Comparison of Non-agricultural Plant Administration Strategies and Farming - Essay Example

Swarna1 Word count: 2191 P.Swarnalatha ID # 5448 Order # 192383 d 23rd November 2007 compare non agricultural plant management strategies with farming. Introduction  The law of conservation of energy proposed by Albert Einstein states that the total quantity of mass and energy in the universe is constant and it is only the form of energy that changes over a time period. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. This holds good for all the sectors of life including agriculture. The analysis of energy changes that have happened with the transformation of human groups from hunter gatherers to modern farming societies is required at this moment to understand the human and social evolution. In the beginning, hunting and gathering was the only subsistence strategy employed used by human socieites for longer period. It was estimated that more than two million years, until the end of the Mesolithic period, this occupation continued. Hunter-gatherer social group was the most common one seen during this period. A hunter-gatherer society used to involve in the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, used to involve in foraging. They also had the habit of hunting and had no interest in domestication. However there was a transition from their phase into the subsequent Neolithic period with the advent of nascent agricultural practices. The domestication was also common practice in the later human groups. It was reported that agriculture began as early as 12000 years ago and it was practiced in almost all the countries of the world. The initial references were available with Asia and Middle East. As it was mentioned in the introductory address that energy is the basis of life, one has to give a serious thought on the various aspects of energy that necessitates the comparison of agricultural plant management with non agricultural energy options. Let us analyse the differences that exist between Hunter-gatherers and Modern farming human groups. The hunter gatherers were hard working human group who used to strive hard for hunting and needed more energy levels and hence they used to consume high energy. When agriculture has become prevalent, modern farming groups used to encourage domestication of animals which in turn helped the agriculture. The agricultural crops, being major food producing crops serve as a major energy suppliers. For example, rice and wheat supply enormous amount of energy in major parts of the world. In some countries, potato and sweet potato along with maize and soyabean supply the required energy levels to different groups of the people. At the same time, agricultural crops face several challenges like the reduction in cultivable area and severe increase in global population putting tremendous pressure on exploring limited options. With the settlement of agriculturists in place of hunter gatherers, the energy level requirement has gone down due to lesser physical work. Impact of farming on human groups life and style: With the advancement of time period, several groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their numbers have perpetually declined partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Gradually, areas which were formerly unrestricted to hunter-gatherers were, and continue to be encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for land use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. This led to tremendous change in food habits. It was noticed that there has been a decline in the availability of wild foods, particularly animal resources. The hunting of large mammal species had come to a near end. As a result, contemporary societies used a combination of both hunting and agriculture to obtain the food and energy required to sustain themselves. As the number and size of many agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. This process of agriculture-driven expansion led to different human groups like Olmec, ancient India and ancient China. At the same time, the highest energy requirement of Hunter-gatherer societies was attributed to their mobile or nomadic life style. One more important point is that the farming has led to maize, rice and wheat cultivations which support huge population compared to that of thin population as supported by hunting during ancient age. In case of agriculture, wheat and rice provide energy to people living in several countries. They provide mainly carbohydrates (>65 %) and proteins (7-9%). They are produced on large scale and hence have the capacity to satisfy the energy requirement of large group of people. More importantly, they are accessed by small and marginal farmers who have been cultivating in their fragmented lands. It reduces the scope for manipulation of bigger companies which is the common case with other consumer goods in the recent years. In terms of relative energy efficieny, their value may be lower than some non agricultural sources in some contexts. However if one analyses the easy access and larger size of population covered, their role is highly significant relative to non agricultural options. What is relative energy efficiency? Energy efficiency is the relative thrift or extravagance with which energy inputs are used to provide goods or services (EIA, 1999). Energy efficiency takes place when either energy inputs are reduced for a given level of service or there are increased or enhanced services for a given amount of energy inputs. If the energy of one source is described relative to the energy generated by others per unit time, it is known as relative energy efficiency. The relative energy efficiency of agricultural inputs is higher than that of non agricultural sources in several cases. The energy intensity of agricultural inputs is also considerably high. However, the relative energy efficiency of hunter gatherers is quite high. While farmers concentrate on high-carbohydrate crops like rice and potatoes, the mixture of wild plants and animals in the diets of surviving hunter-gatherers provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients (Jared Diamond, 1987). It was reported that the Bushmens average daily food intake was 2,140 calories and ninety-three grams of protein, considerably greater than the recommended daily allowance for people of their size. Energy Intensity Energy intensity is the ratio of energy consumption to a unit of measurement (e.g., floorspace, households, number of workers, etc.). In agriculture, change in energy use over time is driven by a combination of efficiency, weather, behavioral, and structural effects that may be only partially separable and may differ among energy services. Therefore, the task of measuring and assessing energy efficiency and its change over time consists of the following: Deciding which effects should be considered as inherent in efficiency measurement and which are due to weather, behavioral, and structural changes to be eliminated or, at least, recognized in the measurements. Creating an appropriate categorization of energy services that provides the best possible framework of efficiency measures. However the energy intensity of hunter gatherers is higher than that of farming groups. The higher relative energy efficeincy of hunter gatherers was made possible due to the ability of a given natural environment to provide sufficient resources which in turn was supported by local meteorological and seasonal conditions. The population density of hunter gatherers was quite low relative to that of agriculturists. Cultivated land is capable of sustaining population densities 60–100 times greater than land left uncultivated. In those areas where easonal conditions favored, hunter gatherers settled permanently, other wise they migrated to favorable areas. What are human energy groups? The human energy groups are nothing but classification of different groups of human beings who use different resources or foods that provide instant and gradual energy for meeting the metabolic needs. With the changes in evolution, there was a transformation from hunting derived energy groups to agriculture derived energy groups. Agricultural crops provide vital tool in this context. However the basis of physics principles have to be understood. It requires the disclosure of a physical nature of the humans vital energy, generated by cells of an organism (The Forum on International Physics, 2007). A human organism is always under the influence of a very powerful factor - gravity. Therefore, it is necessary to find out a role of gravitation as a source of the vital energy in maintenance of integrity of an organism. Similarly, development of a method for activation of vital processes in a human organism by dint of charging it through the skin with the vital energy, generated by external sources -microorganisms. Agricultural crops provide valuable source of human energy compared to non agricultural inputs. Effects of agricultural and non agricultural activities on size, lifestyle and structure of human energy groups Non agriculture preceded agriculture in human history. In other words, hunting has resulted in energy supply in the hunter gatherer period which later gave way for agriculture 12,000 years ago. As mentioned earlier, several farmers in developing countries cultivate land in small holdings and they meet their human energy requirement through field crops like rice, wheat, sorghum and maize. It is well integrated with their regular life style and structure and it is very difficult to replace it with any non agricultural options. Paleopathology work of Indian skeletons from burial mounds in the lllinois and Ohio river valleys revealed that at Dickson Mounds, located near the confluence of the Spoon and lllinois rivers, archaeologists have excavated some 800 skeletons that paint a picture of the health changes that occurred when a hunter-gatherer culture gave way to intensive maize farming around A.D. 1150. Maize farming is very important component for attaining food security in India (India Agro Industry, 2007). Especially if one assesses the state of maize farming in rural India, it is completely based on dryland farming in which the energy comes from rain water. The energy derived from the maize cobs is going in to human food chain and energy groups where as the energy derived from its straw goes towards the fodder requirement of cattle and other domestic animals. The energy level in buffalo may be lesser than primary level, but it is efficiently getting utilized and hence the relative energy efficiency of agricultural inputs is always higher than that of non-agricultural options. However, if one looks at hunting of buffalo as practiced by Hunter-gatherers, the relative energy efficiency was higher than the energy derived from agricultural crops. The relative energy efficiency of agriculture can be enhanced with modern scientific techniques, but the the energy efficiency of hunter gatherers was even higher due to their higher physical nature of work. The relative energy efficiency of some crops like chick pea can be enhanced by using effective strains of Rhizobium sp. Which aid in effective nitrogen fixation (M. Ines Minguez and Tomas Ruiz-Argüeso, 1980). The difference in energy efficiency of different crops was reported in some research studies (Andrea Monti and Gianpietro Venturi, 2003). The average (1997–1999) net energy supplied by the monoculture of sweet sorghum was 17, 40 and 50% higher than those of fibre sorghum and wheat at high and low nitrogen doses respectively. The energy use efficiency (EUE, i.e. the energy (MJ) requirement to produce a kg of dry matter) ranged from 0.78 to 0.96 for fibre sorghum, from 0.69 to 0.85 for sweet sorghum and from 1.00 to 1.23 and 0.91 to 1.33 for wheat at low and high nitrogen levels respectively. The rotations had greater potential use of environmental resources. Despite showing no clear advantage in grain yields, all rotations were significantly higher in total above-ground biomass production and more efficient in energy transformation compared with continuous wheat cropping (Feng Rui Li et al., 2002). For the rotations based on the inclusion of legumes, the availability of N was apparently improved but the total P was substantially reduced compared with the initial measurement and continuous wheat cropping. Conclusion There was a clear transformation from hunting occupation to domestication of animals and agricultural crop production with the advancement of time. In contrast to hunting and gathering as a mode of life, agriculture means modifying the environment in order to exploit it more effectively. Agriculture alters both the animals and plants it domesticates. Ultimately, it changes the very landscape itself. These changes in occupation brought tremendous changes in human energy groups from hunter gatherer groups to agriculturists. This has also resulted in enormous change in energy efficiency and energy intensity of human energy groups. References Andrea Monti and Gianpietro Venturi. 2003. Comparison of the energy performance of fibre sorghum, sweet sorghum and wheat monocultures in northern Italy. European Journal of Agronomy. 19: 35-43. EIA. 1999. Definhttp://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiing energy efficiency and its measurement. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiency/ee_ch2.htm. Feng-Rui Li, Chong-Yue Gao, Ha-Lin Zhao and Xiao-Yan Li. 2002. Soil conservation effectiveness and energy efficiency of alternative rotations and continuous wheat cropping in the Loess Plateau of northwest China. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 91: 101-111. India Agro industry. 2007. Sub-programme on Maize-based Cropping Systems for Food Security in India under GOI-UNDP Food Security Programme. http://www.agriculture-industry-india.com/agro-programme-schemes/technology-mission-fsp.html. Ines Minguez, M. and Tomas Ruiz-Argüeso. 1980. Relative energy efficiency of nitrogen fixation by nodules of chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.) produced by different strains of Rhizobium. Current Microbiology. 4 (3): 169-171. Jared Diamond. 1987. The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race. Discover. P: 64-66. The Forum on International Physics. 2007. http://research.fit.edu/fip/human_energy.htm. Read More