WITHOUT agriculture it is hardly likely that animals (lower and higher)

could survive because food is one of the necessities of life, but in the modern era finding enough of it to satisfy a growing demand is becoming a real challenge.
“The global impact of agriculture will be at least as great as climate change,” said lead author David Tilman, visiting researcher at the National Centre for Environmental Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “We have to find wiser ways to farm.”
As an NCEAS working group, the co-authors spent eight months gathering all the data they could find on the global impact of humans mediated by anything except climate change. Agriculture turned out to be the largest.
According to the journal Science: “World population, expected to be 9 billion (double the present population) by the year 2050, will require the conversion of natural ecosystems covering an area larger than the size of the United States including Alaska, as demand for food doubles. This expansion of agricultural land is expected to occur mostly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Central Africa. The authors also explain that additional natural habitat would be lost to urban and suburban development.”
While the adverse effects of chemicals on crops are well known, at the same time the result could be disastrous if they are not used, because crops could be completely destroyed by infestation of diseases, pests etc. This would obviously lead to a lower output in food production and shortages and food insecurity which could trigger social and political instability.
So the use of chemicals to enhance agricultural production has become generally accepted and the focus is now on using the correct chemicals in the safest possible way.
In this regard, it has been reported that illegal and poor quality chemicals are being sold to our rice farmers. This travesty has to be stamped out forthwith, because if it is not stamped out swiftly, then it could lead to disastrous results and ruining of our rice industry which is on the upswing, and is poised to achieve greater heights.
However, the Agriculture Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, during a meeting with rice farmers, was very firm and reassuring in dealing with this potential “monster.”
“I’m a flexible guy, I try to listen to people and make concessions. Whilst that is true, there are certain things that I am not flexible with…if it is a banned product in Guyana, it will remain banned, I will not be flexible. If it is a restricted product and must be used in accordance with certain regulations, it must be done that way,” he asserted.
The minister is correct-there can be no flexibility with such an issue. Too much is at stake and the potential health and environmental dangers and adverse effects are too many.
It means therefore, that there is need for increased levels of monitoring of chemicals that come into the country and greater vigilance by not only the authorities who oversee and manage the importation of chemicals, but also by all stakeholders.
Such problems have to be nipped in the bud or else they could grow into a ‘monster’, creating havoc in our agriculture sector.