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New chapter: Transport and communication

Majority of the people living in Singapore take public transport due to its saving of time and money. I do dare say that Singapore's transport system is definitely one of the best in the world, although on rainy days it does get a little frustrating with the slowing down of traffic.

Below shows pictures of Singapore's MRT map and different types of traffic jams in the world. We can see that actually, Singapore is quite well connected from one place to another and for this, her citizens can travel to places while saving time and with convenience.

Now, let's look at the pictures of the traffic jams shown below. During traffic jams, people get really frustrated as they could not get to places on time. The second picture's traffic jam shows a more serious condition whereby the whole road is congested with cars and there are the "4th" or "5th" more lanes in order for the traffic to move. The third picture shows the longest traffic jam in the world in China.

Define: Eutrophication

Hey there everyone! Just wanted to share some interesting definitions on Eutrophication!


Eutrophication - "Eutrophication is defined as an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter in an ecosystem.” - Nixon, 1995

Eutrophication - “The process by which a body of water acquires a high concentration of nutrients, especially phosphates and nitrates. These typically promote excessive growth of algae. As the algae die and decompose, high levels of organic matter and the decomposing organisms deplete the water of available oxygen, causing the death of other organisms, such as fish.

Eutrophication is a natural, slow-aging process for a water body, but human activity greatly speeds up the process.” - Art, 1993

Eutrophication - “The term 'eutrophic' means well-nourished; thus, 'eutrophication' refers to natural or artificial addition of nutrients to bodies of water and to the effects of the added nutrients….When the effects are undesirable, eutrophication may be considered a form of pollution.” - National Academy of Sciences, 1969

Eutrophication – “The enrichment of bodies of fresh water by inorganic plant nutrients (e.g. nitrate, phosphate). It may occur naturally but can also be the result of human activity (cultural eutrophication from fertilizer runoff and sewage discharge) and is particularly evident in slow-moving rivers and shallow lakes … Increased sediment deposition can eventually raise the level of the lake or river bed, allowing land plants to colonize the edges, and eventually converting the area to dry land.” - Lawrence and Jackson, 1998Eutrophic – “Waters, soils, or habitats that are high in nutrients; in aquatic systems, associated with wide swings in dissolved oxygen concentrations and frequent algal blooms.” - Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, 2000

Agriculture types- the past

Hi! Although tomorrow is the day for common test, I just wanna post a rather short blog postabout the history of wet rice cultivation ;)

Wet rice cultivation started off in China, although the oldest paddy field excavated was found in Korea. There is archaeological evidence that Unhusked rice was stored for military and for burial from Neolithic period to the Han Dynasty.

Paddy farming started thousands of years ago in Korea and were found in low-lying narrow gullies that were naturally swampy and fed by the local steam system. Some of them were found on flat land and were made of many squares and rectangles separated by bunds (oh... Remember them?)approximately 10 cm in height, while terraced ones were long irregular shapes that followed the natural contours of land at various levels.

Farmers then used all of the elements found in today's farming such as bund, terracing and canals. However, their tools were made of wood rather than iron and iron tools were not introduced until 200 BC.

Yep! That's basically the summarized version of the category under 'history' in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_field.

Oh ya! Before I forget the word 'padi' is actually a Malay word that means 'rice plant'. The word 'paddy' we use today came from the word.

All the best to everybody for tomorrow's common test! We can do it... God bless and jia you!:)

Types of agriculture

In the recent blog posts, we have been talking about agriculture. This does not count as an exception though. There are basically four types of agricultural types. They consist of : Wet rice cultivation, plantation agriculture, shifting agriculture and high-tech farming. In this blog post, we will just focus on Wet Rice Cultivation. Wet rice cultivation requires a great deal of water and consistent temperatures during the growing season. These temperatures need to be tropical but sub-tropical will work too. Wet rice cultivation is generally done in low lands near a river system but can be done on low hills provided that water can be maintained in the paddys as they would be on flat ground. Subsistance wet rice cultivation is very labor intensive at the begining and end of the season. During the mid point, not as much however, the next rice crop is generally being sown in flats so that the plants are ready to go into the soil soon after harvest. Though this is also labor intensive, it lasts only a brief time. This type of cultivation is generally done communally by an entire village in China or Vietnam or elsewhere in south east Asia or India and Africa. In the US and other countries, it may be done on large mechanized farms of thousands of acres.In the case of the small villages, the homes are usually clustered together with the village fields surrounding the village in a spoke and ring design with the river, creek or other water way very close by. The village will have an allotment of water from the river to fill the paddys and then to maintain the water levels until the harvest.These subsistence farmers also grow chickens, ducks, pigs and other animals in small pens usually under the family home. This provides the protien and they also ususally have an allotment for a garden for veggies.
In many areas, the land has been cultivated
continuously and the soil has become increasingly infertile. · In order for the crops to grow well, fertilizers have
to be used to keep the land fertile, and pesticides to keep it pest-free. When
large amounts of chemicals are used, they pollute the land and water, and are harmful to the
environment. · The rotting
stalks and leaves in wet fields will emit methane into the
atmosphere, leading to
enhanced greenhouse effects, global warming and even ozone
depletion. · When rice is grown in
the dry season using irrigation, the high rates of evaporation can cause
salt to accumulate in the water and the soil. This causes the soil
to become saline (containing salt), hard and infertile.
"70% of its population is farmers. · It is a commercial enterprise because wet rice
cultivation is a labour-intensive
industry. It provides employment for the large
population, which are mostly unskilled or
semi-skilled. · As the world’s biggest
exporter of rice, it is important to the country’s economy
· as it brings in revenue for
the country. · The country can use
the revenue collected to alleviate poverty and hunger or to
· develop the country’s infrastructure.
· It also helps to develop the
secondary industries such as processing the harvested · rice in the rice mills, transporting, sorting and
distributing and exporting rice to the · rest of the world. " Quoted from source.
Chrystal

Aeroponics and Agriculture

Whoa, we went to the Lim Chu Kang Tropical Aeroponics Farm and the Bollywood Veggies farm. We learned about the differences of using technology and traditional methods to grow crops. One of the most advanced ways of growing crops will be using the Aeroponics method. Many plants such as dills, basal plants, kai lans and lettuces that we cook for dinner or use for salads are grown using this method. Aeroponics is a method of growing plants whereby the roots of the plants are suspended in the air. The plants are anchored in holes, atop a panel of polystyrene foam. From a sealed trough below, a fine mist of solublenutrients are sprayed and they adhered to the roots.
In supporting good and healthy growth of the plants, the availability of air in the root zone is critical. In aeroponics, air is aptly present and unlike hydroponics system where water is circulated to encourage aeration of the solution. Besides saving substantial savings in water and land, two of Singapore’s most prized assets, the system also produces cleaner vegetables as they are cultivated under protected environment.
The principle of aeroponics lies in the periodic spraying of plant roots with a nutrient mist, which encourages the growth of an extensive network of fine lateral roots. Because the collective surface area represented by these tiny roots is very large, the uptake of oxygen and nutrientsis much greater than usual, which ultimately allows the plant to grow faster.
The cutting edge technology in cultivating vegetables is most ideal for countries where water and land are scarce, like Singapore.
Hmmm...for agriculture, Miss J discussed with us more about the investments that are put into farming, which is the Primary industry of the of food production. There are two types of farming: Commercial farming and Subsitence farming. Commercial farming happens when the distributer or the person in charge wants to earn the maximum profits from mass production of the farming. On the contrary, the farmer would not mass produce the crops and would just use manual labour to grow enough crops to feed his family or himself. Basically, the food will be just enough to sustain himself or his family only. Did you know, fishing is part of aquaculture?

In agricultural inputs, which is also referred to as investments. They include: land space, seeds, pesticides, capital, fertilisers, pay for labour, tools and machinery, irrigation systems and storage facilities. Because of all these inputs only determines the amount of outputs, which means the harvest of crops.
Stay tuned for more info! :D

Agriculture

Agriculture lesson 1

This blog post would just be about the link between population and agriculture. Full of 'cheem' stuff, are you ready? :)

We had a brief introduction on Agriculture, and it's basically about how population change can affect the demand for food and finally the production of food. But is there another way how population affects agriculture?

Hmm... indirectly, I guess so. I just thought of this: Population growth means more space is needed for residential purposes, and when there is not enough land, people burn down forests for the land, which means less space for agriculture (?)... Is that true?

I can't seem to find the answer on the Internet, but in the process of finding for the answer, I came across this website, http://dieoff.org/page57.htm (and all the information in this post would be from there). One of the statements says 'the growing imbalance between the world's population and the resources that support human lives'. In the article it is also mentioned 'As the world population continues to grow geometrically, great pressure is being placed on arable land, water, energy, and biological resources to provide an adequate supply of food while maintaining the integrity of our ecosystem'. I assume that the 'integrity of our ecosystem' means the minimum 'amount' of our natural supplies that must be preserved (ecosystem is the system formed by the interaction between a community of organisms and their environment). If you watch one of the videos on overpopulation in the last blog post (named population FACTS!), it explains this statement clearly. If the number of people living in the world increases, the demand for food, water and other necessecities also increase. But there is a maximum amount of supplies that the Earth can provide, and according to calculations that if this goes on the food problem would become increasingly severe, and the number of people that would be living in poverty would soar to 3 billion (in USA now, there are 1 to 2 million people that are malnourished, and 80 million in China. If the rate of population growth remains constant, the number of people would double from about 6 billion to 12 billion in 50 years time. 3 billion is 1/4 of the total population of 12 billion!)

The population growth affects the amount of food consumed and needed, and most of our food come from crops that farmers farm. So, now, here is the issue: There is a certain amount of resources that the Earth can offer, and even with the amount of land that we had years ago, there would not be enough to feed every mouth in this growing population. Did you know that for the past 40 years 1/3 of the Earth's cropland has been abandoned due to erosion (erosion makes land unproductive)? That is (believe it or not) 1.5 billion hectares being abandoned. And solving the problem takes a very long time too: 500 years to form 25 mm (2.5 cm) of soil under agricultural conditions. So where are the replacements? In the marginal and forest land (marginal land means the land that is poor-quality and is likely to yield poor crops. Examples are desert fringes in Africa and mountain areas in UK). However, the amount of such land is also declining. For example, only 0.8 hectares of cropland is left in China. The shortage of cropland plus the decreasing amount of land productivity is partly the reason why there are food shortages and human malnutrition. Other factors such as political unrest, unequal food distribution patterns and econoical insecurity also contribute.

Land is not the only issue. Shortage of water is also another major problem. Water is needed bot only for our daily lives but also for the growing of crops. Crops need lots and lots of water to grow. For example, 8 million litres of water is needed for 1 hectare of corn crop. Agriculture uses more frech water than any other human activities (87% of the world's fresh water is used on crops, and thus this amount of water cannot be replaced).

Competition for water resources is real in the world's current world population. 40% of the world's population directly compete for water resources. More than 300 cities in China are experiencing water shortage, and it is intensifying. Populus states, countries and cities withdraw more and more water from natural resources such as aquifiers, rivers and lakes every year. People who cannot get fresh water, especially so in developing countries, are robbed of health, nutrition and livelihood. 90% of diseases that happen in developing countries are caused by the lack of clean water. Every year, 4 billion cases of diseases are caused by water and 6 million people die from water-bourne diseases. Moreover, diseases and malnutrition problems for people living in urban and rural areas (3rd world countries) are very serious. The numer of people that live in such areas double every 10 to 20 years, which makes water and food pollution, food shortages and diseases increase.

PHEW! That was a whole chunk! After reading and researching about this issue, I realise how precious food and water is... and I don't even have to see heartbreaking pictures or videos (sigh... see what such cheem details can do to you....)! I have learnt that food and water is REALLY VERY precious and next time I get to eat (whcih is actually now, since it's dinner time), I shall finish every grain of rice and every drop of soup! Oh yes, and say a prayer for the world and the people suffering :) God bless!