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a) Geographic
and climatic factors are more important in
affecting agricultural location in LEDCs.
Intensive agriculture usually takes place in
fertile river plains such as in the Ganges Valley
in India or the plateaus and plains of South and
South-East China. Here, the temperate climate
allows for a wide variety of cereal culture and
some times even double/triple cropping seasons.
In mountain regions, such as in North West China,
such as intensive agricultural is impossible as
the ground is frozen for the greater part of the
year. Tropical or Sub-tropical climates allow for
rice cultures, especially important in South
Asia.
The availability of water and irrigation is also
important and these are also easily accessible in
river plains. Most LEDCs locate their agriculture
near sources of water whether these are natural
or artificial.
(The candidate also
needed to mention :
other environmental factors (e.g. soil quality,
aspect)
economic factors (e.g. market, labour, cost and
accessibility of technology)
social factors (land ownership, tradition)
political factors (government policy,
availability of interventions)
b) Faced with demographic explosions, LEDCs have
to deal with the problem of increasing their
agricultural productivity to feed their growing
populations. They have two solutions : either
they choose to make more arable land available or
they make the land already available more
productive by using the methods of the Green
Revolution. However, even though these two
solutions result in rapid increases in
productivity, they have dire environmental and
social consequences.
Some LEDCs have chosen to clear away more arable
land to increase productivity. The
Trans-Amazonian project in Brazil was meant to
open up Brazil's interior by felling tress and
clearing inner transport networks. This led many
poor farmers to move into other areas of the
country, hitherto inaccessible, and to clear
parts of the forest. This project has resulted in
increasing Brazil's agricultural output threefold
and has largely allowed it to be not only
self-sufficient but produce enough to have export
surplus as well. Brazil is the largest producer
of soya beans after the USA. However, in spite of
these positive economic consequences, in the long
term, the felling of the forest has fragilised
the biosphere and the ecosystem. One can even
think of the threats that deforestation poses to
the greenhouse effect . Moreover a number of
indigenous tribes have lost their natural
habitat. Several of the farmers who moved have
still not received land titles and are vulnerable
to the actions of MNCs . A lot of human suffering
and a number of harmful effects have been the
consequences of this attempt to increase
production and this undermines the economic
consequences.
The option of the Green Revolution is the one
taken by most LEDCs. The use of High Yielding
Varieties of traditional crops such as rice to
increase production as well as the use of highly
efficient chemicals and fertilisers to protect
crops has proved to be very successful. The
introduction of dwarf rice in India in 1965
increased output from the traditional12 00 t /ha
to 4600 t/ha. The Green Revolution has succeeded
in making several countries such as India &
Indonesia self-sufficient to their agricultural
needs. However, the success of this option can
also be contested. Not only does it reduce the
fringe benefits (fodder, fuel , land
regeneration) of agriculture but it also has
limited uses. For instance, HYV rice cannot be
planted in the drier regions of India, like
Orissa. The expensive seeds and fertilizer are
often inaccessible to poor farmers. The Green
Revolution has mainly benefited big farmers, who
be investing in cash-crops have reduced the
amount of produce available in local village
networks. Indeed, some HYV plants and produce do
not have the same nutritional value, a fact which
sometimes worsens the under-nourishment of LEDC
populations. The Green Revolution has resulted in
saturated soils, a polluted environment and has
marginalised poor farmers.
Another possible means of increasing agricultural
potential is by using foreign food aid. This
enables governments to have the initial financial
and nutritional input to then make national
networks efficient and self-sufficient. India's
Operation Flood is a good example of this, using
excess milk production from Europe and organising
village networks with co-operatives, the milk
deficiencies have been reduced. Major cities are
now regularly and amply supplied. This has had
its own negative effects as all milk production
is commercialised and village networks are
sometimes undersupplied.
LEDCs have used different methods to increase
their agricultural potential but none can be
declared an unquestionable success. Be it land
reorganisation, the Green Revolution or food aid,
all have had positive commercial effects but
negative environmental and social ones. |
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