Name a sustainable alternative to Pesticides to avoid Water pollution
Answers
Answer:
The term "pesticide" is a composite term that includes all chemicals that are used to kill or control pests. In agriculture, this includes herbicides (weeds), insecticides (insects), fungicides (fungi), nematocides (nematodes), and rodenticides (vertebrate poisons).
A fundamental contributor to the Green Revolution has been the development and application of pesticides for the control of a wide variety of insectivorous and herbaceous pests that would otherwise diminish the quantity and quality of food produce. The use of pesticides coincides with the "chemical age" which has transformed society since the 1950s. In areas where intensive monoculture is practised, pesticides were used as a standard method for pest control. Unfortunately, with the benefits of chemistry have also come disbenefits, some so serious that they now threaten the long-term survival of major ecosystems by disruption of predator-prey relationships and loss of biodiversity. Also, pesticides can have significant human health consequences.
While agricultural use of chemicals is restricted to a limited number of compounds, agriculture is one of the few activities where chemicals are intentionally released into the environment because they kill things.
Agricultural use of pesticides is a subset of the larger spectrum of industrial chemicals used in modern society. The American Chemical Society database indicates that there were some 13 million chemicals identified in 1993 with some 500 000 new compounds being added annually. In the Great Lakes of North America, for example, the International Joint Commission has estimated that there are more than 200 chemicals of concern in water and sediments of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Because the environmental burden of toxic chemicals includes both agriculture and non-agricultural compounds, it is difficult to separate the ecological and human health effects of pesticides from those of industrial compounds that are intentionally or accidentally released into the environment. However, there is overwhelming evidence that agricultural use of pesticides has a major impact on water quality and leads to serious environmental consequences.
Although the number of pesticides in use (Annex 1) is very large, the largest usage tends to be associated with a small number of pesticide products. In a recent survey in the agricultural western provinces of Canada where some fifty pesticides are in common use, 95% of the total pesticide application is from nine separate herbicides (Birkholz, pers. comm., 1995). Although pesticide use is low to nil in traditional and subsistence farming in Africa and Asia, environmental, public health and water quality impacts of inappropriate and excessive use of pesticides are widely documented. For example, Appelgren (FAO, 1994b) reports for Lithuania that while pesticide pollution has diminished due to economic factors, water pollution by pesticides is often caused by inadequate storage and distribution of agrochemicals. In the United States, the US-EPA's National Pesticide Survey found the 10.4% of community wells and 4.2% of rural wells contained detectible levels of one or more pesticides (US-EPA, 1992). In a study of groundwater wells in agricultural southwestern Ontario (Canada), 35% of the wells tested positive for pesticides on at least one occasion (Lampman, 1995).
Explanation:
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Answer: he term "pesticide" is a composite term that includes all chemicals that are used to kill or control pests. In agriculture, this includes herbicides (weeds), insecticides (insects), fungicides (fungi), nematocides (nematodes), and rodenticides (vertebrate poisons).
A fundamental contributor to the Green Revolution has been the development and application of pesticides for the control of a wide variety of insectivorous and herbaceous pests that would otherwise diminish the quantity and quality of food produce. The use of pesticides coincides with the "chemical age" which has transformed society since the 1950s. In areas where intensive monoculture is practised, pesticides were used as a standard method for pest control. Unfortunately, with the benefits of chemistry have also come disbenefits, some so serious that they now threaten the long-term survival of major ecosystems by disruption of predator-prey relationships and loss of biodiversity. Also, pesticides can have significant human health consequences.
While agricultural use of chemicals is restricted to a limited number of compounds, agriculture is one of the few activities where chemicals are intentionally released into the environment because they kill things.
Agricultural use of pesticides is a subset of the larger spectrum of industrial chemicals used in modern society. The American Chemical Society database indicates that there were some 13 million chemicals identified in 1993 with some 500 000 new compounds being added annually. In the Great Lakes of North America, for example, the International Joint Commission has estimated that there are more than 200 chemicals of concern in water and sediments of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Because the environmental burden of toxic chemicals includes both agriculture and non-agricultural compounds, it is difficult to separate the ecological and human health effects of pesticides from those of industrial compounds that are intentionally or accidentally released into the environment. However, there is overwhelming evidence that agricultural use of pesticides has a major impact on water quality and leads to serious environmental consequences.
Although the number of pesticides in use (Annex 1) is very large, the largest usage tends to be associated with a small number of pesticide products. In a recent survey in the agricultural western provinces of Canada where some fifty pesticides are in common use, 95% of the total pesticide application is from nine separate herbicides (Birkholz, pers. comm., 1995). Although pesticide use is low to nil in traditional and subsistence farming in Africa and Asia, environmental, public health and water quality impacts of inappropriate and excessive use of pesticides are widely documented. For example, Appelgren (FAO, 1994b) reports for Lithuania that while pesticide pollution has diminished due to economic factors, water pollution by pesticides is often caused by inadequate storage and distribution of agrochemicals. In the United States, the US-EPA's National Pesticide Survey found the 10.4% of community wells and 4.2% of rural wells contained detectible levels of one or more pesticides (US-EPA, 1992). In a study of groundwater wells in agricultural southwestern Ontario (Canada), 35% of the wells tested positive for pesticides on at least one occasion (Lampman, 1995).
TABLE 16: Chronology of pesticide development (Stephenson and Solomon, 1993)
Period
Example
Source
Characteristics
1800-1920s
Early organics, nitro-phenols, chlorophenols, creosote, naphthalene, petroleum oils
Organic chemistry, by-products of coal gas production, etc.
Often lack specificity and were toxic to user or non-target organisms
1945-1955
Chlorinated organics, DDT, HCCH, chlorinated cyclodienes
Organic synthesis
Persistent, good selectivity, good agricultural properties, good public health performance, resistance, harmful ecological effects
1945-1970
Cholinesterase inhibitors, organophosphorus compounds, carbamates
Organic synthesis, good use of structure-activity relationships
Lower persistence, some user toxicity, some environmental problems
1970-1985
Synthetic pyrethroids, avermectins, juvenile hormone mimics, biological pesticides
Refinement of structure activity relationships, new target systems
Some lack of selectivity, resistance, costs and variable persistence
1985-
Genetically engineered organisms
Transfer of genes for biological pesticides to other organisms and into beneficial plants and animals. Genetic alteration of plants to resist non-target effects of pesticides
Possible problems with mutations and escapes, disruption of microbiological ecology, monopoly on products
The impact on water quality by pesticides is associated with the following factors:
· Active ingredient in the pesticide formulation.
· Contaminants that exist as impurities in the active ingredient.
· Additives that are mixed with the active ingredient (wetting agents,