Agriculture

By:
● Abdul Hadi
● Abdul Naafay
● Husnain Mehmood
● Hamza Saeed
● Mamoon Sikander
 Contents

● What is agriculture?
● Categories of agricultural products
● Types of machinery used
● Advantages and disadvantages of these machinery
● Eutrophication as a problem caused by agriculture
● Solutions to these problems
 What is Agriculture?

● It is the Science or Practice of Farming

● Consists mainly of the cultivation of Soil or rearing of animals for
food or raw materials
 Categories Of Agricultural Products
● Grains
● Meats
01 Food ● Vegetables
● Dairy Products

● Ethanol, produced from corn, sugarcane, or

02 Fuels sorghum, is the agricultural fuel product in the
widest use.

03 Fibers ● Fiber crops include cotton, wool, and silk.

● These are agricultural products used to make

04 Raw materials other agricultural products.
Types of Machinery used in Agriculture

● harvesting machinery
● tractors
● sprayers
● forage equipment
● sowing and tillage equipment
● fertilizer spreaders
● Trailers
● loaders
● Fertilizers
● Pesticides/Insecticides
 Advantages of Machinery Disadvantages of Machinery
Used in Agriculture Used in Agriculture

Speeds up the process and also saves a Cause air and noise pollution
lot of labour cost, thus maximizing profit.

Pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers help Insecticides are non-biodegradable,

to give the required nutrients to the crop. meaning they cannot be broken down by
microorganisms.

Insecticides and pesticides help to keep Fertilizers may increase the yield of crops
the pests and other insects away which but it’s overuse may cause water pollution.
may be harmful for the crops.

Machinery maximises output from little Over usage of machines may lead to
input environmental damage.
 Eutrophication
(the major problem caused by agriculture)

● Fertilizers may increase the yield of crops but it’s overuse may cause water
pollution
● These fertilizers contain nitrates and phosphates which are useful nutrients for the
growth of algae
● Submerged plants and algae die due to lack of sunlight. Their dead bodies get
decomposed by bacteria
● On average, about 20 percent of nitrogen fertilizer is lost through surface runoff or
leaching into groundwater (MA 2005).
Eutrophication (continued…)

● Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and nitrogen in manure that is

spread on fields is also subject to volatilization. Under some
conditions, up to 60 percent of the nitrogen applied to crops can
be lost to the atmosphere by volatilization (University of
Delaware Cooperative Extension 2009);
● A portion of the volatilized ammonia is redeposited in
waterways through atmospheric deposition. Phosphorus, which
binds to the soil, is generally lost through soil erosion from
agricultural lands.
 Statistics

● In China, the world's largest consumer of nitrogen fertilizer, up to half

the nitrogen applied is lost by volatilization and another 5 to 10 percent
by leaching.
● Agriculture is also a source of air pollution. It is the dominant
anthropogenic source of ammonia. Livestock account for about 40
percent of global emissions, mineral fertilizers for 16 percent and
biomass burning and crop residues for about 18 percent
● Agriculture is also responsible for up to half of all methane emissions.
Though it persists for a shorter time in the atmosphere, methane is
about 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide .
 Adopting Nutrient
Management Techniques

Some solutions
to Agricultural
pollution
 References

● http://www.fao.org/3/y3557e/y3557e11.htm
● https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjOkY_X74zlAhV
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%2Fpressures-and-their-
status%2Feutrophication%2F&psig=AOvVaw2EZ7sHck4bDFPoEC0Tyhme&ust=15706
30908084003
● https://www.wri.org/our-work/project/eutrophication-and-hypoxia/sources-
eutrophication
● https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/eutrophication.html
● https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/eutrophication