FOOD

RESOURCES
 World food problems,
Impact of overgrazing
Changes caused by agriculture and
 Effects of modern agriculture,
 Fertilizer-pesticide problems,
Euotrophication and biomagnification
 Water logging, salinity.
World food problem
 Lack of rainfall: Failure of monsoons
 Population Growth
 Poverty
 Natural hazards: Calamities such as floods, droughts,
earthquakes, storms
 Inadequate distribution system: Lack of transportation, high
cost of grains, insufficient distribution system, human greed
 Poor quality of soil: infertile soil cause decline in food
production
 Poor agricultural practices: slash and burn, shifting
cultivation, degrade forests.
 Undernourishment : It is the lack of sufficient calories in food. According to
FAO estimate, the average minimum daily requirement over the whole world is
about 2,500 calories per day. People who receive less than this calorie requirement
are said to be undernourished.
In the developing countries , one child in four dies of one disease or the due to
undernourishment and suffer from deafness, anaemia, thyroid etc.
 Malnourishment : It relates to the deficiency of such nutrients in food as
proteins, vitamins or essential chemical elements.
In poorer countries , people get malnourished because they cannot afford a
healthy diet like meat, fruit , milk and milk products and such lead to a variety of
health problem like goitre, anaemia etc.
 Overnutrition : An intake of excessive calories and this problem afflicts the rich ,
developed countries of the world. Consumption of excessive calories too leads to
health problems , like obesity, high blood pressure and heart problem.
CHANGESCAUSED BY
AGRICULTURE
CHANGES CAUSED BY
MODERN AGRICULTURE
1.) Impacts related to high yielding varieties(HYVs) :
1.1) The uses of HYVs encourages monoculture i.e. the same
genotype is grown over vast areas.
1.2) Attack of pathogens, leads to total devastation of crop by disease
due to uniform condition which results in rapid spread of disease.

2) Water-logging : In Punjab and Haryana , extensive areas have

become water-logged where adequate canal water supply or tube –
well water encouraged the farmers to use it over enthusiastically
leading to water-logging problem.

3) Salinity problem : At present one third of the total cultivable land

area of the world is affected by salts.
 Over irrigation of croplands by farmers for good growth of their
crop usually leads to water logging.
 Occurs mostly in clayey soil

 Under water logged conditions, pore spaces in the soil get fully
drenched with water and the soil-air gets depleted

 The water table rises while the roots of the plant do not get adequate
air for respiration

 Mechanical strength of the soil declines, crop plants get lodged and
crop yield fails

Preventing excessive irrigation, with trees like Eucalyptus are some

of the remedial measures to prevent water logging
 Salinity: Water logging causes moisture to percolate down, which
dissolves the underground salts in it, these salts come on surface of the
land after water is evaporated causing salinity

 Decrease in the plant productivity, interferes with water uptake by

plants

 At present ⅓rd of the total cultivable land area of the world is affected
by salts

 In India about 7 million Hectares of land are estimated to be salt

affected

 Saline soils are characterized by the accumulation of soluble salts like

sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, calcium chloride, magnesium
chloride…
FERTILISER AND
PESTICIDE RELATED
PROBLEMS
 Micronutrient Imbalance
Most of the chemical fertilizers used in modern agriculture have nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium which are essential macronutrients

 Nitrate Pollution
Nitrogenous fertilizers applied in the fields often leach deep into soil and
ultimately contaminate the ground water. When high nitrate contamination in
ground water resulting in decreased oxygen carrying capacity of haemoglobin in
babies leading to death. The nitrates get concentrated in the water and when their
concentration exceeds 25 mg/L, they become the cause of a serious health hazard
called “Blue Baby syndrome” .

 Eutrophication
Eutrophication means addition of artificial or natural substances, such
as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, through run-off into
nearby water causing an increase in nutrient levels. One example is the "bloom" or
great increase of algae(use all the Oxygen of water) in a water body which may also
block sunlight from photosynthetic marine plants under the water surface.
Negative environmental effects include hypoxia, the depletion of oxygen in the
water, which induces reductions in specific fish and other animal populations
 Save lives: from malaria, typhus

 Increase food supplies and lower food

costs

 Increase profit for farmers

 Work faster
5) Pesticide related problem :
Although DDT and chemicals as sulphur, arsenic etc. pesticides have gone a long way
in protecting our crops from huge losses occurring due to pest , yet they have
number of side-effects :

5.1) Creating resistance in pests and producing new pests : About 20 species of pests
are now known which have become immune to all types of pesticides and are
known as “Super pests”.

5.2) Biological Magnification : Many of pesticides are non-biodegradable and keep

on accumulating in food chain, a process called biological magnification.
As human beings occupy a high trophic level in food chain get pesticides in bio-
magnified form which is very harmful.

5.3) Death of non-target organisms : Many insecticides are broad spectrum poisons
which not only kill the target species but also several non-target species that are
useful to us.Pesticides has adverse effects on other species such as frogs, snakes,
and birds, which are natural pest control mechanism.
 Biological magnification
Many of the pesticides(eg DDT) are not biodegradable and keep on
accumulating in the food chain, this process is called as
biomagnification. DDT becomes concentrated in the tissues of
organisms effecting successive trophic levels in a food chain.
 Organic farming
 Crop rotation
 Use of animal manure,
 Adjusting planting time
 Intercropping
 Planting rows of hedges
IMPACTOF
OVERGRAZING
Overgrazing : India leads in livestock population in the world. The huge
population of livestock needs to be fed and the grazing lands or pasture areas are
not adequate.
1) Soil erosion : The soil becomes loose and susceptible to the aviation of wind
and water.
2) Land Degradation : Overgrazing leads to multiple actions resulting in loss of
soil structure, and soil fertility as explained below :
2.1) The humus content of soil decreases and overgrazing leads to organically
poor, dry, compacted soil.
2.2) Overgrazing removes the vegetal cover over the soil and the exposed soil gets
compacted due to which the operate soil depth decline.
2.3) Due to trampling by cattle the soil loses infiltration capacity , which reduces
percolation of water into the soil and more water gets lost from the ecosystem.
2.4) Organic recycling also declines in the ecosystem because not enough detritus
or litter remains on the soil to be decomposed.
3) Loss of useful species : Overgrazing adversely affects the composition of
plant population and their regeneration capacity.
When the livestock graze upon them heavily, even the root stocks which
carry the reserve food for regeneration get destroyed.
Example : As a result of overgrazing vast areas in Arunachal Pradesh and
Meghalaya are getting invaded by thorny bushes, weeds etc. of low fodder
value.
Thorny plants like Lantana, Xanthium etc.
4) Floods : Soil erosion leads to floods. The soil cannot check the flow of
rain water and that causes floods.
5) Reduction in plant diversity : The cattle like to eat certain plants, and
leave the others results of destruction of certain plant species.