The Environmental Issues Associated With Agricultural Chemicals

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The Environmental Issues Associated With Agricultural Chemicals

One of the environmental issues associated with agricultural chemicals includes the usage of pesticides, which are chemicals applied to agricultural crops or domesticated plants in order to kill or inhibit the growth of insects or weeds. Pesticides can be divided into three categories: Insecticides combat insect pests, Fungicides target the fungi the result in many plant diseases and Herbicides aim to destroy weeds (1). Insects or pests, such as aphids or mice eat the crops, whereas weeds compete with the crops for soil nutrients. Pests are known to reduce the yield of plants in several ways, where they can have a direct effect by damaging the plant leaves, (1) therefore the process of photosynthesis cannot occur in misshapen or distorted leaves. Consequently, the whole plant is affected, as there will be smaller amounts of sugar available to be transported to other parts of the plant, such as the roots. However, through the usage of pesticides, the population of aphids are controlled, and the yield of crop remains undamaged.

Additionally, a disadvantage to the use of pesticides is the development of resistance, which is another environmental concern, where gene mutations in insects