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Why is diversity in agriculture important?
In agriculture, biodiversity is also useful for humans: genetic diversity in crops and livestock helps guard our food supply against disease and other threats. Unfortunately, industrial agriculture prioritizes consistency and productivity over biodiversity, and relies on only a few varieties of plants and animals.
What is agricultural diversity?
Agricultural biodiversity is the diversity of crops and their wild relatives, trees, animals, microbes and other species that contribute to agricultural production. This diversity – which results from thousands of years of interactions among people and the environment – is a key component of healthy diets and human health.
What is variety in agriculture science?
- Laboratory technical support
- Animal caretakers
- Research scientists
- Genetics and Animal Breeding
- Population genetics
- Molecular genetics
- Genetic engineering
- Reproductive management
- Endocrinology
- Cloning
What is a society based on agriculture?
Agrarian society. An agrarian society, or agricultural society, is any community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Another way to define an agrarian society is by seeing how much of a nation’s total production is in agriculture. In an agrarian society, cultivating the land is the primary source of wealth.
What is meant by diversity of agriculture?
Agricultural biodiversity is defined as “the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture, including crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries.
Why is agricultural diversity important?
Crop diversity is fundamental to agricultural growth. Crop diversity enables farmers and plant breeders to develop higher yielding, more productive varieties that have the improved quality characteristics required by farmers and desired by consumers.
What is a good example of agricultural diversity?
Species diversity includes “the domesticated plants and animals that are part of crop, livestock, forest or aquaculture systems, harvested forest and aquatic species, the wild relatives of domesticated species, and other wild species harvested for food and other products.
What are the benefits of diversity on a farm?
The benefits of incorporating biodiversity into agriculture range from enhancing soil health, habitat establishment, biological pest control, nutrient cycling, erosion resistance, fertilizer reduction, infiltration, and the prevention of runoff into waterways.
What do you mean diversity?
Diversity is about what makes each of us unique and includes our backgrounds, personality, life experiences and beliefs, all of the things that make us who we are. It is a combination of our differences that shape our view of the world, our perspective and our approach[1].
Why do we diversify crops?
Crop diversification can improve environmental outcomes without sacrificing yields. A new study shows diversifying agricultural systems beyond a narrow selection of crops leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields.
What is agricultural biodiversity or Agrodiversity?
The variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture, including crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries.
How is biodiversity related to agriculture?
In agriculture, biodiversity is also useful for humans: genetic diversity in crops and livestock helps guard our food supply against disease and other threats. Unfortunately, industrial agriculture prioritizes consistency and productivity over biodiversity, and relies on only a few varieties of plants and animals.
What is importance biodiversity?
Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of animals, plants and microorganisms, we cannot have the healthy ecosystems that we rely on to provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat. And people also value nature of itself.
How can a farmer diversify?
Farmers can thus diversify their farm systems by growing both multiple crops and varietal mixtures.
What is agricultural diversification?
Agricultural diversification is one of the essential components of economic growth. It is the stage where traditional agriculture is transformed into a dynamic and commercial sector by shifting the traditional agricultural product mix to high standard products, which has a high potential in stimulating production rate.
Why is diversification important in rural areas?
For rural people, diversification, or focusing on associate activity, is important because it gives them an opportunity to earn extra income and overcome poverty.
What is the role of fisheries in India?
Fisheries – Aquaculture, or fisheries, is an important part of food production that provides economic security to the millions of people besides livelihood support. In India, the total fish production contribution from inland sources is about 64% and 36% from the marine sector (sea and oceans).
How much of India’s GDP is horticulture?
In India, the horticulture sector contributes 6% of GDP and one-third of the agricultural output. You Might Also Like To Read: Types of Rural Credit. Agricultural Sector during the Independence. Agriculture Development in India.
What is the purpose of animal husbandry?
Animal husbandry – Most of the farmers use the mixed crop-livestock system to increase their standards of living and income. Animal husbandry is an agricultural branch that deals with the practices of farming, breeding, and the care of farm animals like cattle, dogs, sheep, and horses.
What is the term for the plantations of the garden crop?
Horticulture – It is agriculture that deals with the plantations of the garden crop, especially that of vegetables, fruits, flowers, tuber crops, species, and ornamental or medicinal plants. These plants provide food and nutrition besides providing employment.
How does crop diversity affect agriculture?
Crop diversity on the farm level improves soil health and quality, decreases non beneficial pest populations, encourages beneficial organisms and improves the economic resilience of farms. A farm that grows many crops, and many varieties within each crop, will have a resilient and healthier ecosystem more able to prevent and withstand issues that can result in crop loss and will have less of a dependence upon the synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that pollute our land and waterways. By growing more than one crop, i.e. producing more than one product, farms are better able to withstand the economic consequences of crop-specific failures or market fluctuations.
Why is genetic diversity important?
This is particularly important for crops that are responsible for significant amounts of the world’s food consumption. A lack of genetic diversity in an important crop means that there is a global dependence upon the one or two varieties that are produced at large scale. Crops with less genetic diversity are more susceptible to disease and other issues that can lead to crop failure. Our dependence upon these crops leaves our food supply more vulnerable, and the consequences of crop failure more diar.
What is agricultural biodiversity?
Agricultural biodiversity is defined as “the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture, including crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries. From: Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, 2019.
What is the importance of biodiversity in agriculture?
Agricultural biodiversity – from seeds to soil organisms to pollinators – underpins agricultural production and has an enormous utilitarian value for humans. Agriculture is also dependent on a range of ecosystem services like nutrient cycling, soil formation, water purification, atmospheric regulation and pollination.
How does pesticides affect biodiversity?
Intensive use of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers further reduces agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Climate change, exacerbated by this model, is putting new pressures on the local diversity of crops and livestock as weather patterns change, and new pests and diseases proliferate.
How much will food production increase in 2050?
To meet food demand, food production will need to increase by 70% by 2050 over the base year of 2006 ( FAO, 2009 ). However, due to the impact of climate change, it is projected that for every decade, food demand will increase by 14% while agricultural production will decrease on the average by 1% ( IPCC, 2014 ).
What is biodiversity and agriculture?
Biodiversity and Agriculture. Biodiversity is the immense variety we see in all life on earth. As living things adapt to their environment and evolve over time, more and more variation emerges. Scientists estimate that at least 8.7 million unique species of animals, plants, fungi, and other organisms exist on Earth, …
How does sustainable agriculture help biodiversity?
Sustainable agriculture embraces biodiversity by minimizing its impact on wild ecosystems and incorporating numerous plant and animal varieties into complex, on-farm ecosystems.
What are the innovations that helped farmers produce more food per acre?
Widespread adoption of steel plows, hybrid seeds, GMOs, chemical fertilizers and pesticides helped farmers produce more food per acre than ever before. More recently, the adoption of genetically modified seeds helped to increase yields even further. This productivity comes at a great cost, however. Wide fields of a single crop (called monocultures) provide simplicity for farmers and a steady supply of feed to factory farms, but they are biodiversity deserts. Maintaining monocultures requires intense chemical inputs that reduce the abundance of wild species both on and off the farm.
How do plants help the ecosystem?
Plants provide food and habitat to beneficial insects and birds that pollinate them and manage pests. Livestock can recycle leftover parts of crops and provide natural fertilizer to fields and pasture through manure. Agroecosystems depend on diversity to stay in balance, and industrial agriculture disturbs this.
What is the most serious threat to biodiversity?
22 Climate change is one of the most serious threats to biodiversity, and affects even remote areas scarcely touched by humans.
How did humans harness genetic diversity?
Long ago, humans harnessed and steered genetic diversity by domesticating edible plants and animals. Even without understanding genetics, the earliest farmers did this simply by choosing to raise plants that produced large, edible seeds.
What are the three things that plants, animals, and soil depend on?
The plants, soil, and animals all depend on one another for nutrients and habitat . In a functional agro-ecosystem, healthy soil microbes provide nutrients to plants, the root systems of which hold the soil in place. Plants provide food and habitat to beneficial insects and birds that pollinate them and manage pests.
