Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Environmental risk of chemical
agriculture
A. Anton, 1 G. Fekete, 2 B. Darvas 2 & A. Székács 2
1 Institute for Soil Sciences and Agricultural Chemistry, Centre for Agricultural Research,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
2 Central Environmental and Food Science Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary
ABSTRACT
Contamination by soil fertilizers, veterinary drugs and pesticides is an important envi-
ronmental problem caused by agroecosystem uses aiming at high-yield production.
Intensive production resulted in a strong dependence on chemical fertilizers, thus fail-
ing to maintain the structure, nutrient content and biological diversity of agricultural
soil necessary for long-term production. These deteriorated soils are incapable of reg-
ulating and hindering pests, and therefore, agriculture and animal husbandry rely
increasingly on the use of pesticides and veterinary drugs to control diseases, pests and
parasites endangering crops and livestock.
This chapter gives an overview of the European legislation on pesticides, natural
and contaminated agricultural soil, as well as on the inter-relationship between the use
of chemicals and the deterioration of soils in Europe.
1 INTRODUCTIONTOTHE RISK OF CHEMICALS IN
AGRICULTURE
The soil agroecosystem is the most productive terrestrial ecosystem providing mankind
with food, crops, spices, fibers, biomass, medicinal and biochemical resources, as well
as playing an essential role in the regulation of water cycles, element cycles, waste
decomposition and contaminant detoxification, erosion prevention, ensuring envi-
ronmental quality by carbon sequestration and climate regulation. The provisioning
and regulating ecosystem services are highly modified by human activities. Applied
agrotechnologies and chemical substances are important impacting factors in this field.
An agroecosystem should be considered and handled as part of the natural ecosys-
tem, given that they are closely connected, and the agroecosystem functions as part of
the natural ecosystem, even if agricultural activity is practiced within it. The agroe-
cosystem includes the region that is used and impacted by agricultural activity. The
agroecosystem differs from natural ecosystems in the complexity of species assemblages
and energy flows, as well as in the net nutrient balance. Intensive agriculture results
in simpler species composition as well as simpler energy and nutrient flows than the
natural ecosystem (Peden, 1998). Agroecosystems have extreme nutrient input often
leading to eutrophication. The diffuse use of fertilizers and pesticides leads to a high
environmental risk at catchment scale.
 
 
 
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