Soil and water developments of next half century

What are the future developments in the use of the soil and water resources? While the answer cannot be given with certainty, it is clear that the resources cannot be used in a blundering way. If they are, our beautiful Earth will soon become hostile to man.

Even by 2020, the main source of food for many will still be from land-based agriculture. This agriculture will have become highly efficient. In many cases, production will include carbon dioxide enrichment and methods for more efficient use of the sun's energy.

Water pollution will continue to be a problem. By 2020, most nutrients from water treatment plants of cities and industries will be returned to the soil to help replenish this delicate resource of the Earth. Agricultural engineers will work more closely with ecologists using the computers, so that man's actions are with Nature but not against it.

Water will be used and reused. Those uses by agriculture, such as irrigation, will be twice to three times as efficient as now.

By the end of the next half century there will be over three times as many people on the Earth – all dependent on its resources. Survival will not be without the use of the regenerative power of our soil and water. Agricultural engineers must continue to lead in this work..

Land, air and water pollution– its future implications in agricultural engineering

Agricultural engineers have long been identified with improving the quality of the environment. Indeed, the engineer's creed calls for the application of his knowledge and skill to the betterment of human life. Agricultural engineers have done many environmental improvements.

The draining of swamps has eliminated insects. Irrigation has made lands more productive. Soil conservation measures have reduced sediment in streams and loss of farmland. Agricultural buildings overcame hostile climates.

Today agricultural engineers are even more specifically identified with pollution abatement. They work with sediment, animals wastes, agricultural processing wastes, plant nutrients, forest and crop residues, inorganic salts and minerals and air pollution.

The role of agricultural engineers in the future is great. They will be designing special ecological systems where the wastes will be collected and processed. Solid components of wastes will be referred to the animals directly or through a conversion process using lower life forms such as insects or bacteria.

Crops will be planted, raised and harvested under a protective canopy. Insects, disease organisms and other pests will be destroyed and then physically excluded. Nutrients will be metered to requirements for crop growth. Rainfall will be diverted to storage for later application.

All this will seem "far out" to some. But it's time for agricultural engineers to play their great role in the future.

Agricultural engineers in the future

Agricultural engineers will be working on satellites circling the earth, monitoring movements of water and air masses and directing them in areas of the world where they are needed the most.

Thousands of agricultural engineers will be designing systems to grow crops and trees on saline soils and saline waters. Many will be working in the design of farming complexes in the deserts using nuclear plants to pump water miles away.

Thousands of agricultural engineers will continue to work in environmental pollution control and particularly in reuse of polluted air, soil and water.

Hundreds of agricultural engineers will be among the first thousands to be sent off from the Earth to establish food production complexes on Earth II.

In public research there will be increasing restoration and improvement of the natural environment. Agricultural engineers will carry on the research necessary to reduce pollution of the environment by wastes from agricultural production systems.

Sometime before the year 2050, the raising of poultry and livestock for slaughter will be considered barbaric. Meat, milk and egg analogs from plant proteins will give the foods now coming from the animal industries.

However before this happens innovations in mechanization and automation that will result in new systems will take place. Agricultural engineers will play a great part in these developments and their skills will determine how long these systems will successfully compete with the producers of the meat analogs.

Two other areas where agricultural engineers will be found in increasing numbers will be in the planting, harvesting and processing of trees for pulp and in the farming of the sea.

Thus ag-engineers in the next 50 years will play an important role in providing mankind with the most beautiful environment and the best diet.