Due to extreme demands for food, agriculture in China is intense. An article claimed that 22% of the global population depend on 7% of the land in the world to produce food, and a bulk of it is from China. In the past, agriculture was an activity that produces food and yet still absorbs carbon. However in recent decades, due to intensive use of chemicals during farming, pollution results from farming. Farming was identified as one of the leading causes of pollution in China, and was even reported to be polluting the environment more than factories.

Intense agriculture will lead to some soil-related effects. One of it is soil erosion. With intensive agriculture, the nutrients in the soil are being depleted faster than it is replenished. This will lead to the farmers using fertilisers. This will in turn results in run off or leaching of nutrients (usually large amounts of phosphates or nitrates) into rivers and other water bodies. This will cause algal bloom in the water body as algae will thrive in the water with that amount of nutrients. As algae thrive, it will cover up the surface of the water. This causes the plants and animals at the bed of the water body to be derived of sunlight. The plants, being derived of sunlight, cannot photosynthesise and thus dies. The animals, which typically feeds on the plant, will die to and that result in a decrease in biodiversity in that area. This example shows the interconnectedness of the environmental problems, which are all linked back to the same core problem of overpopulation.

In China, the most significant example is the algal bloom in the Yellow Sea. The pollution is related to agriculture and industry. The beach of Qingdao in China was plagued with algae. Though it does not harm human beings, it is a great threat to the ecosystem.

This is an example of how human activities directly affect the ecosystem.

Beach at Qingdao, China. Photograph: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

Water contamination is a major problem that is prevalent in China, and farming is adding on to the strain on that aspect of the environment.

Also, farmers, which are usually in the rural areas, are less likely to receive high levels of education. This will results in them having not as much knowledge in terms of maximising efficiency and productivity. The lack of productivity will results in stress put in other areas of production so as to cover up for the little productivity in the large area of land. Also, their lack of knowledge coupled with rising demand will cause them to go to the extremes without considering the environment’s damage. For farmers who farm animals, overgrazing may occur from having too much farm animals in one area of the land. Also, excessive animals wastes will pollute the land.

This is a results from the first pollution report in China:

• Sulphur dioxide emissions 23.2 million tonnes (91.3% from industry)

• Nitrogen oxide emissions: 18 million tonnes (30% from vehicles)

• Chemical oxygen demand discharges: 30.3 billion tonnes (44% from agriculture)

• Soot: 11.7 million tonnes.

• Solid waste: 3.8 billion tonnes (of which 45.7m tonnes is hazardous)

• Heavy metal discharges: 900 tonnes

• Livestock faeces: 243 million tonnes.

• Livestock urine: 163 million tonnes

• Plastic film on cropfields: 121,000 tonnes (80.3% recycled)

Much of these are a result of farming and agriculture.

Sources:

China’s largest algal bloom turns the yellow sea green

China: Subsistence Farming and the Implications of Environmental Degradation

Chinese farms cause more pollution than factories, says official survey