GEOG 1220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Crop Yield, Soil Fertility, Omnivore
13 Apr 2019
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Document Summary
Very challenging due to the amount of fertile land we have. Factors changing the industry: high technology, lots of money, quota, economic subsidies, trade, fossil fuel, high productivity per farmer. Consider real production of food around the globe. Consider a herbivorous verse a omnivorous diet. The use of high yield (or high response varieties) and inputs of fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation to increase crop production. Intensification = better productivity per unit of land. Agriculture and the environment: soil loss and degradation, soil erosion: The fertility of a soil reflects the volume and accessibility of plant nutrients and organic matter content in soils: desertification. The conversion of semi-arid land to desert by natural processes (e. g. drought) and/or human activities (e. g. overgrazing, removal of trees/shrubs: water consumption and degradation, irrigation. Irrigation artificially providing water to support agriculture. Salinization the buildup of salts in surface soil layers. Drip irrigation targets water directly to plants.
