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People and Agriculture

1) There are differences between industrialized agriculture, which relies on machinery and chemicals, and subsistence agriculture, which depends on manual labor and land. 2) Challenges for agriculture include loss of prime farmland, declining plant and animal varieties, increasing yields sustainably, and addressing environmental impacts. 3) Sustainable agriculture aims to preserve soil quality through practices like crop rotation, conservation tillage, and integrated pest management.

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160 views40 pages

People and Agriculture

1) There are differences between industrialized agriculture, which relies on machinery and chemicals, and subsistence agriculture, which depends on manual labor and land. 2) Challenges for agriculture include loss of prime farmland, declining plant and animal varieties, increasing yields sustainably, and addressing environmental impacts. 3) Sustainable agriculture aims to preserve soil quality through practices like crop rotation, conservation tillage, and integrated pest management.

Uploaded by

Brad Escalante
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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People and Agriculture

World Food Problems

 average adult human must consume enough food to get


approximately 2600 calories, per day
 Undernutrition- a type of malnutrition in which there is an
underconsumption of calories or nutrients that leaves the body
weakened and susceptible to disease
 Overnutrition- a type of malnutrition in which there is an
overconsumption of calories that leaves the body susceptible to
disease.
Millions of children suffer from Marasmus is progressive emaciation caused by a diet Globally, millions of adult men
kwashiorkor, caused by severe protein low in both total calories and protein. Symptoms and women are hungry. This
deficiency. Note the characteristic include a pronounced slowing of growth and extreme homeless man is suffering from
swollen belly, which results from fluid wasting of muscles. Photographed in Somalia. severe malnutrition and
retention.Photographed in Haiti. starvation. Photographed in
New Delhi, India.
Population and World Hunger

 food insecurity- The condition in which people live with chronic


hunger and malnutrition.
 Factors that contribute to food shortage: civil wars and military
actions, HIV/AIDS (which has killed or incapacitated much of the
agricultural workforce in some countries), fl oods, droughts, and
soil erosion from hilly, marginal farmlands.
Population and World Hunger

 Economic development- An expansion in a government’s economy, viewed by many as the best way to raise the
standard of living.
 According to National Geographic, by 2030 farmers will have to grow 30% more grain than they do now so that
the 8.3 billion people living then can be fed.
Poverty and Food

 Poverty- main cause of undernutrition


 Infants, children, and the elderly are most susceptible to poverty and
chronic hunger
 world’s poorest people—those living in developing countries in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America—do not own land on which to
grow food and do not have sufficient money to purchase food.
1. What is the difference between undernutrition and
overnutrition? Where is each type of malnutrition most
prevalent in the world?

2. What is food insecurity and how does it relate to human


population, poverty, and world hunger?
The Principal Types of Agriculture
The Principal Types of Agriculture
 2 types of agriculture: industrialized agriculture and subsistence
agriculture

 Industrialized agriculture- Modern agricultural methods that


require large capital inputs and less land and labor than
traditional methods. . It relies on large inputs of capital and
energy (in the form of fossil fuels) to make and run machinery,
purchase seed, irrigate crops, and produce agrochemicals such
as commercial inorganic fertilizers and pesticides
The Principal Types of Agriculture

 Subsistence agriculture- Traditional agricultural methods that are dependent on labor


and a large amount of land to produce enough food to feed oneself and one’s family.
The Principal Types of Agriculture

 Most farmers in highly developed countries and some in developing countries practice
high-input agriculture, or industrialized agriculture
 Most farmers in developing countries practice subsistence agriculture
 Shifting cultivation - a form of subsistence agriculture in which short periods of
cultivation are followed by longer periods of fallow (land being left uncultivated),
during which the land reverts to forest. Shifting cultivation supports relatively small
populations.
 Slash-and-burn agriculture - a type of shifting cultivation that involves clearing small
patches of tropical forest to plant crops. Farmers must move from one area of forest to
another every 3 years or so.
Shifting cultivation Slash-and-burn agriculture

Intercropping
The Principal Types of Agriculture

 Nomadic herding, in which livestock is supported by land too arid for successful crop
growth, is a similarly land-intensive form of subsistence agriculture. Nomadic herders
must continually move their livestock to find adequate food for the animals.
 Intercropping- a form of intensive subsistence agriculture that involves growing a
variety of plants on the same fi eld simultaneously. When certain crops are grown
together, they produce higher yields than when they are grown as monocultures.
 Monoculture- is the cultivation of only one type of plant over a large area
 Polyculture - a type of intercropping in which several kinds of plants that mature at
different times are planted together.
Nomadic sheep herders in Kenya
1. What are some differences between industrialized
agriculture and subsistence agriculture?
2. What are shifting cultivation, nomadic herding, and
intercropping?
Challenges of Agriculture
Challenges of Agriculture

 prime farmland- land that has the soil type, growing conditions,
and available water to produce food, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops.
 Challenges: decline in prime farmland, coping with declining
numbers of domesticated varieties, improving crop and livestock
yields, and addressing environmental impacts.
Loss of Agricultural Land
 prime agricultural land is falling victim to urbanization and suburban sprawl by
being converted to parking lots, housing developments, and shopping malls
Global Decline in Domesticated
Plant and Animal Varieties
 A global trend is currently under way to replace the
many local varieties of a particular crop or
domesticated farm animal with just a few kinds
 farmers abandon traditional varieties in favor of more
modern ones, which are bred for uniformity and
maximum production; great loss in genetic diversity
 germplasm Any plant or animal material that may be
used in breeding.
Increasing Crop Yields

 Advances by research scientists since then have


dramatically increased food production in highly
developed countries
 Greater knowledge of plant nutrition has resulted in
production of fertilizers that promote high yields.
 The use of pesticides to control insects, weeds, and
disease-causing organisms has also improved crop yields.
The Green Revolution

 By the middle of the 20th century, serious food shortages occurred in many
developing countries coping with growing populations.
 The development and introduction during the 1960s of high-yield varieties of
wheat and rice to Asian and Latin American countries gave these nations the
chance to provide their people with adequate supplies of food
The Green Revolution

 But the high-yield varieties required intensive industrial cultivation methods,


including the use of commercial inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized
machinery, to realize their potential. These agricultural technologies were passed
from highly developed nations to developing nations.
Green Revolution Success Stories

 (1965) Mexico’s annual wheat production rose to more than 2400


kg (2.65 tons) per hectare.
 Indonesia, formerly imported more rice than any other country in
the world. Today Indonesia produces enough rice to feed its people
and export some.
Critics of Green Revolution

 green revolution has made developing countries dependent on


imported technologies, such as agrochemicals and tractors, at the
expense of traditional agriculture.
 associated with higher crop production are the high energy costs
built into this type of agriculture
 environmental problems caused by the intensive use of fertilizers
and pesticides.
Increasing Crop Yields in the Post–Green
Revolution Era
 (1999) International Food Policy Research Institute projected that
the world
demand for rice, wheat, and corn will increase 40% between 2000 and
2020.
 concerted scientific effort to improve crops: genetic engineering
 Modern agricultural methods, such as water-effi cient irrigation
Increasing Livestock Yields

 use of hormones and antibiotics, although controversial, increases


animal production. Hormones, usually administered by ear
implants, regulate livestock bodily functions and promote faster
growth.
 low doses of antibiotics to feed for pigs, chickens, and cattle. These
animals gain 4 to 5 percent more weight than untreated animals
(still continued in United States and many other countries)
Environmental Impacts

 Air pollution
 Water pollution
 pesticide runoff
 degradation (of land)- Natural or human-induced
reduction in the potential ability of the land to support
crops or livestock.
 Habitat fragmentation- The breakup of large areas
of habitat into small, isolated patches.
1. What is happening to the number of domesticated plant and animal
varieties? Why?
2. What is the green revolution? What are some of its benefits and
problems?
3. What are the major environmental problems associated with
industrialized agriculture?
Solutions to Agricultural Problems
Moving to Sustainable Agriculture
 Sustainable agriculture- Agricultural methods that maintain soil
productivity and a healthy ecological balance while having minimal
long-term impacts.
 An important goal of sustainable agriculture is to preserve the
quality of agricultural soil
Moving to Sustainable Agriculture
 Crop rotation, conservation tillage, and contour plowing help control erosion and
maintain soil fertility
 organic agriculture—use no pesticides
 integrated pest management (IPM)- incorporates the limited use of pesticides
with pest-controlling biological and cultivation practices
 second green revolution -trend away from using intensive techniques that
produce high yields and toward methods that focus on long-term sustainability
of the soil.
Genetic Engineering: A Solution
or a Problem?
 Genetic engineering- The manipulation of genes (for example, taking a specific gene
from one species and placing it into an unrelated species) to produce a particular trait.
 has the potential to produce more nutritious food plants that contain all the essential
amino acids
Genetic engineering
Genetic Engineering: A Solution
or a Problem?
 has been used to develop more productive farm animals, including
rapidly growing hogs and fishes.
 greatest potential contribution: the production of vaccines against
disease organisms that harm agricultural animals
Concerns About Genetically Modified Foods

 inserted genes could spread from GM crops to weeds or wild relatives of crop plants and
possibly harm natural ecosystems in the process
 some consumers might develop food allergies to GM foods
1. What is sustainable agriculture? What are some features of a
sustainable farm?
2. Why are some people opposed to GM crops?
END OF PRESENTATION

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