Population Growth and Environmental Problems in Taiwan (Formosa): A Case-study

1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-Hui Li

Taiwan has the highest population density in the world today. The population growth-rate has been decreasing linearly since 1951, but the present growthrate of 2% is still much too high to lessen the population pressure. With the area of agricultural land severly limited, the agricultural sector of Taiwan can no longer absorb extra farm labourers without sacrificing the productivity of each farm labourer.In order to feed the growing population, the high productivity of a rice paddy has been maintained by applying ever-increasing amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which in turn cause many pollution problems. Moreover the rapid growth of industries, which are mainly financed by outside capital, causes the expansion and congestion of the cities along with all sorts of pollution problems (air pollution of cities, water pollution of rivers, harbours, coastal waters, etc.)The heavy dependence on imported energy (70% of the total energy consumption) and on trade with Japan and the United States, puts Taiwan in a vulnerable position with regard to fluctuations in the world economy. The ever-increasing population density, and the demands of a higher per caput consumption on the limited natural resources, risk leading to economic inadequacy and ecological degradation. Such a situation could endanger our industrial civilization more widely.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Butenko ◽  
◽  
V. Baidala ◽  
A. Toiunda ◽  
◽  
...  

Problems of the environmental degradation, declining life quality and the need to meet the needs of consumers in organic food determine the relevance of research the market of organic products. The purpose of the article is the consideration of the development history, analysis of world experience and trends in the market of organic products in order to develop mechanisms that will contribute to the development of this market segment in Ukraine. There are considered the history of the development of organic farming, its main stages, and significant events in this article. It is determined that the production of organic products was formed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the modern interpretation and get widespread in the 80s of the twentieth century. The authors analyze the current state of the market of organic products in countries that have leading positions in the world. The special features of the formation of this market in the EU, where the area of organic farming is about 7.5% of the area of agricultural land, are considered. The analysis of volumes of consumption of organic products in the different countries is done. It is determined that the leaders in the production and consumption of organic products are the United States, Germany, France, Italy, China. Special attention is paid to the functioning of the market of organic products in Ukraine. It is determined that Ukraine has a leading position in exporting of organic products to the world market. But the vast majority of such exports are raw materials. Based on the world experience of organic market development, the main mechanisms have been identified. Its application will help to further development of organic market in Ukraine.


1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suresh Chand Rai ◽  
Eklabya Sharma ◽  
Rakesh Chandra Sundriyal

The ecological problems, including degradation of fragile ecosystems, of the Himalaya are quite conspicuous. A rapid depletion of forest resources is the main cause of environmental degradation and economic deterioration. Watersheds are considered as a unit for natural resource management and development in hilly areas; therefore a case-study of Mamlay watershed of Sikkim is presented in this paper.The Mamley watershed presents a viable system having a gradient of altitude where almost all types of land-uses that are common in the eastern Himalaya are found. All the ethno-cultural groups of Sikkim are present in this watershed, although the agricultural sector provides the main land-use, followed by forestry. Most of the forested areas in the Himalaya have been purportedly destroyed for the expansion of agricultural land. A similar situation was experienced in the Mamlay watershed, where an increase of 12.79% of the land-area used for agriculture has been recorded in the past 40 years. The watershed being fragile, 62% of the area is under intensive agricultural practice. Land-use and spatial relationships in the perspective of conservation are presented in this paper.Great genetic diversity of agricultural crops and trees has been recorded in this small watershed. Conservation ethics of optimum utilization/production of the resources, following traditional practices without much degrading of the system which is believed to be sustainable, was practised earlier in the watershed. But recently, due to population pressure and fragmentation of farm-owning families, the balance of land-use, natural resource utilization, and conservation, has become perturbed. Examples of traditional adaptation, indigenous knowledge, and perception of conservation amongst farm-owning families, are also presented in the paper.


2021 ◽  
Vol 909 (1) ◽  
pp. 012013
Author(s):  
M Y Hidayat

Abstract Population pressure triggers farmers to expand their cultivation area due to population growth. East Belitung Regency, an expanded area of Belitung Regency, has developed into a new economic center on Belitung Island. The agricultural sector which has the largest contribution to the economy of east Belitung, but it has a negative impact due to the increasing demand for land by the community. This research examines the population pressure on agricultural land in each sub-district area as part of Manggar Watershed. The recent study presents the results of spatial analysis of land cover overlaying to the population of the Manggar watershed using ArcGIS 10.1 software. The results showed that three sub-districts intersect one another, namely Gantung sub-district (2.17%), Kelapa Kampit sub-district (12.49%), and Manggar sub-district (83.34%). In addition, there are ten types of land cover in the Manggar watershed, and the most prominent area is dominated by mining (8,709 Ha). Population pressure on agricultural land in the Manggar watershed is classified as moderate for the Gantung sub-district and low for the Kelapa Kampit and Gantung sub-districts. Furthermore, this study also revealed that land exploitation for the agricultural mean is still below its carrying capacity. Nevertheless, it is necessary to improve the better management of land-use systems in the Manggar watershed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAKSHIT MADAN BAGDE

By signing the WTO Agreement on January 1, 1995, India incorporated the agricultural sector into the process of globalization. In this regard, a secret agreement was reached between India and the United States on December 16, 1999, and India had to lift the numerical restrictions on its protected 715 agricultural commodities. The concept of globalization has been realized through the GATT Agreement, the Dunkel Proposal, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Bank. Since the rules of TRIPS apply to living things, patents can be proposed for genes, cells, seeds, plants, and animals. According to the "Structural Adjustment Program" launched by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the policy pursued by the Government of India is detrimental to rural agriculture. In 1920.21, the per capita cultivable area has decreased from 1.11 acres to only 0.32 acres per capita, while the share of the non-agricultural area has increased from 196.6 lakh hectares to 244.8 hectares. This has a clear effect on the overall agricultural production.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Rosnick ◽  
Mark Weisbrot

European employees work fewer hours per year, and use less energy per person, than their American counterparts. This article compares the European and U.S. models of labor productivity, supply, and energy consumption. It finds that if employees in the EU-15 worked as many hours as those in the United States, they would consume at least 15 percent more energy. This aspect of the debate over Europe's economic model reaches globally. Over the coming decades, developing countries will decide how to make use of their increasing productivity. If, by 2050, the world works as do Americans, total energy consumption could be 15 to 30 percent higher than it would be if following a more European model. Translated directly into higher carbon emissions, this could mean an additional 1 to 2 degrees Celsius in global warming.


Author(s):  
Zia Ur Rahman Farooqi ◽  
Zahoor Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Ashar Ayub ◽  
Wajid Umar ◽  
Muhammad Nadeem ◽  
...  

Arable lands are the major source of food production worldwide. Increasing crop cultivation in the response to population pressure and the use of synthetic fertilizers and chemicals are the main reasons for the conversion of arable lands into problematic soils. Increasing food demand requires to increase the per acre yield of agricultural crops resulting in over exploitation of soil resources. This is a major contributor to soil degradation which is the major threat to the food security of the world. Climate change and poor-quality irrigation are the other problems are also affecting crop productivity and the conversion of arable lands into problematic lands. Deforestation and urbanization are the main reasons behind the conversion of agricultural land into infrastructure. Adopting precision agriculture, vertical farming and good agricultural practices are the only ways to conserve arable lands. This chapter provides a keen overview of world arable land issues with the focus on threats to arable land and possible solutions to overcome this issue.


Author(s):  
Jonathan R. B. Fisher

This chapter asks whether evidence supports the widely held belief that land used for agriculture around the world has continued to rapidly expand via conversion of natural habitat in response to the demands created by recent human population growth. Contrary to conventional wisdom, global agricultural land use peaked in 1998 and has since declined. While habitat continues to be cleared for agriculture, on a global net basis, more agricultural land has been converted to other uses than vice versa. This analysis also found that national trends in agricultural expansion are driven by factors other than population growth. Although this does not mean agriculture is “sustainable,” these findings challenge the dominant narrative around global agricultural expansion and highlight other important issues that must be addressed. Looking at data at national and subnational scales is essential to understand the implications of global trends in agriculture, where improvements and interventions are most needed.


Author(s):  
D E Winterbone

The demands for energy are increasing as countries become richer, and if all mankind achieved the per capita energy consumption of the United States then the total energy consumption of the world would rise by a factor of about 4.5. This would make a large demand on fuel supplies and probably increase pollution beyond a sustainable level. This paper examines the limits to the theoretical efficiency of power generation, including both heat engines and fuel cells, and demonstrates that thermal efficiencies of above 60 per cent are achievable in each case if combined plants are used. It is shown that the fuel cell has benefits over the heat engine when the plant operates for a significant time at low load.


2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (4II) ◽  
pp. 1135-1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsin Hasnain Ahmad ◽  
Usman Azhar ◽  
Syed Ashraf Swati ◽  
Zeshan Inam

Economic development and population growth in the poor areas of the earth is a subject of an essential concern for the environmental economists. Developing countries are facing and suffering by the serious problem of high population growth which is causing environmental degradation. A rapidly growing population exerts pressure on agricultural land and raises demand for food and shelter which encourages the conversion of forest land for agricultural and residential uses, now we know that growing population is a major cause of air, water, and solid waste pollution. The world population was 2.52 billion in the year 1950, which increased to 6.06 billion in 2000 and is likely to reach 8.3 billion by the year 2030. While the population size will remain almost stationary in the economically developed part of the world, around 1.2 billion, during the same period population is likely to grow in the less developed regions. This is likely to pose challenges for the economic growth and pressure on environmental resources in the developing countries. Furthermore, most of the population growth in the developing countries is likely to be concentrated in the urban areas. This has implication for increased demand for energy and water resources in the urban areas. This will also pose challenges for the management of increased solid waste, air and water pollution. One of the striking experiences of the developing


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
Abdullah al-Tayyib Musa Muhammad ◽  
Wan Mohd Yusof Wan Chik ◽  
Mohd Borhanuddin Zakaria

This paper dealt with the subject of sustainable agricultural development in Sudan, whereby it mentioned the importance and status of the agricultural sector in Sudan to the citizens and the whole world. Sudan represents the food basket of the Arab, Islamic and African world and is one of the dependable countries in achieving world food security. The paper also addressed the types of agriculture in Sudan and the arrangement of agricultural crops grown in Sudan and its position on the global map of agricultural products. The data of this research has been collected from the sources and references that dealt with these aspects in addition to the reports available at various authorities, especially the Sudanese Governmental bodies represented in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Sudan, and materials, reports, studies and researches published in the World Wide Web (Internet). This paper concluded that Sudan has many geographical components that can make it a pioneer in the field of sustainable agricultural development, due to its potentialities to produce various agricultural crops that contribute to the achievement of food security for it and for the world as a whole. With these potentialities it can play an effective role in alleviating poverty and achieving sustainable agricultural development conducive to economic and social development based upon agricultural production. The components of sustainable agricultural development in the Sudan are the diversity of the climate, the diversity of agricultural land, the different soil and the availability of water resources from many sources, such as the Nile River, its tributaries, groundwater and rainwater. This is in addition to the availability of suitable areas for agriculture and the existence of agricultural workers with extensive technical expertise and full knowledge of various agricultural works. The paper also concluded that Sudan has a wide variety of agricultural crops, but it faces many problems that negatively impact crop areas and the quantities produced. These include drought, desertification, poor agricultural finance and the lack of modern scientific methods in agriculture and narrow markets. The paper recommended the need for agricultural finance, the opening of new markets abroad, the expansion of modern methods, the development of new varieties of improved seeds and the fight against drought and desertification. تناولت هذه الورقة موضوع التنمية الزراعية المستدامة في السودان، حيث أوردت أهمية ومكانة القطاع الزراعي في السودان بالنسبة للمواطنين وبالنسبة للعالم أجمع ،فالسودان يمثل سلة غذاء العالم العربي والإسلامي والإفريقي وهو من الدول المعوَل عليها في تحقيق الأمن الغذائي للعالم أجمع ،كما تناولت هذه الورقة أنواع الزراعة في السودان وترتيب المحاصيل الزراعية التي تُزرع في السودان ووضعها في الخارطة العالمية للمنتوجات الزراعية، وقد تم جمع مادة هذه الورقة من المصادر والمراجع التي تناولت هذه الجوانب بالإضافة الى التقارير المتوفرة لدى الجهات المختلفة وخاصه الجهات الحكومية السودانية متمثلة في وزارة الزراعة بجمهورية السودان، والمواد والتقارير والدراسات والبحوث المنشورة في الشبكة العالمية العنكبوتية (الإنترنت) .وخلصت هذه الورقة الى أن السودان يمتلك مقومات جغرافية عديدة يمكن أن تجعله رائداَ في مجال التنمية الزراعية المستدامة ؛ لماله من الإمكانات لإنتاج محاصيل زراعية مختلفة تساهم في تحقيق الأمن الغذائي له وللعالم أجمع وبهذه الإمكانيات يمكن أن يلعب دوراً فاعلاً في تخفيف حدّة الفقر وتحقيق تنمية زراعية مستدامة تؤدى الى تنمية اقتصادية واجتماعية ،أساسها الإنتاج الزراعي. وتتمثل مقومات التنمية الزراعية المستدامة في السودان في تنوع المناخ وتنوع الأرض الزراعية مختلفة التربة وتوفر موارد مائية من مصادر عديدة، كنهر النيل وروافده والمياه الجوفية ومياه الأمطار هذا بجانب توفر المساحات الصالحة للزراعة ووجود عمالة زراعية ذات خبرة فنية واسعة ومعرفة تامة بالأعمال الزراعية المختلفة. وخلصت هذه الورقة أيضاً الى أن للسودان محاصيل زراعية متنوعة وكثيرة ولكنه يواجه الكثير من المشاكل التي تؤثر سلباً على المساحات المزروعة بالمحاصيل والكميات المنتجة منها، ومن هذه المشاكل الجفاف والتصحر وضعف التمويل الزراعي وعدم استخدام الأساليب العلمية الحديثة في الزراعة وضيق الأسواق.  وأوصت هذه الورقة بضرورة توفير التمويل الزراعي، وفتح أسواق جديدة بالخارج والتوسع في الأساليب الحديثة واستنباط أصناف جديدة من البذور المحسنة ومكافحة الجفاف والتصحر.


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