 |
| Agriculture |
The toothed cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney of the United States in 1793, saved workers the labour of removing cottonseeds by hand.
The first successful harvesting machine, or reaper, was
patented by the American inventor Cyrus McCormick in 1834.
An early petrol-driven tractor did only light work.
But it is signalled the beginning of a
new age of power for farming.
In China farmland
is sea* Rice growers, like the one in this picture, practise intensive
agriculture to make each of land as productive as possible.
A modern egg farm raises
hundreds or thousands of hens in a confinement building,
above. The birds are kept in small cages to conserve their energy and to
make egg-gathering easier.
Mechanized farming speeds up much of agriculture. Farmers use such
machines as tractors with push-pull ploughing combination.
Tapping
rubber trees in Indonesia.
Pickering
tea leaves in Sri Langka.
Harvesting wheat in Canada
Herding sheep in Australia
The vast and varied world of agriculture provides us with
nearly all our food, with fibres for clothing, and with raw materials for
industry. Half the world's workers are farmers, and about a third of the earth's land area is used for
agriculture.
Agriculture is the world's
most important industry. It provides us with almost all our food. It also
supplies materials for two other basic human needs—clothing and shelter. In
addition, agriculture provides materials used in making many
industrial products, such as paints and medicines. About half the world's
workers are employed agriculture—far more than are employed in any other
industry.
Agriculture
is one of the world's oldest industries. It began to develop about 11,000 years
ago in the Middle East. At that
time, certain Middle Eastern tribes had discovered how to grow plants from
seeds and how to raise animals in captivity. By about 10,000 years ago, they had mastered these skills, and had begun to
defend chiefly on farming for food.
Before the
development of agriculture, people got all their food by gathering wild plants,
hunting, and fishing. They had to search for food continually, which left them little time for other activities. But as
agriculture developed and farm output increased, fewer people were seeded to
produce food. The nonfarmers could then develop the arts, crafts, trades, and
other activities of civilized life. The
development of agriculture therefore greatly affected the food supply and made
civilization Visible.
Farmers
provided more food than hunters and gathers could
supply. But for many centuries, improvements in agriculture came slowly.
Farming depended heavily on human and animal labour, and farmers had few tools
to make their land and labour more productive. Then in the late 1600's,
inventors began to develop machinery for planting, cultivating, and harvesting
crops. Over the years, farm machinery has been steadily improved. During the
1900's, scientists have developed better, stronger varieties of plants and
livestock and highly effective fertilizers and pesticides. All these improvements
have greatly improved efficiency. They have reduced the need for farm labour
and have enormously increased farm output.
However,
nearly all the scientific improvements in agriculture have occurred in
industrialized nations. In many developing countries, people farm much as their
ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Countries that use old-fashioned farming
methods have great difficulty increasing their production of food. But
increased food production is necessary to keep up with today's rapid population
growth. Helping the developing nations modernize their agriculture is one of
the major challenges of the industrial nations and is essential if famine is
to be avoided.
This article
discusses the world's chief agricultural products, the various kinds of
agriculture that farmers practice, and its characteristics around the world.
The article also traces the history of agriculture.
Chief agricultural products.
Food is by far the most important farm product. But farms also
provide many other product. But farms also provide many other products, from natural
fibres to ornamental flowers and trees. Some crops are used only to feed
livestock. These forage crops include alfalfa, clover, and many grasses, such as bluestem
and timothy. Forage crops are important because they make commercial livestock
production possible.
Food products. Farmers produce almost all the
world's food, including some fish and game. Most food products come from crops.
The rest come from animals, especially cattle, pigs, and other livestock.
From crops. The world's farmers grow about 85 major food
crops. They can be divided into eight groups. The main group is cereal grains. Grain is
grown on half the world's cropland and supplies much of the nourishment in the
human and animal diets. The chief grains are barley, maize, millet, oats, rice,
rye, sorghum, and wheat.
Various root crops make up the
second most important group of food crops. Like cereal grains, root crops are
grown throughout the world and are a basic food for many people. The leading
root crops are potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a tropical plant called cassav'a.
The six
remaining groups of major food crops are: (1) pulses, which
consist mainly of dry beans and dry peas; (2) fruits and vegetables other than
root crops and pulses; (3) oil-bearing crops, such as soybeans and coconuts;
(4) sugar-bearing crops, especially sugar cane and sugar beet; (5) nuts; and
(6) cocoa beans, coffee, and tea. Some oil crops, especially soybeans, are used
to make flour and meal as well as oil.
From animals. Cattle, chickens, goats, pigs, sheep, and other
livestock are the main animals raised for food Livestock are raised in every country
and supply the world's meat, eggs, milk, and other products. Farmers also raise
a few other kinds of animals for food. For example, many farmers keep bees for
honey. Farmers on fish farms raise freshwater food fish, such as trout and
saltwater shellfish, such as mussels and oysters.
Natural fibres come from a variety of plants
and animals raised on farms. Mills and factories use the fibres to make
fabrics, yarn, and other textile products. Cotton, flax, hemp, jute, and sisal
are the chief plant fibres. Wool, the principal animal fibre, comes mainly from
sheep but also from such animals as goats and members of the camel family. Silk
fibres are obtained from the cocoons of silkworms. Farms in Japan and China
raise most of the world's silkworms. The development of nylon and other
manufactured fibres during the 1900's has reduced the demand for natural fibres
in some countries.
Other agricultural products. Many farms provide other raw
materials for industry besides fibres. These materials include natural rubber;
animal hides, which, are used to make leather and suede and such vegetable oils as
castor oil and linseed oil. These oils are used in a variety of products, from
paints to medicines. Some farmers may grow trees for timber, though most timber
comes from natural forests. Many farmers grow tobacco. Others grow ornamental
flowers, trees, and shrubs. A few farmers raise such animals as foxes and mink
for their fur.
Kinds of agriculture
Farmers practise many kinds of agriculture. Each kind can be
classed in a number of ways. Climate is a common basis for classification. For
example, the kinds of farming practised in the tropics can be classed as tropical
agriculture. Similarly, many of the kinds of farming practised in
cooler regions can be classed as middle- latitude
agriculture. Most kinds of agriculture can also be classed according to the
amount or value of the goods produced per unit of land. Classified in this way,
agriculture is intensive or extensive.
Intensive agriculture is practised chiefly where farmland is
scarce. It requires large amounts of fertilizer, labour, or other resources.
Each unit of land is thus made as productive as possible. The small market
gardens (vegetable farms) on the outskirts of many big cities are examples
of intensive agriculture. A market garden may cover only about 0.4 hectare. But
it may produce enough vegetables to employ one person full-time.
Farmers practise extensive agriculture where land is plentiful,
rainfall is light, and the soil is not especially fertile. Extensive agriculture
requires relatively little investment in equipment and supplies per unit of
land, and each unit yields a relatively low return. The vast sheep ranches of
Australia and the Western United States are examples of extensive agriculture.
A ranch may cover several thousand hectares or more and raise thousands of
sheep. But each animal needs about 1.6 hectares of land for grazing. The return
per unit of land is therefore low and may be only one-hundredth of the return per
hectare from intensive farming.
The many kinds of agriculture can also be classified as either commercial or subsistence. Commercial
farms produce crops and animals chiefly for sale. Subsistence farmers produce
goods mainly for themselves. The following discussion deals with this classification.
Commercial farming
The great majority of farms in Europe, North America, and other
industrial areas are commercial farms. They can be divided into two main
groups: (1) specialized farms and (2) mixed farms.
Specialized farms earn all or
most of their income from the sale of one kind of crop or livestock. Many of
these farms use mass-production methods and require a large investment in
equipment and supplies.
Specialized crop production. Crops
produced for sale are called cash crops. Many
commercial farms grow only one cash crop. These farms are known as one-crop, or single-crop, farms. Much
of the world's wheat is grown on huge one-crop farms on the North American
Great Plains and in Ukraine. Large single-crop farms in tropical and subtropical
areas are often called plantations. Plantations
grow such crops as bananas, coffee, rice, sugar cane, and tea.
Other specialized farms grow two or more cash crops, though most
of their income comes from one of the crops. The major crops grown on such
farms include cotton, various grains, and tobacco.
Crop management. Farmers
must plan carefully to give their crops the best chance of survival. They must
make sure that their soil and water resources meet the needs of each crop, and
use effective methods of pest control.
All crops require nutrients (nourishing
substances) and water to grow. Soil supplies most of the nutrients, and it also
stores the water that the crops need. Crops take root in the soil and absorb
the nutrients and water through their roots. Plants need 16 nutrients for
healthy growth. The major nutrients are the elements calcium, carbon, hydrogen,
magnesium, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, potassium, and sulphur. Most crops
require large amounts of these elements, but some plants differ in their food
requirements so the need for particular nutrients varies from one kind of crop
to another.
The richest soil lies on and just below the surface. If this
topsoil is not protected, it may be blown away by
strong winds or washed away by heavy rains—a process called erosion. Preventing
erosion is an important part of soil management.
In most cases, farmers rely entirely on rainfall for the necessary
moisture. In order to regulate supplies of water they install drainage systems
in fields that tend to collect water. In extremely dry areas where rainfall is
scarce, farmers must irrigate their crops.
Agronomists use the word pests in
referring to weeds, plant diseases, insects, and birds that threaten crops.
Most farmers control pests with chemicals called pesticides. In addition, plant
scientists have developed on varieties of maize, wheat, and other crops that
are more resistant to diseases and insects than were earlier varieties.
Methods of crop
production. Crop farming involves at least four separate operations: (1)
preparing the soil, (2) planting and cultivating, (3) harvesting, and (4)
processing and storing. Modern farm equipment can perform each of these
operations easily and quickly.
The main purpose of soil preparation
is to make a seedbed, an area of soil in which seeds can be planted and in
which they will sprout, take root, and grow. The land is then tilled. Tillage loosens
the soil, kills weeds, and improves the circulation of the water and air in the
soil. At ploughing time, most farm fields are scattered with dead stalks, leaves,
and other plant wastes from the preceding crop. This enriches the soil with
nutrients when the land is ploughed.
Farmers plant most crops in the
spring after the danger of frost has passed. Machines used to plant crops are
called planters or drills. Some fertilizers and pesticides are applied to the soil
during planting. Herbicides applied before or during planting kill many kinds
of weeds.
Most farmers in modern
industrialized nations harvest their field crops with machines; for example,
combine harvesters are used to harvest most grain and seed crops.
Crops grown to supply food for human beings are a called food
crops. These crops tend to spoil quickly, and so farmers ship the crops to
market as soon as possible after harvesting. Crops grown to supply feed for
live stock are called feed crops.
Special crop-growing methods include organic farming and
hydroponics. Organic farming is the practice of growing crops without the use
of synthetic chemicals. Hydroponics is the science of growing crops in water.
Specialized livestock production. The
principal kinds of specialized livestock farms include cattle and sheep farms is
poultry and egg farms, and dairy farms. Most cattle and sheep farms consist
mainly of grazing land. In some major beef-producing
countries, such as Argentina and Australia, cattle are
kept on ranches (large farms) until they are
to be slaughtered. But in the United States, Canada, and a few
other countries, many beef farmers ship their cattle to farms specializing in
fattening them for market.
A typical fattening farm practises
highly intensive agriculture and fattens cattle on a very small area of land. The
animals are given large amounts of grain and other high-energy
feed.
Most poultry and egg farms are also highly
intensive. Such a farm may cover only about 0.4
hectare. Yet it may raise 20,000 or more
laying hens or broiler chickens at a time. The birds
are kept in temperature-controlled buildings and given
high-energy feed.
Dairy farms
specialize in raising milk cows. The typical dairy farm
is much larger than a poultry farm but far smaller than a
ranch. Most dairy farmers grow their own feed crops. But
others buy their feed.
Caring for livestock. Livestock
care is the provision of feed and shelter
for animals and the safeguard of their health. To raise
livestock successfully, farmers must provide the animals with proper care. They
must also select certain animals for breeding purposes to replace the animals
that are marketed or that outgrow their usefulness. The
introduction of modern machinery has greatly increased the success of
livestock farming.
Livestock feeds can be divided into two main groups: (1) forage
and (2) feed concentrates. Forage is
either plants grazed by livestock or
plants that have been cut to make hay or silage. Most livestock grazes on
native grasslands or pastures. Pastures are fields of cultivated grasses or
other forage crops. Feed concentrates consist chiefly of feed grains, such as
maize and sorghum, and soybean meal. Farmers in some countries also add synthetic
hormones (growth-regulating chemicals) to seed
concentrates to stimulate their animals' growth. Livestock finishing, or fattening,
depends on the large-tale use of feed concentrates. Many farmers sell their young
animals for fattening, to farmers who either have excess feed grain or who
specialize in fattening.
Most kinds of livestock need protection against extremely cold
weather. Many farmers provide shelter for their animals at least part of the time.
Some livestock are raised entirely indoors on farms geared toward mass-introducing
certain kinds of livestock,
such as poultry, or livestock products, such as eggs.
Health care for livestock has been
made much easier by the development of vaccines and other drugs. The widespread
introduction of machines has enabled farmers to raise many more animals than
they could in the past. Examples of the type of machinery used are the
automatic feeder and the milking machine.
Most farm animals are raised to provide
livestock products. However, farmers also raise breeding stock, animals of
superior quality which are used mainly to produce offspring. Farmers select
breeding stock on the basis of the
animals' qualities and those of their offspring. Over a period of years, such
selective breeding can greatly improve the quality of farm animals.
Mixed farms, or diversified
farms, raise a variety of crops and livestock. Such farms produce crops
to sell and to feed their livestock. Most farms in Europe and many in the
Midwestern United States are mixed farms.
Mixed farming is less risky than specialized farming. Bad weather,
insects, or disease may ruin a year's output on a specialized farm. Or the
market price for a particular product may decline sharply. But on a mixed
farm, losses from one product may often be covered by profits from other
products.
Subsistence
agriculture
Millions of farm families in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America produce barely enough food to subsist on— that
is, to meet their own needs. Subsistence farming depends heavily on human
labour and requires only the most basic farm tools. Although subsistence
farmers produce goods chiefly for themselves, they may also raise small amounts
for sale. This type of farming is often called semisubsistence
agriculture.
Most subsistence farmers have one or more small plots of land,
which they farm year after year. Such farms are common in the rice-growing
regions of southern Asia and in parts of Africa and Latin America.
In some countries, many subsistence farmers do not have permanent
farms. Instead, they live in bands that move from place to place within a large
area fixed by custom. At each stop, the members of the community establish
temporary farms. The number of such communities has declined since the
mid-1900's. But large communities still exist in certain parts of the world.
They practise two main kinds of farming: (1) shifting cultivation and (2)
nomadic herding.
Shifting cultivation is an
ancient farming method. It is widely used on the grasslands and in the forests
of central Africa, northeastern South America, and parts of Southeast Asia. The
soil in most of these regions is not particularly fertile. But to keep it as
fertile as possible, a farm community grows crops on the same land for only a
year or two. The community then cultivates an adjoining area or moves to a
different part of its territory. At each new location, the grass and trees are
cut down and burned. For this reason, shifting cultivation is also called slash-and-burn
agriculture. Ashes from the burned grass and trees fertilize the soil. The
abandoned land returns to grass or forest and later can be farmed again.
Nomadic herding has long
been practised in desert regions of Africa and Asia. These regions are far too
dry to grow crops. But they have enough wild grasses to support small herds of
camels, sheep, goats, and other livestock. Tribes of desert nomads keep such
herds to provide the necessities of life. The nomads depend on their animals
for milk, cheese, and meat. And they live in tents and wear clothing made from
the skins and hair of the animals. A tribe settles in an area until their
livestock have stripped it of grass. The tribe and its herd then move on to a
fresh grazing area.
About 4.8 billion hectares of land—more than a third of the
earth's total land area—are used for farming. Farmers grow crops on about a
third of this land. Farmers use the rest of this land for raising livestock.
To grow crops, farmers need fairly
level land and tillable (workable) soil. In
addition, the climate must provide a certain amount of warmth and moisture.
For example, most crops need a frost-free period, or growing
season, of at least 90 days to develop from seeds into mature plants.
Many crops require much longer. Except for the Far North and Antarctica, most
regions of the world have a growing season that is long enough for at least
some crops. However, many of these regions receive less than 25 centimetres of
rain a year. Few crops can grow in such dry climates without irrigation.
Climate also largely determines the
kinds of crops a farmer can grow. Such crops as bananas and cocoa beans grow
well only in a tropical climate. Other crops, such as potatoes and apples, need
a cooler climate. Many plants, including both bananas and potatoes, require
much moisture. But some plants, such as sorghum and wheat, grow best in a
fairly dry climate.
Over the centuries, many methods have been developed to grow crops
in unfavourable areas. By using irrigation, for example, farmers can grow
crops even in some extremely dry places. Where the land is hilly, farmers build
terraces by carving strips of level land out
of the hillsides. Greenhouses enable farmers in areas with cold winters to grow
certain fruit and vegetables all year round. During the 1900's, scientists have
developed many plant varieties and livestock breeds to suit the soil or climate
of particular areas.
This section discusses agriculture in major regions and some
countries of the world. For additional information, see the
Agriculture section of individual continent and country articles.
Africa
Deserts and tropical rainforests cover much of Africa. Only about
a third of the land is used for farming. But about 62 per cent of all workers
are farmers. As in Latin America and Asia, subsistence agriculture is common in
Africa. The main subsistence crops are cassava, maize,
sorghum, sweet potatoes, and yams. Commercial
agriculture in Africa is centred in a few widely scattered areas. Irrigated
farms along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and in the Nile River Valley produce
such crops as cotton, dates, grapes, olives, and wheat. Plantations and small
farms in the tropics produce cocoa beans, coffee, cotton, palm kernels and oil
peanuts, and sisal. The continent's richest farming country is South Africa.
Unlike most other African countries South Africa has large areas of fertile soil
and a middle-latitude climate that is well suited to large-scale farming. Much
livestock is reared and the country has valuable fruit, wine, and fishing
industries. Exports of wool, maize, sugar, and caracul pelts are important (see
Kara- kul). Net income from the agricultural section in 1988 rose by 65 per
cent to about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars. This was largely the result of
increased earnings from the export of cereals.
Asia
About 45 per cent of the land in
Asia, excluding the former Soviet Union, is used for agriculture. Asia's farmland
is extremely varied. It ranges from the high, dry plateaus of eastern Turkey to
the hot, wet lowlands of Indonesia and Malaysia. The continent has more than
140 million farms. Most of them cover less than 0.4 hectare and are subsistence
farms. However, Asia also has many large commercial farms that are operated as
scientifically as the farms in western Europe, Australia, and North America.
The state owns most of the farms in the Communist countries of
Asia. In Israel, most of the farms are cooperatively or collectively owned by
the farmworkers (see Israel [Agriculture]). In other countries, the majority of
farms are privately owned. In the past, much of the privately owned farmland in
many Asian countries was worked by poor tenant farmers. The rents generally were
so high that most tenant farmers barely survived. But since the mid-1900's,
land-reform programmes in such countries as India and Pakistan have helped many
tenant families gain title to their land.
About 58 per cent
of Asia's workers are farmers. Subsistence farmers grow such crops as cassava,
rice, sweet potatoes, wheat, or yams. Many subsistence farmers also raise some
livestock, usually a few chickens, goats, pigs, or sheep. Commercial farming is
important in Asia's few industrial countries, such as Israel and pan and in China and
Malaysia. China is the world's leading rice producer
and ranks second only to the United states in the production of maize.
Malaysia, which produces more than one-third of the world's natural rubber, is
also the world's leading producer of palm oil. Almost
30 per cent of the population
are engaged in
agriculture, which contributes 19 per cent of gross national product. The
Philippines is the world's largest
producer of coconuts and coconut products. In 1987
these provided almost 12 per cent of total export earnings.
It also exported fresh fish and crustaceans valued at 392.2 million U.S. dollars.
In India, 66 per cent of
the working population is engaged in agriculture which, in 1992,
accounted for 30 percent of
gross national product. Most of India's sown area
is planted with cereals, but extensive plantations produce tea, rubber, and
coffee. Cotton, jute, sugar, oilseeds,
tobacco, and other cash crops are grown. Improved irrigation and the
introduction of high yield and disease-resistant strains of rice and wheat have
led to [ record harvests,
enabling the accumulation of surplus stocks
and even the export of wheat and rice.
Australia
and New Zealand
Australia's farmers contribute about
3 per cent of the value of all the goods and services produced in the country.
New Zealand's farmers contribute about 6
per cent. About 6 out of
every 100 people in Australia and 9 out of every 100 people in New Zealand are
engaged in farming. Farmland covers nearly 67 per cent of Australia and nearly
60 per cent of New Zealand. In both Australia and New Zealand, more than 90 per
cent of the farmland is pasture or relatively dry grazing land and is used
mainly for raising cattle and sheep. Australia leads the world in wool production
and is an important producer of beef, lamb, mutton, and dairy products. New
Zealand also ranks high among the world's producers of lamb and mutton.
Australia. The northern, tropical part
of Australia consists of two regions, northeastern and central Queensland.
Along the northeastern coast of Queensland, many farmers grow sugar cane.
Others raise beef cattle. A few produce such tropical fruit as pineapples.
In central Queensland some farmers
raise sheep. Only the eastern, southeastern, and southwestern regions of the
Australian continent receive enough rainfall to produce crops and
high-yielding pastures. In coastal areas where the soil is suitable, the
forests have been cleared, and pastures of white clover, perennial ryegrass,
and paspalum have been established. These are used for grazing dairy cattle.
Vegetables, apples, and some other fruit are also grown in some areas of the
coastal regions.
On the tablelands and ranges of the Great Dividing Range, inland
from the coast, pastures of perennial ryegrass, white clover, and subterranean
clover are grazed by beef cattle. Sheep are also grazed there for fat-lamb
production.
The western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the western plains
and the Mallee sand hills are used for wheat production. As wheat is rotated
with pastures of subterranean clover or barrel medic, the same regions are used for grazing
almost half of the sheep in Australia.
In the inland areas, sheep and some cattle are
grazed on the native vegetation. Only the true deserts such as the Simpson
Desert are not used for some type of grazing.
Australian governments have built large
reservoirs on rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin to store water for irrigation.
In the north of New South Wales and in Queensland, cotton is the main
irrigated crop. In southern New South Wales and in Victoria, irrigated rice and
wheat and limited amounts of grapes, citrus, and stone fruit, art grown. More
than half of Australia's irrigated land is sown pasture, which is used for
dairying, producing fat lambs, or fattening cattle.
Almost all farmers in Australia are commercial
farmers—that is, they sell their produce for money. For this reason, they grow
crops and keep animals that are likely to bring them the highest profit. In
Australia, farms are often much larger than is common in most other parts of
the world. Some Australian cattle stations in arid areas extend over as much as
1,000 square kilometres.
Management of such farms is complex.
New Zealand. Both islands have an
extremely favourable climate for agriculture. In the North Island, pastures
grow throughout most of the year. In the South Island, their growth is checked
during winter. The mountainous nature of much of the country, especially in the
South Island, limits farming activities, but farmers graze sheep on all but
the steepest slopes. Most dairy farms are located in the lowland areas with
the best pastures, such as the western districts of the North Island. In
lowland areas with poorer pastures unsuitable for dairy farming, farmers raise
flocks of lambs for meat, or keep herds of beef cattle. Most farmers in New
Zealand are commercial farmers and their farms generally correspond to those
in Australia in terms of size.
Europe
About 50 per cent of the land in Europe,
excluding Russia, is farmland. Most of this land is level and receives
abundant rainfall. As a result, approximately 60 per cent of Europe's farmland
is used to grow crops.
Russia
has the largest land area of any country in the world. It ranks among the
leading countries in area of farmland. But farmland makes up only about 15 per
cent of Russia's land. The majority of this farmland is in Europe. Most of the
Asian part of Russia is too dry or has too short a growing season for farming.
However, some of the land located in this region is suitable for raising
livestock.
Farmers
in most European countries use modern farming methods and equipment. But
agriculture differs from country to country, especially between the countries
of Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
Western Europe has only about 4 per cent of the world's
farmland. Yet it is one of the most productive farming regions on earth.
Western European farmers produce about 19 per cent of the world's potatoes;
about 16 per cent of the wheat; about 15 per cent of the eggs; about 27 per
cent of the milk; about 39 per cent of the sugar beet; and about 31 per cent of
the barley. About 5 per cent of all workers are employed in farming.
Agriculture in Western Europe is
highly intensive. For example, most of the region's wheat is grown on small
farms, and the farmers use large amounts of fertilizer on each unit of land.
Partly as a result of the intensive operation, wheat yields in Western Europe
often average about 40 per cent higher than in the United States. But a Western
Europe receives more rain than do the wheat growing regions of the United
States, and this factor also contributes to the higher yields.
Most Western European farms are not
only more intensive but also smaller and much more diversified than U.S. and
Canadian farms. The typical farm covers only 14 to 16 hectares. It raises
alfalfa, barley, potatoes, sugar beet, and wheat, as well as various kinds of
livestock, such as cattle and pigs. Specialized farms produce great quantities
of citrus fruit, grapes, milk, olives, poultry, and vegetables. Most Western
European farms are privately owned.
Governments of the members of the
European Union must apply the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This involves
certain minimum prices for most agricultural products. Prices are maintained
partly by a levy (charge) on any imports of the
commodity into the community. The European Union will also buy and store excess
products to
maintain prices at or above the minimum. The
community and national governments have a number of
other schemes to help farmers increase their income or efficiency.
United Kingdom. About 537,000 workers
in the United Kingdom (UK) have jobs connected with agriculture. These workers
make up less than 2 per cent of the working population. They produce food
mainly for the home market, providing about two-thirds of all the UK's basic foods.
Farmers use about 74 per cent of the total area of land, and the farms are
highly mechanized. Many farmers practise mixed farming.
Cows
provide all the milk for UK needs, with some left
over to
make cream, butter, and cheese. Three- quarters
of UK beef also comes from home-reared cattle. Sheep provide
most of the Jamb and mutton for the home market, and nearly half of the wool is
exported, the main areas for pig production are eastern and southern England, and
Northern Ireland. All the pork and nearly
half the bacon eaten in the UK comes from these pigs. Nearly all UK table
poultry and eggs is home produced.
The
chief crops, in order of importance, are grass, barley, wheat, oats, potatoes,
sugar beet, and fruit and vegetables. Wheat is grown mainly in the eastern half
of England. About half is milled for flour and half is fed to livestock. Most
farmers grow varieties of soft wheat, ground to make flour used in biscuits and
cakes. Potatoes and sugar beet are two other important crops. Nearly half of UK
sugar comes from home-grown beet. Fruit and vegetables can be grown in most
regions, but some are particularly suitable, for example, Kent and the Vale of
Evesham.
All big towns have wholesale markets for fruit
and vegetables to which farmers send their produce. Wholesalers collect it and
sell it to shopkeepers. Some meat is handled in the same way, but traditional
markets are still popular. The government has set up boards to cover the
marketing of hops (used to give a bitter taste to beer), meat, milk, potatoes,
and wool.
Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, about 171,000 people
work on the land. This figure represents 13 per cent of the Republic's work
force. Farmers use about 82 per cent of the land. Irish farmers export much of
their produce. Agricultural goods make up nearly 18 per cent of the Republic's
exports. Marketing boards govern the export and marketing of barley and wheat,
milk, potatoes, and pigs and bacon.
Eastern Europe. some farms are owned by the
government and some by individual farmers. Under Communist rule, the
governments of most Eastern European countries owned most of the farm-land. But
in the late 1980's, non-Communist government began to replace the Communist
governments in Eastern Europe. In 1991, the Soviet Union broke up. Many Eastern European countries, including
republics that had been part of the Soviet Union, passed laws allowing government-owned
land to be distributed to or purchased by individual farmers.
In the early 1990's, private ownership of farms increased.
In Poland, for example, most farmers owned their own farms. However, the
government still owned many farms. The main kinds of government-owned farms are
state farms and collective farms. State farms are
managed entirely by the government. The government pays wages and collects the
profits for the farm products. Collective farms are controlled by the
government but managed in part by the workers. The workers are paid wages and
also share in the profits.
About 16 per cent of workers in Eastern Europe
work on farms. Farmers in Eastern Europe raise many of the same kinds of crops
and livestock that Western European farmers raise. But the government-owned
farms are much larger than the farms in Western Europe.
Latin
America
About 36 per cent of the
land in Latin America has been developed for farming. Much of the region lies
in the tropics, and the tropical soils and climate are not well suited to many of
the crops grown in cooler regions. The largest and most fertile farming areas
in Latin America are in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil.
About 25 per cent of all Latin-American workers
earn their living by farming. Most are subsistence farmers who live mainly on such crops as cassava,
maize, dry beans, or potatoes. However, commercial agriculture is also
important in Latin America. Wealthy families own most of the commercial farms,
and hired workers or tenants supply the labour. But since the mid-1900's, many
Latin-American countries have begun land-reforal programmes. The land-reform
programmes have broken up many large estates and distributed the land among
poor farmers.
Plantations
in tropical regions of Latin America grow most of the world's commercial
supplies of bananas and coffee, about a third of the cocoa beans, and more than
a quarter of the sugar cane. Large farms and ranches it. Argentina and Brazil
produce great quantities of food and other agricultural products. Both
countries are among the world's top producers of beef cattle and soy-beans.
Brazil is also a leading producer of maize, and Argentina is one of the world's
chief wool-producing, countries.
North
America
Farming is an important industry in the United
Stan with over half the land area used for agricultural purposes. The
proportion of farmland used in Canada is considerably less, yet the percentage
of labour force employed by
the two nations is roughly the same.
Canada. About 74 million hectares or about 8
percents of the country’s total land area, is used for
farming, 'lost of Canada's farmland lies in the provinces
that border the United States. The nation has about 280,043 farms. They
average
208 hectares in size. About 62 percent Canada's
farmland is used to
grow crops.
Canada
has two major farming regions. The larger one extend through the Prairie
Provinces-Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The other region lies in southeastern Canada. The
Prairie Provinces grow most of Canada's
wheat,
rapeseed, and barley. These provinces
also produce about two-thirds of Canada's most valuable
farm
product—beef cattle. Farms in the southeast
produce dairy
products, eggs, fruit, maize, and vegetables.
Only about 3 per cent of the Canadian labour force work on farms.
United States. Farmland covers about
half the area of the United States—that
is, nearly 427 million hectares.
The United States has about 188 million hectares of cropland,
more than any other country in the world. The remaining U.S. farmland is used
for raising livestock.
Only
about 2 per cent of all American workers are employed on farms. Yet the United
States produces much of the world's farm output, including 21 per cent of the beef and
18 per cent of the grain and milk, and 12
per cent of the eggs. American farmers can produce such great
quantities of food for two main reasons: (1)
the United States has vast areas of fertile soil, and the climate in many of
these areas is ideal for agriculture, and (2) U.S. farmers use scientific
farming methods and much highly technical farm machinery.
The
United States has about 1,925,300 farms. They average 187 hectares in size.
Most farmland in the United States is privately owned. The federal government
owns much grazing land in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions. The
government leases most of this land to ranches.
History of Agriculture
For hundreds of thousands of years,
prehistoric people lived by
hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Then
about 9000 B.C., people took the first steps toward aqriculture. Some tribes
discovered that plants can be qrown from
seeds. They also learned that certain animals
could be tamed and then raised in captivity. These two discoveries marked the
beginning of the domestication
of plants
and animals. Scholars believe that domestication
began in the Middle East and then spread to surrounding areas. Later,
people in other parts of the world independently
learned how to domesticate plants and
animals. Domestication made agriculture possible. By about 8000
B.C., certain tribes in the Middle East had begun
to raise domesticated plants and animals for food. This development
marked the beginning of agriculture.
Agriculture
developed independently in northern and southeastern Asia about 7500 B.C. and
also in central Mexico by
about 7000 B.C. It spread to other parts of the
world from these areas and from the Middle East. For more
information on the beginning of agriculture, see Prehistoric people (The rise
of agriculture); American Indian.
People
who farmed no longer had to travel continuously in search of food and so built
permanent settlements, some of which became the first civilizations.
The Middle East. The first great civilizations arose in two
regions of the Middle East. One region was the Nile River Valley of Egypt. The
other was Mesopotamia, which lay northeast of Egypt between and around the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers. Both regions had fertile soil, but neither received
enough rain for crops to grow. Farmers discovered, however, that they could
grow crops during most of the year if they used river water for irrigation. By
about 3000 B.C., Egypt and Mesopotamia had developed the world's first
large-scale irrigation systems. Also by about 3000 B.C., Egyptian and Mesopotamian
farmers invented a plough that oxen could pull. Earlier farmers had pulled their
ploughs by hand. The ox-drawn ploughs worked much better and faster.
The
large-scale irrigation projects and ox-drawn ploughs helped Egyptian and
Mesopotamian farmers produce much more food than their families needed. The
food surpluses enabled increasing numbers to give up farming and move to the
cities. Classes of builders, craftworkers, merchants, and priests began to
appear and systems of writing were improved. These developments contributed
greatly to the growth of civilization.
The Roman Empire began as a country of
small farms on the Italian peninsula before 500 B.C. By the A.D. 200's, Rome
had conquered much of Europe and the Middle East and the entire Mediterranean
coast of Africa. As Rome grew, farms within the empire increased in size and became
highly specialized. Most large farms specialized in growing wheat.
The
Romans introduced into Europe the advanced farming techniques of the Middle
East, such as the ox- drawn plough and methods of irrigation. The Romans also
developed new farming methods of their own. For example, they began the
practice of leaving half of every field fallow (unplanted) each year.
The fallow soil could store nutrients and moisture for a crop the following
year. The Romans also developed various systems of crop rotation. In one
system, they used legumes, or pulses, as a rotation crop. Legumes enrich the
soil with nitrogen, one of the chief nutrients that all crops need to grow. By
building terraces, Roman farmers were able to grow such fruits as grapes and
olives along the steep shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea. In various parts of
the empire, Roman engineers built lengthy irrigation canals and huge
structures to store grain.
The
selective breeding of plants and livestock began in Europe during Roman times.
For example, farmers in the part of Europe that is now the Netherlands produced
the first specialized breed of dairy cattle, the Holstein, about 100 B.C
The
Middle Ages
During
the A.D. 400's, barbarian tribes swept into the West Roman Empire. By the end
of the 400's, the empire had fallen to the invaders, marking the start of the 1,000-
year period known as the Middle Ages.
The
barbarian invasions triggered civil wars throughout Europe. These wars, in
turn, led to the collapse of Europe's economic system, including the use of
money. A new economic system called manorialism gradually developed in
many areas. Under this system, farms became part of large estates known as manors.
The Man were
controlled by rich lords and worked by peasants. The peasants supplied the lord
of their manor goods and services in return for use of the land. Peas- i ants
could not be denied use of the land as long as they fulfilled their duties to
their lord. But they were not allowed to own land. See Manorialism.
European farmers
invented a three-field system of M crop rotation during the
Middle Ages. In many areas, it replaced the Roman two-field system. Under the
new system, farmland was divided into three fields rather than two. Farmers
left one field fallow and grew a different crop in each of the two remaining
fields. In this war two-thirds of the land was farmed each year, instead of
half of it.
During the 900's, a new
and important kind of harness was introduced into Europe. Unlike earlier
harnesses, it could be used to hitch a horse to a plough. A horse can pull a
plough three or four times faster than an ox can. a Thereafter, horses
gradually replaced oxen as the chief source of power on many European farms.
European farmers
continued to improve plants and livestock by selective breeding during the
Middle Ages! Many special-purpose livestock breeds were developed. For example,
a breed of dairy cow that gave especially rich milk was developed in
northwestern Europe I about 1100. This breed, called the Guernsey: is still a § major
source of milk used to make butter.
Manorialism had begun to
die out in Western Europe by the 1200’s,
as money again came into use for payment of goods and services. More and more
peasants received wages for their work and paid rent for their land* But until
the 1700's and 1800's, peasants still could not own land in most European
countries.
Colonial
agriculture '
The European voyages of
discovery that began in tfail 1400's
greatly affected agriculture throughout the woriu Crops and livestock that had
been developed in isolate® regions became widely known. Potatoes, for example,®
were unknown in Europe until Spanish explorers i brought them from Peru in the
1500's. !
American Indians had developed advanced systems!
of agriculture by the time the first European exploreral arrived. In various
parts of the Americas, Indian farmenl grew cocoa beans, maize, peanuts, peppers,
rubber fl trees, gourds, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and tomatoes.® Europeans
first learned of these crops, and how bestq grow them, from the Indians. The
Europeans, in turn, * brought their seeds, livestock, and farming tools and
methods to the regions they explored and settled. ,!
By the late 1600's,
England, France, the Netherlands* Portugal, and Spain had colonies throughout
the Americas. In tropical regions, the colonists established plantations that
specialized in growing such crops as cocoa, beans, coffee, and sugar for export
Labour was supplied by black slaves imported from Africa or by the relative-born
Indians, who were forced to work at low wages.
In
most of England's North American colonies, however, the settlers started family
farms. Each family had its own plot of land, which produced enough food and
other products to meet the family's needs. Plantation agriculture became
important only in England's Southern colonies-Maryland, Virginia, North and
South Carolina, and Georgia. By the mid-1700's,
Southern plantations growing rice, sugar cane, tobacco, and a dye-producing
plant called indigo. By the time cotton became a major
plantation crop in the 1800's, the Southern ponies had imported thousands of
black Africans for slave labour.
Agriculture developed more slowly in
the French colonies in what
is now eastern Canada. The French, who polled most of eastern Canada from the
late 1500's util 1763, did little to encourage farming. Much of the land
was owned by nobles or merchants called seigneurs. The settlers themselves
could not own land. But they could rent small plots from the seigneurs. By the mid-1600's, many French
settlers had started small subsistence farms
on rented land along the St Lawrence River
in Quebec. These farms, and similar ones in Nova Scotia
and
Prince Edward Island, remained almost the only farms in Canada until Great
Britain gained control of the country
in 1763. Settlers then began to clear the heavily
forested lands of Ontario for farming.
Europeans established plantations in parts of
Asia during the 1600's and
after. But except on the plantations, few
Asian farmers adopted European farming methods.
Instead, they continued to use-and improve-the methods that had
developed in their countries over hundreds
of years. Rice growers, for example, continually
improved the methods of irrigating their fields.
As a result, such heavily
populated countries as China, India, and
Japan greatly increased their rice production from
the 1600's to the 1800's. But in the 1600's, wealthy landowners
throughout Asia began a system of tenant farming,
which lasted almost unchanged until land reforms of the mid-1900's.
The system kept the vast majority of Asian farmers in constant poverty.
The Agricultural Revolution
During
the early 1700's, a great change in farming called the Agricultural
Revolution
began in Great Britain. The revolution resulted from a series of discoveries
and inventions that made farming much more productive than ever before. By the
mid-1800's, the Agricultural Revolution had spread throughout much of Europe
and North America. One of the revolution's chief effects was the rapid growth
of towns ancLcities in Europe and the United States during the 1800's. Because
fewer people were needed to produce food, farm families by the thousands moved
to the towns and cities.
The Agricultural Revolution was brought about
mainly by three developments. They were (1) improved crop-growing methods; (2) advances in livestock
breeding; and (31 the invention of new farm equipment, improved crop-growing methods. In
the early Ws, a retired English politician named Charles 'ownshend began to
experiment with crop rotation. He found that turnips could be used as the
fourth crop in a lour-field rotation system. The other crops
consisted of grains, especially varieties of wheat, and a legume such
as alfalfa or clover. Each crop either added nutri- 5!>ts to the
soil or absorbed different kinds and amounts of nutrients. Farmers therefore
did not have to leave any land fallow, as in the two- and three-field rotation
systems.
Townshend's
experiments did not become well known during his lifetime, except to earn him
the nickname "Turnip" Townshend. But in the late 1700's, an English
nobleman named Thomas Coke produced greatly increased yields using Townshend's
system. Coke encouraged other farmers to adopt the method, and it soon became
widely used in England. The system enabled farmers to grow crops on all their
land each year, which made farmland much more productive. Both Townshend and
Coke lived in the county of Norfolk, and so the four-field rotation system
became known as the Norfolk system.
Before
the development of the four-field system, farmers could not grow enough forage
to feed livestock through the winter; Most livestock therefore had to be
slaughtered in the autumn, and the meat was preserved with salt. But the
four-field system greatly increased the production of forage crops, especially
turnips and clover. As a result, farmers could produce fresh meat throughout
the year, not only during the months when livestock could be turned out to
pasture.
Advances in livestock breeding. In the late 1700's, an
English farmer named Robert Bakewell showed how livestock could be improved by
intensively breeding animals with desirable traits. Bakewell produced improved
breeds of cattle, horses, and sheep. He became best known for developing a
breed of sheep that could be raised for meat as well as for wool. Earlier
breeds of sheep were expensive to raise for meat because they fattened too
slowly. As a result, most sheep were raised for wool only. But Bakewell's
breed, called the Leicester, fattened quickly. It could therefore be
raised for slaughter at a reasonable cost. The cost was so low, in fact, that
mutton soon became the most popular meat in England.
The invention of new farm equipment. The first important
inventor of the Agricultural Revolution was Jethro Tull, an English gentleman
farmer. Tull lived during the late 1600's and early 1700's. But his inventions
were not widely used until the late 1700's.
When
Tull began his career, farmers still planted 
seed by sowing—that is,
by hand scattering. To conserve seed and increase yields, inventors had tried
to build a machine that would dig small trenches in the soil and deposit seeds
in them. About 1700, Tull built the first such seed drill that worked. Actually,
it was the first successful farm machine with inner moving parts.
seed by sowing—that is,
by hand scattering. To conserve seed and increase yields, inventors had tried
to build a machine that would dig small trenches in the soil and deposit seeds
in them. About 1700, Tull built the first such seed drill that worked. Actually,
it was the first successful farm machine with inner moving parts.
One
of the most important inventions of the Agricultural Revolution was the
toothed cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney of the United States in 1793.
Before Whitney's invention, farmers grew little cotton because of the
difficulty of separating the fibre from the seeds. The cotton gin simplified
this work and so made large-scale production of cotton possible. During the
early 1800's, cotton replaced tobacco as the leading plantation crop in the
Southern States.
During
the late 1700's and early 1800's, inventors began to work on machines to
harvest and process the ever-increasing amount of grain being produced by U.S.
farmers. In 1834, Cyrus McCormick, an American inventor, patented the first successful
harvesting machine, or reaper. Also in 1834, two American brothers, John and
Hiram Pitts, patented a thresher. Their machine became the model for most
modern threshers. During the early 1800’s, inventors began work on developing a
combines harvester and thresher, called a combine. But combines were not widely
used until the early 1900's.
Equally
important to increased grain production was a steel plough invented by John
Deere, an Illinois blacksmith, in 1837. Earlier ploughs were made of cast iron
and wood and did not easily turn the thick soil that covered much of the
American Midwest. The soil would stick to the face of the plough and clog the
furrows Bui the soil fell away easily from the steel face of Deere's plough,
permitting it to cut a clean furrow.
Agriculture in the 1900's
Since the
1800's, science and technology have helped make agriculture increasingly productive.
About 1850, for example, each U.S. farmer produced, on average, enough
food to feed five people. Today, each fanner produces enough to feed 78 people.
Science
and technology have contributed to the grej increase in farm production in
three main ways. They have (1) provided farmers with new sources of power;
(2)
produced improved plant varieties and improved lines (varieties) or breeds of livestock; and (3) developed new
agricultural chemicals.
New sources of power. Steam-powered
tractors were developed in the mid-1800's, and some farmers in Europe and North
America began to use them. But the tractors were expensive, and they were
difficult to operate. As a result, most farmers continued to use horses and
mules to power farm machines.
The first
successful petrol-driven tractors were made in the United States in the early
1890's. However, they were not powerful enough for most farm work. By the early
1900's, engineers had designed models powerful enough to pull a plough. The
first all-purpose tractors appeared in the 1920's. They could be used to power a
variety of farm machinery, from combines to cotton pickers. The new tractors
gradually replaced work animals and steam-powered machines on almost all U.S.
farms. Today, there are about more than 16.5 million farm tractors throughout
the world.
Read more...
Read more...
Oil Palm Investment Option
Investment in the
right tractors, machinery and equipment is necessary to ensure smooth
operations at the plantation.
The planting distance or palm trees is in accordance with international
standards. Well-maintained terraces planted with oil palm and cover crops.
The Star/ StarProperty.my Fair/Wednesday 26
October 2016
MALAYSIA
is the second largest palm oil producer and exporter in the world. With global
demand for palm oil continuing to rise over time in tandem with the increase in
human population, investing in the industry is certainly an attractive
proposition.
A
rewarding and relatively safe investment proposition is investing in oil palm
plantation investment schemes that offer high fixed contractual returns over a
stipulated investment tenure.
East West One Group (EWOG), Malaysia’s leading and
largest oil palm plantation investment scheme operator and manager in terms of
land bank, offers the opportunity to invest in oil palm plantations in Sabah.
Primarily involved in the oil palm plantation
business, EWOG holds two oil palm plantation investment scheme licenses duly
approved by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM).
The first is the
East West One Planter’s Scheme (EWOPS) managed by East West One Consortium Bhd.
The second is
the East West Horizon Planter’s Scheme (EWHPS) managed by East West Horizon
Plantation Bhd.
EWOPS has been
fully subscribed by investors and presently only EWHPS is available for
subscription.
EWHPS offers
high fixed contractual returns of up to 88% over an investment tenure of eight
years.
The fixed annual
contractual returns are paid quarterly and the invested capital is fully repaid
upon maturity.
Since its
launch, EWHPS investors have received six quarterly payments and the next quarterly
payment will be at the end of December this year.
There are four
investment categories under EWHPS. They are:
*Diamond
(capital: RM180.000 per block, average annual return: 11%),
*Emerald
(capital: RM120,000 per block average annual return: 10.5%),
*Ruby (capital:
RM60.000 per block average annual return: 10%),
*Sapphire
(capital: RM20,000 per block average annual return: 9.5%).
The fully
subscribed EWOPS has thus far made 20 consecutive quarterly payments to its
investors since launch.
Dato’ Dr. Jessie
Tang, Founder and CEO of EWOG, selected Sabah as the location of choice for the
group’s oil palm plantation
Tested crops
over the years in Sabah have been highly favourable and profitable. This
ensures higher yields and oil extraction rates given the general cost
structures facing the oil palm industry.
Besides this, Sabah already has an established and
strong culture of plantations in terms of management, labour and support
services.
EWOG views sustainable development of the oil palm
plantation very seriously to maintain the balance and stability of ecological
systems.
EWOG adopts sustainable development policies,
including complying with best management practises plus provision of riparian
reserves and buffer strips so that
EWOG also has a strict zero burning policy at the
plantation.
All the
compliances are implemented and monitored by EWOG’s experienced plantation
team.
Both EWOPS and
EWHPS are required by the CCM to renew their prospectuses at an interval of
every six months.
The prospectus
consists of details of the investment scheme including the accountant’s report
as audited by international accounting firm Crowe Horwath, plantation
consultant’s report and statement by directors.
The same is
reviewed and approved by both CCM and TMF Trustees Malaysia Berhad before
publication.
interests of
investors by ensuring that all quarterly payments are made to the investors at
the end of each quarter, and adherence to all terms and conditions as stated in
the prospectus and agreement.
EWOG has a
presence throughout Malaysia with their headquarters in Sabah and four
marketing offices in Malacca, Penang, Perak and Selangor.
Regular updates
can be viewed at www. eastwestone.com.
Investors who
are interested in the plantation sector but lack know-how do not have to look
far for investment opportunities.
Simply visit EWOG’s booths at B4 and B5 dining the
StarProperty.My Fair 2016 in Queensbay Mall, Penang, from tomorrow till Sunday,
between 10:30am and 10:30pm daily.
No comments:
Post a Comment