Agriculture is important source of science

1. ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT OF
AGRICULTURE
Genetic engineering

2. Climate change
Rising carbon dioxide levels would also have effects, both detrimental and
beneficial, on crop yields. Assessment of the effects of global climate changes on
agriculture might help to properly anticipate and adapt farming to maximize
agricultural production. Although the net impact of climate change on agricultural
production is uncertain it is likely that it will shift the suitable growing zones for
individual crops. Adjustment to this geographical shift will involve considerable
economic costs and social impacts.

3. Deforestation
• Deforestation is clearing the Earth's forests on a large scale worldwide and
resulting in many land damages. One of the causes of deforestation is to clear land
for pasture or crops. According to British environmentalist Norman Myers, 5% of
deforestation is due to cattle ranching, 19% due to over-heavy logging, 22% due
to the growing sector of palm oil plantations, and 54% due to slash-and-burn
farming

4. Genetic engineering
• Genetically engineered crops are herbicide-tolerant, and their overuse has created herbicide
resistant "super weeds",[citation needed] which may ultimately increase the use of herbicides.
Seed contamination is another problem of genetic engineering; it can occur from wind or bee
pollination that is blown from genetically-engineered crops to normal crops. About 50% of corn
and soybean samples and more than 80% of canola samples were found to be contaminated by
Monsanto's (genetic engineering company) genes.

5. Irrigation
• soil can be over-irrigated because of poor distribution uniformity or management
wastes water, chemicals, and may lead to water pollution. Over-irrigation can
cause deep drainage from rising water tables that can lead to problems of
irrigation salinity requiring watertable control by some form of subsurface land
drainage. However, if the soil is under irrigated, it gives poor soil salinity control
which leads to increased soil salinity with consequent buildup of toxic salts on soil
surface in areas with high evaporation.

6. Pollutants
• Pesticides can leach through the soil and enter the groundwater, as well as linger
in food products and result in death in humans and non-targeted wildlife.
• Pollutants from agriculture have a huge effect on water quality. Agricultural
nonpoint source (NPS) solution impacts lakes, rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and
groundwater. Agricultural NPS can be caused by poorly managed animal feeding
operations, overgrazing, plowing, fertilizer, and improper, excessive, or badly
timed use of Pesticides.

7. Soil degradation
• Soil degradation is the decline in soil quality that can be a result of many factors,
especially from agriculture. Soils hold the majority of the world's biodiversity, and
healthy soils are essential for food production and an adequate water supply.
• Topsoil is very fertile, which makes it valuable to farmers growing crops.[9] Soil
degradation also has a huge impact on biological degradation, which affects the
microbial community of the soil and can alter nutrient cycling, pest and disease
control, and chemical transformation properties of the soil.

8. Waste
• Farmers use plastic sheets as mulch to cover 50-70% of the soil and allows them to
use drip irrigation systems to have better control over soil nutrients and moisture.
Rain is not required in this system, and farms that use plasticulture are built to
encourage the fastest runoff of rain
• The use of plastic mulch for vegetables, strawberries, and other row and orchard
crops exceeds 110 million pounds annually in the United States. Most plastic ends
up in the landfill, although there are other disposal options such as disking
mulches into the soil, on-site burying, on-site storage, reuse, recycling, and
incineration.

9. Sustainable agriculture
he global population is still increasing and will eventually stabilise, as some critics
doubt that food production, due to lower yields from global warming, can support
the global population. Agriculture can have negative effects on biodiversity as well.
Organic farming is a multifaceted sustainable agriculture set of practices that can
have a lower impact on the environment at the small scale. However, in most cases
organic farming results in lower yields in terms of production per unit area.[16]

10. Agricultural Impacts and Sustainability
• Agriculture has transformed once-rare plants into some of the most abundant
species on earth. Maize, which once occurred in scattered multispecies mixtures
on nutrient-poor or disturbed soils, now covers 140 million hectares of the earth.
Potential pathogens and pests that never had encountered maize now do so
frequently .
• At low host population densities, there is a low chance of contagious spread.
However, at high host densities, a disease or pest can spread epidemically
throughout the population.

11. Conservation tillage
• Conservation tillage is an alternative tillage method for farming which is more
sustainable for the soil and surrounding ecosystem.[19]This is done by allowing
the residue of the previous harvest's crops to remain in the soil before tilling for
the next crop. Conservation tillage has shown to improve many things such as soil
moisture retention, and reduce erosion.

12. Ecological Impacts of Doubling Global
Food Production
• The long-term ecological impacts of increased rates of agricultural nitrogen and
phosphorus input will depend on the levels to which these nutrients accumulate in
various nonagricultural ecosystems.
• Nitrogen and phosphorus are the two most important limiting nutrients of
terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems (3, 8–11).The impacts of elevated
levels of a major limiting nutrient are well documented.
• A doubling of food production may require a much greater increase in land
dedicated to agriculture.The resulting ecosystem destruction would vastly
increase the proportion .

13. Agriculture and the Loss of Ecosystem
Services
• However, the maintenance of the wild biodiversity needed for future development
of crops and medicines occurs mainly in nonagricultural ecosystems .
• Similarly, agricultural crops benefit from biocontrol agents, such as parasitic and
predatory insects, birds, and bats, that live in neighboring nonagricultural
ecosystems and that decrease outbreaks of agricultural pests.

14. Conclusions
• Agriculture, and society, seem to be facing tough tradeoffs. Agricultural
ecosystems have become incredibly good at producing food, but these increased
yields have environmental costs that cannot be ignored, especially if the rates of
nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization triple and the amount of land irrigated
doubles.
• critical that agricultural practices be modified to minimize environmental impacts
even though many such practices are likely to increase the costs of production.

15. PRESENTED BY
VIGNESH .V