Although intensive farming techniques since the green revolution have brought about a tremendous increase in food production to feed the increasing human population, the modifications that boost the yield has far-reaching implication for the environment.
In the coming time, increasing productivity will be far more challenging than ever because of global warming and climate change. Yet, many of the innovations in conventional agriculture are contributing to the ecological imbalance of the world.
Cultural farming is excessively dependent on chemical fertilizers, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which doubled food production, while these chemicals soared the overall level of recreative nitrogen to 600 percent in the environment. Around half of the applied nitrogen in synthetic fertilizer, after conversion to nitrate form, finds its way to the groundwater and other waterways. This build-up of nitrogen and phosphorous is called eutrophication which adversely affects the environment. The accumulation of excessive nutrients forms toxic algae in the water and causes environmental problems, such as the formation of the dead zone and the release of a harmful greenhouse gas like nitrous oxide.
Agriculture consumes 70 percent of freshwater in the world. Because farming is mostly dependent on heavy irrigation in many parts of the world, which depletes groundwater, aquifers, and rivers. Excessive irrigation is also the reason for evaporation and soil erosion.
However, a large amount of Agricultural land is used for livestock grazing, that is contributing to greenhouse gases emission. In addition, livestock excreta can contaminate water sources and release ammonia NH3, causing the growth of algae in lakes, the acidity of the environment, and the formation of particles in the air, which is hazardous to human health in many ways.