The Environment an extension of nature, one of nature's best gift to man provides all of man's needs, sustaining life and making it home to Mankind right here on earth.Although under constant threat by the various practices of mankind himself as he strives to survive, the environment however remains faithful to the need to support life here on earth.
In the bid for man to engage in food production he constantly degrades the natural attributes of the environment in exploit for agricultural purposes. Unknowingly to some practises such as farming, has no negative impact on the environment as does gas flaring, but this information is incomplete as you would later find out.
Nature on its own has the capacity to replenish itself and most times at a high cost to the existence of man.
Of course as a way to remedy the outfalls of practises like farming on the environment, Man imitates nature,
In a deliberate effort to recreate nature's ways of replenishing the environment, while it exploit from it introduced Biodiversity into agricultural practise.
Biodiversity in agriculture is the diversity of crops and their wild relatives, trees, animals , microbes and other species that contributes to crop production.its the result of these various interactions that produce the diversity found in living things.
Agricultural Biodiversity practices can be traced to times of old when various practices like irrigation where employed to crop production outside the environment and period where they naturally thrive. By employing and transferring favourable methods and conditions into a new environment to produces condition that favours the production of various characteristics that are sustainable, certain spies of crops are made to thrive in areas not normally suited for its existence.
This method favour crop production during periods when such pest do not naturally manifest, it has also seen the sustainability of many spices of plants and microorganisms transferring them from generations to generations as a way of preventing their extension.
Understanding how these system interact is the key to development of improved crop specie and varieties the natural way.its been exploited over ancient period and is seen in selective crops planting to ways to which crops are cultivated to where they are actually cultivated, as an environment can actually be designed to suite the needed result by designing an ecosystem to be more resilient and productive the result of which would be better yield of crops and livestock.
VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF PRESERVING CROP SPICES
As time passes, so does certain crop varieties stand the risk of been lost forever due to extinction, when a specie or the diversity within a plant specie is lost, we also lose the gene that could be a potent cure to ailment posed by microbes. Biodiversity can be employed to transfer plant variety from one era to another until its therapeutic uses can be discovered.
As the Foundation for Sustainability
a sub-set of general biodiversity. It includes all forms of life directly relevant to agriculture: rare seed varieties and animal breeds and sees the transfer of these breeds from generation to generation but also many other organisms such as weeds, pests, predators, and all of the native plants and animals existing on and flowing through the farm. as a way to preserve rare
Why it MattersWhen a specie or the diversity within a plant specie is lost , we also lose genes, genes which could be potent cure haven't been explored, we also lose the rich source of nutrients they poses. We also stand to lose variety of crops that could stand resistance to crop diseases and climate change.we also stand to lose chemical compounds that could be used as drug to cure ailments.
A COST EFFECTIVE WAY TO MANAGE PEST AND DISEASES
a practice employed by many to solve some of the challenges experienced in the production of crops, farming combination of variety together a practice that makes farming system resilient to pest and diseases. In central highlands of Madagascar, growing Fodder Radish next to rice acts as a natural barrier that significantly reduces the rice damage caused by the Larvae and adult of blade dynastic beetle.
Food Security
Agricultural biodiversity will also be absolutely essential to cope with the predicted impacts of climate change, not simply as a source of traits but as the underpinnings of more resilient farm ecosystems.Agricultural biodiversity is the basis of our agricultural food chain, developed and safeguarded by farmers, livestock breeders, forest workers, fishermen and indigenous peoples throughout the world. The use of agricultural biodiversity can contribute to food security and livelihood security as it allow adaptation to changing conditions including climate change.
AS INSURANCE TO FARMERS:
According to a study by FAO biologically diverse agro-ecosystem are more resilient to disturbances as in conditions where different species perform similar functions in the ecosystem there is less chance that the function will be lost
ECO-HEALTH: Agricultural Biodiversity practices such as crop rotation ensures that the soil has time to regenerate and maintain health overtime. Diverse crops and land use also attracts and sustains a variety of pollinators that contribute to the production of over 80% of crops traded
However sophisticated methods can be introduced not necessarily to imitate nature's environment but to exploit, in a bid to produce certain results as may be desired such as lost specie of plant varieties to even creating new non existing varieties.
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