Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
be an excellent example. They decrease the need for hand labor during planting, they
are produced locally, and persons displaced from planting are employed in producing
the liners. These jobs can be expected to be higher paying and thus benefit both the
farmer and the local economy positively.
The third major problem is education. It seems to be widely accepted that new
technology can be used by farmers without the necessity of their learning how to use
it. For example, when the no-till method was first introduced, it was said that it
could only be used on sandy soils and only to grow maize. As farmers learned how
to no-till, it became used on other soil types and for other crops. Today some
farmers no-till all their crops and do so on soils that are high in clay.
11.5.4 Land Tenure and Land Use Patterns
Land tenure and use patterns vary greatly around the world from land ownership with
title, that is, Steve's situation, land assigned by a tribal chief, land assigned by the
government, and a number of land rental systems from payment in cash, cash rent,
to payment being in the form of produce from the land, as in the three bags of rice
Donio “pays” as rent for his rice field. In some cases agricultural or food production
may be as small as a single person owning a single fruit tree and another person
“renting” the tree and harvesting and selling the produce.
Renting can be of several types. It is common to have a yearly rental agreement
where the rent may change from year to year or the agreement must be renewed
each year. Rent can be a longer term contract where the owner allows the renter to
rent the land for 5 to 10 years at a time. The rental payment will be on a yearly
basis, but the rental amount may be negotiated each year. Long-term agreements
allow the farmer to invest in the productivity of the land such as fertility plans and
the like.
The exact nature of the relationship of the farmer to the land and land ownership is
not as important in terms of agricultural productivity as is the secure or assured use of
the land. However, there are some severe drawbacks to lack of ownership of land. One
is the intrusiveness of the owner who may interfere with farming operations or dictate
crops to be planted or production methods. One example of this is the owner who
refused to continue to rent his land to a farmer because the farmer was no-tilling the
land. In no-till the land is left with plant cover all the time, and the owner saw this
as not taking care of the land even though soil conservationists agree that this
method of farming is preferred because it conserves the soil by stopping erosion.
A long-term problem with lack of ownership is that the farmer cannot use the land
as collateral for loans. The inability to obtain capital for investing in improved farming
methods, that is, fertilizer, seed, and equipment, severely limits the ability of the farmer
to increase productivity.
All systems put some constraints on the farmer and what and how he or she
produces food. In the case of Steve, although he owns half the land he farms, he still
The unwillingness to put money and resources into a new technology has been the major impediment to its
successful use in all areas of human endeavor.
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