AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEM AND THER OUTLINE.pptx

This presentation involves with the ecosystem of agriculture and their properties, components, types, outline, threats, conservation, genetically modified crops and their impacts

1. AGRO ECOSYSTEM M.J. AFRA I MSC MICROBIOLOGY TBAKC

2. ECOSYSTEM It is a community of living organism in combination with the non-living components of their environment, interacting as a system Components – Abiotic and Biotic

3. components

4. Agro ecosystem Agriculture + Ecosystem = Agroecosystem It is a biophysical and socioeconomic components with boundaries and hierarchies It is a functional coherent unit of agricultural activity which includes the living and non-living components involved in that unit as well as their interactions It can be manipulated to improve production and to produce more sustainably, with fewer negative environmental or social impacts and fewer external inputs

5. components

6. components Abiotic Components Climate:  temperature, light intensity, day length, CO 2 Resources:  water availability, nutrient supply Landscape:  topography, relief Soil:  fertility, salinity, pH Biotic Components Pests:  parasites, herbivores Competition:  between plants Symbiotic relationships:  subterranean organisms,  pollinators Farmers:  includes their management of (a)biotic factors

7. comparision

8. properties Productivity­-  It is net increment of values products per unit resources (land, labour , energy, capital) and  is commonly measured as annual yield /hectare. Stability­   It  is  the  degree  to  which,  productivity  remain  constant,  inspite   of  normal  small  scale  fluctuation in environmental variables such as climate or in the economic condition in market.

9. properties Sustainability-­  It is defined as the ability of the system to maintain its productivity when subject to  stress  or  perturbation.  A  stress  is  defined  as  regular,  sometimes  continues,  relatively  small  and  predictable disturbance. e.g. Affect of growing soil salinity. A perturbation by contrast is an irregular, in  frequent relatively long and unpredictable disturbance such as drought or flood or a new pest. Equitability-­  It is a measure of how evenly the produce of Agro ecosystem is distributed among its  human beneficial. The more equitable the system, the more evenly are the products to fed shared among  the population of the farm, village, regions or nation.

10. types Agroecology uses a variety of techniques to support productive and sustainable agroecosystem functioning. These include organic farming; building soil health through interventions like crop rotation, no-till agriculture, and composting; growing multiple crops together in ways that provide mutual benefit; protecting wildlife; and exploiting synergistic interactions between crops, soil, water, trees, and wildlife. The emphasis is on supporting the health of the entire system—including the people who work the land and the communities whose wellbeing and economic stability depend on agriculture. 

11. polyculture Polyculture, also known as intercropping, is a stark contrast to monoculture employed in most industrial farming, in which farmers cultivate acre after acre of the same plant. Polyculture intersperses different crops that complement each other and produce mutual benefits.

12. permaculture Similar to polyculture, permaculture systems   create synergies between different elements of the landscape that imitate natural systems. But the scope of permaculture is broader.  Permaculture applies holistic techniques to support healthy ecosystem functioning, both on croplands and in surrounding ecosystems and communities impacted by food production. Permaculture systems may integrate everything from hydrology, soil science, forestry, livestock, to renewable energy generation, waste management, sustainable building design, sustainable markets, and community development.

13. agroforestry Agroforestry is a term that encompasses a variety of methods of growing trees, crops, and animals together for mutual benefit, including climate mitigation. There are three main categories of agroforestry: silvopastoral systems, agrisilvicultural systems, and agrosilvopastoral systems.  Agrisilvicultural systems pair crops and trees. A silvopastoral system is a type of agroforestry that combines livestock with a mixed landscape of trees, shrubs, and grasses. Finally, combining all three elements—crops, forests, and pasture—is an agrosilvopastoral system, which provides similar benefits

14. population

15. diversification Agroecosystems support a greater level of biodiversity compared to monocultures. This helps agroecosystems perform a range of services outside of food production - nutrient cycling, regulating climate and hydrology, detoxification, and many more.

16. diversification Productive Biota:  another term for planned diversity. Productive biota plays a key role in determining the complexity and diversity of the agroecosystem. Resource Biota:  organisms contributing to the agroecosystem's productivity through services such as pollination and decomposition. Destructive Biota:  weeds, insects and pathogens. Farmers aim to limit their effects through management.

17. Methods of diversification Sustainable agricultural practices such as organic farming, crop rotation, promote environmental stewardship etc., Technological development Biofertilizers and biocides for pest control Animal husbandry

18. Sustainable practices Economic viability Ecological integrity Social equity

19. threats Since the 1900s, some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have left their multiple local varieties and landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties. * 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction; six breeds are lost each month. * Today, 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species. * Of the 4 percent of the 250 000 to 300 000 known edible plant species, only 150 to 200 are used by humans. Only three - rice, maize and wheat - contribute nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants. * Animals provide some 30 percent of human requirements for food and agriculture and 12 percent of the world’s population live almost entirely on products from ruminants.

20. threats Many economically important agricultural systems are based on ‘alien’ crop or livestock species introduced from elsewhere (for example, horticultural production systems or Friesian cows in Africa). This creates a high degree of interdependence between countries for the genetic resources on which our food systems are based. As regards crop diversity, diversity within species is at least as important as diversity between species. Locally diverse food production systems are under threat and, with them, the accompanying local knowledge, culture and skills of the food producers. The loss of forest cover, coastal wetlands, ‘wild’ uncultivated areas and the destruction of the aquatic environment exacerbate the genetic erosion of agrobiodiversity. The main cause of genetic erosion in crops, as reported by almost all countries, is the replacement of local varieties by improved or exotic varieties and species.

21. Conservation management Maintain a high level of crop-genetic diversity, both on farm level as in seed banks, which will help to increase and sustain production levels and nutritional diversity throughout the full range of different agro -ecological conditions. Integrate, through ecosystem approach strategies, the planned biodiversity (crop sequences and associations) that is maintained with the associated diversity (for example, wild pollinators). Adopt production system management strategies, such as not disturbing soil, maintaining mulch covers from crop residues and cover crops which increase the biological activity and diversity of the production system. Consider the benefits of having fragmented land (riparian areas, forest land within the agricultural landscape) on the agricultural yield, through improved biological processes such as pollination. Improve the adaptation of good farming practices (i.e. pest management strategies, etc.) which follow ecosystem-based approaches designed to improve the sustainability and agricultural biodiversity of production systems.  Aim at producing commodities that meet the consumer needs for products that are of high quality, safe and produced in an environmentally and socially responsible way.

22. Species based conservation Threatened Species Ecologically Important Species Species Useful To Humans Species With No-Use Value

23. Area based conservation Area-based approaches are widely advocated for planning in species’ conservation. They are based on the observation that some parts of the world have far more species than others. Areas with large numbers of species, especially endemics, are often referred to as "hotspots“ It is argued that by concentrating conservation efforts in these areas, a disproportionate impact can be had on the maintenance of global biological diversity. This approach can theoretically be applied at any geographical scale. It is widely accepted that such area-based approaches are the only realistic hope of maintaining a significant proportion of the world’s biological diversity, but there are both practical and theoretical difficulties in identifying the most important areas.

24. Genetically modified crops Genetically modified (GM) crops have generated a great deal of controversy. The use of biotechnology in agriculture has caused major ideological and scientific concerns that continue to be echoed in the media and academic press Since commercially introduced to farmers in 1996, the global area cultivated with GM crops has increased 94-fold, from 1.7 million hectares to 160 million hectares in 2011 The rapid adoption of this technology has had substantial socio-economic impacts Consequently, a vast amount of technical and non-technical literature addressing this topic has accumulated over the last two decades Moreover, groups of stakeholders characteristically advocate opposing opinions, which may not be based on best available evidence. Therefore, the availability of transparent and reliable reviews of studies on the socio-economic impacts of GM crops could help promote evidence-based dialogue among the diverse parties involved

25. impacts Farm Level Impacts Coexistence Related Impacts Supply Chain Impacts Consumer Level Impacts Environment and Economic Impacts

26. Farm level

27. Coexistence related impact

28. Supply chain impacts

29. Consumer level impact

30. environment/economic impact

31. Thank you M.J. AFRA I MSC MICROBIOLOGY