Deforestation is a major detrimental practice to agriculture. For years now, the
practice of deforestation has caused more harm than good to agriculture and the
ecosystem at large.
The reasons for deforestation, although essential and vital for development in the society, still doesn’t justify the damaging effects that they leave behind. Below, I would be discussing the causes and effects of deforestation on agriculture.
What is Deforestation?
Deforestation is the permanent clearance or reduction of forests and trees. Deforestation goes way beyond cutting down a few trees in the farmland. It involves clearing trees and forests at a large scale across the world.
This occurs due to two things; either there is a need for the use of the lands or the use of the trees or both. Either way, the results still always point to the reduction in the trees present.
Causes of Deforestation
The following are causes of deforestation in the world:
Urbanization:
Urbanization is the rate at which proportion of people who live in cities and towns is
growing. It means the shift in population from rural areas to urban areas.
It is the process by which there is an increasing number of people in the urban cities and a decreasing number in the rural areas. As the population increases in the urban areas, so does their need increases. Space needs to be created for where they would live to avoid overcrowding, hence resorting to deforestation. Lands are cleared of trees vastly for the purpose of building houses and industries to cater to the needs of those staying in urban areas.
Forest fires:
The onset of fires in the forest could be man-made or natural. Once fires start in the
forest, they are usually not easy to tame.
It could take days or even weeks before the fire is put out. Within days or weeks that the fire burns the forest, it could wipe out as many trees as possible especially if the fire starts in an arid land with little rain or humidity and excessive heat and dryness.
Logging
Logging is the cutting down of trees in the forest for their use. This is usually done by wood-based industries that use wood to make their products.
Paper and furniture are made from wood, and they are both used across the world and so, a lot of trees are cut down and are used to make them.
Also, trees are used for fuels domestically in households, although the effects are not as devastating as the ones used to make paper and firewood.
Agriculture
Trees are cut down extensively for the practice of agriculture. When there are not enough lands to graze livestock on and feed them, deforestation occurs.
Trees are taken down as fast and as much as they can to cater to the needs of the livestock. Now that the demand for meat and livestock products are in high demand, they are reared and catered to at the expense of the trees and forests.
Desertification of farmland
When lands are abandoned for a long period of time without use, they are more susceptible to deforestation. The land is usually sold or bought off because it is considered of no use to the owners at that moment.
Effect of Deforestation
Threatens biodiversity:
Of all living things that live on land, more than half of them live in the forests ranging from insects to birds to animals to plants. Each of these lives depend on one another in one way or another for survival.
Deforestation deprives all these organisms of their natural habitat and their source of feeding. It exposes them to the dangers of their predators and endangers their lives too.
Since the majority of organisms on earth live in the forests, it poses a major risk to terrestrial lives in general.
Erosion:
Erosion takes place when the topmost part of soil is washed away or worn away gradually. This could be caused by wind or by water(flooding). Trees and forest lives serve as a protective barrier against flooding. It wades off any form of destruction that could affect the soil beneath them. If the forest trees are now cut off, it leaves the soil bare and more susceptible to the destructive actions of erosion.
Erosion washes away the nutrients and composition of the soil and leads to soil degradation
making the soil unfit for farming for some time. Loss of source of livelihood.
Residents that live in the rural areas don’t have a wide range of sources of income and they majorly indulge in farming. Deforestation in rural areas would lead to loss of the source of income and livelihood for the farmers.
This could in turn lead to another global issue, starvation.
Food insecurity:
Agriculture serves as the major source of food in the world. Farmers plant and harvest crops and these serve as food for everyone. Deforestation would lead to a lack of enough food crops to go around for everyone. This situation can lead to food insecurity, where there is a large number of people but with inadequate food to cater to everyone.
Effect on climate:
Trees and humans have a form of mutual relationship; plants produce the oxygen that we breathe in through photosynthesis and we produce the carbon (iv) oxide that is needed by the trees and plants. When trees are cut off, it releases the carbon(iv) oxide that is stored in the environment.
Excess carbon(iv) oxide in the air is dangerous to both humans and the ecosystem. It could lead to irregular and unstable changes in the climatic conditions of the environment.
Deforestation is a global issue of concern that continues to pose risk to the existence of terrestrial organisms every day.
It endangers the ecosystem, leads to loss of habitats of organisms and even their deaths, leave the soils prone to erosion and other forms of damaging practices that the soil might never recover from, leads to loss of livelihood and income for rural dwellers whose sole means of living is farming, and can cause nationwide food insecurity.
However, the reasons for deforestation cannot be belittled as constructions to build homes and industries are beneficial to the human race at best.
Thanks again!