Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
came the miracle of the twentieth century, which was the huge
amount (doubled and tripled) of food produced from the same
amount of land.
To produce high yields using hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers
were required, which were specific to a single crop and, hence,
encouraged monocultures giving further rise to pest problems,
which were then tackled with another chemical, that is, pesticides.
Hence, with the increase of hybrid seeds, dependence on chemical
inputs grew and the technological progress in agriculture, which
appeared to be favourable at first glance, resulted in the explo-
sion of many problems and complications over time, particularly
greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural practices, including defor-
estation, cattle feed lots, chemical use (fertilisers, pesticides and
herbicides), use of fuels and manufacturing of on-farm machines
and harvesting methods accounted for 25% of greenhouse gas
emission (FAO, 2007), making agriculture the second largest
industrial sector contributing to greenhouse gases. Looking at
such a large impact of technological advancement in agriculture
on climate change, it becomes imperative to limit all the aspects
of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The agricultural aspect
of climate change is primarily a technological problem, but is also
influenced by political and social factors. However, despite politi-
cal and social limitations, there are immediate benefits of bio-
technology in agriculture that can be seen working in the current
agricultural system. It is these benefits that hold the promise for
reducing the immediate impact of agriculture on climate change
and addressing the urgent problem of greenhouse gas emissions.
While it is important for alternate movements, like the Polyface
and similar sustainable farms, to continue growing and support-
ing the entire systematic agricultural change, it is also essential to
immediately change the current system of industrial agriculture
which accounts for the majority of the agricultural causes of cli-
mate change. It is therefore essential to find ways to immediately
tackle the greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale industrial
farms, and biotechnology holds one such immediate solution. The
FAO says 'agriculture can be part of the solution by contribut-
ing to climate change mitigation, through carbon conservation,
sequestration and substitutions and establishing agricultural sys-
tems that can buffer extreme events' (FAO, 2007).
Current and forecasted climatic conditions such as tem-
perature extremes (hot and cold), drought, heat waves and the
changing pattern of rainfall pose a serious challenge for agricul-
tural production worldwide, affecting plant growth and yield,
and causing billions of dollars in losses (Boyer, 1982). Hence,
the global climate change is associated with the problem of
