User:WAS 4.250/3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by the high inputs of capital or labour relative to land area.[1][2] This is in contrast to the concept of Extensive Agriculture which involves a low input of materials and labour with the crop yield depending largely on the naturally available soil fertility, water supply or other land qualities.[3]
Modern day forms of intensive crop based agriculture involve the use of mechanical ploughing, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, plant growth regulators and/or pesticides. It is associated with the increasing use of agricultural mechanization, which have enabled a substantial increase in production.[1]
Intensive animal farming practices can involve very large numbers of animals raised on limited land which require large amounts of food, water and medical inputs (required to keep the animals healthy in cramped conditions[citation needed]).[2]. Very large or confined indoor intensive livestock operations (particularly descriptive of common US farming practices) are often referred to as Factory farming[4][1][5] and are criticised by opponents for the low level of animal welfare standards[5][6] and associated pollution and health issues.[7][8]
Intensive agriculture significantly increases yield per available space.[9]
Intensive farming alters the environment in many ways.
- Removal of buffers to make large fields for maximum efficiency leading to lower food costs and greater food availability to the poor. But it also limits the natural habitat of some wild creatures and can lead to soil erosion. [citation needed]
- Use of fertilizers can alter the biology of rivers and lakes.[8] Some environmentalists attribute the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico as being encouraged by nitrogen fertilization of the algae bloom. [citation needed]
- Pesticides can kill useful insects as well as the those that destroy crops.
- Most farmers today, including farmers practicing intensive farming, use practices to improve the environment on and around their farming operation. This includes buffer strips, riparian buffers, land held in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and use of best management practices.
- Over the years, farmers have changed their practices to include soil saving management techniques such no-till, which limits the level of tillage on the ground and maintains a level of crop residue on the surface to minimize soil erosion.