Welcome to this lecture on Agriculture and the Environment, I hope it is enough to make some of you decide on a career in the field of agricultural science. As you all know, food is a basic human need and producing enough of it is the single greatest challenge facing the modern world.
Developing nations have rapidly expanding populations, so agriculture should be central to any development agenda for those countries, what's more, 75% of people in the developing world are dependent, directly or indirectly, on agriculture for their livelihood. And, for many low-income countries, it's the most important sector of the economy, accounting for 50% of GDP, and sometimes it's the primary, if not only, source of foreign currency. Now, of course, when I talk about agriculture, I am using the term to encompass more than just growing food crops, of course livestock farming, fishing and forestry are included. In order to combat wide-scale food shortages agricultural research programmers are underway in many areas. Using science is one way to increase productivity, but, a word of warning, agriculture must also be sustainable, let's look at approaches that are not sustainable. Firstly, overgrazing and intensive cropping are two ancient but destructive practices, that lead to loss of soil fertility. Secondly, the modem idea of liberal application of chemical pesticides and herbicides has had disastrous consequences for the health of the land, ranging from the pollution of water sources to the destruction of wildlife.
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