Why is agricultural expansion important?
With rising demand for biomass, cropland expansion and intensification represent the main strategies to boost agricultural production, but are also major drivers of biodiversity decline. We find that both scenarios lead to lower crop prices across the world, even in regions where production decreases.
What are farming lands called?
: land used or suitable for farming.
How do countries expand agricultural land?
In developing economies, especially those without oil and natural gas reserves, the most important source of natural wealth is agricul- tural land. In these economies, the agricultural land base is expanding rapidly through con- version of forests, wetlands, and other natural habitat (Barbier).
What causes agricultural expansion?
Many factors contributed to the recent doubling of world food production. The development of higher-yielding strains of crops and better agricultural practices were important, as were increased use of herbicides for weed control and insecticides and fungicides for pest control.
What was the role of agricultural expansion in deforestation?
In Africa, deforestation is caused mainly by small-scale farming and fuel wood collection, while in Latin America it is driven more by large-scale agriculture, especially extensive cattle production. Agricultural expansion is a complex issue and has many underpinning drivers.
How does agricultural harm the environment?
Agricultural livestock are responsible for a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, most notably methane. Cattle and other large grazing animals can even damage soil by trampling on it. Bare, compacted land can bring about soil erosion and destruction of topsoil quality due to the runoff of nutrients.
How does agricultural expansion cause deforestation?
How Does Animal Agriculture Cause Deforestation? As the global demand for meat rises, so does the number of cattle needed to produce beef. These animals require space and nourishment, so millions of acres of uncultivated land are cleared every year to make room for feed crops and grazing pastures.
What type of farming causes deforestation?
Agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation and severe forest degradation. Except in Africa, large-scale livestock ranching and plantation agriculture are generally overtaking small-scale farming as primary causes of conversion.
Why is agricultural expansion bad?
A doubling of food production may require a much greater increase in land dedicated to agriculture. The resulting ecosystem destruction would vastly increase the proportion of the world’s species threatened with extinction. It also would cause a massive release of CO2 from land clearing and tilling (5).
What were the factors enabling expansion of agriculture?
The three factors that accounted for the constant expansion of agriculture during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: (i) Abundance of land. (ii) Availability of labour. Irrigation projects received state support as well.
Increases in food and fiber demand have driven significant agricultural expansion over the past decades. The rate and magnitude of agricultural expansion are ever increasing, especially under the recent pressure to develop sustainable energy sources such as biofuels from agricultural crops.
Some 80% of global deforestation is a result of agricultural production, which is also the leading cause of habitat destruction. Increasingly, the world’s agriculture system is expanding its terrestrial footprint to produce livestock feed that meets the growing demand for meat and dairy products or crop-based biofuels.
How do you develop farmers?
5 Key Measures to Improve Farming Productivity
- Smart water management. Using of drop by drop or sprinkler irrigation systems you can increase crop yields up to 50 percent.
- Varieties selection.
- Conservation tillage.
- Nitrogen.
- Farm management software.
What are the problems of agricultural transformation?
They include technological innovation, land reforms, irrigation, climate change, trade, value chains and gender gap in resources access. These topics are key issues as they shape agricultural productivity as well as the inclusiveness and sustainability of Africa’s agricultural transformation.
What do you mean by expansion of agricultural land?
Agricultural expansion describes the growth of agricultural land (arable land, pastures, etc.) in the 21st century.
How does agricultural expansion affect the human population?
Today’s land grabbing activities are often a consequence of the strive for agricultural land by growing economies. In the beginning of the 21st century the palm oil industry caused a massive deforestation in Borneo with heavy consequences. ^ “Human population numbers as a function of food supply” (PDF).
Where does the term agricultural land come from?
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and others following its definitions, however, also use agricultural land or agricultural area as a term of art, where it means the collection of: This sense of “agricultural land” thus includes a great deal of land not devoted to agricultural use.
How is agricultural expansion a cause of deforestation?
Moreover, agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest fragmentation. Large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean and oil palm) accounted for 40 percent of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010, and local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent.
Agricultural expansion describes the growth of agricultural land (arable land, pastures, etc.) in the 21st century.
Where does the greatest expansion of Agriculture take place?
As the 21st century unfolds, the greatest expansion of agriculture will almost certainly occur in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa 10, 16, 29, which have large land areas with unexploited agricultural potential.
Today’s land grabbing activities are often a consequence of the strive for agricultural land by growing economies. In the beginning of the 21st century the palm oil industry caused a massive deforestation in Borneo with heavy consequences. ^ “Human population numbers as a function of food supply” (PDF).
How is the loss of agricultural land affecting the United States?
Loss of Agricultural Land. The trends in the loss of agricultural lands do not look promising for the future of agriculture in the United States. It is estimated that over 40 million hectares of agricultural land in the United States is in danger of being lost due to exposure to erosion by wind or water.
