Impact on the Environment

• Agriculture can have many impacts on the environment. Some of them are below:


• Soil erosion is caused from broad acre farming and is quite harmful to the farming industry and also to the environment, it is when the soil runs off into a river because of lack of vegetation with long roots to hold the soil together.


• Pollution of the air, by fossil fuelled machinery – pollution increase in the o-zone layer increases the ‘green house’ effect. Heat comes into the atmosphere and can’t escape.


• Soil salination – the increase of salt in the soil which causes the plants growing to die.


• Water crisis (consumption of all nearby water) – the lack of nearby water causes plants and animals to die.


• Feral Plants and animals introduced to the environment – feral animals can kill off native animals and quickly wipe out native species. By eating native herbivore’s food they can kill a species off as well. They also can destroy the local land.


• Loss of minerals from the soil – The loss of minerals in the land makes it harder for the vegetation on the land to grow with success.
• Conversion of healthy ecosystem into arable lands – the turning of fertile land into an arab desert like area. This is caused by soil erosion and lack of water.


• Deforestation –the cutting down of the local vegetation until all the land has been cleared of plants.


• Biodiversity loss – the loss of animals and other organisms from an area.


• Destruction of the land by livestock. examples: horses, cows, hoofed animals