FOOD RESOURCES

Global food supply has improved enormously since the

early 1960s.Agricultural production has increased and
world food supplies are 18% higher than 30years ago.
In 1990s, global grain yields per hectare were nearly 2.5
times the 1.15 tons per hectare of the 1930s
Today our food comes almost entirely from agriculture,
animal husbandry and fishing. Although India is self-
sufficient in food production, it is only because of
modern patterns of agriculture that are unsustainable
and which pollute our environment with excessive use of
fertilizers and pesticides.

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 World food problems
In many developing countries where populations are
expanding rapidly, the production of food is unable
to keep pace with the growing demand. Food
production in 64 of the 105 developing countries is
lagging behind their population growth levels. These
countries are unable to produce more food, or do
not have the financial means to import it. India is
one of the countries that have been able to produce
enough food by cultivating a large proportion of its
arable land through irrigation.

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 Food Security
Food security is the ability of all people at all times to
access enough food for an active and healthy life. The
following three conditions must be fulfilled to ensure food
security;
 The food must be available,
 Each person must have access to it,
 The food utilized must fulfill nutritional requirements.
Food insecurity is not just a problem related to food
production, it is closely linked to poverty and economic
The persistent of wide spread food insecurity
underscores the futility of increasing production without
addressing the underlying social, political and economic
structures that make or keep people poor or hungry.

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 Changes caused
by agriculture and overgrazing
The Green Revolution of the 60’s reduced starvation in the country.
However many of the technologies we have used to achieve this are now being
questioned.
 Our fertile soils are being exploited faster than they can recuperate.
 Forests, grasslands and wetlands have been converted to agricultural use,
which has led to serious ecological questions.
 Our fish resources, both marine and inland, show evidence of exhaustion.
 There are great disparities in the availability of nutritious food. Some
communities such as tribal people still face serious food problems leading to
malnutrition especially among women and children.
These issues bring in new questions as to how demands will be met in future
even with a slowing of population growth. Today the world is seeing a
changing trend in dietary habits. As living standards are improving, people are
eating more non-vegetarian food. As people change from eating grain to meat,
the world’s demand for feed for livestock based on agriculture increases as
well. This uses more land per unit of food produced and the result is that the
world’s poor do not get enough to eat.

Contd.-4

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 In India there is a shortage of cultivable productive land. Thus
farm sizes are too small to support a family on farm produce
alone. With each generation, farms are being subdivided further
Poor environmental agricultural practices such as slash and burn,
shifting cultivation, or ‘rab’ (woodash) cultivation degrade forests.
 Globally 5 to 7 million hectares of farmland is degraded each year.
Loss of nutrients and overuse of agricultural chemicals are major
factors in land degradation. Water scarcity is an important aspect
of poor agricultural outputs. Salinization and water logging has
affected a large amount of agricultural land worldwide.
 Loss of genetic diversity in crop plants is another issue that is
leading to a fall in agricultural produce. Rice, wheat and corn are
the staple foods of two thirds of the world’s people. As wild
relatives of crop plants in the world’s grasslands, wetlands and
other natural habitats are being lost, the ability to enhance traits
that are resistant to diseases, salinity, etc. is lost. Genetic
engineering is an untried and risky alternative to traditional cross
breeding.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Modern agriculture profoundly affects many
ecological systems. Negative effects of current
practices include the following-
1. Damage to soil
2. Contamination of water
3. Water scarcity
4. Global climate change
5. Water logging
6. Soil salinity

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Damage to soils:- Decline in soil productivity can be
mainly due to the following-
 Wind and water erosion of exposed topsoil,

 Soil compaction,

 Loss of soil organic matter,

 Loss of water holding capacity,

 Reduction in biological activity,

 Salinization of soils and irrigation water in irrigated

farming areas,
 Desertification due to overgrazing.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Contamination of water:-
Farming is one potential source of water contamination. Surface
runoff carries manure, fertilizers and pesticides in to streams,
lakes and reservoirs, in some cases unacceptable levels of
bacteria, nutrients or synthetic organic compounds. Similarly,
water percolating downward through farm field carries with it
dissolved chemicals, which can include nitrate fertilizers and
soluble pesticides. In sufficient quantities these can contaminate
ground supplies. Agriculture is the largest single non point
source of water pollutants including sediments, salts, fertilizers,
( nitrate, phosphorus), pesticide and manures.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Water scarcity:-
Water scarcity in many places is due to overuse of
surface and ground water for irrigation with little
concern for natural cycle that maintains stable water
availability.
Global climate change:-
Agriculture’s link to global climate change is just
beginning to be assessed. Destruction of tropical
forests and other native vegetation for agricultural
production has a role in elevated levels of carbon
dioxide and greenhouse gases.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Water logging:-
Water logging results when soils are over irrigated.
Generally water logging occurs in areas that have
clayey soils or an immediate layer of clay lies beneath
the surface. Here water can not move efficiently
through the soil and can not adequately be drained.
Eventually the soil root zone becomes saturated with
so much water that plant roots can no longer obtain
adequate amounts of oxygen for growth and the soils
are no longer suitable for cultivation.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Soil salinity:-
In poorly drained soils regular use of chemical
fertilizers causes problems of salinity, alkalinity or
acidity, similar problems generated by over irrigation
with canal / tube well in bad drainage condition.
Consequently, normal soil micro flora is disturbed.
Increased soil salinity can cause a decrease in plant
productivity and interferes with water uptake by plants.
Fruit crops are the most sensitive to soil salinity
followed by vegetables and then field crops and
forage crops.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
Problems with fertilizers :-
The main environmental problem associated with
fertilizer use is contamination of water with nitrates,
phosphorus and potassium.
Nutrients are lost from agricultural fields through
runoff, drainage or attachment to eroded soil particles.
The amount lost depends on the soil type and organic
matter content, the climate, slope of the land and
depth to ground water, as well as on the amount and
type of fertilizer and irrigation used.

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 Adverse Effect of Modern
Agriculture on Food Resources
The problems of Pesticides:-
Pesticides (chlorinated hydrocarbons,
organophosphates, carbamates, pyrethroids) sprayed on
crops are ultimately washed down to the soil where they
kill or damage the microbial community. Normal
functions of the soils are disturbed . Soils lose their
capacity of nutrients regeneration while soil particle
aggregates disintegrate making the soil prone to erosion.
The most serious draw back to using chemicals to
control pests is that most pest species, especially insects
can develop genetic resistance to a chemical poison
through natural selection.

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