Problems of causes of modern farming
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Today’s chemical farms have little use for the skilled husbandry which was once the guiding principle of working the land. The emphasis today is solely on productivity – high input in exchange for high returns and productivity (mostly diminishing now however for farmers worldwide). Four important considerations – what happens to the land, the food it produces, the people who eat it and the communities which lose out – are overlooked.
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1 Land exhaustion The constant use of artificial fertiliser, together
with a lack of crop rotation, reduces the soil’s fertility year by year.
2 Fertilisers High yield levels are produced by applying large quantities of artificial fertilisers, instead of by maintaining the natural fertility of the soil.
3 Nitrate run-off About half of the nitrate in the artificial fertiliser used on crops is dissolved by rain. The dissolved nitrate runs off the fields to contaminate water courses.
4 Soil erosion Where repeated deep ploughing is used to turn over the ground, heavy rains can carry away the topsoil and leave the ground useless for cultivation.
5 Soil compaction Damage to the structure of soil by compression is a serious problem in areas that are intensively farmed. Conventional tillage may involve a tractor passing over the land six or seven times, and the wheelings can cover up to 90 per cent of a field. Even a single tractor pass can compress the surface enough to reduce the porosity of the soil by 70 per cent, increasing surface run-off and, therefore, water erosion. In the worst cases, the surface run-off may approach 100 percent – none of the water penetrates the surface.
2 Fertilisers High yield levels are produced by applying large quantities of artificial fertilisers, instead of by maintaining the natural fertility of the soil.
3 Nitrate run-off About half of the nitrate in the artificial fertiliser used on crops is dissolved by rain. The dissolved nitrate runs off the fields to contaminate water courses.
4 Soil erosion Where repeated deep ploughing is used to turn over the ground, heavy rains can carry away the topsoil and leave the ground useless for cultivation.
5 Soil compaction Damage to the structure of soil by compression is a serious problem in areas that are intensively farmed. Conventional tillage may involve a tractor passing over the land six or seven times, and the wheelings can cover up to 90 per cent of a field. Even a single tractor pass can compress the surface enough to reduce the porosity of the soil by 70 per cent, increasing surface run-off and, therefore, water erosion. In the worst cases, the surface run-off may approach 100 percent – none of the water penetrates the surface.
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