5.3 Agriculture and Its Impacts

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Notes

Agriculture feeds the world but has large environmental effects.

Monoculture is growing one crop over a large area. It is efficient but vulnerable to pests and disease and depletes certain nutrients.
Industrial agriculture uses machines, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation. It has high yields and also causes runoff pollution, soil loss, and fossil fuel use.
The Green Revolution (1950s to 1970s) increased yields with high-yield crop varieties, fertilizer, and irrigation.
Sustainable practices: crop rotation, cover crops, no-till farming, contour plowing, terracing, intercropping, and integrated pest management (IPM).
Irrigation can cause salinization (salt buildup in soil) when water evaporates and leaves salts behind.
Overgrazing removes plant cover and leads to erosion and desertification.
Example: planting soybeans one year and corn the next restores nitrogen and breaks pest cycles. This is crop rotation.

What is a monoculture?

Irrigating dry land with water that contains dissolved salts, followed by evaporation, most directly leads to:

Which practice helps restore soil nitrogen and break pest cycles?