Introduction
Of the 350,000 species of plants cataloged by science only about 100 crops are primarily used to feed the world. About 15 plants and 8 animal species supply 90 % of our food. Wheat, rice, corn and potato are the primary crops that provide us with the bulk of the starch we consume. Other important crops, in order of production, include: barley, sweet potato, cassava, grape, soybean, oats, sorghum, sugarcane, millet, banana, tomato, sugar beet, rye, orange, coconut, cottonseed, apple, yam, peanut, watermelon, cabbage, onion, bean, pea, sunflower seed, and mango. Fruits and vegetables are valuable components of a healthy diet because they provide high levels of vitamins, oils, minerals, proteins and fiber.
Other foods consumed include fish, meat and animal products such as milk,
eggs, and cheese. For most of the people on this planet meat and animal
products, like milk, are too expensive to consume. As a result, 80 % of
the meat and milk produced is consumed by only 20 % of the world's population.
Cropland Regions and Production
The table below describes the countries that have the largest areas in production of crops. The table also supplies information on amount of cropland per capita (1991), average percentage of land being irrigated (1989-91), average amount of fertilizer applied in kilograms per hectare (1989-91), average production of cereals (1990-92), and average cereal yield in kilograms per hectare (1990-92). The total amount of arable land worldwide is about 1,441 million hectares. The Russian Federation, which contains about 2.7 % of the Earth's inhabitants, currently cultivates about 213 million hectares or about 15 % of the world's cropland. Most of this production is sold to other countries or is used to feed livestock. The most efficient farmers are found in China. With 22 % of the world's population, the Chinese have to make do with only 6.7 % of the Earth's arable cropland. Yet, their population is well fed because intensive subsistence farming techniques produce yields equivalent to those produced in countries practicing industrialized farming. However, intensive subsistence agriculture requires large inputs of human labor, irrigation and fertilization in order to achieve these yields.
Most of the cereal production in the United States, Canada, Russian Federation
and Australia is not used to feed humans directly. Most of this food is
used to feed livestock which are used for dairy products, eggs or slaughtered
for meat. This process of creating food is highly inefficient. As discussed
earlier in this course, the efficiency of animals to assimilate food energy
is less than 10 %. In fact, it takes about 16 kg of grain and soybeans to
produce 1 kg of edible beef.
Country |
Cropland 000s of Hectares (1991) | Cropland Per Capita in Hectares (1991) | Average Percent Land Irrigated (1989-91) | Average Annual Fertilizer Used in Kg Per Hectare (1989-91) | Average Cereal Production in 1000s of Metric Tons (1990-1992) | Cereal Yield Per Hectare in Kilograms (1990-92) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian Federation | 212,800 | 1.44 | 3 % | 52 | 100,220 | 1,701 |
| Kazakhstan | 197,300 | 11.79 | 1 % | 3 | 23,218 | 1,013 |
| United States | 187,776 | 0.74 | 10 % | 99 | 315,486 | 4,881 |
| India | 169,700 | 0.20 | 27 % | 73 | 196,173 | 1,935 |
| China | 96,554 | 0.08 | 49 % | 284 | 399,927 | 4,329 |
| Brazil | 61,350 | 0.40 | 4 % | 54 | 37,816 | 1,924 |
| Australia | 46,877 | 2.70 | 4 % | 26 | 22,214 | 1,691 |
| Canada | 45,930 | 1.70 | 2 % | 46 | 52,855 | 2,531 |
| Turkmenistan | 35,610 | 9.71 | 3 % | 7 | 571 | 2,398 |
| Ukraine | 34,629 | 0.67 | 8 % | 126 | 39,994 | 3,094 |
| Nigeria | 32,335 | 0.29 | 3 % | 12 | 13,111 | 1,205 |
| Turkey | 27,689 | 0.48 | 9 % | 65 | 30,129 | 2,202 |
| Argentina | 27,200 | 0.83 | 6 % | 6 | 21,974 | 2,610 |
| Uzbekistan | 26,100 | 1.27 | 16 % | 41 | 1,985 | 1,840 |
| Mexico | 24,720 | 0.29 | 21 % | 69 | 24,662 | 2,430 |
March 11, 1997
Copyright © 1996/97 Michael Pidwirny