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What Teens Say...
Name: Sarah Vines
Essay Theme: Weather and Crop Production |
State: North Carolina
School: East Wake Academy |
Impact of Weather Anomalies
on Agriculture |
For as long as we've known, there's always been an unexplained
weather event in our oceans. Though we've only recently uncovered
the mechanisms behind these anomalies, crops and farms worldwide
have always been affected.
The weather anomaly that Americans are most familiar with is
the El Nino pattern. El Nino brings warm temperature and a surge
of wet air. This cycle has always occurred; however, over the
years it's intensified, devastating rural farm-dependent areas
as far as the Atlantic coast.
Recent El Nino cycles began in the 1970s and appeared last in
the late 1990s. the most severe of these in the last century
were the 1987 and 1997 patterns. When El Nino sweeps through,
it brings periods of extreme drought and heavy flooding, withering
and saturating the crops all in a couple of months. This happens
mainly in the Pacific areas, though damage is evident as far
as America's eastern coast, as the cycle for southeastern crops
is disrupted. It is also noted that a huge threat to farmers
is the spring after El Nino comes through, because of the numbers
of plant diseases and a boom in the insect population.
Another known event, though not as familiar to American farmers,
is the Indian Monsoon. Monsoons are seasonal changes in weather.
In the areas of India, Pakistan, and Pacific countries, these
changes are drastic. In 1987, there was a drought in Asia, from
Afghanistan to the Philippines. This drought was attributed
to El Nino, resulting in below-normal rainfall and scorching
temperatures damaging crops. Main-season crops all over southern
Asia were reduced in production. The western and southern oilseed,
grain, and cotton areas, along with rice in the east, are rain
fed and rely on the normal weather patterns. These crops suffer
the most when El Nino arrives, changing their regular Indian
Monsoon. In the same 1987 drought, the temperatures were record
low in the northern and central rain-fed farms, making summer-planted
crop production plummet. The irrigated fall-planted crops tried
to balance the shortfall, but also suffered losses. Another
setback for the farmers is late monsoon surges, which soak the
crops and bring diseases because of the heavy rains.
It is evident from the intensity of the most recent El Nino
that our climate is changing. While it may just be variations
of the sun's energy, some scientists believe these storms and
fluctuations of weather cycles are due to global warming. Global
warming does affect our agriculture. Deforestation and the burning
of fossil fuels puts large amounts of CO2 in our atmosphere.
Scientists working in agriculture believe that if we put more
carbon in the soil, it can help offset the effects of global
warming. By sequestering carbon in trees and plants, it helps
fertilize the soil so that the CO2 can be used for photosynthesis.
If we do this, the impact of El Nino, and all the weather anomalies
it brings, won't be nearly as intense as it was in 1987 and
1997.
References:
| Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
(CAST). 2000. Storing Carbon |
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in Agricultural Soils to Help Mitigate Global Warming.
Cast Issue Paper No. 14. <http://www.cast-science.org/pdf/gl02_ip.pdf> |
| Encarta Encyclopedia. 2001. El Nino. Microsoft. |
| Joint Agricultural Weather Facility. El
Nino: Background, mechanics, and impact. |
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Appendix II of Major World Crop Areas and Climatic Profiles,
<http://www.usda.gov/oce/waob/jawf/profiles/specials/enso/enso.htm> |
| Joint Agricultural Weather Facility. The
Indian Monsoon and its impact on |
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agriculture. Appendix II of Major World Crop Areas and
Climatic Profiles, <http://www.usda.gov/oce/waob/jawf/profiles/specials/monsoon/monsoon.htm> |
This essay was part of a 2003 essay contest sponsored by
Council for Agricultural Science & Technology.
Click here to see how essays were
selected.
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