Overview of Sustainable Agriculture

Livne Cohen | 08.03.2022

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Topics for today:

• Definition of Sustainable agriculture

• Benefits of Sustainable agriculture
• Main goals of Sustainable agriculture
• Sustainable Farming Practices
• Limitations of current agricultural system
• Environmental damage & Solutions
• Carbon credits
• Precision agriculture
Definition of Sustainable Agriculture

“An integrated system of plant and animal which should minimize the environmental
footprint of agriculture”

Sustainable Agriculture has a significant contribution in:

• Satisfy human food and fiber needs

• Incorporating renewable resources
• Efficient use of non-renewable resources
• Improve farmers and society’s life quality
 The onset of the industrial age brought about various
trends

• Quick rise in population

• The increase in urbanism
• Cash crops rather than Staple crops
• Greater need for production
The goals of sustainable agriculture

• Minimize environmental impacts

• Provide sustained production and profit
• Care the present without compromising the future
• Food production with minimal environmental impact
The goals of sustainable agriculture

• Environmental health

• Economic profitability

• Social and economic equity

Sustainable Farming Practices
Agriculture’s "Pain Points"
Environmental damages:
• Habitat destruction
• Reduced biodiversity
• Deforestation
• Salinization, desertification
• Water, air and soil pollution
• Decline in water resources
and land subsidence
Human impacts:
• Farmland destruction
• Damage to soil fertility
• Reduced nutritional
value of food
• Decreased economic,
social and cultural
values.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Habitat Destruction

• Natural area which is no longer capable of

supporting the species and ecological
communities that naturally occur there.

• Agricultural sector expands at the expense of

natural habitats in order to meet the food
demand.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Habitat Destruction - potential solutions:

• Growing efficiency obtaining more yields from smaller areas
• Growing crops in a detached substrate
• Indoor crops under a controlled environment
• Sustainable Development
• Rules and regulations
Environmental damage & Solutions
Reduced biodiversity:
• Converting natural habitats to intensely managed
systems.
• Releasing pollutants to the air and water,
including greenhouses gases.
• Changes in water use and management.
• Harming beneficial insects (e.g. bees) due to the
overuse of pesticides.
• Growing trend of shifting to monocropping.
Possible threat to:
• Birds, bats, and insects that
help control pests and disea
• Soil biodiversity
• Wild pollinators – bees,
butterflies, bats, and birds.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Reduced
biodiversity - a
decline in the
bee population
(over 30 years):
 Environmental damage & Solutions

Reduced biodiversity - potential solutions:

• Shifting to organic agriculture
• Integrated pest management
• Conservation agriculture
• Sustainable soil management
• Agroecology
• Sustainable forest management
• Agroforestry
• Create incentives and benefit-sharing measures
 Environmental damage & Solutions

Deforestation:
• More than 50,000 acres of forests (over 10,000 football
fields) are cleared by farmers per day worldwide.
• A significant amount of total deforestation occurs in
rainforests, which are home to over 50 percent of plants and
animals on the planet.
• This extreme clearing of land, is especially done for animal
production
• When trees are removed, this causes a transformation of
once fertile land into a desert.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Deforestation - potential solutions:

• Agroecology
• Sustainable forest management
• Agroforestry
• Indoor crops under a controlled environment
• Reducing meat consumption (e.g. once a week)
• Sustainable Development
• Rules and regulations
 Environmental damage & Solutions

• Salinization - Salinization is the process by which

water-soluble salts accumulate in the soil.

 Hydrology

 Climate

 Irrigation
 Drainage

 Plant cover and rooting characteristics

 Environmental damage & Solutions

Salinization on the soil surface occurs in Salinization and desertification:

the following conditions:
• Presence of soluble salts (e.g. sodium
and magnesium) in the soil.

• A high water table.

• A high rate of evaporation.

• Low annual rainfall.

Environmental damage & Solutions

Salinization - potential solutions:

• Irrigate to maintain salts at a level below the root zone in the soil
• Do not over irrigate
• Use cropping and tillage systems to promote adequate infiltration and permeability
• Plant crops that use the available soil moisture.
• Remove excess water by using deep-rooted plants
• Forages may also increase organic matter in the soil and improve soil structure
• Return manure and crop residue to the soil to increase soil water retention
Environmental damage & Solutions

Water pollution:
• Excess fertilizers and pesticide
residues may seep into the
groundwater via rainwater or
fertigation systems (irrigation +
fertilization).

• Contamination of water
sources - groundwater, rivers,
streams, and lakes.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Water pollution - Erie lake example:

• Every summer, runoff pollution from urban and
agricultural lands is causing algae in Lake Erie to grow
out of control, impacting the lake's health and turning
its water to a nasty shade of green.
• The main reason is the discharge of excess nutrients
from greenhouses in the Canadian province of
Ontario.
• These algae blooms can be toxic to fish, wildlife, and
unsafe for people.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Water pollution - potential solutions:

• Nutrient management • Managing livestock waste
• Cover crops • Drainage water management
• Buffers • Growing crops in a detached substrate
• Conservation tillage • Rules and regulations.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Decline in water resources:

• World agriculture consumes approximately 70% of the
freshwater withdrawn per year.
• Agricultural enterprises get larger and larger.
• High demand for agricultural products.
• Worldwide climate change causes more extended drought
periods in many regions.

• Groundwater, rivers, streams, and lakes get depleted

Decline in water resources:
Environmental damage & Solutions

Decline in water resources - potential solutions:

• Use sprinklers, drip irrigation, or micro-irrigation
systems (up to 80% water-use efficiency).
• Substitute the water-demanding low-cash crops with
low water-demanding high-cash crops.
• Water harvesting and rainfall
• Desalination
• Irrigation scheduling based on actual crop water
requirements.
• Rules and regulations (e.g. water price increase).
Environmental damage & Solutions
Tightening and soil degradation
Repeated compaction of the soil:
• Causes soil pore spaces to become smaller.
• Reduces water infiltration rate into soil root
zone and subsoil.
• Reduces the ability of a soil to hold water and
air.
Reduces crop yield potential
• Increases the potential for surface water
ponding, water runoff, and soil erosion.
• Reduces crop emergence as a result of
soil crusting.
• Decreases the ability of crops to take up
nutrients and water efficiently from soil.
Environmental damage & Solutions
Tightening Soil degradation

Soil erosion - wearing away of a field's topsoil by natural physical

forces (e.g. water and wind) or through forces associated with farming
activities such as tillage.
 Environmental damage & Solutions

Tightening and soil degradation - potential solutions:

• No-till farming - leave crop residue on the field.
• Make small holes in the soil above the seeds layer for water accumulation.
• Cover crops
• Conservation tillage (reducing how often fields are tilled)
• Direct seeding and elimination of soil cultivation
• As far as possible, avoid field traffic when soils are wet
• Reduce the wheel traffic load on the soil
• Use soil terraces
Environmental damage & Solutions

Air pollution
• Harmful greenhouse gases like CO2 emissions from
various machines (e.g. tractors or harvesters) and
other farm activities
• Use of spray fertilizers and pesticides
• Burning stubble or crop residues
• Livestock waste and housing
Environmental damage & Solutions
Environmental damage & Solutions
Air pollution - Global increase in the CO2 emissions
Environmental damage & Solutions

Air pollution - potential solutions:

• Changing processes to reduce or eliminate waste
• Regularly tests the fertilizer spreader to ensure accurate
application
• Crop nutrient management planning
• Soil analysis to establish how much fertilizer is needed
• Precision agriculture
• Use alternative energy sources (e.g. solar power, wind,
or water power)
• Straw-burning boilers
Environmental damage & Solutions

Carbon credits - The Kyoto Protocol:

• The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on
11 December 1997 and establishes the quotas of
greenhouse gases (denominated in individual units)
that each developed country can emit.

• The protocol entered into force on 16 February

2005, and was gradually ratified by 156 countries,
until December 2012.
Environmental damage & Solutions

Carbon credits - The Kyoto Protocol:

• One ton of carbon dioxide equals one permit.
The credits are licenses to pollute up to the
limits set by the commitment to reach the
average reduction of 5.2 percent agreed in
Kyoto.

• A second commitment period was agreed in

2012 to extend the agreement to 2020, known
as the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol,
in which 37 countries had binding targets.
 Environmental damage & Solutions

Carbon
credits in
agriculture:
Precision agriculture

• Precision agriculture (PA) an approach to farm management that uses information

technology (IT) to ensure that crops and soil receive exactly what they need for
optimum health and productivity.
• The goal of PA is to ensure profitability, sustainability and protection of the
environment. PA is also known as satellite agriculture and site-specific crop
management (SSCM).
Precision agriculture

Benefits include:
• Increasing yield
• Maximizing the effectiveness of growing techniques
• Reducing fertilizer use and water waste
• Minimizing pesticide treatment
• Decreasing carbon footprint
Precision agriculture
Precision agriculture

Precision Ag Technologies:
• GPS Guidance and Auto-steer • In-field Sensing
• Section Control on Sprayers • Variable Rate Applications
• Row Control on Planters and Seeders • Telematics
• Yield Monitoring • Robotics
• Remote Sensing • Data Management
• LiDAR
Thank You for listening!