Economics and Agriculture: Problems

Because a surplus of food and agricultural supplies leads to trade and diversification of the economy, agricultural production is one of the most important factors in the economy. Without an organized system of agriculture, developing nations aren’t able to support their economy or focus on international trade. Since agriculture is so important, it has become an industrialized part of the economy, which has had negative impacts on the environment. Since industrialized agriculture is environmentally unsustainable, it has caused land used for agriculture to lose productivity.

            The loss of productivity has caused even more environmentally unsustainable factors to be put into use, which increases the negative impact on the economy. When land loses productivity, farmers have to spend money on fertilizers to help them produce the same amount of crop they did before. The overuse of fertilizers leads to increased water pollution, which means that the government has to spend more money on water purification. The end result is that farmers lose money since they spend more to produce less, and governments lose money because they have to subsidize the farmers’ loss of income as well as pay for the environmental damages caused by the farmers.

The Guardian - Desertification - Attached is a link to an article by The Guardian about desertification and the loss of agricultural productivity.