Impacts of Science and Technology 科技的影响

Impacts of Science and T echnologyon Agricultural DevelopmentAbstract:The level of science and technology determines the level of productive forces and production methods, which determines production relations. It can be seen that the development of science and technology can have a great influence on the society, of which agriculture is one of the most important branches. This paper introduces the different effects of science and technology on agricultural development including the aspects of agricultural economy, production methods, development concept and policy change, living standard, ecological environment and so on.Key Word: science and technology agriculture impactsScience and technology is an essential contributor to solving the triangle of the global problems of hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. Without sound scientific input of different kinds, the challenges will not be addressed. Science, including the biological sciences and increasingly the social and physical sciences, must be applied to agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, and to those rural, coastal, and urban ecosystems and human systems within which hunger and poverty persist.Prod uction methods changeThere exists an obvious impact on the agriculture production methods, enhancing the amount by area expansion and changing the way of the raising the food, such as the rice and the wheat, in the Intensive production mode. There are some examples below.Green RevolutionAdvances in scientific knowledge of biosynthesis in plants, especially the identification and use in plant breeding of dwarfing genes in wheat and rice, were embodied in the new technologies associated with high-yielding varieties. These andother new technologies which were introduced in the populous south Asian subcontinent mainly during the 1960s, came to be known as the "Green Revolution". The technologies again were a composite affair. High yields generally were achieved by providing improved varieties, together with controlled irrigation, the application of fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides as needed.The phrase, 'Green Revolution', is to describe the breakthrough in wheat and rice production in Asia that began during the mid-1960s (Table 1). This process of applying agricultural science to develop Third World agriculture actually began in Mexico with the "quiet" wheat revolution in the mid-1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines received world attention for their agricultural progress. Since 1980, China has been the greatest success story. Home to one-fifth of the world's people, China today is the world's biggest food producer. With each successive year, its cereal crop yields approach that of the United States.Table 1. Cereal Production in Asia, 1961-99Milled Rice Wheat All Cereals(Million tonnes)China 1961 48 14 911970 96 29 1631999 170 114 390India 1961 46 11 701970 54 20 931999 112 71 186Dev'ing Asia 1961 155 44 2481970 233 71 3721999 449 242 809Source: FAO AGROSTAT, April 2000Machinery expansionOn the other hand, from the 19 century, Improvements in farm machinery expanded the area that could be cultivated by one family. Machinery made possiblebetter seedbed preparation, moisture utilization, and improved planting practices and weed control, resulting in modest increases in yield per hectare.BiotechnologyMoreover, the biotechnology has achieved great improvements since 19 century. By the mid-1800s, German scientist Justus von Leibig and French scientistJean-Baptiste Boussingault had laid down important theoretical foundations in soil chemistry and crop agronomy. Sir John Bennett Lawes, produced super phosphate in England in 1842, and shipments of Chilean nitrates (nitrogen) began arriving in quantities to European and North American ports in the 1840s. However, the use of organic fertilizers (animal manure, crop residues, green manure crops) remained dominant into the early 1900s. The groundwork for more sophisticated genetic crop improvement was laid by Charles Darwin in his writings on the variation of life species (published in 1859) and by Gregor Mendel through his discovery of the laws of genetic inheritance (reported in 1865). Darwin's book immediately generated a great deal of interest, discussion and controversy. Mendel's work was largely ignored for 35 years. The rediscovery of Mendel's work in 1900 provoked tremendous scientific interest and research in plant genetics.The first decade of the 20th Century brought a fundamental scientific breakthrough that was followed by the rapid commercialization of the breakthrough. In 1909, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1918), Fritz Haber, demonstrated the synthesis of ammonia from its elements. Thanks to the innovative solutions of Carl Bosch-the company BASF began operation of the world's first ammonia plant in 1913. Development of the fertilizer industry was first delayed by WWI (ammonia was used to produce nitrate for explosives), then by the great economic depression of the 1930s, and then by the demand for explosives during WWII. However, after the war, rapidly increasing amounts of nitrogen became available and contributed greatly to boosting crop yields and production.It is only since WWII that fertilizer use, and especially the application oflow-cost nitrogen derived from synthetic ammonia, has become an indispensable component of modern agricultural production. Distinguished University of ManitobaProfessor Vaclav Smil has estimated that 40% of today's 6 billion people are alive, thanks to the Haber-Bosch process of synthesizing ammonia.Maize cultivation led the modernization process. In 1940, US farmers produced 56 million tons of maize on roughly 31 million hectares, with an average yield of 1.8 t/ha. In 1999, US farmers produced 240 million tons of maize on roughly 29 million hectares, with an average yield of 8.4 t/ha. This more than four-fold yield increase is the impact of modern hybrid seed-fertilizer-weed control technology.Development concept and policy changeNot only the science and technology has an effect on the material but also on the people mind about development or people’s values and world outlook, in the physical way that may be more ignored by people, which may lead to greater impact on the world.Firstly, the surpluses produced in recent decades by agriculture in developed market economies have helped to provide food security for mankind, but predictably these surpluses have caused a shift in emphasis in developed countries from increased production to food safety and other concerns of the consumer and the public. T his should be recognized as a large improvement in the concept aspect, the progress of human civilization.Secondly, the policy on agriculture has been changed continually to comply with the modern society in developing countries. For most nations newly established in the 1950s and 1960s agriculture was the main economic activity of the population. Policies and strategies were adopted to speed development. Some countries sought the answer by selling valuable resources such as metals, minerals and petroleum. Others viewed their agriculture as a backward sector offering little near-term prospect of modern development. They sought to tax its income and to transfer its foreign exchange earnings so as to stimulate growth elsewhere, particularly to establish industries. Many others perceived agriculture as the basis for national growth. Thisgrowth, initially concentrated in agriculture, would then spread to other sectors of the economy.And there is a contrast between the developed countries and the developing countries. The former focus more attention on the impact the science and technology has on the environment. The policy on the environment protection is formulated more strictly, as well as the supervision work. However, the latter is not so concerned about the environment issue. The economy development and the GDP increasing are emphasized in the first place. The agriculture and environment are often sacrificed for the economy development. The development of science and technology accelerates the speed and expands the scale of environment protection as well as the environment destruction. There is also a fact that the developed countries intend to transfer their own environment pollution to the developing counties in different ways. The world expansion of the multinational corporations is the best evidence, moreover, they buying pollution index from other countries, their import and export policy, and the different policies to different countries.Living standardThe improvement of the science and technology has give modern life more convenience and efficiency, richening man’s necessary daily products and lifestyle leading to a great progress in the mankind civilization as well as some negative effect on some place.Green Revolution had won a temporary success in man's war against hunger, which if fully implemented, could provide sufficient food for humankind through the end of the 20th century. world has the technology-either available or well advanced in the research pipeline-to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people.Where priority was placed and maintained on agriculture, using the gain from this sector to support balanced industrial development, economic and material progress has resulted for much of the population and the nation. The expectations of those countries that opted for early industrialization, in the belief that it would pull rural areas into development, have remained largely unfulfilled.The course of development sketched above is of course a simplification. It is meant to show the need for and the rewards of giving priority to science and technology in the service of agriculture for development. Throughout the developing world growth in agricultural production and productivity remains a top priority and challenge.EnvironmentThe past contributions of science and technology to agricultural development have not been free from trouble nor have they met all needs. But in most of what are now considered developed countries, progress in industrialization and economic growth has in fact been achieved on the shoulders of agriculture. This progress was achieved over many generations, and on an agriculture base strengthened by new science and technology in implements, machines and husbandry.First of all, the ecological environment must bear the pressure caused by the science and technology improvement.Water resourceFor example, the water resource, water covers about 70 percent of the Earth's surface. Of this total, less than 1 percent of the world's freshwater-that found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and underground aquifers shallow enough to be tapped economically-is readily available for direct human use. However, the rapid expansion in world irrigation and in urban and industrial water uses has led to growing shortages.But this can be fixed. There are many technologies for improving the efficiency of water use. Wastewater can be treated and used for irrigation. Water can be delivered much more efficiently to the plants and in ways to avoid soil waterlogging and salinization. Changing to crops requiring less water (and/or new improved varieties), together with more efficient crop sequencing and timely planting and irrigation, can also achieve significant water savings. Proven technologies, such as drip irrigation, which saves water and reduces soil salinity, are suitable for muchlarger areas than currently used. Various new precision irrigation systems are also on the horizon, which will supply water to plants only when they need it. There is also a range of improved small-scale and supplemental irrigation systems to increase the productivity of rainfed areas, which offer much promise for smallholder farmers. GMOsThe other aspect, there is a controversial discussion about the GMOs(genetically modified organisms).This kind of technology can increase the production and improve the quality in a large scale indeed, but there is the debate about whether introducing "foreign DNA" into our food crop species is "natural" and a threat to health. DNA is the common code to all life. The GMOs can not be proved completely safe since there is a short history of its development so that the potential influence on people’s health can not be clearly seen in a effective way. There is a risk that this kind of technology can lead to new diseases even health destruction to human beings.As to the environment, it is true that agricultural intensification over the past years has had adverse effects associated with it. Increasing water scarcity and soil degradation affect large tracts of agricultural land, especially in Africa and Central America. Irrigated agriculture-which accounts for 17 percent of the cultivated area but contributes 40 percent of our food supply-has contributed to waterlogging, salinization, and depletion and chemical contamination of surface and groundwater supplies. Intensive livestock production has created problems of manure disposal and water pollution. Fisheries have been overexploited.Absolutely, there is no dent that the application of science-based technology has had a positive impact on land use. By increasing yields on the lands best suited to agriculture, world farmers have been able to leave untouched vast areas of land for other purposes. For example, had the global cereal yields of 1950 still prevailed in 1999, instead of the 600 million hectares that were used for production, we would have needed nearly 1.8 billion ha of land of the same quality to produce the current global harvest. Obviously, such a surplus of land was not available, and certainly not in populous Asia, where the population has increased from 1.2 to 3.8 billion over thistime period. However, had more environmentally fragile land been brought into agricultural production, the impact on soil erosion, loss of forests and grasslands, biodiversity and extinction of wildlife species would have been enormous.Science and technology should be responsible for the daily deterioration of environmental problems.Agricultural science and technology has a moral obligation to warn political, educational, and religious leaders about the magnitude and seriousness of the population, arable land, food production, and environmental problems that lie ahead. These problems will not vanish by themselves; unless they are addressed if a forthright manner now, sustainable agricultural systems in the future will be ever more difficult to achieve.REFERENCESNorman E. Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Feeding the World in the 21st Century: The Role of Agricultural Science and Technology (Speech given at Tuskegee University -- April, 2001)Dr Karl O. Herz. FAO 1993. Science and technology for sustainable development, from "Science and technology in the work of FAO.R.B. Singh, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. 2002. Science and Technology for Sustainable Food Security, Nutritional Adequacy, and Poverty Alleviation in the Asia-Pacific Region.。