There is no doubt in this fact that agriculture plays a notable role when it comes to fulfilling food-related requirements of mankind. But are you aware of the fact that agricultural practices of industrial nature (like the use of fossil fuel-based farming machines namely Mahindra Tractor) play a contributory role when it comes to global warming? And switching to organic farming is the only way out. As it has a huge potential to fulfill all our food-related needs without putting our mother earth’s very existence at risk. Dig deeper to learn more about various ways in which agriculture impacts global warming both in positive and negative ways.
Global Warming in Layman’s Words
Global warming, by basic definition, is the phenomenon of swelling average air temperatures near the surface of the Earth over the past one to two centuries. This occurrence came to humanity’s notice because climate scientists have since the mid-20th century collected in detail data regarding several weather phenomena (namely temperatures, precipitation, and storms) and their equivalent effect on climate (namely ocean currents and the atmosphere’s chemical fabric). And the data gave clear indications that Earth’s climate has been experiencing a change on almost every possible time scale since the beginning of geologic time. And that human activities since at least the beginning of the Industrial Revolution have had an increasing effect on the rate and scope of present-day climate change.
Positive Effects
1. Carbon Confinement In Soils
As we have shared above, organic farming is the only way out when one wants to do sustainable agriculture using farming machines like VST Tractor while not leaving a negative effect on the earth’s atmosphere at the same time. Because according to a recent public study organic agriculture has a huge potential to remove from the air and confine 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per acre per year, while not compromising on the agricultural yield in any way.
As a matter of fact, during drought season, this practice offers more yield, since the extra carbon lying in the soil helps it retain more water. During the wet season, this same extra organic matter lying in the soil sucks water away from plant roots, checking erosion and keeping plants in place. In addition to that, both of those properties will also benefit organic agriculture’s ability to adjust to the higher highs & lower lows of climate change.
2. Agriculture As Storage and Carbon Cap
Moving ahead from the soil to the entire industry, the agricultural sector could be “widely carbon neutral” by 2030, thereby successfully reversing the agricultural industry’s huge carbon footprint. For instance, we can avoid releasing a huge 2 gigatonnes — that’s 2 billion metric tonnes — of CO2. Provided, we practice sustainable agriculture, along with minimizing deforestation, which is far more effective, and billions of dollars affordable, than investing in carbon caps and storage at the world’s power plants.
Negative Effects
1. Industrial Agriculture’s Massive Carbon Footprint
On the other hand, when we are talking about agriculture on an industrial scale; a practice popular in large portions of the developed world. It has an unignorable damaging contribution to global warming. For instance, the U.S. food system contributes nearly 20 percent of the nation’s CO2 emissions. On an international scale, as per the official figures made public by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Agricultural land use imparts 12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. And assisting industrial agriculture retains these disturbing practices.
2. Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Pesticide And Fertilizer Use
All this does not stop here there’s more! If we take into consideration some of the expressed energy needed for industrial agriculture, things get worse. As all the making and use of fertilizers and pesticides, fuel and oil for tractors, machine, shipping and trucking, electricity for lighting, cooling, and heating, and release of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide (N2O) and other greenhouse gasses increase this negative impact between 25 and 30 percent of the U.S.’s mutual carbon footprint. That’s a serious jump.
In all, industrial-scale agriculture practices (practiced in the developed world) have played a negative role when it comes to global warming. And this is also a fact that agriculture is crucial for the existence of humanity. So, organic agriculture practices like using farming equipment (tractors) that run on environmentally friendly fossil fuels; can be of great help when seeking a solution to the problem i.e. climate change due to agriculture.