Environmental Agriculture - Tomas

 Environmental impact on agriculture:

What is Agriculture?

                                                                                             

Agriculture is the activity carried out by man making deliberate use of the soil using solar and wind energy.  

Unlike industries, agriculture, being a food production activity, works with natural inputs such as land and water, by producing food without having to use chimneys where gases pollute and are wasted in large quantities into the atmosphere.  Agriculture always had a very strong environmental impact because it affects certain natural ecosystems to a greater or lesser degree.  Some of its effects are: 

The felling of trees to obtain space to plant crops.

Water reservoirs to irrigate them, the channeling of rivers.

 Contamination by pesticides and fertilizers.  

 

One of the negative impacts is the erosion of the soil that occurs due to the misuse of the land, the felling of forests, crops on very steep slopes, the scarce use of soil conservation techniques and organic fertilizers, facilitate erosion.  Also the excessive use of fertilizers causes water pollution when these products are washed away by the rain.  The loss of genetic biodiversity occurs due to the destruction of forests, swamps to dedicate these lands to agriculture, this causes the disappearance of a large number of ecosystems.  The relationship between agricultural land and man endangers the production capacities of basic food and in turn the lives of thousands of people who depend on it.  Soil degradation affects almost 2 billion hectares of arable land.  Every year soil erosion affects between 5 and 7 million hectares of land for cultivation.