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Agriculture
Why It Matters
Cultivating sugar cane fields. Sugar cane farms rely heavily on water from the Kafue River for irrigation, and effluents from sugar-cane processing are discharged back into the river. Rich in nutrients this causes plant growth (Water hyacinth) which clogs up waterways. Local people have problems navigating the river and fish suffocate. Kafue Flats, Zambia
© WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY
Agriculture is the world's largest industry, employing over one billion people and generating over one trillion dollars' worth of food annually. Pasture and cropland occupy around 50 percent of the Earth's habitable land and provide habitat and food for the majority of the world's plant and animal life. With its deep connections to the world economy, human societies, and biodiversity, agriculture is one of the most important frontiers for conservation in ecoregions around the globe.
When agricultural operations are sustainably managed, they can preserve and restore critical habitats, help protect watersheds, and improve soil health and water quality.
Agricultural Threats
While agricultural operations provide unique opportunities to conserve biodiversity, they also can threaten wild species and spaces, including many of WWF's key ecoregions, when not managed for conservation. From habitat loss to pollution, agriculture contributes to many of the environmental challenges that WWF is actively addressing.
Water consumption
Globally, the agricultural sector consumes about 69 percent of the planet's fresh water-more than twice that of industry (23 percent) and dwarfing municipal uses (8 percent). Without creative conservation measures, farms can quickly consume a dry region's water supplies. Freshwater systems in ecoregions throughout the world--whether the Chihuahuan desert of north and central America, the Southeast Rivers and Streams, the Northern Great Plains, the Mesoamerican Reef in Central America or the Miombo in Africa--are adversely impacted by excessive water consumption and water quality degradation resulting from agricultural production.
Climate change
A variety of crops farmed as well as farming practices--from burning fields to using gasoline powered machinery--are significant contributors to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Rice production is one of the largest single producers of methane. According to some estimates, agriculture is responsible for a significant portion of the greenhouse gases altering the Earth's climate. The FAO recently stated that the livestock sector alone is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas production. Additionally, clearing land for agricultural production is a leading contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Land conversion
Expanding agricultural contributes to the rapid loss of forests and other habitats and their biodiversity. Lowland forests in Indonesia have been lost to oil palm production while soy production has contributed significantly to the loss of the Cerrado and Atlantic Forests of Brazil and Paraguay. During the past 150 years, half of all agricultural topsoil has been lost as a result of unsustainable farming practices.
Poverty
Three quarters of the world's extremely poor people live in rural areas where farming is the only option for fighting poverty and malnutrition. Declining harvests from cleared lands push producers into surrounding wild lands rich in biodiversity. The result is a cycle of increasing poverty and biodiversity loss. Subsidies provided by U.S. and European governments to their agricultural producers distort prices and production patterns throughout the world. By encouraging overproduction, these subsidies drive down world prices, forcing many developing country producers to cut corners environmentally or to leave world markets altogether. Poor people are forced into more marginal areas where their impact is greater and production is lower.
Spraying pesticides on cotton without any safety precautions. Andrya Pradesh State, India
© WWF-Canon / Jamie PITTOCK
Toxics
Pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air, and soil, and can remain in the environment for generations. Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries. Many of these pesticides are suspected of disrupting the hormone messaging systems of people and wildlife.
For every challenge that agriculture provides to conserving biodiversity, it also offers an opportunity. While agricultural operations can threaten habitats, pollute waters, and consume resources, they can also-when operations are sustainably managed-provide new habitats, help protect watersheds, and improve soil health. Read more
For more information, please contact us at agricultureinfo@wwfus.org
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