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In agriculture, leaching is the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and irrigation. Soil structure , crop planting, type and application rates of fertilizers , and other factors are taken into account to avoid excessive nutrient loss.
The use of GMO crop plants engineered for herbicide resistance can also indirectly increase the amount of agricultural pollution associated with herbicide use. For example, the increased use of herbicide in herbicide-resistant corn fields in the mid-western United States is decreasing the amount of milkweeds available for monarch butterfly larvae.
This damage is an average of 2,000 hectares of irrigated land in arid and semi-arid areas daily for more than 20 years across 75 countries (each week the world loses an area larger than Manhattan)...To feed the world's anticipated nine billion people by 2050, and with little new productive land available, it's a case of all lands needed on deck.—principal author Manzoor Qadir, Assistant ...
When the plants use the water, the salts are left behind in the soil and eventually begin to accumulate. This water in excess of plant needs is called the leaching fraction. Salination from irrigation water is also greatly increased by poor drainage and use of saline water for irrigating agricultural crops.
The leaching process in a salty soil to be reclaimed is illustrated in the leaching curves of figure 1, derived from data of the Chacupe pilot area, Peru. [2] It shows the soil salinity in terms of electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil solution with respect its initial value (ECi) as a function of amount of water percolating through the soil.
Agricultural operations account for a large percentage of all nonpoint source pollution in the United States. When large tracts of land are plowed to grow crops, it exposes and loosens soil that was once buried. This makes the exposed soil more vulnerable to erosion during rainstorms. It also can increase the amount of fertilizer and pesticides ...
In irrigated agricultural land, waterlogging is often accompanied by soil salinity as waterlogged soils prevent leaching of the salts imported by the irrigation water. From a gardening point of view, waterlogging is the process whereby the soil hardens to the point where neither air nor water can soak through.
At a larger scale, soil acidification is linked to losses in agricultural productivity due to these effects. [31] Impacts of acidic water and Soil acidification on plants could be minor or in most cases major. In minor cases which do not result in fatality of plant life include; less-sensitive plants to acidic conditions and or less potent acid ...