Agriculture of the World

Agriculture is the art and science of soil cultivation, crop production, and livestock management. For the 80 percent of the world’s poor who live in rural regions and work primarily in farming, agriculture can help decrease poverty, enhance wages, and improve food security. Agriculture is a major source of funding for the World Bank Group. It entails the processing and distribution of plant and animal products for human use. The majority of the world’s food and textiles are produced by agriculture.

TYPES  OF  FARMING:

Prevailing various climatic patterns and geographical conditions in a vast country like India make the people use different types of farming. They are:

1. Subsistence Farming: In this type, farming is being practised on small patches of land with the help of primitive tools like hoe, digging sticks etc. This type of farming basically depends on environmental conditions.

2. Commercial Farming: This type of farming practice is basically focused on sales in the market. High-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides etc. are being used for higher productivity. Examples: cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, oil seeds, chillies etc. are being produced using this method.

3. Shifting Cultivation: This means migratory subsistence farming. It is also called slash and burn. Under this system, a portion of land is cultivated for a few years and after some years when crop yield declines the plot of land is changed. In different parts of the country, it is known by different names. 

• Jhumming” in –northeastern states ‘
• Podu’ in Andhra Pradesh, 
• Bewar’ in M.P
• Kumari’ in the Western Ghats

4. Mixed Farming: This is a type of farming in which the raising of crops and rearing of cattle, poultry, beekeeping, seri culture etc. are done simultaneously. In such a kind of farming, animal rearing provides substitute income when crops are not ready. This type of farming is done in densely populated areas.

5. Plantation Farming:  Important crops grown under this type of farming are cotton, tea, rubber, spices, coconuts etc. This is the type of farming in which the predominance of a single crop is there.

6. Intensive Agriculture: In this type of farming a large amount of labour and capital is being used for high production.

7. Extensive Agriculture:  The crop yield in extensive agriculture depends primarily on the natural fertility of the soil, terrain climate and the availability of water.

TYPE OF AGRICULTURE BEING PRACTICED IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD:

Agriculture System	Areas
Nomadic Herding	Northern Africa, parts of Arabia and parts of Northern Eurasia
Shifting Cultivation	Tribes of tropical Africa, tropical south and Central America and in south-east Asia. 85% of the total cultivation in North-East India.
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture	Tonking Delta (Vietnam), lower Menem (Thailand); lower Irrawaddy (Myanmar); and the Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta, Eastern Coastal Plains (India).
Commercial Dairy Farming	Eurasian steppes in regions of chernozem soil, Canadian and American Prairies, the Pampas of Argentina, the Veld of South Africa, the Australian Downs and the Canterbury Plain of New Zealand.
Livestock Ranching	temperate grasslands, tropical savannas (I.e. Campos and Llanos of South America)
Mediterranean Agriculture	Mediterranean climatic region
Mixed Farming	North-western Europe, eastern North America, Russia, Ukraine, and the temperate latitudes of parts of the southern continents.
Market Gardening and horticulture	Industrial districts of north-western Europe (Britain, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany) and in North-Eastern USA
Commercial Plantation	Parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America,

Important Crops and Areas Being Grown:

Rice: 

1. In Asia’s monsoon region, it is the primary food crop. Second place went to India. Yangtze Kiang, Xinjiang, and Szechwan basins in China are key growing regions.
2. Rice farming is possible in Indonesia’s island group due to favorable conditions.
3. Alluvial soil, frequent rainfall, and the availability of river water are the most critical conditions for rice farming in the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta.
4. The International Year of Rice was declared by the United Nations in 2004.

Wheat:

• Wheat is thought to have come from Palestine. It is higher in protein, carbohydrate, and vitamin content than rice. Wheat plants have a tremendous flexibility, allowing them to thrive in both cold Siberia and hot tropical climates.

Two types of crops of wheat are-

1. Wheat is grown in the winter in hotter climates.
2. In regions where winter is harsh, wheat is cultivated in spring.
3. Powdery mildew disease affects wheat plants because of high humidity. In India and China, wheat is produced in the plains. Following China, India is the world’s second-largest wheat producer. In both the Spring and Winter seasons, China produces wheat.
4. Wheat yields are high on Chernozem soils in Ukraine’s steppes and the United States’ prairies. Argentina’s Pampas region is a world-renowned wheat-growing region.

Tea:

1. Tea is made from the fragile leaves of a camellia plant, which is a type of evergreen plant. It’s a subtropical plant that thrives in latitudes between 35 and 27 degrees north and south.
2. The Chang Jiang valley in China is where tea cultivation is thought to have begun. India’s and Sri Lanka’s black teas, China’s and Japan’s green teas, and Taiwan Oolong tea are all well-known around the world.
3. The highest grade tea in the world is produced in India. China produces the most tea, followed by India.
4. Malaysia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda are among the top tea importers.

Coffee:

1. It’s a popular beverage and a popular plantation crop. Coffee is grown in three main varieties: arabica, robusta, and arabica.
2. Liberian coffee is grown primarily in Africa and originated in Liberia.
3. Arabica coffee is the most frequently farmed coffee, accounting for 90% of all coffee output worldwide.
4. Robusta coffee is grown primarily in Indonesia and requires a slightly higher temperature range of 20 to 30 degrees.
5. The plateaus of Brazil, Columbia, and the Indonesian islands are perfect for coffee cultivation. The coffee bowl of the globe is Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fazenda is the Portuguese word for large coffee plantations. The coffee trade is centred in Sao Paulo.
6. Santos, Brazil’s coffee port, handles the highest volume of coffee exports of any country. The greatest grade coffee in the world is cultivated in Jamaica’s Blue Mountain. High-quality coffee types are grown in Guatemala’s Alta-Verapaz region and Yemen’s Mokha (Mocha).

Maize: 

• It is thought to have originated in southern Mexico. It is a subtropical plant that thrives between the latitudes of 50 degrees north and 40 degrees south. In the United States and Europe, it is commonly referred to as corn. The United States accounts for one-third of global output. Zein is the protein found in this monoecious plant. It grows in a wide range of soils, from temperate podzols to tropic-leached red soils. Its three primary applications are- Animal food, Human food, and Industrial products.

Sugarcane:

• It is a tropical wet climate crop that is thought to have originated in eastern and southern Asia. It is a major source of sugar, which is an important component of our diet, and the Arabs introduced it to European countries.

Jute:

• It is a tropical plant that is thought to be a native of the Ganga Delta. It grows well in areas with temperatures ranging from 24 to 27 degrees Celsius and annual rainfall ranging from 160 to 200 cm.

1. Corchorus capsularis: This is a piece of lowland jute that is widely grown on flood plains with little fertiliser. Even when the land is partially submerged in water, it thrives.
2. Corchorus olitorius: This is a piece of expensive upland jute. Without a heavy dose of fertiliser, it cannot be grown on a yearly basis.

• The world’s jute production is highly concentrated in the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta, primarily in India and Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh have a virtual monopoly on jute production, accounting for more than 90 percent of global jute production.