After reading this article you will learn about the impact of agriculture on environment.
Agriculture sector is the mainstay of the rural Indian economy, around which socio-economic privileges and deprivations revalue, and any change in its structure is likely to have a corresponding impact on the existing pattern of social equality No strategy of economic reforms can succeed without sustained and broad based agricultural development which is critical for:
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1. Raising living standards
2. Alleviating poverty
3. Assuring food security
4. Generating buoyant market for expansion of industry and services
5. Making substantial contribution to the national income growth.
Not with standing the process of industrialization, agriculture continues to hold an important position in the Indian economy with more than 43% of the country’s total geographic area under agriculture. Agriculture and allied activities contributing more than a quarter of the GDP employing as much as 65% of the total workforce and accounting for 18% of India’s exports.
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In the post independence era the most significant achievement of planning in the agriculture sector has been India’s self sufficiency in terms of food grains from a net food importer in the 1950’s and early 1960’s.
The green revolution which worked through the introduction of high yielding varieties and required large and assured quantities of inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and water made the production of food to be increased nearly four times.
The major environmental problems of intensive agriculture that have emerged to include the degradation of soils from overuse of fertilizers, health hazards posed by the increased use of pesticides, decline in crop diversity, overexploitation and deterioration in the quality of groundwater, water logging and salinity.
The increasing intensification of agriculture puts increasing stress on natural resources in parts of the country and brings under security concerns, issues, and initiatives related to 3 important inputs, namely irrigation, fertilizer and pesticides, which have a great impact on material resources.
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(a) Irrigation:
Agriculture has traditionally been the single largest user of water. Highly subsidized supply of water has resulted in appropriate utilization and overexploitation of water resources especially at the district level. Against a critical level of 85% there are pockets in Punjab and Haryana where over exploitation is more than 100%.
In case of surface water, a major concern is the massive waste in the water used for irrigation. Of the total water released through canal outlet about 45% is lost by seepage through unlined field channels an another 15% is lost in the field itself because of over application. The overexploitation of canal water is mainly due to subsidized irrigation charges.
Apart from wasting precious water resources, the inefficient utilization of canal and ground water and neglect of drainage have also resulted in water logging and salinity. According to estimates of the Ministry of water resources during 1990-’91 about 2.5 million hectares under different irrigated command areas suffered water logging and about 3.3 million hectares were affected by salinity and alkalinity (Planning Commission 1999).
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(b) Fertilizers:
Only 23% of the applied fertilizers are consumed by plants, the rest is either reached down beyond the root zone or lost by violation, etc. Such over use can severely contaminate the soil, ground water and the atmosphere.
The consumption is highly uneven across the country and that the total requirements of the three major nutrients nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium – are met largely by chemical fertilizer and not integrated with organic fertilizers. Besides over use, imbalance in the proportions of the major nutrients has also negative environmental implications.
The decontrol of prices of phosphatic and potassic fertilizers due to policy changes in 1990’s led to sharp rise in the price of these fertilizers. This resulted in imbalance in fertilizer use.
The optimal of 4:2:1 of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and an actual ratio of about 6:2.5:1 just before the decontrol, it increased to 10:3:1 during 1996 – ’97 (Planning Commission 1999). The excessive use of nitrogen mainly urea, induced by the low prices only harmed the environment by way of de-nitrification – it did not boost yields.
Excessive extraction of ground water without commensurate recharge and the leaching of pollution into aquifers are major concerns. Continued use of chemical fertilizers without supplementing them with organic fertilizer not only leads to environmental problems but also reduces land production.
Realizations of the problems associated with the use of fertilizers has led to the emergence of the concept of INM (integrated nutrient management) which aims at meeting a part of the total requirement of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, through such organic fertilizers as farm yard manure, compost and bio-fertilizers.
(c) Pesticides:
Many of the pesticides, example DDT and BHC, used widely in India until 1995 are highly persistent and are thus potential toxicants. Pesticides are carried by irrigation water or rain and find their way into ground water reserves.