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RICE FARMING & PLANTATION AGRICULTURE IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
5
Transcript
LEDC CASE STUDY:
Intensive Wet Rice Farming in India
RICE FARMING & PLANTATION AGRICULTURE IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
BY:
What is rice farming?
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Problems of Rice Growing
- Flooding
- Drought
- Shortage of land and a growing population
- Little use of machinery or modern methods
- Farm holdings are broken up into tiny plots and spread over a wide area
- Majority of the best farmland is held by a few wealthy landowners
- Many of the poorer farm labourers have no land at all
Characteristics of Wet Rice Cultivation
CASE STUDY:
RICE CULTIVATION IN NORTH KEDAH PLAIN
- It is an intensive subsistence type of farming.
- Rice farming is very labour-intensive in every stage of its cultivation.
- Farms that grow rice are usually small, less than 0.5 hectares.
- Rice are grown with double cropping since the Green Revolution was introduced in 1960s.
- High Rice yielding varieties (HYV) seeds are used, eg. IR8, RRI.
- Traditionally, it does not require large amount of capital because little machinery was used and family members provided the labour. Today, more inputs are used. Money are needed for modern machinery, better pesticides, fertilisers and seeds.
The Farm as a System
Inputs
- Five month growing season
- Temperatures over 21 degrees
- Monsoon rainfall over 2000mm
- Flat land flooded
- Dry time for harvesting
- Heavy alluvial or clay soils to provide an impermeable layer
- Large labour force
- Water buffaloes for ploughing
- Rice seeds
- Annual floods deposit rich layers of alluvium (silt)
Processes
Outputs
- Ploughing
- Planting
- Harvesting
- Threshing
- Weeding
- Rice
- Manure from buffaloes for fertilising
- Rice seeds
Changes to Rice Growing in Ganges Basin
1. The Green Revolution:
- The use of HYVS or high yielding seed varieties, such as IRB, more than trebled food production, giving higher average yields and allowing double or treble cropping;
- Greater use of fertilizers, tractors and mechanized ploughs;
- Grants and loans to buy new seeds and equipment
2. Irrigation:
Despite the monsoon rain, the water supply can be quite inadequate for growing rice especially if more than one crop is grown. Irrigation is a must for farmers.
3. Appropriate Technology:
This technology is suited to the needs, skills, knowledge and wealth of people. Large expensive irrigation projects and dams have many disadvantages.
4. Soil Conservation
5. Land Reform
APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
- Renewable energy sources which use local resources like wind, solar, power or biogas
- Projects which use local labour rather than machinery
- No hi-tech machines needing expensive fuel and foreign spares
- Low cost schemes which are sustainable
DISADVANTAGES
- Poor farmers could not afford HYVs, fertilizers and machinery
- Some borrow and end up with large debts
- HYVs need more water and fertilizer, which is expensive.
- Eutrophication caused by the increasing use of fertilizers
ADVANTAGES
- Yields increased three times
- Multiple cropping
- Other crops grown which varied the diet
- Surplus to sell in cities
- Improving standard of living
- Allows purchase of fertilizers, machinery
EXAMPLES OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
- Renewable energy sources which use local resources such as wind, solar, power and biogas.
- Projects which use local labour rather than machinery
- No hi-tech machines needing expensive fuel and foreign spares
- Low cost schemes which are sustainable.
SOIL CONSERVATION
To stop erosion of top soil, conservation schemes are needed:
- Build terraces on sloping land
- To plant cover crops and windbreaks
- Add manure and straw to soil
LAND FORM
- Increase farm size for small landowners
- Set an upper limit on the amount of land owned by the wealthiest landowners
- Give surplus land to the landless farm labourers