrated networks of refrigeration systems and improvements in transportation systems have permitted the shipping of perishable fruits and vegetables across the world.

Changes in Women’s Roles:

  • As farming becomes more mechanized, women’s roles change, sometimes causing them to leave farms for work in nearby cities.