A scheme for classifying agricultural systems

Measures of the alteration of the natural environment are examined in Section 6.4. As a carbon processing system, agriculture is, self evidently, 

I I Divaniliad iFopicBl and siArbopical crops I I Dairy, Livestock 

The production and consumption of artificial fertilizers have increased enormously since 1945 as agriculture industrialized a further sevenfold increase in nitrogenous fertilizer consumption has occurred in the last 40 years. According to Jenssen and Kongshaug (2003), current production consumes c. 1.2 percent of the world s energy and releases e. 1.2 percent of the total volume of greenhouse gases, notably earbon dioxide and nitrous oxides. 

The use of phosphate and potash fertilizers, both derived from specific sedimentary rocks through mining rocks, have also increased substantially (Table 6.7). Both are produced by the mechanical processing of rock which requires fossil-fuel energy and both generate dust as a pollutant. There is unlikely to be any abatement in fertilizer production/ consumption 

Regions Total area x 10 ha Saline soils % Sodic soils % 

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Figure 6.9. A scheme for classifying agricultural systems (from Mannion, 2002)...

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