“How can xeriscaping be implemented on a global scale, in order to further the planets food sources?”
“The word Xeriscape comes from two words – “xeros”, a Greek word meaning dry, and the word “scape” which means scene. The term is said to be coined by a Denver Water employee, who thought of a style of gardening that used drought resistant plants, to create a waste-efficient landscape”. (Eartheasy.com) Xeriscaping is an ecological way to garden vegetables effectively, while using very little resources in order to reduce the usage of water, from everyday gardening.(Aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu) The way that xeriscaping works is that first one must pick drought resistant plants such as tomatoes, eggplants, snap peas, and peppers, which can all withstand harsh conditions and still be fruitful. Growing herbs in this form of agriculture has also been proven to be effective. Xeriscaping has a lot of different aspects that make it such a unique way to grow food. The first thing that is key when planting the vegetables is to consider the most efficient layout that will maximize space, rather than making it look attractive.
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I can clearly picture this form of agriculture being specifically implemented in struggling countries, that have a hot, dry, climates. In these countries it would normally be hard to produce fruitful agriculture, but if if the world were to band together and share resources I believe that this idea could quickly turn into a reality. Countries that are far better off I think could really assist the third world countries by providing the necessary tools to get them started in this form of agriculture. The countries that need xeriscaping the most, are the ones struggling the most with water, Iraq, Kuwait, Tunisia, Singapore, and South Africa (Etd.lsu.edu). These of course would be the target group of countries to begin this ideal form of agriculture
The method uses a water based, nutrient method to give plants all the nutrient they need to grow. This method is able to use heat and lighting to help the plants grow if their normal climate isn't the same as the one in the area you’re growing your plants in. In some cases hydroponic houses are made to support the plant for its living conditions. Sometimes the roots hang freely and nutrients are hazed over onto them but this tends to be more risky because the roots can easily dry out if the misting cycle is not to schedule and spread
Without some system of worldwide food sharing, the proportion of people in the rich and poor nations might eventually stabilize. The overpopulated poor countries would decrease in numbers, while the rich countries that had room for more people would increase. Hardin continues on to show that the modern approach to foreign aid stresses the export of technology and advice, rather than money and food! An ancient Chinese proverb once said: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his days” (Hardin, Pg. 84). A number of programs for improving agriculture in the hungry nations known as the “Green Revolution” have taken a big stand in offering harvest and greater resistance to crop damage due to action taken on this advice. It is said that foundations such as “miracle rice” and “miracle wheat” are one of the most prominent advocates of a world food bank.
South Asia is one of the most densely populated regions of the world, where despite a slow growth, agriculture remains the backbone of rural economy as it employs one half to over 90 percent of the labor force. Both extensive and intensive policy measures for agriculture
Using the Xiuhpohualli calendar, the Aztecs had certain farming seasons to know what was the best times of year to farm certain crops. These seasons were named xopan (“green time of year"), tonallan (“time of heat”), tonalco (“during the heat”) & cecuizpan (“time of cold”). The main crops planted were maize, squash and beans, and were planted in the wet seasons.
Throughout time, humans have pushed forward in every aspect in life in order to improve their living standards, wealth and most importantly the agricultural sector which is the base of every human race. Food is the basic requirement for any individual to stay alive and healthy. In an article by Tamsin McMahon, she states that over the past 60 years, the world population has grown from 2.5 billion to 7 billion while world hunger dropped from 40% down to 15% (McMahon T., July 2012). This shows that our agricultural advances through technology have helped control world hunger and decrease it by more than half, but this is a short-term solution if we want to consider the future generations that depend on our current actions toward the three main pillars of agriculture which are: Health and nutrition, Economy and sustainability all while considering the local small farms and corporate farms.
Living on a farm for the first half of my life, I know that my dad and many of our neighbors’ schedules revolved around the rain. Aquaponic and hydroponic methods of farming both provide dramatic reduction in water usage. One system designed by Nate Storey claims to be able to reduce water usage substantially (2014). He says that a similar sized back yard garden will use twenty times the water as hydroponic/aquaponics system. Other systems have seen similar reduction in water usage, because unlike traditional farming with irrigation, aquaponics and hydroponics is a closed system that recirculates water multiple times so that most water loss is through evaporation and the plants using it for osmosis. In traditional farming, water is lost to runoff or evaporates before the crops have a chance to use it. Moreover, aquaponics was originally mentioned as a way to reduce fish imports and allow people of inland populations to have locally raised fish and produce in the Virgin Islands (Rakocy 2000). With the need to provide food, particularly meat, aquaponically raised fish provide an alternative to shipping fish inland from the coasts or international
Landscaping techniques, such as drip irrigation and xeriscaping can reduce California's use of water immensely. Eighty Percent of the state’s developed water
Crop rotation may be used better to increase abundance on land. Farmers should pay more attention to their food crops as they could possibly be harvested more often. Farmers should also pay attention to their crops because they may be able to leave less time between each harvest therefore increasing their yield. In order to increase food production without expanding on existing agricultural land, the following steps could come in handy: careful selection of seed types that have adapted to the climate conditions, more effective use of fertiliser, more attention directed towards micronutrients, and improved knowledge of the area and climate to discover more appropriate planting and harvesting
What brought me here is during graduate school I was taking class called Development Ventures. It was a class where the first day you go in and the professor challenges you with a really juicy question like, “Your goal for this class is to come up with one business idea. Make it help at least one billion people.” For me, I worked in agriculture; and what I realized is, if I want to think about solving this crazy problem, it’s probably going to be farmers because most of the world is poor, and work or live in rural areas. They do agriculture as their primary source of income and livelihood. It would have something to do with spoilage based on what I’ve seen in the field. From that class, the need to tackle
To produce different plants, genetic cross-breeding is performed, as well as using different techniques for growing the plant.
Many support agricultural modernization, as a solution Africa’s, and many other impoverished nations hunger problems. This would include the industrialization of their agricultural industry, using modern, genetically enhanced seeds, and fertilizer. Yet, some of the same groups that are promoting the organic movement in the United States are advocating against the globalization of modern industrial agricultural practices (Paarlberg 179). Those who support modernization of such nations argue that the current process in inefficient, and inadequate. They believe that globalization of the highly capitalized, science-intensive, agricultural system that has been developed in the West, is the answer to the worlds hunger problems. They also warn that if the West abandons its current practices, it may fall victim to famine due to inadequate production (Paarlberg 179). However, supporters of organic production point to the fact that each year, approximately ten million tons of chemical fertilizer are poured onto our corn
What I am proposing to the farmers is a complete shift in the products that they are cropping. In order for the farmers to take advantage of the water that is available to them, and expand the size of their products, they need to harvest plants that have adapted to grow in drier environments.
When you watch commercials depicting starvation in African countries like Mali, do you wonder what it would actually take to end hunger? Plenty of answers appear successful in concept, but have unforeseen complications, such as building factories in Africa to produce and process biofuels. And other obstacles such as civil wars, poor sanitation, and massive debt keep countries like Democratic Republic of the Congo from advancing. Maybe we complicate the solution to the hunger crisis by focusing on economy instead of food sustainability. Before a country can advance economically and technologically, it has to be able to feed its inhabitants. Therefore, by altering the crops currently grown in the African savannas to create agricultural sustainability, it will diminish hunger, and lead to economic growth.
Without being able to grow these crops the farmers will become poorer and poorer until they have no money left to spend on anything. This will not just be affecting the third world countries though it will also greatly affect bigger countries like for say the U.S. which gets most of their food from farmers such as the ones talked about in the article. There is also a difference in the price foods are bought for and the price they are sold for. Since there is a difference in the dollar and other currencies the U.S. can rip other countries off. There is also the food demand which is expected to grow by about 30% before 2050. This massive bump in food demand will make the farmers work for a lot longer as well as produce a lot more food for the world. They won’t be able to do any of this because they are underfunded and can’t earn as much money during the time where they aren’t harvesting and selling. But Bill Gates has a plan to help these underfunded farmers. He plans to begin donating to the One Acre fund. This group works with over 200,000 African farmers and it provides them with access to help with financing, tools and training to become a better farmer. Melinda and Bill have made a bet that Africa will be able to feed itself within the next 15
Water conservation is on a lot of people’s minds these days. Droughts and a growing population put stress on existing water supplies. That leads to the water restrictions that have become all too familiar to Californians. What is the issue, though? Isn’t 70% of the world is covered in water? Yes, but only 0.007% of all that water is considered potable or safe to drink. The water from your faucet is potable water. Unfortunately, so is most of the water used in irrigation to keep a lawn green. In a desert climate, keeping lawns green means using a huge amount of potable water. To reduce their water consumption, many homeowners are looking for a landscaping alternative to big lawns. Xeriscaping is that alternative.