Due to a limit of crop species, traditional farmers still continue growing crops for urban people. Moreover, vertical farming focuses on a high value and rapid-growing, so those slow-growing crops are not profitable in a commercial vertical farming system (Birky, 2016). The benefits of vertical farm toward humanity are various than its drawbacks. As the production through the controlled systems is not susceptible to variation of any factors such as climate, insects and disease, the innovation can increase crop yields in year-round production with high quality and quantity without using herbicides or pesticides. Additionally, vertical farming can take advantage of low-value land or unavailable for food production.
Using Blockchain to Maximize Agricultural Profits in the Caribbean As stated by Allan Savory, “agriculture is not crop production as popular belief holds - it's the production of food and fiber from the world's land and waters. Without agriculture it is not possible to have a city, stock market, banks, university, church or army. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy”. This case is the same for all regions, which includes the Caribbean. Agriculture in the Caribbean islands, from the Bahamas to Trinidad, is concentrated in sugarcane, bananas, coffee, tobacco, and some citrus and cacao.
The development of palm oil has led to environmental and social issues o Deforestation of Indonesian Rainforests has led to the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere contributing to climate change and making Indonesia the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. o Loss of biodiversity caused by forest conversion has led to a decline in the population of endangered species such as the orangutans mainly due to habitat loss. o Conflicts of landownership and lack of access to forest resources; mainly for the locals who depend solely on the rainforests for their livelihoods. III. A Possible solution to reducing the negative impacts is Ecotourism o Case study: Successful development of ecotourism in Costa Rica ecotourism is used as a conservation strategy to protect natural ecosystems while generating money for local
However, the situation changed from the 1950s, farmers accepted government subsidies to grow corn. They practice specialization and brought tractors in order to boost the crop yields. It effectively increases the crop yield and encourages farmers to grow more. However, the specialization leads to the monoculture. And, the persistent of monoculture eventually leads to the loss of biodiversity.
Clearing land for palm oil companies earns them some remuneration, apart from the additional revenue gained from the logged trees. Beisdes creating space for plantations, the cleared land also aids in bringing modern technology including electricity to the rural villages, since the network of the country has widened through the building of roads and buildings. Thus, these villages are able to break out of the poverty cycle with more money and better access and hence regulations that prevent palm oil expansion serves as a hindrance to the breaking of the poverty cycle. However, better access and a source of income is not enough to help the country move towards a developed one. It must be recognised that the focus on the natural resource sector of the country diverts labour away from the manufacturing sector.
This is because the owners of these farms receive debt relief for growing this crop. People are removed from the land in order to make room to expand these plantations. This causes the original inhabitants to be forced to live on poor land on the edges of the plantations. The land in these areas is overgrazed and overcropped. There is also massive deforestation occurring and instead of a natural fertiliser, cow dung is used as a fuel.
Indonesia is one of the largest palm oil producers in the world, specifically in the Sumatra area. In 2003, 54% of Sumatra area is covered by palm forest. Unfortunately, currently Sumatra have lost its forest cover by 25%, according to the data in 2014. Deforestation in Sumatra is caused by irresponsible palm oil producers by either burning the forest areas, cutting without re-planting, and more. Not only it damages the environment but also animal species such as the Sumatran Orangutan.
In percentage this means that the 32% of the citizens that work in the countryside. In addition to this, the 95% of the Colombian coffee producers live on small farms with 2 hectares on average and only the 5% of the producers have coffee plantations which bigger size of 5 hectares. Farmers are affected by several endogenous problems, which are traduced in huge economic losses and several painful situations. The main problems are: 1. The volatility of world market prices.
1. INTRODUCTION A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) highlighted the growing worldwide importance of urban farming. According to this report, one seventh of the world 's food supply is grown in cities and there are some 800 million urban farmers globally. The majority of them are found in Asian and African cities. Of these, 200 million are considered to be market producers, employing 150 million people on a full time basis (UNDP 1996).
This side of the solution space is more difficult, because it must not only pass the bureaucratic barriers in the government (ie. differences in political parties’ motivations) but also socio-cultural barriers in society (ie. farmers adamant on sticking to “traditional” agricultural practices for preserving “olden times” or their ancestral ways of farming). Anusuya Rangarajan’s manual on crop rotation has a section called Crop Rotation Effects on Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition that explains the importance of the education of farmers on the first technical solution mentioned earlier, crop rotation. Through education on good farming techniques, farmers can make educated decisions on their crop rotation sequences and changes to their daily crop-tending practices to naturally maintain the soil’s fertility (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, 2012).