The Hard Row

to Hoe

FARMING CHALLENGES

AND STRATEGIES TO

INCREASE FOOD SUPPLY

THE BASICPROBLEM

Both commercial and subsistence farmers share the same challenge:

Generating enough income to sustain themselves and their farms.

COMMERCIALFARMING

CHALLENGES

Remember the three sectors of the economy.

Businesses that locate near the raw materials are called raw materials oriented.

Businesses that locate near the market (near the consumers) are market oriented.

Because commercial farmers sell produce off the farm to consumers, and because food products are perishable, the distance from the individual farm to the market influences the crops the famer will grow.

VON THUNEN’S MODEL predicts crop choices based on farm’s location in relation to market.

ACCESSTO

MARKETS

Each business must choose where to locate its facility, either closer to raw materials or closer to the market.

COMMERCIAL FARMING

CHALLENGES

THEVON THUNEN

MODEL

Commercial farmers choose crops/animals based on their market’s location.

Farmers compare cost of the land to the cost of transporting their produce.

Specific crops will be grown in specific rings around a given market (city where the crop is sold).

First ring: milk producers and market-oriented gardens (products are expensive to deliver and highly perishable)

Second ring: timber producers (heavy and expensive to transport).

Third ring: various crops and pasture

Fourth ring: grazing landCHANGES TO MODEL

--model assumed all land has uniform quality/character but must be modified for variation of topography and site characteristics.

--model also failed to take into account social customs/government policies that affect influence various crops attractiveness.

--model developed for small/single-market regions, but it must be adapted to national and global scales

THE MODEL

--model developed before improved techniques of refrigeration/food preservation

--model developed before improved transportation systems/technology

--model fails to take into account agricultural products not used for food

--forests no longer occupy market-oriented zone

COMMERCIAL FARMING

CHALLENGES

OVER-PRODUCTION

In MDCs, the spread of agricultural technology in the form of seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, equipment and management methods has greatly increased yield per land area.

The fact of being in stages 3 and 4 of the demographic transition has also stabilized population numbers.

Therefore the food supply in MDCs greatly exceeds the demand for it and food prices drop.

GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO ADDRESS OVERPRODUCTION

ENCOURAGE FARMERS NOT TO PRODUCE CROPS ALREADY IN EXCESS

Instead farmland is planted with fallow crops to prevent soil erosion and to use as fodder for livestock.

PAY SUBSIDIES WHEN COMMODITY PRICES DROPGovernment sets target price for commodity and pays farmer

difference between target price and market price.

BUY SURPLUS PRODUCE AND SELL/DONATE IT TO OTHER COUNTRIES

Governments use the surplus as food aid.

COMMERCIAL FARMING

CHALLENGES

SUSTAINABLEAGRICULTURE

CONCEPT

MARKER 1: SENSITIVE LAND MANAGEMENT

MARKER 2: LIMITED USE OF CHEMICALS

MARKER 3: INTEGRATE CROPS & LIVESTOCK

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE is a practice that preserves and enhances the quality environment while using the land.

Revenue tends to be lower, but production cost is lower too

Organic farming is a type of sustainable agriculture (.24% of all farmland as of 2007).

Ridge tillage lowers production costs and increases soil conservation.

The system is more labor intensive but also more profitable per acre

Ridge tillage decreases chemical use by spraying only on ridge tops.

System allows farmers to limit or eliminate herbicide use altogether.

System attempts to integrate growing crops and raising livestock on the

individual farm level.

Animals consume crops grown on the farm and are allowed free range.

The System

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGESTwo issues affect crop choice for subsistence farmers:

Subsistence farming has been generally low-yield, but

population in LDCs is expanding rapidly.

The international trade approach to development requires farmers grow products for export instead of food for direct consumption.

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

POPULATIONGROWTH

BOSERUP HYPOTHESIS

SHORTER FALLOW PERIODS

NEW FARMING METHODSThe theory comes from Danish economist Ester Boserup:

As populations increase, they adopt more productive technologies (agriculture, ecosystem engineering, etc.) to increase carrying capacity of human environment.

THE SYSTEM

Intensification of farming happens in two primary ways:

Plows replace sticks coupled with increased weeding, terraces and irrigation ditches.

Higher population provides more labor, yield increases but output per person is stable.

Stage 1 FOREST FALLOW: 2 years of use, 20 years of fallowStage 2 BUSH FALLOW: 8 years of use, 10 years of fallowStage 3 SHORT FALLOW: 2 years of use, 2 years of fallowStage 4 ANNUAL CROPPING: yearly use with some fallow crop monthsStage 5 MULTICROPPING: constant use with no fallow period

THE DANGER… without proper care: nutrient depletion and soil erosion

TIME PLANTING PERIODNUTIRENT LEVEL IN SOIL

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

SUBSISTENCEFARMING AND

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

LDCs seeking to increase food production often run into a catch 22.

To fee a growing population, you need to increase food production.

To increase production you need access to fertilizers, high yield seeds and farm equipment (all of which cost money).

To get the technological supplies, you must import them from MDCs.

To import the supplies, you need money.

To get money, you need to engage in international trades and exports.

To engage in exports you either grow cash crops (not food) or off-season fruits and vegetables (which is food, but food you can’t eat because you’re selling it).

The more land you devote to export crops, the less land is available for domestic production.

In the name of increasing its food production, an LDC may actually decrease it.

The money made to buy enhanced farming technology then goes to buying and importing food from MDCs because of the decreased domestic food production.

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

DRUGCROPS

Many LDCs turn to exporting drug crops to MDCs for money.

Millions of people in Latina America and Asia generate all their income from the sale of drug crops to MDCs.

Especially prevalent are poppy (heroin), coca (cocaine) and marijuana.

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

STRATEGIES TO INCREASE

FOOD SUPPLY

There are four basic strategies to increase food production:

Expand Agricultural Land

Increase Productivity

Identify New Food Sources

Increase Food Imports

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

EXPANDAGRICULTURAL

LAND

DESERTIFICATION

EXCESS WATER URBAN SPRAWL

HISTORICAL PRECEDENT

In the past, food production increased primarily by expanding land for agricultural use.

During the industrial revolution, there was always more available land.

Few people today think that expanding farm land will actually help, and in many places, farmland is being lost for a few reasons.

Semiarid lands that can support only a handful of nomads are overused due to population growth.

Over planting, grazing and deforestation sap the nutrients.

5 million acres have already been deforested, and an additional 70 million acres are lost each year.

Flooding is one threat.

Another is land that receives more water than it can drain from irrigation systems.

Ground water rises and drowns the root systems

As populations rise, urban areas expand into the city’s periphery and first ring farmland.

Farms are replaced by homes, roads and other urban land uses.

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

Population grew more rapidly than ever during the second half of the 20th century, but food production still outpaced population.

THE GREEN REVOLUTION (invention and rapid diffusion of more productive agricultural techniques- especially seeds and practices- during 1970s and 1980s).

--High costs (fuel, fertilizer, seeds, equipment)--Methods erode soil/nutrients over time--Water scarcity and water pollution (run-off)--Marginalized groups (often women) no credit--High debt load--Competition on global market--Availability of loans and funds--Climatic dangers (soil erosion, desertification)--Limited arable land--Possible loss of biodiversity

THE GREEN REVOLUTION

THE TECHNIQUES

Miracle seeds: wheat, rice and corn (high yield, hybrid, often disease/herbicide resistant)

Fertilizers: using nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium

Insecticides/Herbicides

Irrigation

Farm equipment

THE REGIONS

South Asia (India)Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines)East Asia (China)Latin America (Mexico)Northern Africa

THE NECESSARY CONTEXT

--Available capital (FDI, foreign aid, local finance)--Political stability and receptive government--Independent, middle-class farmers--Market economy--Adequate infrastructure (transportation)--Cultural acceptance of crops/methods--Adequate education and knowledge systems

THE ROADBLOCKS TO SUCCESS

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

IDENTIFYINGNEW FOODSOURCES

OCEAN CULTIVATION

HIGH-PROTEIN GRAIN DEVELOPMENT

RARELY CONSUMED FOODS

Oceans cover ¾ of the earth’s surface and lie near most major population concentrations.

Historically, only a small percentage of human food came from seas, and in the mid 1900s, many countries hoped to increase their food supply by increasing their fishing industries.

Many fish species have declined and some are near extinction because the fish wee caught more quickly than they could reproduce.

This was called THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS and over-fishing necessitated UNCLOS and the establishment of EEZs.

The majority of people in MDCs obtain protein from meat (places high pressure on land and resources).

The majority of people in LDCs get calories from grain (which often lacks protein) (which is also less destructive to the land).

Scientists are experimenting with developing higher protein seeds.

Many processed foods are also fortified with vitamins, minerals and proteins.

People consume foods adapted to their local conditions and their local customs.

Eating uncommon foods can help with food supply.

Examples: soybeans (soy products) and krill

DIFFICULTIES

There are a number of non-standard food sources out there (buffalo, ostrich, amaranth grain, etc.) however, many producers of these goods face troubles getting a foothold in the market because they lack an integrated COMMODITY CHAIN.

A COMMODITY CHAIN is a collection of interrelated economic activities or industries required for the production of a particular good/service.

They include both vertical (buyer-suppplier) and horizontal (inter-competitor) linkages that bind firms together and create and reinforce shared norms that facilitate the development/diffusion of innovation and practice.

SUBSISTENCEFARMING

CHALLENGES

INCREASINGTRADE

Few countries are net food exporters, but increased production in them could cover gaps in LDCs (the major export crops are wheat, rice, corn).

Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and much of Latin America became net importers from the 1950s to the 1970s due to population growth. Much of Europe became net importers as they lost their colonial holdings.

The US is the largest net exporter, and the Agricultural Trade Act allowed for the sale of grain to LDCs at low interest rates and the granting of grain to various needy groups.

Things have changed recently: South and Southeast Asia have become net exporters. Thailand is the #1 rice exporter (US no longer in top 10). Japan (corn) and China (wheat) are the leading grain importers.