“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and

1. CP551 Sustainable Development “In the end we will conserve onlywhat we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught.” – Baba Dioum

2. Use of fertilizers and pesticides, green revolution, and agricultural biotechnology in the agricultural sector, and their impact on sustainable development.

3. Paddy Production in Sri Lanka 1952 - 2006 Average Yield (kg / hect.) increased 2.6 times Production (in ‘000 Tonnes) increased 5.5 times Harvested area (in ‘000 hect.) doubled http://www.statistics.gov.lk/agriculture/Paddy%20Statistics/ TB3_NP_Annual_1952_2006.pdf

4. Fact: Average yield of paddy per area in Sri Lanka increased by a factor of 2.6 during 1952 to 2006, which keeps pace with the Sri Lanka population increase by a factor of 2.37 during 1950 to 2005. How was it possible? http://www.statistics.gov.lk/ and http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp

5. Ploughing in 2007

6. Sowing

7. Weed & Pest control

8. Harvesting

9. What helped to increase Sri Lanka’s paddy production by a factor of 2.6 during 1952 to 2006?

10. Take a look at the Global Agriculture between 1960 and 2000: • world population doubled from 3 to 6 billion people • global economy increased more than sixfold to meet this demand: • food production increased 2 ½ times • water use doubled • wood harvests for pulp and paper production tripled • timber production increased by more than half Who is eating? http://www.millenniumassessment.org/

11. Population Undernourished (% of total population) HDR2019

12. Population Overweight (% of total population) weight (in kg) Body Mass Index (BMI) = height2 (in m2) http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html

13. BMI

14. Food production has more than doubled since 1960 • Food production per capita has grown • Food price has fallen • Undernourished in developing countries have fallen Source: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/

15. It is good to have increased the food production which might have helped reducing the number of undernourished people. The first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger The seventh of the MDGs is to Ensure Environmental Sustainability How to achieve both the goals simultaneously?

16. Green Revolution: • Green Revolution of the 20th century • transformed agriculture that led (in some places) to significant increases in agricultural production (between the 1940s and 1960s). • made food production to match with the global population growth. • has had major social and ecological impacts. • Medieval Green Revolution • or the Arab Agricultural Revolution of the 8th century Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution

17. Green Revolution: President Mahinda Rajapaksa greets Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, who is considered the Father of the Indian Green Revolution. Green Revolution of the 21st century?

18. Green Revolution: in India • High-yielding varieties of seeds of wheat, rice, and other grains that had been developed in Mexico and in the Philippines were introduced in India after 1965 • Use of synthetic fertilizers, irrigation and pesticide/ herbicide increased • Increased production made India self-sufficient in food grains • Famine in India, once accepted as inevitable, has not returned since the introduction of Green Revolution crops. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution

19. Green Revolution: Is food production actually related to famine? Prof. Amartya Sen claimed famines such as the Bengal Famine of 1943 (about 4 million people died) were not caused by decreases in food supply, but by socioeconomic dynamics and a failure of public action. Economist Peter Bowbrick has accused Sen of misrepresenting historical data, telling outright lies and being wrong on his theory of famines. Nobel Prize in Economics (1998) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution

20. Green Revolution: • introduced high-yielding varieties of seedsthat are often developed elsewhere • increased the use of pesticide/herbicide which were necessary to limit the high levels of pest damage that inevitably occur in monocultures • increased the use of synthetic fertilizers • increased dependence on fossil fuels from which pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers are produced • increased the use of irrigation (which has created significant problems of arsenic contamination, salinization, waterlogging, and lowering of water tables in certain areas) • affected both agricultural and wild biodiversities Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution

21. Socioeconomic impacts Green Revolution: • it required the purchase of fertilisers, irrigation pumps and regular fresh supplies of seed • smaller farmers often went into debt, which in many cases result in a loss of their farmland Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution

22. Green Revolution: A country could go from importing food to exporting it seen by some as committing ecological and economic "suicide"

23. Fertilizer Use: Growing crops need carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), energy, and other nutrients

24. Fertilizer Use: Airgives C as CO2; O as O2; H as water vapour Watergives H Sunlightgives energy Soilgives other essential nutrients Major nutrients: Nitrogen (N) Phosphorus (P) Potassium (K) Sulphur (S) Calcium (Ca) Magnesium (Mg) Minor nutrients: Iron (Fe)Molybdenum (Mo) Boron (B)Copper (Cu)Manganese (Mn) Zinc (Zn)Chlorine (Cl) and others…

25. Fertilizer Use: With high yielding varieties of crops, most soils are unable to supply the needed amounts of plant nutrients. Fertilizers are chemicals that supply plant nutrients, mostly N, P and K. Manufacture of N-based synthetic fertilizers requires fossil fuels as raw materials.

26. Nitrogen cycle Fertilizer Use: Source: http://www.allrefer.com/pictures/s4/p0001901-nitrogen-cycle

27. Nitrogen cycle Nitrogen fertilizer producing factory Fertilizer Use:

28. Projected human input Teragrams of nitrogen per year Total human input Fertilizers and industrial uses Nitrogen fixations in agroecosystems Fossil fuels Fertilizer Use:

29. Fertilizer Use: Nitrogen-based fertilizers can be washed from the fields into rivers and streams. Excessive amount of nitrogen in the water could cause algal blooms that leads to eutrophication and other harms.

30. Eutrophication Fertilizer Use: Fertilizer run-off • Algae grow fast, using up lots of dissolved oxygen in water. • Algae block sunlight 3. Aquatic plants begin to die 4. Dead matter feeds the microbes 5. Microbes compete for dissolved oxygen 6. Water looses dissolved oxygen 7. Fish die Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize

31. Algal bloom in real life Fertilizer Use: in Taihu Lake, China in Great Lakes, USA

32. Algal bloom in real life Fertilizer Use: “Red tide” of the dinoflagellate Noctiluca stretched for more than 20 miles along the southern California coast.

33. Algal bloom in real life Fertilizer Use: Phaeocystis boom lead to foam formation that accumulate on nearby coastal areas in the North Sea

34. Fertilizer Use: Use of fertilizers has positive effects on the economic and the social components of sustainable development? It has negative effect on the ecological component?

35. Algal bloom in real life Fertilizer Use: Harmful algal blooms (HABs) could produce toxins that accumulates in shellfish that consume algae. Health of the public that consume the shellfish is at risk. Affected areas should be closed and get closed (in the west). No fishing. Fishermen are affected. Economy is affected. What abut the economic and the social components of SD? Source: http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/page.do?pid=9257#

36. Algal bloom in real life Fertilizer Use: Researchers are investigating the use of natural clays in Florida’s Sarasota Bay as a potential tool to mitigate harmful algal blooms, or “red tide”. What abut the economic component of SD? Source: http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/page.do?pid=9257#

37. Fertilizer Use: Ways to Minimize Fertilizer Impact Crop rotation (or sequencing) It is not growing the same crop at the same plot of land throughout the year. Soil fertility: Different crops have different soil requirements and benefits. Changing crops from year to year minimises deficiencies and allows the soil to replenish. Soil structure: Alternating between deep-rooted and fibrous-rooted crops improves soil structure. Source: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1200/crop_rotation.asp

38. Fertilizer Use: Ways to Minimize Fertilizer Impact Crop rotation (or sequencing) Source: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1200/crop_rotation.asp

39. Fertilizer Use: Ways to Minimize Fertilizer Impact Biofertilizers An example: Nitrogen fixing symbiotic systems such as Sesbania rostrate Azolla and free-living cyanobacteria to rice crop Source: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1200/crop_rotation.asp

40. Fate of pesticides in the environment Pesticide Use: Source: http://www.ecifm.rdg.ac.uk/pesticides.htm

41. Pesticide Use: • Fate of pesticide in the environment is determined by its characteristics, such as • water solubility: • measures how easily a pesticide may be washed • off the crop, leach into the soil or move with • surface runoff. • soil adsorption: • tendency of pesticides to be attached to soil • particles • half-life: • pesticide persistence in the environment (or the • time in days required for a pesticide to degrade in • soil to one-half its original amount) http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/c_2.htm

42. Pesticide Use: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/c_2.htm

43. Pesticide Use: The purpose of using pesticides / herbicides is to kill. They could kill not only pests and weeds (which they are supposed to) they could also kill and harm beneficial organisms and plants. DDT, a compound found in pesticides, had worked its way up the food chain, bioaccumulating or increasing in concentration at every level until it was enough to weaken the shells of eagle eggs. 

44. Ways to Minimize Pesticide Impact Pesticide Use: Crop Rotation (or Crop Sequencing) Pest and disease control: Soil pests and diseases tend to attack specific plant families, so by rotating crops the pests' life-cycles are broken and build-up is reduced. Weed control: Some crops (e.g. potatoes) can suppress weeds, minimising problems for following crops.

45. Ways to Minimize Pesticide Impact Pesticide Use: Crop Rotation (or Crop Sequencing) Farmers in Matale district rotate tomato with paddy. The crop is planted in Yala (dry season) followed by paddy in the Maha (wet season) P. Solanacearum which causes bacterial wilt in tomato is unable to live under anaerobic conditions. Hence six months rotation is effective in controlling the disease. Dr. C. Kudagamage Deputy Director (Research) Horticultural Crop Research & Development Institute Gannoruwa, Peradeniya

46. Ways to Minimize Pesticide Impact Pesticide Use: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) IPM doesn't rely solely on chemicals for pest control. Biological control, cultural practices, and timely chemical applications are used to obtain the necessary level of control. Pesticides are the last line of defence and are used only when pest levels are causing sufficient damage to offset the expense of the application. http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/c_2.htm

47. Ways to Minimize Pesticide Impact Pesticide Use: Native Plants Garden  Planned for NO use of herbicides / pesticides Weeds removed by hand Choose plants that grow quite densely, leaving little room for weeds once they are established  Tolerate many insects as part of the garden's mini-ecosystems (caterpillars bring birds to the garden!) http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/c_2.htm