One key component of growing crops is having an appropriate amount of water. The human population size is approximately six billion which means food supply is crucial to support these numbers. This creates a high demand for agricultural products because of the rapidly growing human population. The human population is expected to be as high as nine billion by 2050. As a result, industrial agriculture is increasingly being conducted in areas that are not naturally conducive to crop growth such as arid and semi-arid environments (Pimentel, et al., 2004). The main objective of industrial agriculture is to produce maximum yields on commodities to gain maximum profit. Probably the most important factor for supporting maximum yields in areas
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Crop Irrigation uses an area 's water resources to grow the particular commodity this has obvious consequences depending on the method they choose. Degradation of irrigated land includes salinization, alkalization, water logging, and soil acidification. Ecological degradation occurs as farmers will often pull from accessible sources of water like lakes, rivers, and streams. This will reduce the natural quantity of water systems or deprive the areas downstream. Finally, groundwater depletion leads to dry aquifers, saline intrusion, and reduced base flow (Dougherty & Hall, …show more content…
Some irrigation projects utilize rivers and streams as a water source. There are many instances of rivers being diverted to support irrigation schemes. Diverting a water source will have an effect in some form like reduced river flow. Stunting a river may result in wetlands drying up or salt water incursion where the river meets the sea. For example, irrigation canals diverted so much water from the fourth largest sea in the world that it nearly disappeared. Meanwhile, another solution is to build weirs and dams which are built to collect significant amounts of freshwater. Dams are beneficial for power and drinking water as well as irrigation, but it also creates environmental problems downstream by disrupting the natural flow of rivers. As water is taken from these sources, the quantity diminishes further downstream. Some adverse effects include pollutant dilution, altering wetland habitats, saline intrusion, waterborne diseases, insufficient flow, and water quality reduction (Dougherty & Hall,
Crop Irrigation uses an area 's water resources to grow the particular commodity this has obvious consequences depending on the method they choose. Degradation of irrigated land includes salinization, alkalization, water logging, and soil acidification. Ecological degradation occurs as farmers will often pull from accessible sources of water like lakes, rivers, and streams. This will reduce the natural quantity of water systems or deprive the areas downstream. Finally, groundwater depletion leads to dry aquifers, saline intrusion, and reduced base flow (Dougherty & Hall, …show more content…
Some irrigation projects utilize rivers and streams as a water source. There are many instances of rivers being diverted to support irrigation schemes. Diverting a water source will have an effect in some form like reduced river flow. Stunting a river may result in wetlands drying up or salt water incursion where the river meets the sea. For example, irrigation canals diverted so much water from the fourth largest sea in the world that it nearly disappeared. Meanwhile, another solution is to build weirs and dams which are built to collect significant amounts of freshwater. Dams are beneficial for power and drinking water as well as irrigation, but it also creates environmental problems downstream by disrupting the natural flow of rivers. As water is taken from these sources, the quantity diminishes further downstream. Some adverse effects include pollutant dilution, altering wetland habitats, saline intrusion, waterborne diseases, insufficient flow, and water quality reduction (Dougherty & Hall,