Agricultural Systems:
Ecology
Clive A Edwards, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Agricultural systems have four main inputs, cultivations, nutrients, crops and pest
management, all of which are interlinked and influenced by each other. They are affected
by land and water and energy availability and soil erosion. To achieve long-term
agricultural sustainability, the need for fossil-fuel-based inputs should be minimized and
the biological and ecological inputs maximized.
Introduction
Agriculture has been successful in increasing human per
capita food productivity; between 1950 and 1984 cereal
grain production increased from about 700 million tonnes
to over 1800 million tonnes per year, an annual growth rate
of about 2.7%, but it has been declining since 1984 (Brown,
1994). These increases were mainly in North America and
Europe, although they also involved some of the more
fertile, irrigated lands in developing countries, particularly
in Asia (Green Revolution). The bases of these greatly
increased yields were the introduction of new seed
varieties, greatly increased use of inorganic fertilizers (9-
fold increase since 1950), and extensive use of pesticides
(32-fold increase since 1950), and increased irrigation
(Pimentel and Lehman, 1993). By comparison, yield
increases in resource-poor countries with fragile soils and
little access to chemicals and irrigation were very small.
(see History of scientific agriculture.) (see Agricultural production.)
This ‘industrialized’ pattern of agriculture, very depen-
dent on fossil-fuel-based inputs, soon began to produce
environmental consequences. These include: progressively
lower productivity as the soil quality declines due to
intensive soil cultivation and overuse of chemical fertilizers
and pesticides; increased pest and disease problems due to
destruction of natural enemies by pesticides; decreases in
crop rotations; pollution of groundwater with nitrates and
pesticides; progressive loss of available fertile cropland;
serious soil erosion; and decreases in amounts of available
water for irrigation. (see Energy use in agriculture.) (see Soil
resource conservation.) (see Phosphorus budgets.) (see Nitrogen
budgets.)
The current human world population reached 6 billion
in October 1999. Based on the present growth rate of 1.4%
per year, the population has been predicted to double in
approximately 50 years or could even increase to as much
as 14 billion by 2050. However, unless we can slow the rates
of loss of nonrenewable natural resources and find
adequate sources of renewable energy, neither food
production nor population growth can continue indefi-
nitely at such rates, and society will be faced with a choice
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Secondary article
. Introduction
Article Contents
. Land Area of the World Utilized by Agriculture
. Freshwater Resources Utilized by Agriculture
. Primary Chemical Hazards due to Agriculture
. Soil Erosion and the Environmental and Economic
Consequences
. Fossil Energy Use in Agriculture; Quantities and Major
Uses; Renewable Sources
. Procedures to Make Agriculture More Sustainable
of either controlling its numbers voluntarily or letting
natural forces such as disease, malnutrition, and other
disasters limit human numbers. Although food production
tripled from the 1950s to the 1980s, by the 1990s grain yield
increases slowed to barely 0.5% per annum, less than one-
third of the rate of population increase (Edwards and
Pimentel, 2000). (see Malnutrition.) (see Conservation v human
survival.) (see Human disease: eects of economic development.)
Current global food shortages are critical, with more
than 3 billion humans malnourished worldwide. Rapidly
increasing human populations, especially in urban areas,
and increasing food, water, air and soil pollution by
pathogenic organisms and chemicals, are causing con-
comitant increases in the prevalence of diseases and the
numbers of human deaths.
Clearly, even to maintain the current human popula-
tions in the long term, agriculture must provide more food
per capita. However, even with significant reversals of the
rates of loss of critical natural resources, such as fertile land
and soils, to inefficient agriculture, urbanization and water
shortages, there is a finite limit to how many people the
Earth can support, based on currently available technol-
ogy and renewable energy sources, once fossil-fuel-based
sources of energy are exhausted in the foreseeable future.
Land Area of the World Utilized by
Agriculture
About one and a half billion hectares (ha) of land have been
used for agriculture, but by 1990, a third of this had been
lost or damaged by mismanagement or soil erosion. Land
area devoted to grain peaked at about 750 million ha in
1985 and since then has been declining progressively.
Although as much as 3 billion ha of land could potentially
be used for agriculture, two-thirds of this area has
extremely low productivity potential and less than half a
million ha have relatively high productivity potentials.
Against these figures, it has been estimated that about 16
million ha of productive land are lost annually, 10 million
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 Agricultural Systems: Ecology
ha to soil erosion, 2 million ha to salinization and
waterlogging and 4 million ha to deforestation (Gardner,
1996). Another 20 million ha of land are degraded
annually, through overproduction, and short rest periods
between cropping, to the point of becoming unprofitable.
It has been estimated that more than one-third of the
world’s agricultural lands are over-cultivated. Globally,
the loss of land to urbanization and highways ranges from
10 to 35 million ha (approximately 1%) per year, with half
of this lost land being cropland. (see Soil resource conservation.)
(see Plant salt stress.) (see Forestry management and production.)
In 1960, when the world population numbered about 3
billion, approximately 0.5 ha of cropland was available per
capita worldwide. This 0.5 ha of cropland per capita is the
area needed to provide a diverse, healthy, nutritious diet of
plant and animal products – similar to the typical diet in
the United States and Europe. The average per capita
cropland currently available worldwide is only 0.27 ha, or
about half the amount needed to meet industrial nation
food standards globally. This increasing shortage of
productive cropland, and its uneven regional distribution,
is the main underlying cause of the current worldwide food
shortages and poverty. More than 38% of the global
cultivated land area has already been damaged by
agricultural mismanagement.
Currently, a total of 1481 kg per year, per capita, of
agricultural products is produced to feed Americans,
whereas the Chinese have already reached or exceeded
the limits of their agricultural system. The current Chinese
reliance on large inputs of fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, as
well as other regionally limited inputs, to compensate for
shortages of arable land and severely eroded soils, indicates
severe problems for their future. The Chinese already
import large amounts of grain from the United States and
other nations, and are increasing these imports rapidly.
(see Energy use in agriculture.)
The world’s tropical forests are being lost extremely
rapidly. They are cleared for a variety of purposes,
including production of pasture for animal farming and
harvesting wood for fuel. Many of these uses are
theoretically related to increased agricultural productivity,
after the forest has been cleared. The clearing of tropical
forests to grow crops is a traditional method of food
production in most developing countries. This practice
involves the cutting and clearing areas of forest, usually by
burning, and then growing crops for one to three years
until the nutrients are exhausted. Although nutrients are
released from the organic matter by burning, much of the
nitrogen is volatilized and lost in the process and is
unavailable for crops. (see Forest ecosystems.)
After cropping for several seasons, the forest is left to
regenerate. The time taken for the land to regenerate is
variable, but the longer the fallow period the more fertile
the land when next used for crops. However, in some
tropical soils cleared for cropping, fallowing for even 15
years is insufficient for phosphorus levels to recover.
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Deforestation for crop production is unlikely to make any
major long-term contribution to agricultural productivity,
since most tropical forest soils are low in nutrients and a
large proportion of the above ground nutrients are in the
tree biomass that is hauled away for timber or burned.
With growing population pressures, the fallow regenera-
tive periods in shifting agriculture are decreasing in length,
so that fertility is decreasing progressively, since forests do
not have sufficient time to regenerate the needed nutrients.
The side effects of deforestation include major contribu-
tions to increased drought, eutrophication of lakes,
increases in soil erosion, and nutrient runoff as well as
possible effects on global warming through increased
carbon dioxide emissions. Most serious is the effect on soil
erosion, which may increase many times after forests are
cleared. For instance, soil erosion rates increased 200- to
more than 5000-fold when African forest land was cleared.
(see Phosphorus budgets.) (see Eutrophication of lakes and rivers.)
Freshwater Resources Utilized by
Agriculture
The present and future availability of adequate supplies of
freshwater for human and agricultural needs is already
critical in many regions, such as the Middle East. Rapid
human population growth and increased total water
consumption are rapidly depleting the overall availability
of water worldwide and this is made more serious by
periodic regional droughts. Between 1960 and 1997, the per
capita availability of freshwater worldwide declined by
60% and a further 50% decrease in per capita water supply
is projected by the year 2025 (Pimentel and Edwards,
2000).
All vegetation requires and transpires massive amounts
of water during the growing season. Agriculture requires
more water than any other human activity on the planet.
Currently, 93% of the water removed from all sources
worldwide is used solely for crop irrigation. Of this
amount, about two-thirds is consumed by plant life (non-
recoverable). Irrigation currently supplies a dispropor-
tionate amount of food: the 237 million ha of irrigated land
is 16% of the total global cropland, but supplies more than
a third of the global food supply. A major problem is the
uneven regional distribution of water supplies. Water
demand already far exceeds supplies in nearly 80 nations of
the world. In China, more than 300 cities suffer from
inadequate water supplies and the problem is intensifying
as populations increase. In arid regions, such as the Middle
East and parts of North Africa, shortages of water are
already critical. Where yearly rainfall is low and irrigation
is expensive, the future of agricultural production is grim
and becoming even more so as human populations
continue to grow. Political conflicts over water in some
areas, particularly the Middle East, have even strained

international relations between severely water-starved
nations. (see Energy, radiation and temperature regulation in
plants.) (see China: life science organizations.)
Even where water supplies are adequate, pollution by
chemicals and sewage decreases the amount of usable
water significantly. Worldwide, about half of the water
available is polluted and, in developing countries, even
more is unavailable as drinking water.
Primary Chemical Hazards due to
Agriculture
Enormous losses of food are due to pest attacks both in
crop production and in storage: global losses to pests are as
much as 40% of crop production and regional losses as
high as 75% have been reported. Since World War II,
thousands of synthetic chemical insecticides, nematicides,
acaricides, fungicides and herbicides have been developed,
and many of these are used extensively and in quantities up
to 6 kg a.i. (active ingredient) per hectare, to control pests.
It has been forecast that currently nearly 2.5 million tonnes
of pesticides are used worldwide with a value of nearly 30
billion dollars. Of these 45% are herbicides, 30% are
insecticides, 19% are fungicides, and 6% are other
pesticides (Edwards, 1994).
Until the 1980s, the global use of pesticides continued to
increase, particularly in developed countries. It was
forecast in 1986 that the use of pesticides would continue
to increase in an almost exponential manner globally.
However, since 1992 the global use of pesticides has begun
to level off internationally, and particularly in developed
countries, although use has continued to increase in some
developing countries.
Pesticides differ in their relative toxicity to humans and
wildlife, but they are all biocides with the potential to kill or
cause chronic illness in animals and humans. It has been
estimated that there are about 26.5 million human pesticide
poisonings each year with about 220 000 deaths. These
figures may be very much higher, since many human
pesticide poisonings are not diagnosed and there are still
major questions on the role of pesticides in causing cancer
or endocrine malfunctions. Pesticides can also have drastic
effects on wildlife, particularly on fish and birds in the
higher trophic levels. Clearly pesticides cannot offer long-
term solutions to pest problems. Many pests develop
crosslinked resistance to pesticides and it has been forecast
that the fossil fuels needed to produce organic pesticides
will be exhausted in 50 years. (see Human disease: eects of
economic development.)
Fertilizers can also cause environmental hazards mainly
through nitrates percolating down into the groundwater
and passing ultimately into drinking water. It has been
suggested that contaminants such as nitrates may cause
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Agricultural Systems: Ecology
increases in the incidence of cancer in humans, and there
are other potential hazards from such exposure.
Soil Erosion and the Environmental and
Economic Consequences
Erosion of soils by wind and water is the most serious cause
of loss of fertile land and soil degradation. Current soil
erosion rates are becoming progressively greater than
those previously recorded. Soil erosion on cropland ranges
from an average of 18 tonnes per hectare per year in the
United States to 40 tonnes per hectare per year in China
(Gardner, 1996). Worldwide, soil erosion averages ap-
proximately 30 tons per hectare per year, or about 30 times
faster than the soil formation replacement rate. During the
past thirty years, the rates of soil loss in Africa have
increased 20-fold. More than 11% of the world’s cropland
was identified in 1989 as ‘severely eroded’. Wind erosion in
China is so serious that Chinese soil particles have been
detected in the Hawaiian atmosphere during the spring
planting period. Similarly, soil eroded by wind in Africa
has been detected in Florida and Brazil. (see Soil resource
conservation.)
Soil erosion affects crop productivity adversely by
reducing the water-holding capacity of the soil, lowering
the water availability, decreasing nutrient levels, and
amounts of organic matter, as well as lessening the depth
of soils. There are estimates that agricultural land
degradation alone can be expected to depress world food
production between 15% and 30% by the year 2020. Such
estimates emphasize the urgent need to implement
conservation practices such as including live and dead
mulches, adoption of no-till, ridge-till, terracing, grass
strips, crop rotations and intercropping, and combinations
of all these. All these techniques basically require keeping
the land protected from wind and rainfall effects, using
some form of vegetated cover.
The current high rates of soil erosion throughout the
world are of great concern because of the slow rate of
topsoil renewal: it takes approximately 500 years for 2.5 cm
(1 inch) of topsoil to form under agricultural conditions.
Approximately three thousand years would be needed for
the natural reformation of topsoil to the 150 mm depth
needed for satisfactory crop production.
The fertility of nutrient-poor soils can be improved by
large inputs of fossil-fuel-based fertilizers. However, this
practice increases dependency on the limited fossil fuel
resources necessary to produce these fertilizers. Even with
fertilizer use, soil erosion still remains a critical problem in
current agricultural production. Moreover, excessive
inorganic fertilizer use on poor soils, with little organic
matter, results in greater leaching of nitrates into ground-
water. (see Energy use in agriculture.)
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 Agricultural Systems: Ecology
The area of arable land currently used for crop
production already includes a considerable amount of
marginal land that is highly susceptible to erosion.
Whenever soil degradation occurs, the requirement for
fossil energy inputs in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and
irrigation may be increased, to offset the losses, thereby
creating nonsustainable agricultural systems in the long
term.
Fossil Energy Use in Agriculture;
Quantities and Major Uses; Renewable
Sources
Over time, people have relied on various sources of power
for food production and other purposes. These sources
have ranged from human, animal, wind, tidal and water
energy, to wood, coal, gas, oil and nuclear sources for fuel
and power. Currently, fossil fuel energy permits nations to
feed an increasing number of humans, as well as improving
their general quality of life. About 395 quads (1
quad 5 1015 BTU or 383  1018 joules) from all energy
sources are used worldwide per year (Edwards and
Pimentel, 2000). (see Energy use in agriculture.)
Energy use has been growing even faster than world
human population growth. From 1970 to 1995, energy use
was increasing at a rate of 2.5% annually (doubling every
thirty years) whereas the worldwide population grew at
only 1.7% annually. From 1995 to 2015, energy use was
projected to increase at an annual rate of 2.2% compared
with an annual population growth rate of 1.5%.
Although about 50% of the solar energy captured by
photosynthesis worldwide is used by humans, it is still
inadequate to meet all of the planet’s needs for food
worldwide. To make up this shortfall, about 345 quads of
fossil energy (oil, gas and coal) are utilized worldwide each
year, and this is increasing annually.
Developed nations consume annually about 70% of the
fossil energy used worldwide, while the developing nations,
which have about 75% of the world population, use only
30%. The United States, with only 4% of the world’s
population, consumes about 22% of the world’s fossil
energy output. Fossil energy use in the different US
economic sectors has increased 20- to 1000-fold in the past
three to four decades, attesting to the USA’s heavy reliance
on this finite energy resource to support their affluent
lifestyle.
Several developing nations that have high rates of
population growth are rapidly increasing their use of fossil
fuel to augment the agricultural production of food and
fibre. For instance, in China, there has been a 100-fold
increase in fossil energy use in agriculture for fertilizers,
pesticides and irrigation since 1955.
However, overall fertilizer production, which is fossil-
fuel-based, has declined by more than 23% since 1988 from
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a peak of nearly 150 million tonnes, especially in the
developing countries, due to fossil fuel shortages, currency
problems and high prices. In addition, the overall
projections of the availability of fossil energy resources
for fertilizers and other uses, are decreasing progressively
because of the limited global resources of these fossil fuels.
The world supply of oil is projected to last approximately
50 years at current production rates. Worldwide, the
natural gas supply is adequate for about 50 years, and that
of coal for about 100 years. These estimates, however, are
based on current consumption rates and population
numbers. If all the people in the world enjoyed a standard
of living and energy consumption rate similar to that of the
average American, and the world population continued to
grow at a rate of 1.5% annually, the world’s fossil fuel
reserves would last only about 15 years (Pimentel and
Edwards, 2000).
Using all of the currently available renewable energy
technologies, such as biomass and wind power, an
estimated 200 quads of renewable energy could be
produced worldwide but would need 20% to 26% of the
land area. A self-sustaining renewable energy system
producing 20 quads of energy per year would provide
each person with 5000 litres of oil equivalents per year or
half of current US consumption per year, but this would
represent an increase for most people of the world.
Moreover, the use of more than 20% of the land area for
renewable energy production would limit land for produc-
tion further and hence the resilience of the vital ecosystem
that humanity depends upon for its life support system.
Procedures to Make Agriculture More
Sustainable
Crop production depends upon four major inputs,
cultivations, nutrient supply, cropping patterns and pest
management, all of which impact on one another (Figure 1)
(Edwards et al., 1993).
These inputs can consume large amounts of fossil fuel,
particularly in terms of cultivations, inorganic fertilizers
and pesticides, particularly in developed countries that
depend upon high agricultural productivity for cheap
food. Since 1980, there has been an increasing trend to
depend less upon practices that consume fossil fuels.
Cultivations have moved progressively from deep plough-
ing, through shallow time ploughing, conservation tillage,
all the way to no till or no cultivation at all. Fertilizers,
which are still relatively inexpensive in developed coun-
tries, have been used on a routine crop basis with little
attention to the soil type, nutrient status or needs of the
crop, but are now being substituted with biological
nutrient sources. There has been a significant move in the
USA and Europe to apply fertilizers only in the amounts
that are essential.

Climate
Crop
Land Cultivations Nutrient supply
Pest
management
Food supply
Figure 1 Main components of a crop production system.
The use of pesticides has increased 20-fold since their
introduction in the 1950s, although, in recent years,
amounts used have begun to fall off. This is in response
to the increasing awareness of farmers and the public that
pesticides are dangerous, can cause groundwater pollu-
tion, can kill pollinating insects, have many undesirable
side effects on wildlife, and result in the progressive
development of resistance to pesticides by a broad range
of pests. (see Biological control.) (see Biological control by
microorganisms.)
Moreover, the extensive use of pesticides in crop
production eliminates many of the natural enemies of
pests, thereby minimizing the natural control mechanisms
and increasing overall losses to pests. Approximately 99%
of potential pests could be controlled by diverse, natural
enemy species, as well as through the use of pest resistance
in host plants, derived from wild plants in natural
ecosystems. A more ecological approach to pest control,
maximizing biodiversity and encouraging the maintenance
and build-up of natural control agents, could quickly
reverse the current trends away from such maintenance of
ecological integrity. As agroecological approaches to pest
control have been adopted progressively, and biodiversity
emphasized, it has become increasingly clear that the use of
pesticides can be decreased greatly or even eliminated with
no significant losses in yields (Dover and Talbot, 1987).
Since the 1980s, in the USA and Europe, the concept of
sustainable agriculture has developed. There are many
definitions of sustainable agriculture, but most incorporate
the following characteristics: long-term maintenance of
natural resources and agricultural productivity, minimal
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Agricultural Systems: Ecology
environmental impact, adequate economic returns to
farmers, optimal production with minimal chemical
inputs, and provision for the food and social needs of
farm families and communities. All definitions explicitly
promote environmental, economic and social goals, and
the need for an interdisciplinary systems approach to
agriculture. (see Environmental impact assessment.)
A definition that has received broad acceptance is:
Sustainable agriculture involves integrated systems of agri-
Water cultural productions, with minimum dependence upon high
inputs of energy, in the form of synthetic chemicals and
cultivation, that substitute cultural and biological techniques
for these inputs. They should maintain, or only slightly
decrease, overall productivity and maintain or increase the net
income for the farmer on the sustainable basis. They must
protect the environment in terms of soil and food contamina-
tion and maintain ecological diversity in the long-term
structure, fertility and productivity of soils. Finally, they
must meet the social needs of farmers and their families and
strengthen rural communities in a sustainable manner.
Many farmers and agricultural scientists view the
various practices they use to produce crops as completely
independent of each other. They rarely consider how the
amounts of fertilizer they use affect pests, diseases or
weeds. Neither is the impact of cultivations on pest disease
and weed problems a factor in deciding the type of tillage
that a farmer uses. Even with integrated pest-management
systems, it is rare for any account to be taken of the impact
of herbicides on pests and diseases, of insecticides on plant
diseases, or of fungicides on insect pests.
A farming system is not just a simple sum of all its inputs
and components, but rather is a complex system with
intricate interactions (Figure 1). In conventional ‘higher-
input’ farming, large yields can often be obtained without
any appreciable attention to interactions between inputs.
For instance, if heavy fertilizer use renders a crop much
more susceptible to pests and diseases, through production
of lush, soft growth, this can be compensated by increased
pesticide usage. The decreases in natural pest and disease
control caused by herbicides, through loss of foliar and
habitat diversity, is compensated by increased use of
insecticides and fungicides. Any effect of pesticides on
earthworms and other soil organisms that promote
organic-matter turnover, nutrient cycling and soil fertility
can be covered by using more inorganic fertilizers. When
chemical inputs are lowered in sustainable agriculture, we
need to understand how the main inputs impact upon each
other in much more detail, so that the beneficial effects of
these interactions can be maximized. This can be summar-
ized more readily as identifying ways of adopting an
integrated ecological systems approach to farming which
bases the disease and pest management upon sound
ecological principles and maximizes the contribution of
biological inputs to crop production. There is an urgent
need to expand our understanding of agro-ecology and the
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 Agricultural Systems: Ecology
ecological functions of farming systems, and to apply this
knowledge to food production. Only in this way can food
productivity be increased in a sustainable, long-term way.
References
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Pimentel D and Lehman H (eds.) (1993) The Pesticide Question:
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Further Reading
Carroll CR, Vandermeer JH and Rosset PM (1990) Agroecology:
Biological Resource Management Series, 641.
Edwards CA, Lal R, Madden P, Miller RH and Haise G (1990)
Sustainable Agricultural Systems. Ankary, IA: Soil and Water
Conservation Society.
Edwards CA, Wali MK, Horn DJ and Miller F (1993) Agriculture and the
Environment. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Gleissman SR (ed.) (2000) (Edwards CA (Series ed.)) Agroecosystem
Sustainability: Developing Practical Strategies. Boca Raton. FL: CRC
Press.
National Research Council (1989) Alternative Agriculture. Washington
DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council (1992) Sustainable Agriculture and the
Environment in Humid Tropics. Washington DC: National Academy
Press.