Literature review

Harry L. and John Solie. (2007) states that agricultural technology refers to
technology for the production of machines used on a farm to help with
farming. Agricultural machines have been designed for practically every
stage of the agricultural process. They include machines for tilling the soil,
planting seeds, irrigating the land, cultivating crops, protecting them from
pests and weeds, harvesting, livestock feeding, and sorting and packaging
the products. Agricultural technology has been driven by the need for food to
feed a growing population.

According to Van Der Warf (2002) Genetically engineered crops are herbicide
tolerant, and their overuse has created herbicide resistant "super weeds",
which may ultimately increase the use of herbicides. Seed contamination is
another problem of genetic engineering; it can occur from wind or bee
pollination that is blown from genetically engineered crops to normal crops.
This accidental contamination can cause organic farmers to lose a lot of
money because they need to recall their products.

Additionally, Hemphill, Delbert retrieved (April 23, 2015) argues that

irrigation leads to the depletion of underground sinkholes through over
drafting. Soil can be over-irrigated because of poor distribution uniformity or
management wastes water, chemicals, and may lead to water pollution.
Over-irrigation can cause deep drainage from rising water tables that can
lead to problems of irrigation salinity requiring water table control by some
form of subsurface land drainage. However, if the soil is under irrigated, it
gives poor soil salinity control which leads to increased soil salinity with
consequent buildup of toxic salts on soil surface in areas with high

evaporation. This requires either leaching to remove these salts and a

method of drainage to carry the salts away. Irrigation with saline or highsodium water may damage soil structure owing to the formation of alkaline
soil.
Kidd, Greg (retrieved 23 April 2015) states that synthetic pesticides are the
most widespread method of controlling pests in agriculture. Pesticides can
leach through the soil and enter the groundwater, as well as linger in food
products and result in death in humans. Pesticides can also kill non-target
plants, birds, fish and other wildlife. A wide range of agricultural chemicals
are used and some become pollutants through use, misuse, or ignorance.
Pollutants from agriculture have a huge effect on water quality. Agricultural
nonpoint source (NPS) solution impacts lakes, rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and
groundwater. Agricultural NPS can be caused by poorly managed animal
feeding operations, overgrazing, plowing, fertilizer, and improper, excessive,
or badly timed use of pesticides. Pollutants from farming include sediments,
nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, metals, and salts.

PURPOSE OF PROJECT
Technology and agriculture is no longer considered as mutually exclusive and
at two different ends of the spectrum. This is because there is an increase in
population and so one has to rely on technology to increase production for
food security. However sometimes sustainable agriculture is not maintained
and so the main purpose of this project is to investigate the impact of
technology used in agriculture on selected farms in Jamaica.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

In complementing this research two data collection were used;
these include both primary and secondary data collection.
Primary data collection included sites visit to farms over a period
of ___ months, observations, collection of water and soil samples
for testing and interviews of farm operators. These sources
provided first hand data on the farm under study.
Secondary sources used included the used of textbooks ,
newspaper clippings, and the internet with information related to
the topic.