Agriculture is an essential part of modern society that affects the food we eat, the land we live on, and many other aspects of our community.
This article will discuss the pros and cons of agriculture experienced worldwide.
Pros of Agriculture
1.. Expansion in farming sustainability.
When we talk about agriculture, we cannot forget modern agriculture, the latest trend.
Modern agriculture’s massive reliance upon the few farm crops welcomes challenges, considering the change in climate and the chances of harvest failures.
Therefore, agriculture has brought about new farming endeavors that promise to eliminate obesity and malnutrition opposing problems.
To enhance crop diversity ideal for food security and human health, experts in the agriculture sector and farmers have been able to.
They are also working on new procedures to bring new crops resistant to diseases and generate high yields.
Moreover, agriculture has advocated eco-friendly farming techniques that offset climate challenges, protect the local ecological system, and secure the food and water supply.
2. Agriculture improves the community.
Agriculture, in general, enables the rapid growth of farmers’ markets.
The farmer’s markets allow small-scale farmers to interact directly with the consumers.
Therefore, the food system will remain within the local economy since the produce is locally produced, eliminating the urge or need for long-distance transportation.
Consumers reap the benefits of healthier food options, and at the same time, farmers benefit from the rising opportunities to sell their farm produce.
Additionally, consumers get first-hand information about the farm produce and how to grow them.
Therefore farmers and consumers mutually benefit from agriculture, thus enhancing their lives.
3. Source of raw materials.
Agriculture is, without a doubt, the backbone of human food consumption.
With the recent developments and enhanced technology, processed food emerged, but all these traces back to agriculture involving crop farming and animal rearing.
Altogether, agriculture gives the raw materials that are needed in manufacturing.
Some raw materials are cotton and sisal bamboo, and the list is endless.
4. Greener Environment
You will agree with me that agriculture supports a greener environment.
When farmers and the government appreciate agriculture, the high demand to clear vegetation and create room for industrialization is minimized.
This translates to a reduction in global warming and the greenhouse effect.
Agriculture helps to improve the environment by creating a natural vegetation cover instead of leaving rocks and bare soil.
This is a tremendous advantage since soil erosion is minimized, and your land stays fertile, thus increasing the farm produce.
Moreover, the water sources are preserved, thus minimizing desertification.
5. Improved health.
If you asked a doctor, a scientist, or any health expert, they would tell you that medicine originated from plants that are farmed or grew naturally in the ecosystem.
Ancient humans used herbal medicine to treat illness, and due to the advancement in technology, there has been a significant transformation in the drugs used to treat disease.
Still, all the appreciation goes to agriculture at large and the plants grown by farmers.
It is better with an example.
Garlic is widely known for its medicinal properties and has shown anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antimicrobial properties.
Therefore, you are confident that it would be hard to develop drugs that improve our health if it were not for agriculture.
6. Forging International cooperation.
Numerous countries are interacting with each other due to the export and imports coming from agricultural produce.
For instance, the U.S.
exports agricultural products, including soya beans, livestock products, and agricultural products, to North American and East Asia countries.
This ensures International cooperation for trade to continue between the countries.
The European Union is there due to work among its members, which includes agricultural products.
For instance, the Netherlands is famous for its agricultural expertise, where it exports its products to countries in the European Union.
7. National Revenue.
As said earlier, agriculture is the backbone of most countries.
Therefore, agriculture is a major, if not the main, contributor to national revenue.
There are countries where agriculture provides more than half of the GDP.
Moreover, agriculture provides direct and indirect revenue, thus a significant contributor.
When farmers sell their produce to the consumer, they pay taxes that add up to the revenue.
Agriculture improves the sector of transportation as the products are moved from the fields to the market.
8. Employment opportunities.
It is with no doubt that agriculture is one of the leading employers in most countries.
Agriculture has even encouraged self-employment.
Farmers can be self-employed, while individuals with large-scale farms can hire laborers to work in their fields.
People are employed on large crop plantations such as coffee, tea, sisal plantations, and more.
Indirectly, agriculture promotes the development of food processing industries, w
Drivers are hired to transport the products to the markets, and the list is endless.
9. Water conservation.
Water catchment areas are preserved when agriculture is appreciated or promoted in every nation, ensuring a continuous water supply to the citizens.
Moreover, when modern agriculture is practiced, water conservation is enhanced.
Drip irrigation in modern agriculture helps preserve water since the water goes directly to your plants’ roots.
Moreover, modern agriculture encourages the digging of dams, which prevents water from wasting away.
This ensures the country stays greener, which is very attractive.
10. Absorbs heat.
Some agriculture efforts promote the growth of agricultural cover that helps to cool the surface of the earth.
This, in turn, minimizes water evaporation from the earth’s surface, promoting a more relaxed environment for humans and animals.
Trees planted in parks give us a better place to relax with our colleagues and family.
11. Food for animals.
Animals feed on plants that are grown through agricultural practices.
For instance, silage, fodder, and hay can be fed to your herbivorous animals.
Moreover, agriculture allows natural vegetation to grow, which is fed on by wild animals.
Wild animals are major tourist attractions, thus generating income for the government when tourists visit these places.
12. Encourages Innovation.
Industrial agriculture dwells heavily on the latest tools and technology.
This means there is a need for scientists and agricultural engineers to continue finding ways to enhance agricultural equipment and come up with new machines to improve and speed up food production for greater efficiency.
13. Lengthens food availability.
Industrial agriculture has created new ideas to store, transport, and process food.
This allows the farm products to last longer, thus enhancing food security and eliminating hunger.
This also reduces waste.
14. Your hard work pays off.
Nowadays, it can be hard to feel like you have achieved something in some jobs.
But in agriculture, you are assured that the work you do in the pastures, fields, and other facilities with your hands will pay off after that long day of work.
Therefore, you are assured that you have generated a positive impact assuming you can protect your crops and agricultural output.
15. Not all farming uses GMOs.
When organic farming is practiced in agriculture, it comes with numerous benefits.
One of the most significant advantages is that you are not growing Genetically Modified Organisms.
With organic farming, genetic mutation risks are minimized since the crops are not genetically altered.
The usage of GMO technology is a concern to many people, so it is worth mentioning.
Cons of Agriculture
1.. Risks of child labor.
The increased demand for agricultural products requires increased labor to realize huge profits.
Children are seen as alternatives to cheap labor because they demand less salary and are easy to supervise.
Therefore, increased agricultural practices may put children at risk of child labor, especially where the agricultural managers value nothing else but huge profits.
With the increasing poverty, especially in low-income societies, children are forced to work in large plantations and farms to supplement the family’s income.
This is a sad reality since children are not supposed to work commercially since it is not in line with the Act, which outlines children’s rights.
However, these rights are violated when the government fails to monitor children’s rights.
These children are denied the opportunity for Education and, therefore, provide cheap labor in agricultural farms, which compounds the family poverty.
2. Environmental pollution.
Large-scale agriculture requires increased use of pesticides and herbicides.
These chemicals are applied to control pests and herbicides, which interfere with agriculture, reducing yields.
Therefore, to counter this problem, farmers embark on using pesticides and herbicides, which, when uncontrolled, pollutes the environment.
The environment becomes contaminated with these chemicals, causing the death of critical environmental components, which creates a balance in the environment.
3. Health issues.
Additionally, if uncontrolled, these chemicals pollute the water, air, and soil, increasing difficulties for ordinary people.
Polluted water becomes unsafe for human and animal consumption, while polluted air leads to breathing difficulties.
Polluted water causes waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera, among others.
More so, dissolved chemicals cause other risk factors, such as poisoning, which would easily cause death.
Air pollution is disastrous, especially for older people, young children, and individuals with breathing difficulties.
These individuals’ lives will be in great danger if the air they breathe is polluted, and their cases may worsen or even lead to death.
Furthermore, an individual’s health may be exposed to danger if the pesticides and herbicides come into contact with their skin while spraying the crops or the animals.
This may cause a burning effect on the skin and possible damage to the skin.
4. Agriculture leads to overgrazing.
Beef and dairy farming, especially in large-scale farming, may adversely affect the pasture.
Most humans are generally profit-seeking beings by nature and are interested in maximizing profit at all costs; this desire to produce more beef and more milk leads to overgrazing, which exhausts the pasture, exposing the land to agents of soil erosion.
Soil is essential since fertile soil free from erosion supports vegetation.
However, eroded soil contains less or no nutrients and supports no or less unhealthy vegetation.
This overgrazing is a menacing environmental practice since it contributes to semi-aridity.
Semi-aridity disturbs the existing equilibrium and leaves humans, water sources, and other animals at risk by exposing them to uncontrolled dust from the soil, which contaminates the water sources, making them unsafe for drinking.
5. Agriculture may disturb family dynamics.
Families are essential socializing agents that require dedication and cooperation, and these factors cement the mutual relationship among the members.
However, with extensive Agriculture, which requires more time in crops and animal husbandry, this equilibrium will be disturbed since much time will be spent on the farm rather than maintaining family bonds.
As a result, the family increasingly becomes neglected, and relationships within turn tragic.
Love will now be equated to effort dedicated to the farm rather than unconditional love to be found in the family.
Farmers are generally worried about their projects rather than their homes.
For example, farmers will be more worried about a bad harvest or sick animals, which may hinder them from noticing minor household abnormalities.
All their efforts will be channeled toward the production process.
6. Spread of diseases.
Some diseases are easily spread between animals and humans.
Therefore, disease control should be emphasized to ensure that animals and humans are safe.
These diseases are spread in various ways, including by consuming infected animal products such as meat and milk.
Consumers who are not well-checked by veterinary officers find themselves in severe health crises.
This scenario is not foreign, given the nature of swine flu, COVID-19, and other diseases resulting from unhealthy product consumption.
Furthermore, to counter loss, sick animals are slaughtered and sold at a lower price.
The less unfortunate economically or the ones unaware find themselves consuming this flesh and may encounter food poisoning or, even worse, death.
Additionally, genetically modified food risks the users contracting cancer, a fatal disease.
Treatment of cancer is costly, and hence money that could have been used in other is used in the treatment of cancer.
Furthermore, cancer, in its fatality, causes death.
7. Unpredictable weather.
The world is changing, and so is the climate.
Weather patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable, and this unpredictable aspect of weather affects crops and animal production and yields.
Areas highly dependent on rainfall are the most affected due to climatic variability.
This causes considerable losses to the farmers, and as a result, valuable time and resources which could otherwise have been spent on other projects are wasted hence distorting the economy, and at times agricultural dependent economies experience famine and loss of animals and crops due to lack of rain which cumulates their agony and frustrates their economies.
Additionally, extreme temperatures and precipitation may interfere with the growth of some crops.
High or shallow temperatures harm crops, preventing their growth or reducing their yield.
On the contrary, floods destroy crops, leaving farmers at a loss.
8. Misuse of land.
Human beings need to eat and grow.
With the increased population, the demand for food increases, which causes agricultural managers to develop a way of producing more and more.
As a result, more land is needed, which leads to deforestation and the evacuation of some communities to accommodate the ever-increasing appetite for human beings.
Deforestation affects the environment and contributes to the emission of greenhouse gas.
The land, which was initially a forest cover, is converted into an agricultural zone.
Furthermore, some crops are grown in areas that do not fit them, leading to increased land misuse.
Additionally, land used to settle the ever-increasing human population is utilized for agricultural gains pushing the people to the slums.
Under such conditions, people in the slums have poor access to basic needs, are less hygienic, are exposed to crime and immorality, and, ultimately, poverty.
This increased appetite for more agricultural land has left many people landless and others homeless.
9. Increased dependency.
Large-scale Agriculture is all about massive production.
This production requires farmers to import farm inputs such as fertilizers, machines, pesticides, and herbicides.
This is because, with increased cultivation, the land eventually becomes degraded.
Therefore, farmers depend on machines and other farm inputs to increase production.
This input comes with conditions from the countries producing them, creating a dependency that affects nations’ sovereignty.
10. Agriculture imbalances social relations.
With large-scale agricultural development, division among social classes is inevitable since laborers and managers will exist as different entities.
The laborers will be viewed as cheap labor producers, while the managers will be seen as aristocratic.
This division though not necessarily bad, interferes with equality.
11. Agriculture is not sustainable.
Agriculture is not sustainable since it depends on other resources that are finite by nature, such as oil and fossil fuels, which at one time will become unavailable therefore interfering with agriculture and its ability to sustain the human and animal population.
12. Agriculture has led to the development of cartels.
Large-scale Agriculture has led to the establishment of multi-national companies run through monopolies by cartels.
These cartels dictate the market prices and may delay the availability of a particular commodity with intent or may corrupt a specificity simply for their gain.
13. Agriculture and water.
Agricultural activities require a lot of water, especially in areas with inadequate rainfall.
This requires irrigation, and hence water reserve is used, which tends to jeopardize water use by future generations simply because we are inclined to produce more.
14. Agriculture focuses more on cash crops.
Cash crops are highly profitable; therefore, agriculture focuses on producing more cash crops to realize huge profits.
Such an approach makes food production less essential and hence increases food insecurity.
15. Agriculture is easily politicized.
Given the enormous profits associated with agriculture, the Treasury allocates the ministry a large percentage, making it fluid to politics.
Sometimes, well-wishers and donors donate huge donations to agricultural countries to spread their political ideologies.