Agriculture’s impact
on the environment:
Current trends, prospects and
opportunities
Thomas Robert Malthus
(1766- 1834)
An Essay on the Principle of
Population (1798)
•Food production can grow
methrically
•Demographic growth is
exponential
•Epidemics, famines, or wars
are events that masked the
fundamental problem of
populations overstretching
their resource limitations
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The Green Revolution
Norman Ernest Borlaug (1914 – 2009) "the father of the
Green Revolution” and "The Man Who Saved A Billion
Lives".
During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the
introduction of high-yielding varieties combined with
modern agricultural production techniques (mechanization,
fertilizer use) to Mexico, Pakuistan, and India and later to
Asia and Africa.
Borlaug's work has been criticized for bringing large-scale
monoculture, input-intensive farming techniques to
countries that had previously relied on subsistence farming.
A few data related to agriculture
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Agriculture’s impact on the environment
• largest consumer of water;
• main source of nitrate pollution of groundwater and surface water –
eutrophication;
• the principal source of ammonia, phosphate pollution of waterways and
the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs 15%) methane and nitrous oxide
into the atmosphere.
• It is non-point pollution
However, agriculture and forestry also have positive externalities such as
the provision of environmental services and amenities, for example
through water storage and purification, carbon sequestration and the
maintenance of rural landscapes.
Moreover, research-driven intensification is saving vast areas of natural
forest and grassland.
Drivers of changes in agricultural production
• Population growth - will actually slow down, but demands will still grow
becasue of:
• Income growth in developing countries -changing diet (Since 1970, average
caloric intake in developing countries has jumped from just over 2,000 per person
per day to over 2,600.) Need for livestock products (fish), sugar and oil. By 2050,
average meat consumption per person will be 40% higher than in 2010 (+ 70% in
developing countries)
• Increasing energy demand – production of biofuels
• Globalisation (large-scale, monoculture)
• Trade liberalisation (The overall volume of food imports to developing
countries is expected to more than double to 2050.
• Urbanisation (land abandonment in rural areas)
• Climate change (Balkan countries are especially vulnerable)
• Land degradation, desertification, water scarecity.
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Major trends and forces in agricultural production
The FAO baseline projection of an increase of 70% in global food
demand in 2050. These projections are of demand, not of needs.
Even though demand will rise, there will still be undernourishment
and malnutrition as these depend not only of food availability but
also on the distribution of income.
• Rates of growth in agricultural production have been slowing
• Increased competition for land and water (biofuel)
• The key issue for the future is the environmental pressure from
intensification of land use rather than land use changes.
• Water scarcity is growing. Salinization and pollution of water
courses and bodies, and degradation of water-related ecosystems
are rising.
Opportunities for improvments
Most of the negative impacts can be reduced or prevented by an
appropriate mix of policies and technological changes
• There is growing public pressure for a more environmentally benign
agriculture.
• Countries also have to comply with international conventions (SD,
UNFCCC)
• this forces countries to reduce commodity price distortions and input subsidies,
and encourages them to remove other policy interventions that tend to worsen
agro-environmental impacts,
• and to integrate environmental considerations explicitly into agricultural policies.
• Lessons learnt from countries introduced intensification earlier.
• Wide use of the precautionary principle – scientific evidence.
• Strengthened research on the biophysical changes that agriculture is
causing, and to monitor the key indicators of agro-ecosystem health.
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The dominant environmental benefits in the coming
decades will continue to be those stemming from the:
• use of improved cultivars.
• less food waste is produced.
• Resource efficiency: better nutrient management and tillage
practices, pest management and irrigation.
• extensification of agriculture in environmentally fragile “hot
spots” or areas high in biodiversity.
Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development:
• Ensures that the basic nutritional requirements of present and future
generations, qualitatively and quantitatively, are met while providing a
number of other agricultural products.
• Provides durable employment, sufficient income, and decent living and
working conditions for all those engaged in agricultural production.
• Maintains and, where possible, enhances the productive capacity of the
natural resource base as a whole, and the regenerative capacity of
renewable resources, without disrupting the functioning of basic ecological
cycles and natural balances, destroying the socio-cultural attributes of
rural communities, or causing contamination of the environment.
• Reduces the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to adverse natural and
socio-economic factors and other risks, and strengthens self-reliance.
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Elements for sustainable agriculture and rural
development
• International level: more effective integration of international policies
and initiatives dealing with land and water management.
• Government level: policies, instruments (subsidies, payment for
environmental services), development plans, agrarian reform,
nutrition surveys, food quality and food security, data, monitoring,
early warning systems.
• Rural community level: development of local organizations and
capacity building for people's participation, training, extension.
• Area level: coastal zones, watersheds, river basins, agroecological zones
• Production unit level: farming systems, diversification to increase
incomes.
• Consumer level: awareness raising (dietary patterns, product
marketing)
Sustainable management of key natural resources
• Land: land use planning, land management, soil conservation, land
rehabilitation,
• Water: water conservation, irrigation improvements, water database
development,
• Plant and animal biological resources: conservation of genetic resources,
development of varieties and breeds, selection of varieties
• Trees and forests: reduction of deforestation rates, sustainable forest
management and wood harvesting, promotion of non-wood forest uses
and industries, conservation of habitats, integrating trees in farming
systems
• Fisheries: sustainable fishing, increasing aquaculture production.
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KEY EXTERNAL INPUTS
• Pest management: programmes and projects
on integrated pest control, control of
pesticide use.
• Plant nutrition: programmes and projects for
integrated plant nutrition
• Rural energy: national strategies and
technology transfer for integrated rural
energy development.
Thank you for your
attention!
[email protected]
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