Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fibre and Industrial Crops
The principal fibre crop is cotton. There are approximately 30 species of
Gossypium
growing across Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Cotton, primarily pro-
duced from
Gossypium hirsutum
, with its centre of origin in Central America, from
northern Guatemala, developed rapidly into an industrial crop from the mid 1800s
with plantations established in the southern USA, chiefly to supply the growing
industrial mills of Great Britain and Europe (Purseglove
1968
). Prior to the devel-
opment of mechanical harvesters, the bolls of cotton required manual picking by
an abundant labour source. Cotton is grown extensively throughout Egypt, central
Asia, China, Australia, USA and Brazil. Since 1980, average cotton yield has in-
creased 60 % but the area cultivated has remained stable at approximately 30 Mha
(Anon
2012a
). Much of the world's cotton still relies on intensive labour inputs for
planting, management and harvesting. In 2008/2009 India had the largest area sown
to cotton (9.4 M ha) with a rapid growth in yields since 2003 due to the introduction
of biotech varieties and improved hybrids (Osakwe
2009
). Cotton production in the
USA, Brazil and Australia is grown on a large scale, mechanically intensive and
efficient due to a range of innovative agronomic inputs which include genetically
modified insect and herbicide resistant varieties, global positioning system con-
trolled tilling, planting, fertilising and harvesting operations and efficient computer
controlled irrigation.
Rubber (
Hevea brasiliensis
) is native to the central Amazon and Orinoco Valleys
and is tapped from the trunk of trees for its latex. It is utilised for the production
of tyres, mats, wire coatings, shock absorber pads and associated rubberised prod-
ucts. Rubber is a tropical crop and, like oil palm, coconuts and cocoa, is generally
restricted to production within 10° of the equator. Temperatures below 18° C will
reduce latex production. Rubber was reportedly used by the Amazonian Indians for
making balls, simple footwear and for waterproofing fabrics (Purseglove
1968
). Ini-
tial efforts to commercialise rubber looked at the potential of a number of species,
including Ule rubber (
Castilla elastica
), Jelutung (
Dyera costulata
), Indian rubber
(
Ficus elastica
) and Zanzibar rubber vine (
Landolphia kirkii
).
Hevea
species, in
particular
H. brasiliensis,
was considered the most productive. The commercialisa-
tion of rubber is credited to Sir Henry Wickham who collected 70,000 seeds from
an area in the central Amazon basin in 1876. The collection and export of the rubber
seed to Kew Gardens in London remains controversial with the common view that
the seeds were smuggled out. Purseglove (
1968
) reports that it was done with the
goodwill and cooperation of the Brazilian authorities. Although less than 4 % of the
seeds germinated, they established the nucleus stock which was sent to Ceylon (Sri
Lanka) and later to Singapore, a secondary site for establishment. The first rubber
plantations were established in Malaysia in 1890 and Uganda and Nigeria in 1903,
the Belgian Congo in1904 and Liberia in 1924. Rubber tapping remains labour in-
tensive with one person tapping approximately 450 trees per day (Fig.
8.4
). A yield
of 1.6 t/ha is considered reasonable. Some 10.0 Mt are produced from 9.6 Mha,
averaging 1.0 t per hectare. Today, Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia
