AGRICULTURE AND POLLUTION

Subject: Agriculture

Concept:

Agriculture’s contribution to air pollution

• Agriculture’s contribution to air pollution runs deeper than what happens between crop seasons.
• The Indo-Gangetic plain is also one of the world’s largest and rapidly-growing ammonia hotspots.
• Atmospheric ammonia, which comes from fertiliser use, animal husbandry, and other agricultural practices, combines with emissions from power plants, transportation and other fossil-fuel burning to form fine particles.

Impact of pollution on agriculture

• It is important to note that agriculture is a victim of pollution as well as its perpetrator.
• Particulate matter and ground-level ozone formed from industrial, power plant, and transportation emissions among other ingredients cause double-digit losses in crop yields.
• Ozone damages plant cells, handicapping photosynthesis, while particulate matter dims the sunlight that reaches crops.
• Agriculture scientist Tony Fischer’s 2019 estimates of the two pollutants’ combined effect suggest that as much as 30 per cent of India’s wheat yield is missing (Sage Journals, Outlook on Agriculture).
• Earlier, B Sinha et al (2015), in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, found that high ozone levels in parts of Haryana and Punjab could diminish rice yields by a quarter and cotton by half.