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Yemimah Family Magazine- Formerly Jemima Family Magazine.

fostering the tradition of family In HA'RUACH🛐HA'ELOYIHM 🛐

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Agricultural Environmental Pollution; as it relates to Nigeria .Part 1

By NneAgriculture, Pollution

 

 

 

 

Agricultural Pollution

By Vera Chinwe A.

 

 

Agricultural pollution refers to biotic and abiotic byproducts of farming practices that result in contamination or degradation of the environment and surrounding ecosystems, and/or cause injury to Man and their economic interests.The pollution may come from a variety of sources, ranging from point source water pollution (from a single discharge point) to more diffuse, landscape-level causes, also known as non-point source pollution and air pollution. Once in the environment these pollutants can have both direct effects in surrounding ecosystems, i.e. killing local wildlife or contaminating drinking water, and downstream effects such as dead zones caused by agricultural runoff is concentrated in large water bodies.

Water pollution due to dairy farming in the Wairarapa area of New Zealand (photographed in 2003)

Management practices, or ignorance of them, play a crucial role in the amount and impact of these pollutants. Management techniques range from animal management and housing to the spread of pesticides and fertilizers in global agricultural practices, which can have major environmental impacts. Bad management practices include poorly managed animal feeding operations, overgrazing, plowing, fertilizer, and improper, excessive, or badly timed use of pesticides.

Pollutants from agriculture greatly affect water quality and can be found in lakes, rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and groundwater. Pollutants from farming include sediments, nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, metals, and salts. Animal agriculture has an outsized impact on pollutants that enter the environment. Bacteria and pathogens in manure can make their way into streams and groundwater if grazing, storing manure in lagoons and applying manure to fields is not properly managed.[2] Air pollution caused by agriculture through land use changes and animal agriculture practices have an outsized impact on climate change, and addressing these concerns was a central part of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land.  Mitigation of agricultural pollution is a key component in the development of a sustainable food system.

In Nigeria….

Environmental pollution is a widespread problem that influences both individual’s health and agricultural productivity. One of the greatest problems facing the world today is environmental pollution, which is increasing every year and causing grave and irreparable damage to the earth and people’s health.
It is these conditions that make environmental pollution a major concern to the developing countries of the world, especially Nigeria. Environmental pollution results from the activities of man through the use of technology to manipulate the ecosystem or environment to meet his needs. Nigeria as a developing country has lost much of her habitable environment due to environmental degradation and pollution, which destroys crops and aquaculture through the contamination of waterways, ground water, and soil and causes flaring of associated gas. There is also rampant mismanagement of the land resources. These have significant negative conse­quences on crop yield and land productivity, which further impoverish the already poor farmers in these areas. With the increasing soil infertility as a result of the destruction of soil micro-organisms and dwindling agricultural produc­tiv­ity, farmers have been forced to abandon their land to seek non-existent alter­native means of livelihood. Therefore, this paper examines the nature of en­vi­ronmental pollution in the area and its consequences on agricultural produc­tiv­ity. Questionnaires were administered to elicit information on soil fertility, crop growth, and crop productivity. A total of 360 questionnaires were adminis­tered using a multistage sampling technique and analyzed using frequency ta­bles and percentages.
Results show that environmental pollution reduces the level of soil nutrients and fertility (82%). Crop growth and crop yield are nega­tively affected by pollution (80%); therefore, agricultural productivity is nega­tively affected in Nigeria. The paper recommends, among other things, that efforts be made to im

Biotic Sources

Greenhouse gases from fecal waste.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicted that 18% of anthropogenic greenhouse gases come directly or indirectly from the world’s livestock. This report also suggested that the emissions from livestock were greater than that of the transportation sector. While livestock do currently play a role in producing greenhouse gas emissions, the estimates have been argued to be a misrepresentation. While the FAO used a life-cycle assessment of animal agriculture (i.e. all aspects including emissions from growing crops for feed, transportation to slaughter, etc.), they did not apply the same assessment for the transportation sector.

Alternate sources  claim that FAO estimates are too low, stating that the global livestock industry could be responsible for up to 51% of emitted atmospheric greenhouse gasses rather than 18%. Critics say the difference in estimates come from the FAO’s use of outdated data. Regardless, if the FAO’s report of 18% is accurate, that still makes livestock the second-largest greenhouse-gas-polluter.

A PNAS model showed that even if animals were completely removed from U.S. agriculture and diets, U.S. GHG emissions would be decreased by 2.6% only (or 28% of agricultural GHG emissions). This is because of the need replace animal manures by fertilizers and to replace also other animal coproducts, and because livestock now use human-inedible food and fiber processing byproducts. Moreover, people would suffer from a greater number of deficiencies in essential nutrients although they would get a greater excess of energy, possibly leading to greater obesity.

Biopesticides.

Biopesticides are pesticides derived from natural materials (animals, plants, microorganisms, certain minerals). As an alternative to traditional pesticides, biopesticides can reduce overall agricultural pollution because they are safe to handle, usually do not strongly affect beneficial invertebrates or vertebrates, and have a short residual time.

Some concerns exist that biopesticides may have negative impacts on populations of nontarget species, however.

In the United States, biopesticides are regulated by EPA. Because biopesticides are less harmful and have fewer environmental effects than other pesticides, the agency does not require as much data to register their use. Many biopesticides are permitted under the National Organic Program, United States Department of Agriculture, standards for organic crop production.

 

To be continued

 

 

 

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