Intensive agriculture is the most typical method of cultivation, it is the key source of food all over the world. Intensive agricultural farming is the type of cultivation in which a huge amount of inputs, capital, and labor are used and vast farms are used. A huge amount of investments are necessary for the application of fertilizer, insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides for growing crops, and capital is important for the maintenance of high-efficiency machinery for planting, cultivating, and harvesting, and most importantly for the irrigation equipment. The main aim of farming is money.
This type of farming has more pressure on the agricultural lands because:
- This type of farming puts enormous pressure as agriculture is practiced in a large area of land, it is mostly performed in thickly forested areas.
- Another problem with Intensive agricultural farming is, as there is the use of chemical inputs thereby reducing fertility and causing problems in the agricultural land.
- The farmers continue to take the maximum output from the limited land, in the absence of alternative sources of livelihood.
- Farmers lack proper training on improving the yield of the land and the nutrients vanish from the soil.
- Because of the use of heavy machinery and modern technologies, exerts more pressure on agricultural lands.
- Intensive agriculture produces vast amounts of pollution. This pollution risks ground and surface water.
- Sometimes the crop production affects the ability of soil making it act as a carbon sequester and the soil turns into a carbon emitter, and it is responsible for the emissions of greenhouse gases which include methane and nitrous oxide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question 1: What is the main benefit of intensive farming?
Answer:
The main benefit of intensive farming is to provide sufficient food supplies at affordable rates to the people.
Question 2: What is meant for monocropping?
Answer:
The defining feature of intensive plant agriculture, is those large farms are planted with a single crop such as wheat, corn, and fodder crops. This is called monocropping.
Question 3: What is meant by Pasture intensification?
Answer:
The improvement of pasture soil and grasses as increases the food production for the livestock, it is commonly used to reverse pasture degradation. Pasture intensification is a process characterized by loss of forage and decreased animal carrying capacity which results from overgrazing, poor nutrient management, and lack of soil conservation.