WHY IN NEWS?

  • Recently, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published report which focuses on the staggering hidden costs of our global agri­food systems,surpassing an astonishing $10 trillion.

WHAT IS INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE?

  • Intensive agriculture is a method of farming that uses large amounts of labor and investment to increase the yield of the land.
  • It is “intensive” in that it concentrates high levels of technology, machinery, seeds, animals, and supportive inputs (including water and chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides) on relatively small areas of land.
  • In an industrialized society this typically means the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals that boost yield, and the acquisition and use of machinery to aid planting, chemical application, and picking.
  • In theory, this reduces the amount of land needed for an economically viable farm to grow crops or raise animals.
  • The system of intensive agriculture, including crop production, largely supports industrial animal farming.
  • In the US, more than two-thirds of the calories produced by intensive crop agriculture (67%, including all the soy grown in the Midwest) are used for animal feed.
  • Just 27% of crop calories are consumed by humans, and the remainder goes mainly to biofuels like ethanol.
  • Worldwide, only 55% of the crop calories produced by intensive agriculture are eaten by humans.

CHARACERSTICS OF INENSIVE AGRICULTURE:

IN CROP AGRICULTURE

  • Monocropping of commodity crops, many of them animal feed crops
  • High use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides
  • Genetic modification of plant species through biotechnology to enable crops to withstand the application of highly toxic herbicides and pesticides
  • Limited or zero crop rotation
  • Lack of attention to building soil health and soil carbon sequestration
  • All-season production
  • Intensive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides
  • Vertical integration of most production elements, enabling full control of inputs, outputs, marketing, and pricing
  • Corporate concentration and consolidation
  • Global supply chains

IN ANIMAL AGRICULTURE

  • Confining thousands of animals in restricted indoor spaces
  • Routine, subtherapeutic antibiotic use in animals to promote growth
  • Abusive animal-management practices, such as debeaking and use of small gestation crates
  • Substitution of free-roaming animal diets with off-farm industrial feed crops
  • Reliance on a single breed and sometimes a single genetic line of animal
  • Intensive animal breeding to maximize body size, weight gain, and speed to maturity
  • Corporate concentration and consolidation

DISADVANTAGES OF INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE:

  • Intensive agriculture damages the environment, wastes natural resources, contributes to climate change by emitting high levels of greenhouse gases, and harms both animals and humans.
  • Animals are overfed to encourage weight gain and sent to slaughter at a few weeks to a few months of age.
  • Animals in intensive operations face physically invasive and painful management procedures, like tail amputation and castration.
  • Intensive agriculture is a main driver of deforestation worldwide, notably in the Amazon rainforest, where nearly a million square kilometers have been burned and clearcut for animal grazing and monocropping.
  • Intensive agriculture is linked to myriad adverse health effects in people, including increased cancer risk, birth defects, respiratory illnesses, and heart conditions.
  • The modern system of intensive agriculture markets cheap, processed meat and dairy products that are designed to maximize profits, typically with little attention to nutritional value.

ADDRESSING ILL-EFFECTS OF INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE:

  • Diversified multi­cropping systems, rooted in agroecology principles, could be a viable solution to revitalise degraded land and soil.
  • Transitioning from mono-cultivation of wheat and rice.
  • Farmers can diversify income through value addition, incorporating livestock and poultry.
  • The fraction of commercial crops could be lowered to 50% and border crops could be replaced with locally­ suitable tree species for fruits and fodder.
  • Addressing challenges related to local seeds, institutional arrangements for market access and drudgery.

WAY FORWARD:

  • Widespread deployment of sustainable farming approaches supported by well-funded research, together with equitable food distribution and significant reduction of animal farming and meat consumption, are critical to safeguarding and restoring the Earth’s resources.
SYLLABUS: MAINS, GS-3, AGRICULTURE SOURCE: THE HINDU