Agriculture and Environment

Relationship between Agriculture and the Environment

Agriculture and its surrounding environment affect each other in a variety of ways. Ecologically considerate agricultural practices benefit the environment, but intensive agriculture can negatively impact surrounding ecosystems and the environment on a larger scale.

Importance of Agriculture to the Environment

When agriculture is carried out in an environmentally-friendly way, it can positively impact the environment; here's how:

• Soil fertility: One of sustainable agriculture's main goals is to improve soil fertility. This can be done by innovative methods of planting crops, such as intercropping, crop rotation, cover cropping, and the use of compost. Healthy soils lay a solid foundation for producers of surrounding ecosystems.
• Ecosystem preservation: in many regions, ecosystems struggle to flourish in harsh climatic conditions. But with effective agricultural practices, the foundations of the ecosystems (such as pastures and crops) can be sustained.
• Habitat creation: considerate agriculture, which invites species to build ecosystems around farms, is a fantastic way of creating habitats. For example, cultivating hedgerows and wildflower meadows around farms can attract many pollinators, and leaving waterlogged patches in between fields can improve connectivity between aquatic ecosystems.
• Global producer populations: planting crops in agriculture increases global producer populations, meaning there is more carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere by photosynthetic producers.
• Ecological succession: many species fail to thrive in certain areas because they depend on an early stage of landscape (such as open meadows for pollinators). These habitats cannot be maintained naturally and will overgrow, so agriculture allows selective species to thrive in more areas.

Negative Impact of Agriculture on the environment

Agriculture is a business and relies on productive output to earn money. Therefore agricultural workers often do not have the option to implement environmentally-friendly initiatives and must use the most cost-effective methods possible. Here are some of the ways agriculture damages the environment.

Figure 1: cows are ruminants and fart endlessly.

Soil Quality

We've covered how the over application of fertilisers can damage soils, but there are many other ways in which inconsiderate agriculture harms soils:

• Changes in land use: deforestation of arboreal areas, the introduction of too many grazing species, and agricultural practices on unsuitable land (e.g. uncultivated land) increase the vulnerability of soils.

• Soil contamination: the application of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, as well as poor management of wastewater, can contaminate soils and reduce fertility.

• Desertification: the degradation of agricultural lands from human activity and climate change is called desertification and results in productivity plummeting. Unsustainable and ecologically inconsiderate agriculture are drivers of desertification.

• Soil erosion: heavy rainfall disperses soil and increases erosion. Physical interference from farmers and overgrazing animals disturbs the soils and pulls plant roots out, ruining the structure of the soil and allowing erosion to happen more easily.

Figure 2: here is an example of soil which has been physically disturbed and has become infertile.

Land Aesthetic

How picturesque countryside landscapes are is very important to a large demographic in this country and across the world. Sustainable farms may conserve ecosystems (surrounding forests, hedgerows, nearby rivers), but intensive agriculture often clears these areas to ensure the maximum efficiency of agricultural land. Robust, industrial structures replace traditional farms, while naturally occurring woodland is replaced with endless pastures.

Positive Impact of Environment on Agriculture

The environment often provides the foundations for agriculture, and without the very unique and amazing environment that the Earth possesses, farming would be much more tedious! Here are some of the ways the environment positively impacts agriculture:

• Producer dispersal: over millions of years, the planet's producers have been expanding the areas they inhabit through seed dispersal. This has allowed agriculture to happen worldwide because land filled with photosynthesising producers is always fertile. Producers form the basis of the ecosystem and attract animal life, forming a cycle of life and decomposing matter which fertilises the soil.
• Greenhouse gases: despite having a bad reputation, greenhouse gases are crucial in maintaining a temperate climate. Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation reflected from the Earth's surface and re-emit this radiation back towards Earth, warming the planet. Without them, any productive agriculture would be basically impossible in consistently freezing conditions.
• Pollination: pollinators (e.g. bees, butterflies, moths) are essential in sustaining functional agroecosystems. They maintain plant biodiversity by pollinating flowering plants and also play a role in pollinating a variety of crops, such as peppers, tomatoes, and aubergines.

Hopefully you are now aware that although agriculture is responsible for some good things, there are negative consequences of intensive agriculture.