World’s Largest Wheat Producing Countries | Economic Geography

It is clear from the world distribution map that wheat is grown over a very wide area. There are over 232 million hectares (573 million acres) of land under wheat production and the annual harvest is estimated to be 386 million tonnes.

It is clear from the table that the major wheat ex­porters of the world (U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Ar­gentina) are those of the temperate latitudes, practis­ing large-scale mechanized grain cultivation and with a relatively small population.

They also have large ex­panses of grasslands which are capable of supporting wheat. Wheat strains that are drought-resistant or cold-resistant reduce the effect of climatic hazards in marginal wheatlands, and advances in farm technology have enhanced the prospects of increased world wheat production.

About 15 to 20 per cent of the annual wheat output finds its way into the interna­tional market. The main importers are such densely – populated countries as Britain, Belgium, the Nether­lands, Denmark, Germany and Japan. Despite their intensive system of wheat production by which yields, sometimes three times as high as those of the average extensive wheat farm, are obtained, Western European nations are net wheat importers.

Denmark which used to be a wheat exporter, has found it uneconomical to compete with the ‘wheat giants’ of the New World and has switched to more profitable types of farming such as dairying and market gardening. France produces sufficient wheat for home consumption and also ex­ports a little in most years. Though both the U.S.S.R. and China are leading wheat producers, their large population leaves little for export, and in bad years they have to import large quantities of grain.

Wheat Production in the U.S.A.:

The U.S.A., one of the greatest wheat producers and exporters, has a total wheat acreage of more than 27 million hectares (66 million acres) and an annual pro­duction of around 40 million tonnes. As wheat in America is grown mainly by extensive mechanized farming, the average yield is not high, about 2 000 kg/ hectare (30 bushels per acre). Half the wheat grown in 1979 was exported.

The leading wheat states are Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana, each of which has an annual output of more than 3 million tonnes. But there is no state (except in the extreme south) that does not have some wheat-fields. Generally speaking there are four major wheat-growing regions in the U.S.A.

1. The Hard Red Spring Wheat Region:

This is a continuation of the Canadian Prairies and is the leading commercial wheat region of America. It includes the states of North and South Dakota, Mon­tana and Minnesota. The rolling grassland with its deep, rich chernozem soil has been cleared to make way for large-scale mechanized grain cultivation.

The annual precipitation is low, between 380 and 635 mm (15 and 25 inches) but the rain comes mainly in sum­mer. The winters can be quite severe because of the region’s continental position. Snow covers the ground and frost is common in spring. The frozen sub-soil makes cultivation difficult.

Thus the growing season is short but the extensive use of machines for plough­ing and sowing means that no time is lost. Seeds are sown with the early spring rain and grow through the warm summer. The wheat is harvested by combines just before the killing frosts of autumn.

If the frost comes earlier than expected, harvesting may be ac­celerated and the combines may work throughout the night to gather the wheat in time. Farming hazards are common in this part of northern U.S.A. and can cause great strain to the farmers.

Summer droughts, frosts, violent winds, hailstones, plagues of grasshop­pers and plant diseases, e.g. rusts, smuts, mosaic, are some of the ‘enemies’ that farmers have to fight. The wheat from this region makes excellent bread-flour.

2. The Hard Red Winter Wheat Region:

South of Minnesota and South Dakota is another great wheat region that grows Hard Red Winter Wheat also used for bread-making. The region embraces the states of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and northern Texas. With the higher average temperature due to its southerly location and a milder winter, wheat can be winter sown and harvested in early summer.

Farming is extensive and makes the fullest use of machines. Natural disasters like prolonged droughts and occa­sional plagues by insect-pests and fungus diseases are unavoidable. Much of the wheat from here is milled for local consumption and the surplus is exported through Galveston, Mobile and New Orleans.

3. The Soft Red Winter Wheat Region:

Extending eastwards from central U.S.A. to the Atlantic seaboard is the Soft Red Winter Wheat Region It includes such states as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio Pennsylvania and most of the mid-Atlantic states. In creased moisture and a higher relative humidity gives the winter-sown wheat a softer texture and it is most suited to pastry-making or breakfast cereals.

Most of the wheat is consumed locally as the region supports a dense industrial population. Unlike other wheat regions of the U.S.A., many other crops are also raised within the Soft Red Winter Wheat Belt. Corn or maize, cotton, tobacco and soya beans are more important in the south while hay, dairying and market gardening are better represented in the north. Crop rotation and mixed farming are more widely practised here than in any other wheatlands of the U.S.A.

4. The Soft White Wheat Region:

This is the least important wheat region of America both in extent as well as in the quality of wheat produced. Soft White Wheat, when milled, does not provide sat­isfactory flour for bread-making. It is used almost exclusively for pastry or is blended for use in local bakeries.

There are in fact two areas in which Soft White Wheat is grown: firstly, the area around Lakes Michigan and Huron, and secondly, the West Coast, including California and the Columbia Plateau of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Soft White Wheat may be spring or winter sown depending on the local climate and relief.

Output from the Columbia Plateau is the most important and is sent by rail to either Seattle or Portland for export to Asian countries, es­pecially Japan. Due to the scanty precipitation (less than 305 mm (12 inches) of this region, dry farming methods are employed. Contouring and fallowing are practised in the more hilly and drier districts to con­serve both moisture and the soil on steep slopes.

Wheat Production in Canada:

Though Canada is one of the leading wheat ex­porters, on account of its small population, the annual output varies greatly as a result of market and cli­matic factors. Current wheat production is about 20 million tonnes from about 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of land.

More than three-quarters of the output is exported, mainly to Britain and other West Euro­pean countries and occasionally to China or the U.S.S.R. Almost all the wheat from Canada is spring wheat and 95 per cent of the total comes from the Prairie provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Mani­toba. Saskatchewan alone accounts for as much as two-thirds of the wheat production. Of the remaining prov­inces, only Ontario and British Columbia have signifi­cant wheat cultivation.

Many factors have contributed to the rise of the Canadian Prairies as one of the leading granaries of the world. The same factors apply to some wheat- growing areas in western U.S.A. where the Prairies extend south of the border.

1. Extensive Cheap Land Was Available:

In the early days of colonization by the Europeans, land was so abundant in the Canadian Prairies that many pioneer farmers from Britain and the rest of Europe seized the opportunity to own large farm holdings. Farm sizes of several thousand hectares are common. This allows wheat to be cultivated on a very large scale, entirely by machines and involving only a few farm hands.

2. Extension of Railways into the Prai­ries:

The main development of the Prairies coin­cided with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) and the Canadian National Railway (C.N.R.) during the first quarter of the twentieth cen­tury. Innumerable branch lines linked the remote farms with the main line. Metalled roads were sub­sequently constructed. This facilitated the immigration of farmers to the region and gave their products access to world markets.

3. Fertile Prairie Soils:

The Prairies were originally temperate grasslands. Centuries of grass- rotting had produced fertile soils. The Prairie earth is a dark brown type of chernozem, less leached, not so acidic and superior to the podzols found further north and east. It also has a high content of potassium and phosphorus, which are essential nutrients to cereals like wheat. Farmers now also apply fertilizers by ae­rial spraying to conserve and improve soil fertility.

4. Undulating Topography:

The rolling to­pography of the Prairies has two advantages. It makes the land well-drained, which is vital as wheat cannot tolerate stagnant water, and it also allows machines to be employed at every stage of wheat production.

The tractors plough up the earth, the drillers sow the seeds in spring after the last snow has thawed, and when it is time for harvesting, the combine-harvesters gather the wheat, thresh and sack it for disposal. Without the use of machines, the sparsely-populated Prairies would still remain undeveloped.

5. Suitable Climate:

In normal years, the Prai­rie climate is quite favourable for wheat growing. Its warm summer temperatures of around 15.5°C (60°F) and mean annual precipitation of 460 mm (18 inches) are suitable for wheat. The light spring showers assist seed germination, and the grain ripens in sunny sum­mer weather.

The crops are harvested just before the killing frosts of autumn. Fast-maturing and cold-resis­tant varieties are now used further north, e.g. in the Peace River region, where there are as few as 90 frost- free days.

The warm Chinook winds that sweep down the eastern Rockies in spring help to give an early start to the growing season. As in other wheatlands climatic hazards cannot be ruled out completely. Summer heat waves or killing autumn frosts can be disastrous to the farmers.

6. Access to Markets:

The development of major railways and roads makes access to world mar­kets easy and on the east this is further assisted by the presence of the Great Lakes which extend into the very heart of the North American continent. About 50 per cent of the wheat is handled by the route through Winnipeg, Port Arthur and Fort William on Lake Superior and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway.

The wheat is stored in huge grain elevators at rail termini and then transported by specially de­signed grain-carriers called ‘whale-backs’. A tenth of Canadian wheat is conveyed by rail direct to the At­lantic ports of St. John (New Brunswick) or Halifax (Nova Scotia). Some wheat is also sent by rail to the port of Churchill on the Hudson Bay during the ice- free summer.

All the wheat that goes eastwards is destined for Europe. The remaining 30 per cent usually moves westwards by the C.P.R. or C.N.R. to the Pa­cific ports of Vancouver and Seattle, destined for the Far East, and also, via the Panama Canal, for some parts of Mediterranean Europe. Wheat remains one of the greatest items of export for Canada competing with newsprint for first place in its foreign trade.

7. World Markets:

Export markets for wheat fluctuate widely, depending as they do on climatic conditions in other parts of the world which deter­mine the harvest there and thus how much imported wheat will be required. Some crop diversification has taken place but Canada cannot adapt as well as the U.S.A. being further north and too cool for crops like soya beans.

Wheat Production in the Countries of Europe:

Almost all the countries of Europe grow wheat and a quarter of the world’s wheat comes from Europe, including the European part of the U.S.S.R. Russia is the leading producer, followed by France, Turkey, West Germany, Romania and Italy. Due to their dense population none of the countries except France and occasionally the U.S.S.R. has any surplus for export. The continent as a whole is the greatest wheat importer.

Grain ships arrive at European ports from Canada, the U.S.A., Argentina and Aus­tralia. As Europe becomes more industrialized, more agricultural lands are being engulfed for factory sites, but though wheat acreages are not expanding, higher yields are allowing European countries to increase their production. This will never, however, be suf­ficient to eliminate huge imports.

Europe has all the requirements for wheat cultiva­tion: a temperate maritime or continental climate with an annual precipitation, in lowland areas, of between 760 mm (30 inches) (in the Paris Basin) and 380 mm (15 inches) (in the Russian Ukraine). Winters are fair­ly mild except in the continental regions of European Russia where winter wheat gives way to spring wheat.

The most important wheat region is the Ukrainian Black Earth area of the U.S.S.R. where the chernozem soils are ideal for wheat. The Russian wheatlands have been expanded tremendously since the agrarian revo­lution that initiated the system of collectivization. Large areas of the steppes stretching from the Dnieper into Asiatic U.S.S.R. have been brought under culti­vation.

Many crops are grown but wheat is dominant. Yields have also been greatly improved but are still low by European standards. Climatic hazards are very great in marginal wheatlands where inadequate precipita­tion, prolonged droughts, severe winters, killing frosts and violent blizzards make output very varied.

The U.S.S.R. is the world’s leading wheat producer, with 62 million hectares (153 million acres) under wheat, and accounts for 24 per cent of world output. It is self-sufficient in some years but crop failures in other years make wheat imports a necessity.

Apart from the Ukraine, other major wheat regions of Europe include: the Paris Basin, East Anglia, U.K., the Lombardy Plain of Italy, the Puztaz of Hungary, the Lower Danube Basin of Romania and Bulgaria, Scania in Sweden and central Spain. Apart from high­ly-mechanized Soviet collective and state farms, wheat production in Europe is quite different from that in the New World.

It is characterized by the following features:

1. Yields Are High:

The highest wheat yields in the world come from west European countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Belgium, West Germany, Ireland and U.K. all of which have yields of 4 035 kg/hectares (60 bushels per acre) or more. Other European producers with high yields are Switzerland, East Germany and Austria.

To the north where the climate is cooler, the east where the climate is more continental, and the south where the degree of aridity is less tolerable, wheat yields are much lower. The intensive system of farming and the ideal combi­nation of physical, climatic and human factors are the keys to Western Europe’s high wheat yields.

2. High Cost of Production:

Wheat produc­tion in Europe is highly mechanized and capital-inten­sive, but although the wheat farms are larger than the average farm-size for Western Europe and are not frag­mented and uneconomic as many farms producing other crops often are, they are nevertheless unable to benefit from the economies of scale that are possible on the huge wheat farms of the U.S.A., Australia or the U.S.S.R. Urban growth and population pressure make land expensive and wages are high.

To increase the nation’s self-sufficiency in wheat or as a means of improving their balance of payments, many European countries subsidize wheat production and impose tariffs on imported wheat. This has raised wheat prices and indirectly increased the high cost of production. Government intervention has increased the wheat production in most countries but this has been done by increasing yields rather than extending the area under cultivation.

This is impossible in such densely peopled countries where most of the avail­able farmland has been developed for centuries. Des­pite increases in yields most European countries look to imports from Canada, the U.S.A. or the southern continents. Common Market countries naturally import French surpluses. Countries like Denmark, Bel­gium and the Netherlands have long abandoned major wheat production in favour of dairying or mixed farm­ing but they obtain very high yields from the small area of land still under wheat.

3. A Great Variety of Topographical and Climatic Areas:

Being the basic foodstuff of the Europeans, wheat is grown in many marginal areas where conditions deviate widely from the opti­mum. It is thus grown in a variety of climatic envi­ronments from the Mediterranean south to the cool north (between 35°N and 65°N); from the maritime west to the continental east (10°W to 60°E).

Cli­matic hazards are therefore great and result in great variations in average yield and actual output in dif­ferent parts of Europe. In the more highly developed countries, however, such as the U.K. or the Nether­lands, farming is becoming more and more specialized and only the areas, e.g. East Anglia, with ideal condi­tions specialize in wheat farming. Besides climate, Europe has great physical diversity too.

Wheat is grown in the alpine valleys of Switzerland and the re­claimed polders of the Low Countries as well as in the Great European Plain. Soils vary tremendously from the ideal chernozems of the Russian Ukraine and the limon-covered earth of the Paris Basin to the poorer podzolic soils of much of the rest of Europe.

Wheat Production in the Countries of Asia:

The major Asian wheat producers are China and India, both of which have large populations and thus no wheat for export. China accounts for approximate­ly 10 per cent of the total world output but produc­tion is increasing. Wheat is produced chiefly in the north of the country in the Huang He (Hwang Ho) Basin and in Manchuria, but flood control measures on the northern side of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) are increasing wheat-growing in the south.

Wheat is the staple food of the northern Chinese as rice is of the southern Chinese. Wheat is also grown in North Korea. In India (7.5 per cent) and Pakistan (2 per cent) wheat is grown as a winter crop in regions with less than 1 015 mm (40 inches) of rainfall, especially in the Punjab and other parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

Much of the wheat acreage is under irrigation and cultivation continues to expand in Pakistan with the new dams being built to tap the waters of the Indus and its tributaries. New higher-yielding varieties are also being used and growing self-sufficiency in India, Pakistan and China is reducing the need for imports from Canada and Australia. Wheat is also increasingly important in Japan where many people are adopting a more western-type diet. It is grown chiefly in northern Honshu.