Crop Production and Global Environmental Issues PDF
Preview Crop Production and Global Environmental Issues
Khalid Rehman Hakeem Editor Crop Production and Global Environmental Issues Crop Production and Global Environmental Issues Khalid Rehman Hakeem Editor Crop Production and Global Environmental Issues Editor Khalid Rehman Hakeem Faculty of Forestry Universiti Putra Malaysia Serdang, Selangor , Malaysia ISBN 978-3-319-23161-7 ISBN 978-3-319-23162-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-23162-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015955253 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 T his work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. T he publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper S pringer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Hakeem Abdul Hameed (14 Sept 1908–22 July 1999) A great philanthropist, thinker, visionary, and founder-chancellor of Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India Foreword F or decades, due to increasing food demand together with policies encouraging production, agricultural science has focused on boosting production through the development of new technologies. It has helped farmers to achieve enormous yield gains as well as lower costs for farming. Agriculture has become increasingly inten- sive. Farmers are becoming capable of producing higher yields using less labor and less land due to many factors, including use of fertilizer and pesticides, introduction of farm machinery, development of hybrid strains, and increased knowledge about farm management practices. Intensifi cation of agriculture has not, however, been an unmixed blessing because this success has come at a high environmental cost. The detrimental effects of intensifi cation of agriculture include water, air, and soil pollu- tion, as well as the loss of wildlife, habitats, and landscape features. As agricultural sustainability means maintaining productivity while protecting the natural resource base, there is increasing general recognition of the need to improve environmental performance in agriculture, through enhancing the benefi cial and reducing the harmful environmental effects. The book C rop Production and Global Environmental Issues should prove a very timely action in this direction. Agriculture has a complex relationship with natural resources and the environment. Agriculture is a major user of land and water resources, yet needs to maintain the quantity and quality of these resources in order to remain viable. Agriculture does generate waste and pollution, yet it also conserves and recycles natural resources. Many of the environmental effects are confi ned to agriculture itself, but off-farm effects are also important. The impacts are often concentrated locally and regionally, although some are of national and global signifi cance. As a matter of fact, during the next 50 years, demand for food by a wealthier and 50 % larger global population will be a major driver of agriculturally driven global environmental issues. The selection of diverse issues in different chapters of this book is in line with the widespread realization that agricultural knowledge, science, and technology can be used to reduce hunger and poverty, to improve rural livelihoods, and to facilitate equitable environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable development. Biotechnologies are techniques that use living organisms to make or modify a prod- uct. Some conventional biotechnologies such as plant and animal breeding to create vii viii Foreword varieties with better characteristics or increased yields are well accepted. Modern biotechnologies change the genetic code of living organisms using a technique called genetic modifi cation. These technologies are being used in industrial applica- tions such as enzyme production but use of genetically modifi ed crops created by inserting genes from other organisms lacks long-term assessments of environmental and health risks and benefi ts tend to lag behind the discoveries. The chapter on issues and challenges related to genetic modifi cation of crop plants should, there- fore, be very valuable. Similarly the chapter on plant mutagenesis and crop improve- ment constitutes an important contribution. A griculture has contributed to climate change in many ways, for instance, through the release of greenhouse gases and conversion of forests to farmland. And now climate change is threatening to damage irreversibly natural resources on which agriculture depends. Although moderate global warming can slightly increase crop yields, overall, negative impacts will increasingly dominate. Floods and droughts become more frequent and severe, which is likely seriously to affect farm productivity and the livelihoods of rural communities, and increase the risk of con- fl icts over land and water. Climate change is also likely to encourage the spread of pests and invasive species and may increase the geographical range of some dis- eases. There are three chapters in this book that deal with how climate change is going to infl uence productivity of food grains as well as horticultural crops. How increasing levels of carbon dioxide are going to infl uence RuBisCO, an enzyme involved in the fi rst major step of carbon fi xation, should make interesting reading. Destruction of stratospheric ozone due to nitrous oxide produced in fi elds to which nitrogen fertilizers are applied, results in increasing levels of ultraviolet and gamma rays reaching the surface of Earth. The chapter dealing with the effect of gamma rays on crop production should immensely add to our knowledge. I n recent decades, although food production has substantially increased, many people remain undernourished, a problem accounting for 15 % of global diseases. Defi ciency of protein, micronutrients, and vitamins prevail in many population groups. Agricultural research and policies need to be devised to increase dietary diversity, improve food quality, and promote better food processing. Different chap- ters in this book provide valuable information in this regard. Health concerns also include the presence of pesticide residues and heavy metals in agricultural produce. As a matter of fact, agricultural development was geared towards increasing pro- ductivity and exploiting natural resources, but it ignored complex interactions between agricultural activities, local ecosystems, and society. Knowledge, science, and technology need to resolve the challenges such as producing healthy crops and quality food grains when soils are polluted with heavy metals and industrial effl u- ents are becoming increasingly available, but putting them into practice requires creative efforts from all stakeholders. Two chapters in the book dealing with these issues constitute a signifi cant step in this direction. I n recent years, wheat production has stagnated in South Asia because new vari- eties are not able to provide signifi cant improvements in yield potential primarily because of the adverse effects of biotic and abiotic stresses. Modern breeding prac- tices result in relatively little genetic variation in wheat varieties, so that breeders Foreword ix are not able to develop superior adapted genotypes. The wild relatives or alien spe- cies of wheat provide a vast and largely untapped reservoir of genetic variation for traits such as tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress, biomass, yield, and photosyn- thetic potential. This variation can be exploited for the development of new high- yielding varieties adapted to climate change and environmentally friendly agricultural practices. The introduction of alien germplasm that combats these stresses is thus of critical importance for future increases in wheat production. Chapters dealing with biotic and abiotic stresses in wheat and use of alien diversity to combat these stresses provide very useful information. Another chapter on the importance of seed quality in improving crop yields also provides information of practical importance. E xisting agricultural science and technology can tackle some of the underlying causes of declining productivity. But further developments based on a multidisci- plinary approach are needed, starting with more monitoring of how natural resources are used. For example, in the 1970s, Malaysia was the biggest cocoa bean producer in the world. The area under cocoa then was >400,000 ha. Since then it has been rapidly decreasing and now the area under cocoa is about 50,000 ha with produc- tion not enough to feed its own factories producing cocoa products. As some of the cocoa trees in Malaysia are planted on highly weathered and acidic Oxisols with low fertility, production and quality of cocoa are adversely affected. The chapter on cocoa cultivation in Oxisols of Malaysia contains very valuable information in terms of achieving sustainability in cocoa production. Similarly, the chapter on cracking of cherry fruits contributes a wealth of information that can be useful all over the world where the cherry is grown. As cherries begin the fi nal period of rapid fruit growth, the cuticle becomes thinner and microcracks appear. Contact with water aggravates microcrack formation. With prolonged contact, too much surface water is absorbed, the fl esh swells in this localized area, and bowl or shoulder cracks result. M anagement of acid sulphate soils and the effect of rhizosphere acidifi cation on nutrient uptake by crop plants constitute a chapter that deals with the soil environ- ment as it is changed due to long-term inappropriate soil management. Sulphur nutrition of oil palms has also been discussed in detail in another chapter. The infor- mation contained in these chapters should help manage crop production in a way that natural resources can be maintained for the generations to come. I n 1992, fertilizer use in developing countries surpassed use in developed coun- tries. Eastern Asia is now the world leader, with Southern Asia in second place and North America in third place, respectively. China alone uses more than one third of the synthetic fertilizers applied globally. Overuse of fertilizers in China or anywhere in the world is leading to environmental degradation in the form of nitrate pollution of surface ground water bodies, nitrogen deposition, and nitrous oxide emissions. Without fertilizer use it may not be possible to produce enough food for the increas- ing population on the Earth. Therefore, the need of the time is that fertilizer use effi ciency is enhanced to a level that crop yields remain high and only a small portion of the nutrients applied through fertilizers leave the soil–plant system. This aspect has been amply emphasized in the chapter on fertilizers and the environment.
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