Intensive agriculture, Ecosystem, Ecological and environmental impact
Abstract
The delayed introduction of the ecosystem and landscape concepts in contemporary agrarian studies, facilitated the conversion of natural environment in rural areas, either through infrastructure works (dams, irrigation networks, agricultural roads, land reforms e.t.c.) or through productive practices (manipulation of genetic pool and consumption of non renewable energy sources), without concern for the ecological impacts of these interventions. The «answer» of nature, after almost six decades of continuous expansion of the productive model known as intensive agriculture, is examined deriving data from a recent empirical research done in the Anthili community, cited in Phthiotis prefecture. The enviromental impacts of the land improvement scheme, which was constructed there after World War II, are reviewed in relation to the interwoven ecological and socio-economic events that took place in the wider area of river Sperchios watershed basin, during a longer time span. The role of state intervention emerges as a determinant factor in the accomplishment of these developmental initiatives that radically conversed the agricultural ecosystem and landscape.
