Increasing Industrial Agricultural Production The chemically intensive system of food production that was developed in the decades following World War II featured huge single crop farms and animal production facilities. It was initially considered a technological victory that would feed the exploding population of the world. But now, agricultural specialists, scientists and farmers along with policy makers realizes that industrial agriculture is a dead end, an unfitting practice that would affect the sustainability in the long run.
The influence that Industrial agriculture has on the public health, environment, and rural living standards make it an inappropriate technique to produce food in the long run. Monoculture is at the core of industrial, agricultural applications. The practice of growing single crops intensively on an extensive scale is monoculture. Wheat, cotton, soybean, rice and corn are all commercial crops. Monoculture farming systems rely heavily on pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and another chemical input. Growing the same crops in the same land back to back rapidly depletes the soil nutrients that the plant depends on, and replenishment of these nutrients is fulfilled through chemical fertilizers. Certain weeds, insect pests and unnecessary crops demand pesticide inputs in the farm on which monoculture is practiced. Agriculture always impacts the environment irrespective of the methods used. Industrial agriculture specially damages the soil and water. Even the climate is negatively affected on an unparalleled scale. Practicing monoculture intensively depletes soil nutrients leaving it vulnerable to soil erosion. The run-offs include chemical fertilizers and wastes from CAFO add to emissions triggering global warming and creates oxygen deprived zones at the entrances of major water channels. Insecticides and herbicides harm flora and fauna and pose human health hazards as well. Biota within near monoculture fields is affected drastically, as bird populations and useful insect decline. When we target an unwanted population of organisms (like bacteria or weeds) frequently with a weapon, we provide an evolutionary benefit to their genes that turn the creature less susceptible to the weapon. Gradually, the genes convert to less useful ones, and this phenomenon is called resistance. Industrial agriculture has enhanced resistance complications on a number of fronts. Over dependence on herbicides like glyphosate has produced a mushrooming population of assembly resistance super weeds that has become a bane for farmers.
Industrial agriculture is turning to large-scale, centralized enterprise and not only destroying biodiversity, soil nutrition and indigenous food systems, but are also accountable for about 40% of worldwide greenhouse gas emission problems that trigger climate change. There is a widespread indication that agriculture, which restores soil’s health, and ecosystems will be more resistant to climate uncertainty and yield more food now and for future generations. For now, small farms are still providing solutions to about 70% of world’s food need. Food produced locally is not only healthier for both public and the plant, but it also provides significant livelihoods and distributes control of food systems. This model of farming is incompetent and does not characterize the modernity of contemporary farming. It exhausts natural resources on which we depend on. It makes us unhealthy and weakens the world’s capability to feed itself. It is the actual description of unsustainable. Mahendra Trivedi reviews on agricultural production has seen an extraordinary progress after the application of advanced technologies introduced by the scientists. However, the major improvements and strengthening of agricultural research and extension systems is the most important need for agricultural growth. We need to comprehend how to improve the agricultural production initially from the very natural resources, and the other artificial means of increasing crop production should be always considered secondary and applied only when the natural methods got failed.