EFFECT OF AGRICULTURE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Agriculture and the environment always work together, there is a very close connection between them, agriculture utilizes environmental resources such as land, rainfall, and sunlight etc.
agriculture being beneficial so sustenance of human life and reduction in dependence on fossil fuel has these as positive effect but also has a lot of negative effects on the environment.

These effect of agriculture on the environment arises from various farming practices being used with their various and respective effects on the ecosystem. The connection between emissions into the environment and farming systems is indirect though as it also depend on other factors such as rainfall and temperature.

Effect of agriculture on the environment can be of two types; means based and effect based. Means based is based on the farmer’s production method while effect based is the effect of farming method on the farming system or on the emissions to the environment.

The effect of agriculture on the environment involves a variety of factors such as soil, water, air, animal, people, plants, and food. Some effects of agriculture on environment are; climate change as a result of global warming due to emission of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide from bush burning, deforestation as a result of land clearing for agriculture purposes, herbicide resistant and seed contamination as a result of genetic engineering, depletion of underground aquifers through over-drafting for irrigation, pollutant through use of agricultural chemicals such as synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer etc. soil degradation as a result of soil erosion, over grazing, bush burning, leaching, tillage and land use, and waste.