Food Security - Farming Techniques (GCSE Biology)

Farming Techniques

Farming Techniques

Increasing Agricultural Yields

As the human population grows, food security can be increased by using methods to increase agricultural yield. Some ways are outlined below:

1. Hydroponics. This is where plants are grown in a solution with minerals and nutrients as opposed to in soil. This allows plants to grow which wouldn’t otherwise be able to for example, in harsh conditions.
2. Pesticides and insecticides. These can be used to kill specific pests and insects without killing the crops. Hence, the quality and yield of crops can be increased. However, pesticides can be harmful and poisonous to humans so their usage must be control. They can also be harmful to other wildlife organisms.
3. Biological control. This includes methods of reducing pests without using pesticides. You can use other organisms to reduce pests e.g. they could be predators for the pests without damaging the crops. Biological control can have longer-lasting effects and is not as harmful to humans as pesticides. However, if new organisms are introduced as biological control, there can be problems e.g. they themselves can eventually become pests.
4. Herbicides. These kill surrounding weeds to reduce the crops’ competition with weeds for light, water and nutrients.
5. Fertilisers. Chemical fertilisers can improve plant yields by providing crops with optimum levels of mineral ions and replacing any mineral ions that are missing.
6. Selective breeding. Crops and livestock can be improved through selective breeding. For example, cattle, fish and poultry can be selectively bred so that they have genes that make them grow faster or to make them resistant to disease.
7. Agricultural machinery. Agricultural machinery can be used in larger areas of land to improve efficiency. This includes using tractors and machinery instead of manual labour and using animals.
8. Glasshouses and polythene tunnels. These can be used to increase the yield of certain crops. Optimum levels of carbon dioxide, temperature and light can be set in glasshouses to promote plant growth.
9. Gene technology. This can also be used to increase agricultural yields but more about this later.

Pros and Cons

Modern day farming has changed the game. Whereas previously, food was farmed for a small area, maybe even one for a single family, now farmers make money by mass producing crops. Their techniques have changed for this.

• Intensive farming involves a lot of energy. The key concept of intensive farming is that you put in a lot of energy in order to maximise crop yield.
• Monoculture is used. Monoculture is growing only one type of crop and maximising conditions to get the greater yield of this crop. This does have problems however, as it leads to a reduction in biodiversity as soil nutrients can be reduced.
• Raising livestock is made efficient. By reducing the energy output of livestock, their size and yield increases. This is done by keeping the animals in cramped conditions to restrict movement and regulating the temperature, to reduce any heat loss. They are also fed specific protein rich feed in order to increase their mass and reduce their waste. They are also given antibiotics to reduce any chance of illness.
• Concerns about intensive farming. Many people believe that the way livestock are treated is unethical, so there has been a great increase in free range animals. There are also concerns regarding the antibiotics that are given to animals, as they could be leading to an increase in antibiotic resistance. Moreover, intensive farming has led to a reduction in biodiversity.
• There has been a rise in organic farming. Organic farming does not use any chemicals and instead relies on natural fertilisers like manure and compost. Crop rotation is a key concept in organic farming. This is the process of farming that involves changing the crops grown in a field over different periods. This avoids monoculture and increases species diversity.
• There are social effects of food production. If more land is used to grow crops and food, there will be less land available for people to live on. Moreover, food may become expensive for people to afford if it is scarce.
• There are economic effects of food production. It can get expensive for some people to start and maintain food production due to the high input costs e.g. machinery, seed and livestock costs. Hence, not enough food may be produced.
• There are environmental effects of food production. As mentioned previously, deforestation is used to clear land in order to make room for rearing livestock and growing crops and all of the negative consequences of deforestation apply here. Moreover, methane gas coming from livestock can also contribute to global warming and climate change.

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Famine

A famine is when there is a food shortage so there isn’t sufficient food to feed the population. There can be different causes for a famine:

• Poverty – people may not have enough money to produce or buy food due to poverty.
• Global warming and climate change – this can cause extreme weather changes that can cause crop and farmland destruction e.g. severe rain and flooding or droughts.
• The increasing human population – the more people there are, the more difficult it is to feed everyone.
• The distribution of food being unequal – some countries don’t have enough food to feed their population whilst others have more than enough. Hence, there is an unequal distribution.