farming

Question 1

what are the disadvantages of using pesticides such as insecticides, fungicides and herbicides?

Answer 1

they can enter an accumulate in food chains causing lethal doses to predators
they can harm other organisms living nearby
some take a very long time to break down and become harmful

Question 2

what is an advantage of organic farming?

Answer 2

it does not use artificial fertilisers or pesticides

Question 3

what does organic farming use instead of fertilisers?

Answer 3

animal manure and compost

Question 4

what is the difference between organic and normal farming?

Answer 4

organic uses crop rotation to avoid build up of soil pests, nitrogen fixing crops and varying seed planting times to get a longer crop time and avoid certain times of the life cycle of insect pests

Question 5

what are the disadvantages of organic farming?

Answer 5

the crops are smaller and the produce are more expensive

Question 6

what is biological control?

Answer 6

using living organisms to control pests

Question 7

give an example of biological control?

Answer 7

using ladybirds and certain wasp species to eat aphids which damage plants

Question 8

how is biological control beneficial?

Answer 8

it can avoid the disadvantages of artificial insecticides and as they use living organisms, once introduced they usually do not need replacing

Question 9

what are the disadvantages of biological control?

Answer 9

introduced species eating other useful species and then showing a rapid increase in their population so they themselves become pests and then spread

Question 10

what are the benefits of intensive farming?

Answer 10

it makes used of artificial pesticides and fertilisers, is very efficient in producing large crop yields cheaply