Commercial grain farming is a distinctive type of agriculture. It has been developed in the USA. It is a type of agriculture that is largely dependent on mechanization.
It started with the invention of farm machinery in the early twentieth century. The use of machinery allows farmers to cultivate grains on a large scale. Commercial grain farming is most often associated with the wheat belts of the world.
Types of Commercial Grain Farming
There are two types of commercial grain farming:
- Extensive commercial grain farming
- Intensive commercial grain farming
Extensive commercial grain farming
In extensive commercial grain farming, there exist large areas under cultivation. Due to the cost of machines and economies of scale, the monoculture of cash crops, mainly wheat is practiced. Cheap land farms are huge here. Again, due to low population density and few number of workers, most of the work is done by machines. Here climate is too cold and dry weather, and trees have been removed to allow easy access for large machines.
Why is only a single crop grown in commercial grain farming?
In many parts of the world, “dry land farming” is practiced, there is only one crop grown per year because in winter rain is the only source of water for the plants. On the other hand, rice is grown (rice is a grain like wheat, barley, rye, etc.) in the tropical area. It is also a good idea to grow only one crop per year so as not to overwork the land and drain all of the goodness out of the soil.
Many farmers grow a crop of legumes (not a grain) to enrich the soil fertility with nitrogen, and grains are grown the following year and finally leave the land for a year without crops or simply graze it. It all depends on where you live in the world and what grain is being grown and how many crops are grown each year.
Physical factors of commercial grain farming
Commercial grain farming competes best in areas with at least 12 to 20 inches of rainfall, preferably occurring during the winter, spring, and early summer season. Wheat cannot tolerate hot, dry summers and, in fact, it prefers a less humid growing season than does corn. Excess rainfall in the harvest season encourages mold and fungus growth.
Tropical and subtropical commercial crops
A vast number of commercial cash crops are grown in tropical and subtropical countries. Some crops such as the oil palm, cocoa, bananas, coffee, tea, cocoa, and rubber. These crops can be divided into three types, which are distinguished by relative maturation time and longevity of production.
Many cash crops are perennials and have life cycles of more than 2 years such as natural rubbers, coconuts, oil palm, tea, cocoa, and coffee are all tree crops and take years to mature but afterward they are productive for long periods. The second categories (also perennials) are more rapidly maturing field crops. Thus, it does not require the extended level of continued maintenance of tree crops. Sugarcane, henequen and sisal, and bananas are examples of this group.
Finally, some cash crops are annually produced and they require a single planting and are harvested within a year such as cotton, jute, tobacco, and groundnuts.
Bananas
Together with oranges and apples, the sweet banana is one of the western world’s most popular fruits. Although there are hundreds of varieties of bananas, the most important species in the world is ‘Musa Sapientum’. The plantain of the species ‘Musa paradisaika’ is an extremely popular staple vegetable banana throughout the tropics but very little of its production is sold to foreign markets.
Actually, the banana plant is an oversized herb related to the lily family matures in about a year after planting. It will grow successfully in the regions of heavy rainfall and high temperatures.
Tea
Tea is the world’s most popular beverage being favored by at least half of the world’s population. It is the national drink of China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Tea leaves contain over twice the amount of caffeine found in an equal weight of coffee beans. They are the major source of base product for medicinal caffeine.
Tea is grown in the subtropics of Asia. It is now grown widely in both the subtropics and high elevations of locations within the tropics. Tea is an evergreen plant that grows best where temperatures range between 55 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Most tea cultivation occurs in Asia, with India, China, and Sri Lanka being the most important producers.
Rubber
Wild South American rubber trees first came into use in the nineteenth century as a waterproofing substance and pencil eraser product. But rubber did not attain major importance until the early twentieth century when a huge demand was created by the automobile and bicycle tire industries. Consumption increased rapidly but natural rubber production could not satisfy expanding industrial demand.
A synthetic rubber industry developed in Europe and North America during World War II to fulfill that need. The primary rubber plant requires a hot, humid environment where rainfall is no less than 70 inches and preferably at least 100 inches. Most of the world’s natural rubber cultivation is undertaken in Southeast Asia. But substantial production also occurs in Liberia, Zaire, and Nigeria.
Oil Palm
Vegetable oils are extracted from many different crops. Everyone is familiar with com oil, soybean oil, and olive oil; however, few people realize that on average, the most productive of yielding plants are the African oil palm. Not only palm oil products are a major ingredient in cooking oils and coconut oil products, but they are also used in the manufacture of soap.
The oil palm is native to the forests of West Africa, but has been introduced quite successfully into other parts of the tropical world. The plant grows best where temperatures are over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The entire production of oil palm came from tropical Africa but now the plant is grown on a large scale in Malaysia, Indonesia, and in many other parts of Latin America.
Tropical agriculture and economic development
Agricultural products are used for food and industrial purposes. It has been grown in the tropics for close to 5 centuries. Demand to people in Europe and North America for such crops as sugar, rubber, coffee, tea, cocoa, and a variety of tropical fruits was met during this time primarily by large foreign-owned and managed plantations that utilized vast numbers of unskilled, poorly paid, and mostly transient laborers.
In parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America small peasant farmers provided cash crops for foreign export.
When the colonial era came to an end after World War II, most of the newly created nations were located in the tropics. These nations continued to satisfy the demand of people in the temperate multitudes by supplying agricultural products.
This situation created problems because leaders in many third-world countries had previously condemned the plantation as an exploitative economic mechanism, yet to earn foreign exchange, many of these leaders have now been forced to endorse large-scale agricultural production.
This is an indication of how government policies about agricultural development have changed in the past two decades, but the system of commercial agricultural production has not been much changed.
Despite many economic, political, and social problems associated with it, commercial agriculture in the tropics will continue to be practiced both on large-scale plantations and small-scale peasant-owned farms. One question that remains is – how important smallholding will become in the years ahead.