agriculture

Environmental Impacts of Agricultural
Modifications
Agricultural methods have intensified continuously ever since the Industrial

Revolution, and even more so since the “green revolution” in the middle decades
of the 20th century. At each stage, innovations in farming techniques brought
about huge increases in crop yields by area of arable land. This tremendous rise
in food production has sustained a global population that has quadrupled in size
over the span of one century. As the human population continues to grow, so too
has the amount of space dedicated to feeding it. According to World Bank
figures, in 2016, more than 700 million hectares (1.7 billion acres) were devoted
to growing corn, wheat, rice, and other staple cereal grains—nearly half of all
cultivated land on the planet.
In the coming decades, however, meeting the demand for accelerated

agricultural productivity is likely to be far more difficult than it has been so far.
The reasons for this have to do with ecological factors. Global climate change is
destabilizing many of the natural processes that make modern agriculture
possible. Yet modern agriculture itself is also partly responsible for the crisis in
sustainability. Many of the techniques and modifications on which farmers rely to
boost output also harm the environment. Below are brief descriptions of three
ways intensive agriculture threatens the precarious balance of nonagricultural
ecosystems.
Irrigation
Worldwide, agriculture accounts for 70 percent of human freshwater
consumption. A great deal of this water is redirected onto cropland through
irrigation schemes of varying kinds. Experts predict that to keep a growing
population fed, water extraction may increase an additional 15 percent or more
by 2050. Irrigation supports the large harvest yields that such a large population
demands. Many of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, from
California’s Central Valley to Southern Europe’s arid Mediterranean basin, have
become economically dependent on heavy irrigation.
Researchers and farmers alike are becoming increasingly aware of the

consequences of this large-scale diversion of freshwater. One of the most
obvious consequences is the depletion of aquifers, river systems, and
downstream ground water. However, there are a number of other negative
effects related to irrigation. Areas drenched by irrigation can
become waterlogged, creating soil conditions that poison plant roots
through anaerobic decomposition. Where water has been diverted, soils can
accrue too much salt, also harming plant growth. Irrigation causes increases in
water evaporation, impacting both surface air temperature and pressure as well
as atmospheric moisture conditions. Recent studies have confirmed that
cropland irrigation can influence rainfall patterns not only over the irrigated area
but even thousands of miles away. Irrigation has also been connected to the
erosion of coastlines and other kinds of long-term ecological and habitat
destruction.
Livestock Grazing
A huge amount of agricultural territory is used primarily as pasture for cattle and
other livestock. In the western United States, counting both federally managed
and privately owned grazing lands, hundreds of millions of acres are set aside for
this purpose—more than for any other type of land use. Agricultural livestock are
responsible for a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, most
notably methane. In addition, overgrazing is a major problem regarding
environmental sustainability.
In some places, stretches of forage land are consumed so extensively that

grasses are unable to regenerate. The root systems of native vegetation can be
damaged so much that the species die off. Near streambeds and in
other riparian areas where cattle concentrate, the combination of overgrazing
and fecal wastes can contaminate or compromise water sources. Cattle and
other large grazing animals can even damage soil by trampling on it.
Bare, compacted land can bring about soil erosion and destruction of topsoil
quality due to the runoff of nutrients. These and other impacts can destabilize a
variety of fragile ecosystems and wildlife habitats.
Chemical Fertilizer
Synthetic fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus have been at the heart of
the intensified farming from World War II to the present day. Modern agriculture
has become heavily dependent on these chemical inputs, which have increased
the number of people the world’s farms can feed. They are particularly effective
in the growing of corn, wheat, and rice, and are largely responsible for the
explosive growth of cereal cultivation in recent decades. China, with its rapidly
growing population, has become the world’s leading producer of nitrogen
fertilizers.
While these chemicals have helped double the rate of food production, they have
also helped bring about a gigantic increase, perhaps as high as 600 percent, of
reactive nitrogen levels throughout the environment. The excess levels of
nitrogen and phosphorus have caused the once-beneficial nutrients to become
pollutants. Roughly half the nitrogen in synthetic fertilizers escapes from the
fields where it is applied, finding its way into the soil, air, water, and rainfall. After
soil bacteria convert fertilizer nitrogen into nitrates, rainstorms or irrigation
systems carry these toxins into groundwater and river systems. Accumulated
nitrogen and phosphorus harm terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by loading
them with too many nutrients, a process known as eutrophication. Nutrient
pollution is a causal factor in toxic algae blooms affecting lakes in China, the
United States, and elsewhere. As excessive amounts of organic matter
decompose in aquatic environments, they can bring about oxygen depletion and
create “dead zones” within bodies of water, where nothing can survive. Parts of
the Gulf of Mexico are regularly afflicted in this manner. Nitrogen accumulation in
water and on land threatens biodiversity and the health of native plant species
and natural habitats. In addition, fertilizer application in soil leads to the formation
and release of nitrous oxide, one of the most harmful greenhouse gases.
With the global population continuing to skyrocket, the tension will continue to
grow between continued agricultural growth and the ecological health of the land
upon which humans depend.
SOURCE: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/environmental-impacts-agricultural-modifications/

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Environmental Impacts of Agricultural

Agricultural methods have intensified continuously ever since the Industrial

In the coming decades, however, meeting the demand for accelerated

Researchers and farmers alike are becoming increasingly aware of the

In some places, stretches of forage land are consumed so extensively that

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