Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The slope of land is important in determining its suitability for crops and its tendency
to erode along with measures needed to control erosion. Its aspect will determine when
and how sunlight is received. In northern climates this may be very important in how fast
it warms up in the spring, which in turn determines when planting can commence.
Water is also essential to agricultural production and cannot be separated from soil.
Its continuing source as precipitation as rain, snow, or ice is essential, and the use of
water by people must not exceed these inputs if sustainable human population and agri-
culture is to occur. Watersheds, upland, hilly, or mountainous areas planted to trees are
an especially productive way of capturing and storing precipitation.
Water passing through soil will be filtered and purified by destruction of organic
matter, but it will also dissolve salts and in some cases these salts may contain toxic com-
ponents. Water to be used for drinking by humans and animals and for crop irrigation
must contain few salts and be free of toxic components. Because of these constraints,
the construction of wells, which make use of stored water, must be carried out with care.
9.3
AVAILABLE LAND
Three Farms
Table 9.1 gives a comparison of the land available for cropping in the Philippines,
Ecuador, and Clinton County in Ohio. While Clinton County in the United States
has less total land and can only be cropped once a year or with relay cropping per-
haps 1.5 crops per year, it has the highest percentage of farmland compared to
the Philippines and Ecuador. The Philippines has the second highest percentage
of cropland while Ecuador has the lowest. However, three crops per year are pos-
sible in both Ecuador and the Philippines.
Table 9.2 gives the total land area and percent of arable land in the countries of the
world. Total land areas are taken from FAO data (Food and Agriculture organization of
the United Nations, http://faostat.fao.org/default.aspx), and the percentages of arable
land are calculated from this data. It includes all arable (farmable) land from excellent
to marginal. Not included is land planted to trees nor land suitable for agriculture if
irrigated. Different sources will give different amounts of total and arable land for
T A B L E 9.1. Agricultural Land (ha) in Areas of Three Farms
Total Area
Farm Land
Percent a
Cropland
Country, County,
or Island
ha
acres
ha
acres
Comments
Clinton County,
OH USA
106,873
264,088
82,405
203,627
77
Prime
farmland
Ecuador
28,365,000
68,408,653
8,075,000
19,953,759
28
Cropland
Philippines
30,000,000
73,679,411
12,200,000
30,146,856
41
Cropland
a Percentages are rounded up.
Source: Data for Clinton County is from the Clinton County Soil Survey and for Ecuador and the Philippines
from data abstracted from http://faosta.fao.org/default.aspx 2003.
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