Ivy Dianne G.

Pascual 11-Aquamarine

The Advantages of Mechanical Power & Machinery in Agriculture

Combines and mechanized irrigation systems may not seem all that radical these days, but they
weren't always around: the widespread availability of agricultural products in developed countries is a
testament to the mechanical advances that have propelled agriculture into the 21st century, and freed up
people's lives beyond the farm.
As Purdue University notes, devices used in plowing and cultivation have been used in agriculture
from earliest times. While these earlier animal-propelled implements improved over the centuries, it was
not until the introduction of the cotton gin, patented in 1794, and the mechanized reaper in the 19th
century that the industrialization of agriculture took off in earnest. The 20th century saw the
disadvantages of the previous century's steam-powered tractors and threshers overcome with the debut of
the gasoline engine, precipitating the development of gas-powered farm tractors and effectively marking
the transition from horse- to machine-powered agriculture.
Additional advantages of mechanization for certain delicate crops that traditionally rely on on hand-
picking are that machines eliminate some of the disadvantages of human handling. As Choices notes, for
example, the (BIH) Black Ice Harvester is a machine that creates a localized turbulent environment,
loosening ripe berries from the bushes. The mechanized agitation does not require any human hands to
touch the fruit, thus reducing food safety concerns, and the absence of any rotating mechanisms allows
multiple passes on the same plant with minimal damage to the berries and bushes.

Economic Effects of Machinery: Advantages and Disadvantages

This is the age of machinery. Machines have become a part and parcel of modern life. They are
used in factories, offices, houses, construction, transportation, communications, power, etc. They have
developed the methods of production and elevated productivity, production and income, thereby leading
to a blistering economic growth. At the same time, machines have brought monotony in work, evils of the
factory system, class conflicts, unequal distribution of wealth and income, etc. We discuss the economic
effects of machinery as under.
Machines help in the exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of the people. Natural wealth
of rivers, forests, minerals, land, mountains, seas, etc., can be properly exploited and used for productive
purposes with machines. The use of machines helps in increasing the production of capital goods, durable
consumer goods, and agricultural products. Perishable consumer goods like milk, vegetables, fruits, eggs,
etc. are no longer perishable and are available all the year round with the spread of cold storage facilities.
This prevents their wastages and prices from rising when their supplies are short. By increasing
production, machines raise the incomes of the people and the country. Machines provide a variety of
consumer goods like TV, car, refrigerator, washing machine, household gadgets, etc. which make life
comfortable and increase the standard of living of the people. The manufacture of innumerable consumer
goods from the smallest pin to the largest aeroplane has been made possible by machines. Machines have,
in turn, been manufactured by other machines, called capital goods.
The use of machines helps the producer in many ways which tends to increase his production and
income. It leads to large scale production, division of labour and specialisation. These, in turn, increase
production, reduce costs and raise profits. Machines save time and labour. They work faster than man.
For example, a person operating a computer or a tractor finishes his work faster than many persons
engaged in doing the same work by hands. Thus machines increase the productivity of labour and hence
production. Machines help the worker in performing his duties in a better way than by hands. The
efficiency of the worker increases because he can work accurately and faster, and produce quality
products in larger quantities. Jobs which are dirty dull and involve lifting of heavy loads are done by
machines. For example, the cleaning of the city and the sewerage system by machines, preparing of
accounts by a computer, and lifting of heavy loads by a crane have brought relief to workers. They take
more interest in their work and their efficiency increases. In the beginning, machinery replaces labour and
there is unemployment. But in the long-run, it creates employment. The use of machines increases
productivity of labour thereby increasing production, reducing costs and making the goods cheaper. As a
result, their demand increases. In order to meet this demand, more workers are employed to increase their
production. Income will rise which will further increase the demand for goods, thereby necessitating the
employment of more workers. This process will continue in a multiplier way. Secondly, as machines are
made by machines, workers are needed to manufacture new machines. Thirdly, after some use, machines
need maintenance, repairs and replacement.

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Modern agriculture

Agricultural systems depended on internal resources, recycling of organic matter, built-in biological
control mechanisms and rainfall patterns. Agricultural yields were modest, but stable. Production was
safeguarded by growing more than one crop or variety in space and time in a field as an insurance against
pest outbreaks or severe weather. Inputs of nitrogen were gained by rotating major field crops with
legumes. In turn rotations suppressed insects, weeds and diseases by effectively breaking the life cycles of
these pests. The yields of primary crops such as wheat and rice raised histrionically, the price of food
declined, the rate of increase in crop yields generally kept pace with population growth, and the number
of people who consistently go star was slightly reduced. This abetment in food production has been due
mainly to scientific advances and new technologies, including the evolution of new crop varieties, the use
of pesticides and fertilizers, and the construction of large irrigation systems.

Evidence indicates, however, that excessive reliance on monoculture farming and agrindustrial
inputs, such as capital-intensive technology, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, has negatively impacted
the environment and rural society. Most agriculturalists had assumed that the agroecosystem/natural
ecosystem dichotomy need not lead to undesirable consequences, yet, unfortunately, a number of
"ecological diseases" have been associated with the intensification of food production. They may be
grouped into two categories: diseases of the ecotype, which include erosion, loss of soil fertility, depletion
of nutrient reserves, salinization and alkalization, pollution of water systems, loss of fertile croplands to
urban development, and diseases of the biocoenosis, which include loss of crop, wild plant, and animal
genetic resources, elimination of natural enemies, pest resurgence and genetic resistance to pesticides,
chemical contamination, and destruction of natural control mechanisms. Chemical fertilizers can also
become air pollutants, and have recently been implicated in the destruction of the ozone layer and in
global warming. Their excessive use has also been linked to the acidification/salinization of soils and to a
higher incidence of insect pests and diseases through mediation of negative nutritional changes in crop
plants. Use of fertilizers can alter the biology of rivers and lakes. Applied in either liquid or granular
form, fertilizer can supply crops with readily available and uniform amounts of several essential plant
nutrients. Fertilizers, on the other hand, have been praised as being highly associated with the temporary
increase in food production observed in many countries. National average rates of nitrate applied to most
arable lands fluctuate between 120-550 kg N/ha. But the bountiful harvests created at least in part through
the use of chemical fertilizers, have associated, and often hidden, costs. A primary reason why chemical
fertilizers pollute the environment is due to wasteful application and the fact that crops use them
inefficiently. The fertilizer that is not recovered by the crop ends up in the environment, mostly in surface
water or in ground water. Nitrate contamination of aquifers is widespread and in dangerously high levels
in many rural regions of the world. Such nitrate levels are hazardous to human health and studies have
linked nitrate uptake to methaemoglobinemia in children and to gastric, bladder and oesophageal cancers
in adults.

Pesticides can kill useful insects as well as those that destroy crops. The loss of yields due to pests
in many crops. It is well known that cultivated plants grown in genetically homogenous monocultures do
not possess the necessary ecological defense mechanisms to tolerate the impact of outbreaking pest
populations. Modern agriculturists have selected crops for high yields and high palatability, making them
more susceptible to pests by sacrificing natural resistance for productivity. On the other hand, modern
agricultural practices negatively affect pest natural enemies, which in turn do not find the necessary
environmental resources and opportunities in monocultures to effectively and biologically suppress pests.
Use of chemicals on fields creates run-off, excess runs off into rivers and lakes causing pollution.
Fertilizer nutrients that enter surface waters (rivers, lakes, bays, etc.) can promote eutrophication,
characterized initially by a population explosion of photosynthetic algae. Algal blooms turn the water
bright green, prevent light from penetrating beneath surface layers, and therefore killing plants living on
the bottom. Such dead vegetation serve as food for other aquatic microorganisms which soon deplete
water of its oxygen, inhibiting the decomposition of organic residues, which accumulate on the bottom.
Eventually, such nutrient enrichment of freshwater ecosystems leads to the destruction of all animal life
in the water systems.

Per John Jeavons of growbionintensive.org, it kills or malnourishes the fungi and bacteria that hold
the soil together, resulting in loss of topsoil, so the increase in yield is only temporary, and, like a heroin
addiction, demands ever-greater inputs to sustain output, and eventually destroys the productive capacity
of the land.Under conditions of intensive management, treatment of such "diseases" requires an increase
in the external costs to the extent that, in some agricultural systems, the amount of energy invested to
produce a desired yield surpasses the energy harvested. The spread of transgenic crops threatens crop
genetic diversity by simplifying cropping systems and promoting genetic erosion. In orchards and
vineyards, the use of cover crops improve soil fertility, soil structure and water penetration, prevent soil
erosion, modify the microclimate and reduce weed competition. Entomological studies conducted in
orchards with ground cover vegetation indicate that these systems exhibit lower incidence of insect pests
than clean cultivated orchards. This is due to a higher abundance and efficiency of predators and
parasitoids enhanced by the rich floral undergrowth.At the regional level, increases in monoculture
farming meant that the whole agricultural support infrastructure (i.e. research, extension, suppliers,
storage, transport, markets, etc.) has become more specialized.
As specific crops are expanded beyond their "natural" ranges or favorable regions to areas of high
pest potential, or with limited water, or low-fertility soils, intensified chemical controls are required to
overcome such limiting factors. The assumption is that the human intervention and level of energy inputs
that allow these expansions can be sustained indefinitely. Reduction and, especially, elimination of
agrochemical require major changes in management to assure adequate plant nutrients and to control crop
pests. As it was done a few decades ago, alternative sources of nutrients to maintain soil fertility include
manures, sewage sludge and other organic wastes, and legumes in cropping sequences. Rotation benefits
are due to biologically fixed nitrogen and from the interruption of weed, disease and insect cycles. A
livestock enterprise may be integrated with grain cropping to provide animal manures and to utilize better
the forages produced. Maximum benefits of pasture integration can be realized when livestock, crops,
animals and other farm resources are assembled in mixed and rotational designs to optimize production
efficiency, nutrient cycling and crop protection. What happens is that some well-intentioned groups suffer
from "technological determinism", and emphasize as a key strategy only the development and
dissemination of low-input or appropriate technologies as if these technologies in themselves have the
capability of initiating beneficial social changes.

Improvement of the Agricultural Productivity

In the year 30 years, there will be a perspective of feeding 9-10 billion of peoples. Food becomes
more affordable to the consumer as it costs less to produce. Agricultural productivity is typically
measured by output per unit of land or per worker. However, improving agricultural productivity requires
more than just focusing on high yields, but also how those yields were attained through a given
combination of machines, chemicals, labor and other inputs -- a metric known as Total Factor
Productivity. Farmers should keep track of TFP if they want a more accurate assessment of the efficiency
of the productivity gains they have made. The more TFP is responsible for improved output, as opposed
to simply increased inputs driving the gains, the more efficient that productivity is.
According to World Bank website ICT in Agriculture, smallholder farmers face the disadvantage of
not having the same abundant information resources that larger industrial producers do in their quest for
productivity. This is where Information and Communication Technology fills the void. An ICT is any
device or application that allows the exchange of data through transmission, encompassing a range of
tools including satellites and mobile phones. On this front, farmers can use data collection technologies
such as infrared sensors to determine soil characteristics, in conjunction with data analysis tools including
spatial modeling, which can predict yields under various real-world conditions.
While the technology may exist to increase agricultural productivity, farmers have to stay in the
loop of agricultural research developments by seeking training through their local agricultural extension
programs. Government-sponsored extension services provide information on crop and livestock
management practices and reduce the lag time between the development of new technologies and their
adoption. Farmers can consult with extension agents directly about specific production problems, or turn
to private sector crop consultants to speed up the productivity learning curve.

Positive and Negative Impacts of Modern Agricultural Techniques

The preservation of existing areas of woodland and rain forest habitats (and the ecosystems and
other sustainable economies that these may harbour), which would need to be felled for extensive farming
methods in the same geographical location. This also leads to a reduction in anthropomorphic CO 2
generation (resulting from removal of the sequestration afforded by woodlands and rain forests). In case
of intensive line stock farming, an opportunity to capture methane emissions which would otherwise
contribute to global warming. Once captured, these emissions can be used to generate heat and electrical
energy, thereby reducing local demand for fossil and fuels.
According to World Bank website ICT in Agriculture, smallholder farmers face the disadvantage of
not having the same abundant information resources that larger industrial producers do in their quest for
productivity. An ICT is any device or application that allows the exchange of data through transmission,
encompassing a range of tools including satellites and mobile phones. Farmers can use data collection
technologies such as infrared sensors to determine soil characteristics, in conjunction with data analysis
tools including spatial modeling, which can predict yields under various real-world conditions.
Limits or destroys the natural habitat of most wild creatures, and leads to soil erosion. Use of
fertilizers can alter the biology of rivers and lakes. Some environmentalists attribute the hypoxic zone in
the Gulf of Mexico as being encouraged by nitrogen fertilization of the algae bloom. Pesticides generally
kill useful insects as well as those destroy crops. The same area of land is able to supply food and fibre
for a larger population reducing the risk of starvation. Is often not sustainable if not properly managed-
may result in desertification, or land that is 20 poisonous and eroded that nothing else will grow there.
Requires large amounts of energy input to produce, transport and apply chemical fertilizers/pesticides, the
chemicals used may leave the field as run off eventually ending up in rivers and lakes or may drain into
groundwater aquifers. Use of pesticides have numerous negative health effects in workers who apply
them, people that line nearby the area of application or downstream/downwind from it, and consumers
who eat the pesticides which remain on their food.