Transcript Why Do Farmers Face Economic Difficulties? Agricultural Land and

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Challenges for subsistence farmers
• Population growth
• International trade
• Drug crops
Figure 10-27
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Challenges for commercial farmers
• Overproduction
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Agricultural efficiencies have resulted in
overproduction
Demand has remained relatively constant
• As a consequence, incomes for farmers are low
• Sustainable agriculture
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Sensitive land management
Integrated crop and livestock
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Expanding the land under cultivation
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Increasing the productivity of existing
agricultural land
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Requires energy- and resource-intensive
fertilizers and machinery
Identifying new food sources
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Remaining land can be of poorer quality
Subject to cultural preference
Increasing trade
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Strategies to increase food supply
• Expanding agricultural land
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Desertification
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Increasing productivity
• The Green Revolution
!
Figure 10-28
Since the 1980s, population
has increased more rapidly
than food production.
Food production in the region
has tripled over the past
half-century, but population
has grown faster.
Food production in the region
has tripled over the past
half-century, but population
has grown faster.
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Identifying new food sources
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Cultivating Oceans
 Increase in annual Fish Catch
Over the past half
century, the world fish
catch has increased
nearly five times over.
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Identifying new food sources
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Developing High Protein Cereals
Improving the Palatability of Foods
• Exoskeleton to be removed
• Frozen almost immediately
• An acquired taste!
http://www.nm
fs.noaa.gov/a
quaculture/
People in MDCs obtain protein by
consuming meat, but people in LDCs
generally rely on wheat, corn, and rice,
which lack proteins.
Where Weed-killer Won’t Work
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/03/business/weedsgraphic.html?ref=energy-environment
Figure 10-32
•http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/world-food-supply-whats-to-be-done/
• The Global Food Crisis, Mapped
• http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/the-global-food-crisis-mapped/
http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/food-price-volatility-map
You will have time to explore this map on your own later.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17219009