Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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Publication
Fertilizer
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-23)Over the past 50–60 years, unbridled growth in global fertilizer use to boost and maintain crop yields has polluted natural and agricultural systems, leading to a range of harmful outcomes. The abundant and inefficient application of fertilizer is a leading cause of water pollution, as well as a contributor to greenhouse gases and the deterioration of air and soil quality. This, in turn, has adverse consequences for public health, the climate, wildlife, and business—including tourism, agribusiness, commercial fishing, and farming. Although its use, in combination with other Green Revolution technologies, is credited for feeding the world and averting a more dramatic expansion of agriculture into natural landscapes, today’s fertilizer use is considered to be pushing the planet’s biogeochemical boundaries. -
Publication
Aquaculture
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-23)Global fisheries production has risen rapidly over the past 60 years at over two and a half times the rate of world population growth, and aquaculture today is among the fastest-growing food sectors. The rapid growth in fisheries products, and the rise in aquaculture in particular, enabled per capita fish consumption to nearly double globally between the 1960s and 2010, and more than triple in developing countries. While fisheries worldwide, like other agricultural systems, have long been affected by water pollution, the sector’s rapid growth and intensification are increasingly contributing to that problem. This is not only damaging to aquatic ecosystems and water users at large, but also harmful to the fishing industry itself. A historic opportunity presents itself to tackle aquaculture pollution in step with industry growth, and to shape amore sustainable source of animal protein as demand for it grows. -
Publication
Livestock Wastes
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-23)The livestock sector is a major and growing source of pollution across the world as rising global demand for animal products including beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products is leading livestock operations to not only expand their output, but also to concentrate spatially, intensify, and separate from plant agriculture. Although livestock system outputs are growing faster than their spatial footprint—as managed grazing is giving way to confined, grain-based feeding—this pattern of development has major drawbacks and this note focuses on those related to animal wastes.1 In parts of both the developed and developing world, animal wastes have become a leading source of surface and ground water pollution as they are a major vector of unwanted nutrients, and alsocarry pathogens, antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals, other minerals, and pesticides. Through the release of particulate matter and other air pollutants, they are also a cause of foul odors, haze, acid rain, a loss of soil fertility, and air quality-related disease, while their potent greenhousegas emissions contribute to climate change. -
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Pesticides
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-23)Agriculture’s heavy and growing dependence on pesticides across large parts of the world, though partly fueled by pesticides’ own effectiveness, is placing an ever-rising burden on human health, biodiversity, and even the agro-food sector. Pesticides are central to the mix of Green Revolution technologies that, by enabling agricultural intensification, have boosted agricultural productivity and output since the Second World War. When used correctly, pesticides are a labor-saving technology that can contain pest populations and improve crop yields, quality, and storability, at least in the short run. -
Publication
Plastics
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-23)Although the agricultural sector is not the largest user of plastics, their rapid appearance on farms the world over is quietly turning into a substantial pollution concern. Versatile and economical as they are, plastics are found all over farms. From machines to mulches, they are the stuff of bags and tubs, of tubes and tools, of tags and trays, and of pots and twine. Plastic films are used to cover greenhouses and hug plants around the root zone. Other kinds of plastics are used as ingredients in chemicals. Farms use millions of tons of plastics each year, costing them billions of dollars, a testament to how useful they are. To the extent that they can help to save water, dissuade pests, suppress weeds with less reliance on chemicals or fire, and save fuelby lightening equipment and containers, some of their wide-ranging benefits include ecological ones. Yet more than unsightly, discarded plastics can damage farmland and cause harm to humans and wildlife alike, making their celebrated durability a long-term pollution and public health worry. -
Publication
Field Burning
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-23)The practice of burning unwanted vegetation to prepare land for sowing crops or other farming activities is a worldwide and long-standing practice. Its tenacity, despite its harmful consequences for air quality, soil health, and the climate is a testament to its convenience and acceptance among farmers across a wide range of farming systems and agroclimatic zones. Burning is so broadly perceived as being natural that even its immediate toxicity is generally overlooked. Overall, there is no greater source of primary fine carbonaceous particles than biomass burning, and it is the second largest source of trace gases in the atmosphere. Yet while the polluting effects of burning are seldom a concern of agricultural producers, the act of burning often defies farmers’ own understanding of the multiple benefits of biomass residues, which include nourishing and improving soils. That said, the embrace in the past two decades of alternatives such as no-till farming on a fairly wide scale in parts of Europe, Asia, and especially the Americas, demonstrates that change is possible with the right mix of public sector support and regulation.