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Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Agriculture’ for Class 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Agriculture’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Agriculture
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Agriculture
- Essay on the Origin of Agriculture
- Essay on the Definition of Agriculture
- Essay on the Features of Agriculture in India
- Essay on the Importance of Agriculture
- Essay on Factors Influencing Agriculture
- Essay on the Location of Agricultural Activities
- Essay on the Forms of Agriculture
- Essay on Agriculture Changes in Different Countries
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Essay # 1. Introduction to Agriculture:
The word “Agriculture” has no rigid definition. It has been explained by many people very comprehensively. Agriculture has been defined as the science and art of cultivating the soil, and this definition emphasizes the primary nature of plant production in agriculture.
Moreover, it is so frequent that the same person performs both the primary functions of growing plants and the secondary one of feeding the plants to livestock that these two industries are grouped together as agriculture. Therefore, it may be said that agriculture includes not only the production of crops by the cultivation of the soil, but also the rearing of livestock.
Thus, milk, meat and wool are as much agricultural products as are wheat, rice and cotton. In the words of George O’Brien, therefore, the word agriculture includes, “every industry which aims at producing vegetables or animals by the cultivation of the soil.”
So, agriculture is the business of raising products from the land. The products raised may either be plants and their products or animals and their products. The former are the direct products while the latter are the indirect products of the land. Agricultural products are complex and diverse, in nature, and as such, agriculture may be regarded as complex industry.
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Modern agriculture is such broader in scope than merely the art and science of cultivating the land. It is the whole business of supplying food and fiber for a growing population at home and abroad. Again in agriculture we include all forms of soil production, from forestry to glass-house culture, from fishery to artificial insemination, and from breeding to horticulture.
Essay # 2. Origin of Agriculture:
Agriculture is the most fundamental form of human activity and includes not only the cultivation of crops but also the domestication of animals. Agricultural land is thus the most basic of the world’s vast and varied resources, and from it the human masses are fed, clothed and sheltered. It is still not known when agriculture actually originated.
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Primitive men must have begun as food gatherers, eating whatever fruits, leaves and roots they could obtain. Nature must have been bountiful in those days when human numbers were so small and wild plants grew everywhere. As time passed and human numbers grew, fishing and hunting became increasingly important in supplementing what was lacking in the field, and an endless search for food ensued.
It was soon realized that some form of food production was necessary if men were to live long and secure. Animals were tamed, first to provide meat, milk and skin; later for use as draught animals. Seeds were sown in ploughed fields, carefully tended and harvested when the time came.
Men were then able to live in settled communities. Because they were no longer continually moving they had time to develop the various arts, crafts and skills that formed the basis of modern industries and also evolved religious and political ideas. Without a settled agriculture, a measurable degree of civilization is not possible.
Naturally, as civilization became more and more advanced, the demands upon the productivity of the environment became more exacting. In an ever-expanding community, ways and means had to be found to increase the agricultural productivity of the land. Canals were dug to bring in more water; better seeds and improved methods of tillage helped to increase the annual harvests.
With the spread of agriculture as a global activity, tremendous progress was made in every aspect of crop production. The use of steam, oil, gas or hydro-electric power allowed farms to be mechanized, which not only raised productivity per hectare, but also brought rapid expansion in the total land-area farmed, especially in the New World.
Mechanization created large crop surpluses so that international trade in agricultural crops became possible. Many industrial nations today grow very little food and yet they are able to support large populations with the help of food imports.
Essay # 3. Definition of Agriculture:
The word “Agriculture” has no rigid definition. It has been explained by many people very comprehensively. Agriculture has been defined as the science and art of cultivating the soil, and this definition emphasizes the primary nature of plant production in agriculture.
Moreover, it is so frequent that the same person performs both the primary functions of growing plants and the secondary one of feeding the plants to livestock that these two industries are grouped together as agriculture. Therefore, it may be said that agriculture includes not only the production of crops by the cultivation of the soil, but also the rearing of livestock.
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Thus, milk, meat and wool are as much agricultural products as are wheat, rice and cotton. In the words of George O’Brien, therefore, the word agriculture includes “every industry which aims at producing vegetables or animals by the cultivation of the soil.”
So, agriculture is the business of raising products from the land. The products raised may either be plants and their products or animals and their products. The former are the direct products while the latter are the indirect products of the land. Agricultural products are complex and diverse, in nature, and as such, agriculture may be regarded as complex industry.
Modern agriculture is such broader in scope than merely the art and science of cultivating the land. It is the whole business of supplying food and fibre for a growing population at home and abroad.
Again in agriculture we include all forms of soil production, from forestry to glass-house culture, from fishery to artificial insemination, and from breeding to horticulture.
Essay # 4
. Features of Agriculture:
The following are the features of agriculture:
i. Land use Pattern:
Out of 328 million hectares total land, at least 45 per cent area is devoted to agriculture. At present 180 million hectares of land is under multiple cropping.
ii. Relative Importance of Different Crops:
Nearly 72.3 per cent agricultural land is devoted for food-grain production and remaining 17.7 per cent land is used for the production of other crops. Considering the total volume of production and area under cultivation, rice secures the prime position.
More than 20 per cent land may be classified as rice land. In order of importance wheat is close behind rice, taking more than 10 per cent of the cultivable land. Cash crops like cotton, sugar cane and jute are the other dominant agriculture products.
iii. Average Size of Land Holdings:
All over India tiny and uneconomic land holdings are characteristic feature. Compared to other developed and developing countries, Indian land units are one of the smallest. The major reason, India is one of the most densely populated regions on earth. Besides this high density of population, high degree of dependence on agriculture also forced the people to acquire land holdings whatever size it might be.
According to Hindu Law, after the death of a land-owner his property is equally subdivided among his successors. In this way the average size of land holdings decreases. The average size of agricultural land units in USA is over 148 acres, in Denmark it is 42 acres, in England it is more than 18 acres while in India it is only 5.7 acres. There is a lot of disparity visible between the different size of existing land holdings. Even less than 1 acre land is not uncommon.
iv. Pattern of Land Ownership:
The most peculiar characteristic feature of Indian farming is the concentration of a large amount of land ownership to a handful of people. Only 11 per cent cultivators occupy 62 per cent of the arable land. On the other hand, at least 21 per cent of farmers still remain landless or merely marginal farmers. This mal-distribution of land among the cultivators result in stress and strain in the socio-economic life of India.
v. Fragmentation and Isolation of Land Holdings:
This is another main characteristic feature of Indian agriculture. In the early colonial period, average size of land holding was 9 to 12 acres or even more. But repeated division of land after the death of owner resulted further fragmentation of land and land holdings become tiny. Some of the holdings are so small, that these are uneconomic for further cultivation.
vi. Land Tenure System:
The Indian land tenure system was formulated during the British period. The Permanent Settlement system, promulgated by Lord Cornwallis in 1993, assured the land ownership permanently to a handful of people. This semi-feudal system in the agrarian sector created a large number of absentee landlords. Due to imposition of this system, ownership of the cultivable land became highly concentrated to a handful of people.
In this system farmers, those who are engaged in production, were not interested to develop the quality of the land. Another characteristic feature developed in this system was the feeling of insecurity among the cultivators.
vii. Subsistence Level of Production and Heavy Dependence on Agriculture:
Agriculture is still one of the low-earning occupations. Most of the crops produced are directly consumed by the farmer himself. Nearly 45% of the products are consumed by cultivators themselves. At least 16% is given to government as revenue.
7% is to be kept as seed and only 32% may be regarded as marketable surplus. Due to low surplus, cultivators are unable to get liquid money. Due to lack of liquid money, he cannot invest more on the field. As the investment is low, it is very difficult for farmers to achieve a surplus production. Here lies the vicious circle of poverty as promulgated by Prof. Narks.
viii. Disguised Unemployment:
The number of agricultural labour in India is the highest in the world. On an average, 25% of the people may be classified as marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. This large number of people do not possess any land of their own. They sustain their livelihood as daily wage earner. The major part of the year they remain jobless, particularly in the lean season.
These labours are seasonal and do not have any commitment on the production. Even, as suggested by some noted economists, the contribution of these workers in the production is very low. They are known as disguised unemployed.
These disguised unemployed workers constitute the bulk of the labour force. As they do not contribute anything in the production, they are in reality unemployed, but as they get wage, capital outflow occurs from agriculture.
ix. Low Investment:
Low investment in Indian agriculture is another major characteristic feature. Low investment leads to low production and low income to the farmer. That is again the reason of low investment. This vicious circle creates a fundamental problem in Indian agro-economics. Low inflow of capital in the agricultural sector is primarily responsible for the primitive character of our agrarian system.
x. Low Production:
Despite all efforts in recent years, average agricultural production in India per acre is still one of the lowest in the world. Compared to developed countries production per acre in India is one-fourth of USA and Canada. Production in China is even twice that of India.
xi. Organizational Deficiency:
Most of the agro-farms are governed by either individuals or families. Most of these families belong to low income groups. So they are not able to provide sufficient capital, different inputs of agriculture, managerial ability and proper marketing facilities in the cultivation.
Essay # 5. Importance of Agriculture in India:
i. Agriculture’s Share in National Income:
Agriculture and allied occupations still contribute about 34% of the national income of India. It is true that with an acceleration of the secondary and the tertiary sectors the share of agriculture has been declining.
Such decline in the percentage share of the income from agriculture indicates the degree of economic development of the country. For instance, today the share of agriculture in the national income is 13% in Australia, 7% in Canada, 5% in the U.S.A. and only 4% in the U.K.
ii. Agriculture as a Source of Livelihood:
According to Census of Population 1971, 7 out of every 10 persons in India still depend on agriculture their main source of livelihood. This proportion of 66% has remained on constant ever since 1901 and is likely to remain so for at least a few more decades.
This fact also reacts the importance of agriculture. In the developed countries, the position is just the reverse. The percentage of population dependent on agriculture is only 25% in France, 20% in New Zealand, 15% in Canada and West Germany and a little over in the U.S.A.
iii. Agriculture and Pattern of Employment:
It is often suggested that the importance of a sector can be judged from the percentage of working population (and not the total population) engaged in that sector. 66% of the working people are engaged in agriculture.
This indicates the fact that employment opportunities are greater in agriculture than in other sectors of the economy. It is of course, due to the fact that the other sectors have not yet developed. In many of the advanced countries where other sectors have developed rapidly, the percentage of employment in agriculture is negligible.
iv. Importance of Agriculture for Industrial Development:
Unless agriculture is well-developed, industries may not develop rapidly. This is because agriculture provides a number of raw materials to industries. In India, most of our leading industries depend on agriculture for their raw materials. For instance, industries like cotton textiles, jute, sugar and vanaspati depend on agriculture for their raw materials.
The plantation industries like tea, coffee, rubber etc. also depend directly on agriculture. There are a number of other industries whose dependence on agriculture is indirect. These are hand/pounding and husking of rice, crushing of oil, weaving of handloom and khadi cloth, etc.
Many others, like paper, leather and tanning, matches, chemicals, etc., depend on allied activities of agriculture like forestry, animal husbandry, factories etc. It is, of course, true that a number of modern industries like iron and steel, machine tools, engineering, aircraft etc., do not depend on agricultural for their raw materials. But these industries supply important agricultural inputs like fertiliser, farm machinery and equipment. Thus both agriculture and industry are inter-dependent.
v. Agriculture and the Foreign Trade of India:
Indian agriculture has been a net earner of valuable foreign exchange for the country. At present, about 50% of our exports are of agricultural commodities. This share goes upto 70% if we add to it the exports of manufactured goods like cotton and jute textiles which have substantial agricultural content.
Further our exports trade in agricultural commodities is well diversified over a number of countries. Whereas agricultural exports earn about 70% of foreign exchange this sector spends only about 20% of it so that it makes a net contribution of about 50% to the earrings of foreign exchange. This indeed hints at the fact that the requirement of imports for faster industrialization of the country has contributed to largely by the agricultural sector.
vi. Agriculture and the Tertiary Sector:
Tertiary sector consists of trade, transport service, etc. Agriculture contributes substantially to all these sectors. In respect of our internal trade, agriculture contributes considerably because most of the internal trade is in agricultural commodities.
Agriculture is also the main support for our transport system. Agricultural also helps manufacturing industries because when the incomes are high, their purchasing power is also high and a part of this is diverted to the purchase of manufactured goods.
vii. Agriculture and State Revenues:
Agriculture also brings about an increase in the Government’s revenues—both directly as well as indirectly.
viii. Food for Men and Fooder for Livestock:
Agriculture provides the food for her millions people and livestock. The two outstanding features of agricultural production in India are the wide variety of crops and the preponderance of food over non-food crops in as much as about 80% of the area under cultivation is devoted to cereals, pulses and small millets.
ix. Agricultural Development Essential for Economic Development:
The significance of agriculture in our country arises also from the fact that the development of agriculture is an essential condition for the development of the national economy. Nurkse argues that the surplus population in agriculture should be removed and used in the newly started industries.
Essay # 6. Factors Influencing Agriculture:
The distribution of crops and farm activities is everywhere influenced by environmental controls. In some environments, farming is favoured by climate, soil or relief, so that very little effort is needed to raise crops. In others, farmers are at the mercy of nature; and great skill is required to modify the environment to obtain even the barest subsistence.
The following are some of the major geographical factors that influence farmers and their work:
i. Climate:
Climatic factors exert the greatest control over the world distribution of agricultural types. It is essentially a question of climate when grapes are not grown in the tropics and date palms flourish only in the deserts. Despite all the advances made in science, Man can do little to control climate.
He cannot prevent the Siberian rivers from freezing in winter, nor is he able to lower the high temperature of the Sahara. He can at best adapt himself to the climatic environment or moderate the climatic extremes by using greenhouses, central heating or irrigation.
The various climatic elements that affect agriculture are as follows:
(a) Temperature:
The degree of warmth, the duration, and the intensity of sunshine, all affect crop maturity to a certain extent. For example in Britain, wheat and forage crops do better in the south where conditions are warmer; while oats and turnips can be grown in the cooler climate of the north.
Many garden crops and fruits are not able to withstand extreme diurnal temperature variations. Night frosts may damage the tender leaves of plants and protective measures must often be taken, such as burning oil lamps to raise the temperature, or ‘smudging’, i.e. creating smoke that prevents rapid ground cooling. Very low temperatures in the Arctic regions preclude any form of crop cultivation.
Sunshine not only accelerates ripening of crops but also improves the quality of the final products. In temperate farming, the length of the growing season is often an important consideration. For example, wheat requires a 90-day frost-free growing period and summer temperatures around 16°C (60°F); cotton needs summer temperatures of over 21°C (70°F) and 200 days without frost.
(b) Moisture:
Moisture, either from the atmosphere or from the ground, is absolutely essential in plant growth. It is not only the amount of moisture that counts, but also such vital considerations as the distribution pattern during the year, the rate of evaporation and the conditions of relative humidity at the periods of sowing, growing and harvesting.
An annual precipitation (including both rain and snow) of 1 016 mm (40 inches) may be ideal for most temperate crops, but it is inadequate for agriculture in the tropics, where the rate of evaporation is very great. In many tropical countries there are distinct wet and dry periods following one another in a regular pattern. Crops are sown and grow through the rainy period, to be harvested in the almost perfectly rainless conditions of the dry season.
This is the typical rhythm of rice cultivation in the Orient and of cotton farming in East Africa. In the Mediterranean shorelands, which experience winter rain and summer drought, plant growth is almost restricted to autumn and spring when both the temperature and the moisture conditions are favourable.
The long summer drought, with its low humidity conditions and excessive evaporation, poses a real threat to many plants. Cereals often require irrigation; but citrus fruits, vines and olives which have either a thick skin as protection against evaporation or long tap roots to reach moisture, are well-suited to the Mediterranean environment.
(c) Winds:
Some plants are harmed by strong winds which may accelerate evaporation or physically damage the plant. For example, in West Africa or eastern Brazil, high winds may blow off fruits like cocoa pods that hang precariously on the trunks and branches of the trees. Cocoa cultivation is therefore least suited to regions where violent winds like typhoons and hurricanes occur.
On the other hand, sea breezes and light winds are often advantageous to certain plants like coconuts and coffee. Where winds are known to attain destructive proportions, e.g. the typhoons of northern Luzon, Philippines, low-growing plants such as padi or tobacco have a better chance of survival than tall tree crops as they offer less resistance to the wind and are able to sway with the storm rather than snapping off.
ii. Topography:
A comparison of Fig. 3.3 with a world map of relief features will reveal that the most intensively cultivated parts of the earth are the lowlands. The levelness of the ground eases cultivation and the use of machinery.
Consequently, such areas have the greatest concentrations of population. All over Monsoon Asia wet padi is grown in flooded lowland fields, coastal plains and alluvial river basins. The hills are terraced to create artificial flooded lowland conditions for wet padi cultivation.
In the New World, the rolling grasslands of the Pampas and the Prairies have been improved, by such measures as re- grassing, for large-scale livestock farming, mixed farming or extensive mechanized wheat cultivation. Some other crops like cocoa and rubber are limited to tropical lowlands. Latex yield from rubber trees decreases appreciably at altitudes above 760 metres (2,500 ft).
Not all crops prefer lowland regions, however. Crops like coffee and tea grow best on hill slopes and at altitudes up to 1 525 metres (5,000 ft) or more, as in Assam, Sri Lanka, Colombia and the Brazilian Plateau, where the slopes are well-drained and there is little possibility of water remaining stagnant for long to rot the roots of the shrubs.
The wetter conditions and higher temperatures of the lowlands do not suit these crops. With the rapid growth of human numbers, there is an increasing need to utilize the uplands, especially in crowded Monsoon Asia. In some areas the virgin soils of the newly-cleared upland forests have proved to be some of the most productive lands in the world but steep slopes are very prone to soil erosion.
Agriculturalists are devising new strains of crops that can survive at higher altitudes and in colder climates but efforts to overcome topographical restrictions have so far affected only small areas. The mountainous regions, therefore, remain sparsely settled or virtually unpopulated.
Thus physical, as well as climatic controls over agriculture are profound and Man can do little to alter them, except in such directions as land reclamation from swamps, marshes or shallow seas. The annual increases in the world’s food production come mainly from greater intensification of farming on existing agricultural land, e.g. by use of multiple-cropping, use of higher yielding seeds and use of fertilizers, which all improve yields per hectare.
Extension of farmlands is possible only in areas where potential croplands have not yet been fully utilized.
iii. Soil:
The soil, which is composed of a variety of minerals and organic substances, forms the physical support of plants and is fundamental to any form of agriculture. As soils are so varied in their physical and chemical composition, being so closely related to their climatic and vegetational environment, their suitability for the cultivation of different kinds of crops varies tremendously.
The soil requirements for cereals, beverages, root crops and garden crops differ so much that unless the farmer has a sound knowledge of soil properties, he is not likely to gain the most from his land.
iv. Biotic Factors:
Crop cultivation may be hampered by weeds, parasitic plants, diseases, insect- pests and animals. They either compete with the sown crop for plant nutrients or destroy the crop before it can be harvested. Many weeds render tilling and thinning operations more difficult, and pests such as the boll-weevil in the Cotton Belt, U.S.A. or fungus diseases like the Coffee Blight of Sri Lanka, may completely exclude cultivation of certain crops in an area.
Despite all the climatic and geographical advantages that a farmer may enjoy, his efforts can be useless in the face of diseases or insect infestations.
v. Social Factors:
Social factors affect farming in a number of ways. In the first place the type of farming practised, be it shifting cultivation, subsistence farming, extensive cereal cultivation or mixed farming affects the type of crops which can be produced and the yields which can be obtained.
Intensive wheat farming in Europe, for instance, gives far greater yields than extensive wheat farming in the North American Prairies. The type of farming which is practised depends on the culture of the farmers concerned and to some extent on the physical and topographical characteristics of the area in which they live.
Social factors can also affect the type of crops that are grown. In West Africa for instance, where much farm work is done by the women, the amount of land cleared and the type of crops grown are dependent on how much work the women of a family can put in. Similarly some crops such as yams are planted by the men, while others such as vegetables are planted by the women. Tribal differences also lead to agricultural differences.
Nomadic herders such as the Fulani in West Africa or the Masai in East Africa despise settled agriculture and do not often practise it. Certain crops are traditionally grown by certain peoples so that there is a major division in Ivory Coast, for example, between peoples to the west who depend on rice as a staple food and people to the east who traditionally depend on yams.
Another way in which social factors can affect agriculture is in the ownership and inheritance of land. In many areas, e.g. in parts of Europe and in much of Asia the land of a father is divided between his children. This leads to the breaking up of already small farms into smaller and smaller units which are often uneconomic to farm.
It is difficult to introduce the use of modern tractors or harvesters in areas where the fields are too small for them to operate economically. Elsewhere public or co-operative ownership of land may affect the type of crops grown or the agricultural methods employed.
Finally social and religious influences have profound effects on animal rearing. The belief that pigs are unclean, held by Muslims, Jews and Hindus, limits the rearing of pigs in many parts of Asia and Africa. Similarly the Hindu veneration of cattle, or the prestige conferred by a large herd of cattle in many parts of Africa, limits the full exploitation of the animals for meat.
vi. Economic Factors:
Besides the factors outlined above, the farmer has constantly to take into consideration many economic factors, which may be unstable or entirely beyond his control. A peasant in Monsoon Asia practising subsistence farming where everything grown is consumed within the farm or the village boundaries may not be so seriously affected in the case of a trade recession as the wheat specialist in the Canadian Prairies whose crops are all intended for cash sales, including exports to overseas markets.
However, the peasant’s income is so meagre that in hard times he has very little to fall back on. Natural hazards such as floods, droughts or diseases that ruin his harvests pose an even greater threat to him than market fluctuations.
Three kinds of economic controls are, however, operative in all farming practices throughout the world, except in state-owned farms where there is no individual ownership and economic problems have to be dealt with by government agencies.
Essay # 7. Location of Agricultural Activities:
The distribution of different crops or livestock farming activities within a country is strongly influenced by physical factors of terrain, soil and climate. But economic factors are also very important, particularly transport costs to markets. Crops which are expensive to produce because they need skilled cultivation, much costly equipment (such as milking machines), or labour intensive picking, packing or processing for market are only profitable if transport costs can be kept low.
Therefore they must be grown near city markets. Crops which require less intensive farming can stand higher costs in marketing, while crops or livestock produced on an extensive basis at low cost can stand higher transport costs and be grown at greater distance from markets.
This is the basis of the theory of J. H. von Thunen (1783—1850) who lived in northern Germany and published his ideas in 1826. Given the ideal conditions of a single market and uniform land qualities he maintained that land use would react to the economic forces of production and transport costs and would be located in a series of concentric rings around the urban market.
Von Thunen’s theory has been criticized on many counts. There is rarely an area where conditions are uniform and the pattern is therefore affected by physical differences; whatever the economic forces it is useless to try and grow crops in unsuitable soil or climatic conditions, though in some cases the economic forces may be such that it is profitable to modify natural conditions by the use of glass-houses, irrigation or other techniques which increase production costs.
Even where zones are fairly regular they may be interrupted by an area of high fertility where particular crops are favoured or low fertility where nothing can be grown. Moreover a single market rarely exists and the land use zones around one city or town are always modified by impinging zones around other towns.
Finally farmers may not be equally well- informed about farming techniques or marketing conditions and this may lead to some farmers growing crops inappropriate to the zone in which they live. Some of these factors modifying the ideal von Thunen rings are illustrated in Fig. 3.2.
Von Thunen propounded his theory more than 150 years ago and since then the relative cost of transport has diminished, except perhaps in developing countries where there are few lines of transport. Labour and production costs have risen by comparison and the actual cost of land has also increased.
In areas close to the city there is more competition from housing and industrial uses and this pushes up the price of land. Thus only very valuable crops can be grown. The effect of these changes has not invalidated the theory, however, but has led to a change in the types of land use found close to towns.
For instance the second land use ring in von Thunen’s original model was one of forestry. This was because wood was the major fuel and building material at the time and in very great demand. It was heavy and bulky to transport however and was best produced fairly close to its markets.
Nowadays a typical pattern of land use rings is for market gardening producing perishable and bulky goods, especially fruit, flowers and vegetables to be closest to the city, followed by dairying which has high production costs and bulky, perishable products.
Then comes mixed or arable farming and lastly livestock farming. Transport of animal products is fairly expensive, requiring refrigerated trucks and so on but the price of meat is high so it can stand higher transport costs.
In Peninsular Malaysia it is possible to discern a similar pattern although the crops are entirely different. Market gardening is found nearest to the towns and supplies the markets, while cash crops such as rubber or oil palm are grown further from the cities and towns but must have access to lines of transport so that the products, e.g. rubber sheets, can be easily transported to the towns where they are traded and processed ready for export.
Finally beyond the cash crop regions where hilly or mountainous terrain, lack of communications and distance from urban centres all combine to reduce agricultural potential the land is forested. Where the forests are relatively more accessible timber is extracted, but there is a core of ‘virgin forest’. Despite this seeming agreement with the von Thunen model, there are several exceptions.
Rice is grown in distinctive regions, most of which are in fact in densely peopled regions, around Alor Star, around Kota Bharu and around Malacca, but the main reason for its location in these regions is the need for a particular set of physical conditions where fields can be flooded.
Some crops have very specific locations, e.g. pineapples in Johore where the correct peaty type of soils are found, and some market gardening takes place at a distance from the main cities in the Cameron Highlands. Here conditions allow the production of some temperate fruits and vegetables which command a high price and can therefore stand the high transport costs to the cities.
Essay # 8. Forms of Agriculture:
I. Simple Subsistence Farming:
This form of agriculture is widely practised by many tribes of the tropics, especially in Africa, in tropical South and Central America, and in South-East Asia. It is better known as shifting cultivation. Farming is on a self- sufficient basis and farmers grow food only for themselves and their families. Very little ever leaves the farm and every farmer produces practically the same range of crops as his neighbour.
Some small surpluses may be either exchanged by barter (i.e. payment in kind not cash) or sold for cash. The resultant economy is thus static with little chance for improvement, but there is a high degree of rural independence because farmers are not tied to landlords or to trading centres.
Shifting cultivation is practised in the tropics by many different peoples and thus has many different names, e.g. milpa in Central America and parts of Africa, conuco in Venezuela, roca in Brazil, masole in Zaire, ladang in Malaysia, humah in Indonesia, caingin in the Philippines, taungya in Burma, tamrai in Thailand, bewar or poda in India and chena in Sri Lanka.
II. Intensive Subsistence Agriculture:
This form of agriculture is best developed in and practically confined to the monsoon lands of Asia. It is found in China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the greater part of continental South-East Asia and parts of insular South-East Asia (Java, Luzon, Visayan Islands, coastal Sumatra and Malaysia). Farming in both the wet lowlands and the terraced uplands has to be very intensive to support a dense population.
Population densities in some agricultural areas in Asia are higher than those of industrial areas in the West. Many of the regions of intensive subsistence farming have a highly developed form of society and government and some such as China and India have a continuous history of civilization going back more than 4,000 years. The fast-growing population, almost unchecked for centuries, necessitates an ever greater intensity in the tillage of the lands.
A small plot of land has to support 5 or 10 times the number of people that a similar plot on an extensive corn farm in the U.S.A. could feed. The distinctive characteristics of this type of agriculture have led some geographers to call it oriental agriculture. Basically, there are two types of intensive subsistence agriculture: that dominated by wet padi and that dominated by other crops such as sorghum, soya beans, sugar-cane, maize, kaoliang, tubers and vegetables.
Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by other food crops:
Due to differences in relief, climate, soil and other geographical factors, it is not practicable to grow padi in many parts of Monsoon Asia. Though methods are equally intensive and farming is on a subsistence basis, a very wide range of other crops is raised. In most parts of North China, Manchuria, North Korea, northern Japan and Punjab wheat, soya beans, barley or kaoliang (a type of millet) are extensively grown as major food crops.
In the Indian Deccan and parts of the Indus Basin sorghum or millet is the dominant crop due to the scarcity of rain and the poorer soils. In many parts of continental South-East Asia such as the Dry Zone of Burma, the Korat Plateau of Thailand and the interior regions of Indo-China, the annual precipitation is too low for wet padi cultivation, and the substitute crops are millet, maize and groundnuts together with cotton, sugar-cane and oil-seeds.
Generally farming in these areas has very similar features to those of wet padi cultivation, including an intensive use of land, much manual labour, little use of farm machinery or modern implements and the use of a variety of manures and fertilizers.
Irrigation is often employed to make good the lack of moisture, though this has not yet been fully developed in many areas. With the intervention of the European colonists in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia intensive subsistence farming has given way to more profitable, large-scale cash crop cultivation on plantations.
III. Plantation Agriculture:
The specialized commercial cultivation of cash crops on estates or plantations is a very distinctive type of tropical agriculture and is found in many parts of Asia, Africa and tropical and sub-tropical America.
Its initiation by the Europeans during the colonial period has made possible the manufacture of a wide range of modern materials. Some of the main plantation crops are rubber, oil palm, cotton and copra, beverages like coffee, tea and cocoa, fruits like pineapples and bananas, as well as sugar-cane, hemp and jute.
IV. Extensive, Mechanized Grain Cultivation:
This is a recent development in the continental lands of the mid-latitudes, which were once roamed by nomadic herdsmen. The continental position, well away from maritime influence, and the low precipitation (between 305 and 660 mm/12 and 26 inches) make crop cultivation a calculated risk.
It was the invention of farm machinery which enabled farmers to cultivate grain on a large scale, and there is a marked specialization in wheat monoculture in many areas. Communication with the outside world is mainly by railways and the bulk of the grain harvest is exported.
This is, in fact, a type of plantation agriculture in temperate latitudes. This form of large-scale grain cultivation is best developed in the Eurasian Steppes in regions of chernozem soil; the Canadian and American Prairies; the Pampas of Argentina, the Veld of South Africa, the Australian Downs, and the Canterbury Plain of New Zealand.
V. Nomadic Herding:
This is an extensive form of animal grazing on natural pasturage, involving constant or seasonal migration of the nomads and their flocks. Nomadic herding is confined to rather sparsely populated parts of the world where the natural vegetation is mainly grass and where the rather low rainfall has a markedly seasonal distribution so that vegetation thrives at certain times of the year, necessitating seasonal movements in search of pasture. The movements of nomads are not random but are geared to traditional routes which take them from one area of pasture to another according to the season.
Nomadic herding has been practised since the earliest times and may have occupied about one-tenth of the earth’s land surface until the early twentieth century. However, the constant spread of sedentary cultivators into formerly marginal areas, often due to improved farming techniques or the development of irrigation, and the change to a settled form of animal ranching in most parts of the world, have combined to reduce drastically the importance of nomadic herding. It is a declining type of agriculture and continues to become less and less important.
Nomadic herding is practised in many parts of Africa, especially by the Fulani of the West African savannas, by many different peoples, including the Masai, in East Africa and the Nuba in Ethiopia and Sudan, and by the Bantu and Hottentots of southern Africa in Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa.
The Bedouin of Saudi Arabia and the Tuareg of the Sahara also practise nomadic herding in the desert and semi-desert areas of North Africa and South-West Asia, but changes in the economy of most Middle Eastern countries due to the exploitation of oil resources, and the difficulties posed to nomads by the multiplicity of political boundaries in the region, are reducing the importance of this mode of livelihood.
Some herdsmen in parts of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan still have a nomadic way of life. The whole of Central Asia from the Caspian Sea to Mongolia and northern China was also traditionally an area of nomadic herding and many sub-arctic areas in Siberia and northern Europe were also dominated by this form of livestock farming, but this pattern is rapidly changing.
Nomadism is virtually non-existent in the Soviet Union today and Mongolia and China are both taking measures to settle the Mongol herdsmen or reduce their movements to very short distances. Groups in Central Asia such as the Kirghiz, Kazaks and Kalmuks have been brought into the state farming system and the pastures are divided into immense state cereal farms or ranches.
In the tundra lands of Siberia, Yakuts, Samoyeds and Koriaks have also been settled on the state farms. In Scandinavia, the Lapps are tending to settle down and fewer of them nowadays have a truly nomadic way of life. Nomadic herding was never important in the Americas where bison were never domesticated.
VI. Livestock Ranching:
In the extensive temperate grasslands, once roamed by nomadic herdsmen or by hunters, are found permanent ranches where large numbers of cattle, sheep, goats, and horses are kept. In Siberia reindeer are also kept on ranches in the sub-Arctic lands.
VII. Mediterranean Agriculture:
Within the Mediterranean climatic region, where there is winter rain and summer drought, a distinctive type of agriculture has evolved. This type of farming is also found in irrigated semi-desert and desert areas in similar latitudes. Farming is intensive, highly specialized and rather varied in the kinds of crops raised. Subsistence agriculture occurs side by side with commercial farming.
Many crops such as wheat, barley and vegetables, are raised for domestic consumption, while others like citrus fruits, olives, and grapes are mainly for export. The Mediterranean lands are, in fact, the ‘orchard lands of the world’, and the heart of the world’s wine industry.
The Mediterranean climate and landscape is very varied in different localities and this affects the emphasis on certain crops. Land use is dependent on such factors as the total annual amount of precipitation, the length of the summer drought, the availability of melting snow and mountain streams for irrigation and power supply, local soil conditions, the ability of the farmer to finance capital equipment and price fluctuations in local and world markets.
VIII. Mixed Farming:
This is one of the most important forms of agriculture found in the highly developed parts of the world: north-western Europe, eastern North America, parts of the U.S.S.R., and the temperate latitudes of parts of the southern continents. Farming is very intensive and sometimes highly specialized. Some farms may be devoted entirely to arable farming or entirely to livestock, but traditionally farmers practise a truly mixed economy raising animals and growing crops on the same farm.
Mixed farming is still the major agricultural type. The proportion of crops and animals at any time is dependent on many inter-related factors such as the locality of the farm, soil fertility, the animal-carrying capacity of the land, the market demand, the prevailing price of crops and animal products, as well as farm traditions and government policies.
Within the mixed farming belt of the temperate regions, a number of well-developed agricultural subtypes may be distinguished. Each is differentiated from the others by the emphasis placed on the kind of crops or animals raised, the extent of commercialization, the intensiveness of the farming method and the degree of specialization.
Essay # 9. Agriculture Changes in Different Countries:
General farming types can be described but in any country a continuous process of change, sometimes rapid, sometimes very gradual, is taking place. By studying some examples, the problems facing farmers and also the government agencies responsible for farming policy become clearer.
i. Kenya:
In Kenya before Independence, the overwhelming problem was of a division between the white settlers who produced cash crops on large estates and local farmers who produced subsistence crops on small farms. The first change, which took place in the 1950s, was to introduce cash crops to the African farmers and to reduce the reliance on food crops.
Coffee, tea and pyrethrum (used in making insecticides), sisal, pineapples, sugar-cane, cotton and tobacco, were introduced and the people adopted the new crops with such eagerness that there was overproduction of coffee and pyrethrum by 1968.
The change to the growing of cash crops has been accompanied by the introduction of mixed farming, use of new hybrid seeds with higher yields and the use of chemical fertilizers essential for the best use of such new varieties.
The second change occurred in the former White Highlands after Independence when white farmers left the country or sold their farms to African or Kenyan Asian farmers. Some of the former extensive farms were taken over as large going concerns and have continued to operate in this way, either under private ownership or under cooperative control.
Others, especially where the land was of high quality and capable of supporting more intensive use was divided into smallholdings which were settled by African farmers.
Kenya is fortunate that its farmers are enterprising and have been able to adapt rapidly to the efficient production of a wide range of cash crops. But it has many agricultural problems still. About 80 per cent of the population of the country, some 11 million people, is dependent on agriculture. The 1.5 million smallholders in the country have on average, six dependents and three-quarters of them have less than 2.6 hectares (6 ½ acres) of land.
Under these circumstances there is clearly a demand for more land, from existing farmers as well as from the many rural people without any land of their own. Farmers’ income is very much lower than that of urban Kenyans but cannot be easily increased. Moreover there is a shortage of land of high enough quality to support subsistence or cash crop farming.
Most of the land not yet fully developed is only suitable for extensive grazing and where farmers have settled and cultivated it there have been problems of soil erosion. On the other hand the ranching of livestock has not developed as rapidly or as successfully as has crop production.
This is partly due to the traditional attitudes of the Masai herders who gain prestige from the numbers of their cattle rather than from their quality and who are reluctant to slaughter their animals, or to improve their stock and moreover, degrade the land by keeping too many beasts.
Secondly, incentives for beef production have not been as strong, in terms of guaranteed prices, as for cereals and dairy products. Financial rewards can be adjusted to encourage various branches of agriculture but this will not overcome the land hunger of rural Kenyans who attach great importance to owning their own land. Increasing land ownership may lead to disastrous results if too much marginal land is overused.
ii. Japan:
Japanese agriculture has changed very rapidly, mainly in the period since the Second World War. Before the war it was essentially an oriental farming region with heavy dependence on rice and subsidiary silk production. Much of the population was engaged in farming and yields per hectare were fairly low.
As industry expanded, however, farming also changed, becoming far more efficient and far less labour-intensive. Only 11 per cent of the population is now engaged in agriculture and it plays only a small role in the national economy even though production is much higher and more varied.
Rice production was only 7 million tonnes in 1910, around 9 million tonnes in the inter-war period, but rose to 14 million tonnes by 1966-68. Hectareage increased only slightly and higher production came mainly from higher yields.
These were made possible, mainly from 1955 onwards, by land improvement and consolidation into larger fields, by the breeding of hardy and high yielding varieties, the adoption of early transplanting from nursery beds, use of fertilizers and extensive use of pesticides.
At the same time the amount of labour involved in rice production fell rapidly. Powered cultivation became common between 1965 and 1970 and rice-planting machines, combines and threshing machines were widely used after 1970. Tractors, combines and rice storage facilities have been introduced through cooperatives and are now very common. After 1967 rice was overproduced and a control policy to limit production came into force in 1971.
Horticulture has expanded rapidly and many specialized forms have developed, especially since 1955 when the chemical industry provided plastic sheeting as a cheap alternative to glass. Market gardening zones around large cities were the first to develop but these are now being overtaken by city growth.
Inter-war development of transport favoured truck farming in specialized areas, e.g. strawberries at the foot of Kuno- San (Japan is the world’s second largest producer of strawberries) or cabbages and similar vegetables in greenhouses in highland regions in Nagano, Gumma and Iwate prefectures. The total area under glass and vinyl-sheeted houses is more than 20 000 hectares (49,380 acres).
Livestock numbers in Japan have increased enormously, particularly poultry, pigs and dairy cattle. In the past Buddhist principles limited meat consumption and low standards of living reduced the use of dairy products. Animals are now generally kept in stalls owing to the lack of grazing land, and milk yields are among the highest in the world (5 903 kg/13,000 lb of milk per cow per year in 1977).
As farming has been made more efficient and less labour-intensive a major feature of Japanese farming has been the change to part-time farming. Workers earn their main livelihood in factories and work only a few hours a week on their farms. Jobs that require a greater labour input are contracted out.
One group of five farmers, for example, works 53 hectares (131 acres) of padi land and a further 11 hectares (27 acres) of non-irrigated land on its own farms; in addition the group ploughs 125 hectares (309 acres) of padi, sprays 38 hectares (94 acres) and harvests 58 hectares (143 acres) on contract to other farmers.
Despite Japan’s great efficiency its small area of farming land, limited by mountains and increasingly by urban sprawl, can never hope to supply all Japan’s food requirements. Farmers therefore concentrate on the traditional staple—rice and on fruit, vegetables and milk which would be the most costly to import.
Wheat, soya beans and other crops are grown but the bulk of Japanese requirements for these as foodstuffs or fodder crops, as well as industrial raw materials like cotton and wool, has to be imported.
iii. USA:
U.S.A. American agriculture is probably the most efficient in the world in terms of its reliance on high technology equipment and low labour inputs. Production has improved so much that about one-third of all farmland in the U.S.A. is producing crops for export. Much of the credit for this lies, however, in the vast size of the available high-quality land and not in increasing yields per hectare as is the case in many smaller countries, e.g. Japan.
In order to maintain high production figures, and therefore profits, American farmers have to be very adaptable and ready to try every new development in crop varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, farming equipment and harvesting devices, and prices for farm machinery are very high indeed.
Only guaranteed prices and the hope of higher profits allow the farmers to take the calculated risk of investing in new technology. Farmers must work on credit to a great extent because if they do not risk their capital in this way they cannot keep pace with their neighbours and soon find themselves unable to compete and have to sell their farms.
The number of farmers has dwindled rapidly—between 1940 and 1960 at a rate of about one million per year-and the decline in agricultural population continues. Only 4 per cent of the American population now depends on agriculture.
At the same time farm sizes have increased, from 87 hectares (214 acres) on average in 1950 to 162 hectares (400 acres) in 1978 and this is a continuing trend. Larger farm sizes, of course, give added impetus to mechanization and offer great economies of scale.
The use of machinery for so many farm operations, even the picking and sorting of fruit such as tomatoes and grapes or vegetables like lettuce which bruise very easily, has led to a sharp decline in the labour force and has made redundant large numbers of Mexican Americans who traditionally worked as fruit and vegetable pickers, just as machines forced negro labourers off the cotton fields in the 1930s and 1940s.
Farmers today employ a few, highly skilled workers, who can operate their huge tractors or electronic fruit pickers, and there may in future be a shortage of skilled men to do these jobs.
Not only are the farmlands empty of people but also of animals. Most animals are kept under cover. Chickens are almost exclusively, and pigs increasingly, factory farmed, while cattle are fattened in feedlots rather than ranging across the fields for fodder.
This allows farmers to grow more arable crops which are mostly destined for animal feeding, either for local or overseas markets. Oil seeds, including soya beans, sunflower and peanuts, and grains, such as sorghum, are increasingly grown, as well as the traditional crops of corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco.
Given the prosperity and success of American farming there seem to be few problems. But in fact the large surpluses make the American farmers as dependent on exports as farmers in developing countries growing tropical crops. The export market fluctuates widely, since the importing countries naturally try to produce as much as they can themselves and only import what they cannot produce.
American grain and feedstuff markets depend therefore on annual variations in climatic conditions and changing demand overseas over which they have no control. The chief importing countries are Japan, Netherlands, West Germany, Canada and the U.S.S.R. Government policies must therefore keep overproduction within bounds but, at the same time, because of their guaranteed price agreements with the farmers, the government agricultural agencies, and ultimately the taxpayers are liable to great expenditure when crops fail, as was the case in 1980 when widespread droughts in the U.S.A. allowed grasshoppers to multiply and eat their way through the grain fields.