i want a speech on influvence of technology on agriculure for 5 min plz reply fast i have exams

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Impact of Technology on Agriculture

Positive

  • Hybrid seeds
  • Better machines helpful in large scale farming
  • Irrigation facilities
  • Use of pesticides and insecticides- save crops from rodents, pests and insects.
  • Increased crop production 

Negative

  • Replaced manual labour
  • Large vehicular machines not use useful for small scale farming
  • Inequalities of income
  • Not affordable by all the farmers
  • Lack of awareness- imbalance in use of quantity of pesticides- harms the crops

 

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why is no one responding for the question its very important reply fast experts

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The topics of hunger, poverty, and food security dominate the headlines as the Committee for World Food Security meets in Rome this week leading up to World Food Day on October 16. Last month, world leaders met at the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in New York to discuss progress made since these were set 10 years ago. At the top of the list is the ambition to end hunger and poverty around the world by 2015.

But an important question still needs to be answered — how do we achieve food security within the limits of our planet? Despite discussions and efforts over the years, nearly one billion people go to bed hungry and the mega trends of a growing world population to an expected 9 billion by 2050, changing consumption patterns, and climate change, do not make the journey any easier.

Can't we just grow more food?

The simple answer would be to grow more food. But the challenge is much more complex and goes beyond the human right to food: We must match the rapidly increasing demand in ways that are environmentally and socially sustainable. This requires changes in the way food is produced, stored, processed, distributed, and accessed.

Farmer holiding seeds in his hand

The majority of farmers growing food cannot afford to eat it.

The best solutions will require a system where increases in production will play an important part, but will be constrained as never before by the finite resources provided by Earth’s land, water, and biodiversity. Importantly, this system must be inclusive and recognize the rural economies around the world that – in the end – are the keystone of food security.

But the reality is that more than three-quarters of poor and hungry people live in rural areasi. Think about it - the majority of farmers growing food cannot afford to eat it.

These farmers need to achieve sustainable increases in productivity but are hindered by lack of infrastructure, access to markets, and modern technologies. Investments in agricultural and rural development hold the greatest potential to reduce poverty rapidlyii.

The good news is the knowledge, technologies, skills, and financial resources to build a sustainable future exist. More food can be produced, more sustainably, and can get to those who need it most.

Agriculture: A Vital Science

We first need to recognize that agriculture is a science that is vital to human well-being. Through continuous innovation over thousands of years, farmers have fed ever-growing populations with an increasing variety of produce. The Sumerians, for instance, used sulfur to control insects and mites 5,000 years agoiii and copper has been used to control fungal diseases for centuries.

This knowledge base must continue to evolve to meet today’s challenges. Global agriculture demands a diversity of approaches, specific to crops, localities, resources, and cultures. With better knowledge sharing and creative financial solutions farmers can achieve sustainable increases in productivity. Syngenta collaborates with community partners to meet these local needs and help farmers become entrepreneurs. As a result, farmers can invest in better agricultural solutions and compete in local and global markets.

Farming businesses depend on their ability to choose the best solutions suited to their specific conditions. The best yields that can be obtained involve an integrated approach using better seeds, water efficient technologies, nutrients, pest and weed management, and soil conservation. Putting integrated solutions in the hands of growers can enhance yields, improve incomes, and protect natural resources. This in turn can help break the cycle of poverty and hunger which inflicts rural communities worldwide.

Business, government, and society are united against hunger when they adopt a holistic approach to food security and appreciate the link between land, people, and technology. Technology is the enabler of resource efficiency and provides better solutions for farmers so they are able to meet the needs of the world. Policies that restrict this technology from reaching farmers are a threat to the right to food.

Agricultural technology is not a lifestyle choice - it fulfills the right to food by ensuring that all people have the capacity to feed themselves in dignity.


I Am noT sure abt dis .... AtleasT u viLL geT some imformation ,, THUBS up pls !

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 he notion that agriculture, as a global practice, has been exploiting resources faster than they could be renewed has been a topic of discussion and debate for decades, perhaps centuries. Symptoms of imbalance have been seen in the form of pollution, soil erosion/loss, wildlife population decline/shifts, and general alteration of a "natural" flora/fauna as a result of human intervention. Indeed, agricultural practices are undeniably "unnatural", regardless of whether the production is a one square meter vegetable garden in Tokyo or a one million hectare rubber tree plantation in Malaysia. Of course, an equally unnatural and parallel phenomenon has been the exponential growth in human population, with associated demands for both food and shelter, which have often exceeded the "natural" carrying capacity of land. Based upon the premise that human population growth will not be constrained as a result of food shortages due to overriding social values, this article makes three assertions regarding the role technology in sustainable agriculture:

    • Technology has/will increase agricultural productivity
    • Technology development has-been/will-be sustainable
    • Technology is, therefore, the basis for Sustainable Agriculture

Food is subject to the economic principles of scarcity. Unlike the artificial value of scarce items such as gold, an adequate supply of food is paramount to population survival and skill diversification, making agriculture a first level priority. Technology has enabled human civilization to leave the "Hunter / Gatherer" paradigm of existence and concentrate labor and land to the sole purpose of food production on an ever-increasing scale. The concept of "scientific agriculture" dates to publications by Liebig in 1840 and Johnston in 1842, which speculated about the role of chemistry in agriculture (Pesek, 1993). The concepts of inheritance and Mendelian genetics were soon to follow in 1865 and subsequently stimulated the biological basis for modern agriculture. Soon, science-based institutions in Europe and North America eagerly expanded the application of biological and chemical sciences to agriculture, spawning new technologies and approaches. These early applications of technology have not only increased food production in real terms, but have dramatically reduced the number of individuals directly involved in food production/processing – enabling the diversification of society to address social issues not directly related to "survival", but generally seen to increase the quality of life.

To deny the role that biological and chemical technology have played, continue to play, and will play in the future development of agriculture is to deny natural history itself. The indiscriminate or inappropriate use of chemical and biological technology, however, can clearly produce negative consequences to the ecosystem and threaten the long-term viability of the enterprise. The central issue of sustainability, therefore, is preservation of nonrenewable resources.

Food production, habitat preservation, resource conservation, and farm business management are not mutually exclusive objectives. Credible arguments have been advanced to suggest that production of food via high-yield agriculture techniques can meet the nutrition requirements of the global population (Avery, 1995). The balance can be achieved through planning land use – with a considerate analysis of what parcels of land to employ for high-yield agriculture while retaining marginal or poor land for non-agricultural activities or wildlife habitat preserves (Anonymous, 1999). Studies to quantify the impact on production of reducing or limiting inputs to agriculture have suggested that yields/hectare would decrease from 35% to 80% depending upon the crop (Smith et al.). Without a concurrent decrease in demand, the amount of land that must be utilized would increase dramatically. In fact, global land in production today, which is roughly the size of South America, would need to be the size of South America and North America if the high yield benefits of technology were not employed (Richards, 1990). If the motivation of sustainability is optimization of production and resource conservation objectives, then progress can clearly be achieved.

Sustainability in agriculture relates to the capacity of an agroecosystem to predictably maintain production through time. A key concept of sustainability, therefore, is stability under a given set of environmental and economic circumstances that can only be managed on a site-specific basis. If the perspective of sustainability is one of bias against the use of biological and chemical technology, and espouses a totally natural ecosystem, then agriculture as a practice is already excluded. If, on the other hand, the perspective of sustainability is one of preservation of non-renewable resources within the scope of the agricultural enterprise, then the objective is not only achievable, but good business practice and good environmental management.

To a large extent, the rate of technology development and the degree of innovation in future technologies will greatly influence the stability, and certainly the productivity, of agriculture (Hutchins and Gehring, 1993). Technology, in the classical sense, includes the development and use of nutrients, pest control products, crop cultivars, and farm equipment; but it also includes the vision of genetically modified crops providing greater nutritional efficiency (more calories per yield, or more yield), manipulation of natural pest control agents, and use of farm management techniques that focus on whole-farm productivity over time, not just annual production per hectare. Consider the basic premise of biotechnology: the least expensive and most renewable source of energy on Earth is the sun and the most abundant and predictable mechanism to convert the energy from the sun to useable energy is photosynthesis -- biotechnology has enabled methods to direct abundant natural energy to new more efficient or unique food products. The imagination is literally the limit to the opportunities. Short term objectives will of course focus on yield, quality, and input reduction. Long term, however, the genetically-created "transmissions" will focus on creating super-nutritious feed for animals, plants that outproduce the subtractive influence of pests (making "tolerance" a key pest management tactic), physiological adaptation to out-compete adjacent species (e.g., weeds), drought stress tolerance, and overall improvement in the rate of photosynthesis (leading to any number of industrial applications).

The development and use of agricultural technology is not, however, limited to genetic wizardry. Indeed, the use of computational technology, combined with geographical location devices and remote sensing advancements, promise to radically change the way all crops will be managed. Commonly referred to as "Precision Agriculture", the underlying theme is integration of information to create management knowledge as a means to address site-specific production goals. Uncertainty with the environment will always be a key issue with agriculture, but this too will be managed as environmental modeling, combined with risk management algorithms, will lead to the optimal use of genetics on specific soils within known weather profiles. And, breakthroughs will continue to be seen in the "classical" technologies that have exponentially increased world food production since the advent of "scientific agriculture" in the late 1800’s. In addition to advances in productivity, technology will be used to remediate land that has been overused or misused through poor agricultural practices.

The concept of Best Management Practices will continue to be a key focus, regardless of the current state of technological offerings. Strategies, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) consider the site-specific circumstances, but also the values and business considerations of the agricultural producers. IPM has been essential in describing the role and rationale for responsibly managing pests, pointing scientists and practitioners alike to identify future needs in biological information, and placing pest control in perspective with production goals. To this end, the concept of pest Economic-injury Levels has been central to dismiss the notion that pests must be controlled at all cost in favor of break-even analysis (i.e., Gain Threshold; Stone and Pedigo, 1972).

Sustainability is indeed an issue of survival, but is far broader than the concept of habitat destruction and soil erosion. Sustainability includes the goal of food production, welfare of the food producers, and preservation of nonrenewable resources. To that end, technology of all types has been and will be the enabling man-made component that will link these two overriding objectives. Indeed, history confirms that technology has been essential to agricultural productivity/stability, current breakthroughs in technology confirm that the discovery and development of new technologies is a sustainable endeavor, and common sense directs us to the conclusion that technology will enable Sustainable Agriculture.


thubS up plS !

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