Crop Plants Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Crop plants are vegetables that are grown primarily for food or fodder. They include species of the Liliopsida (monocot) family such as maize, rice, garlic, and onions, and the Magnoliopsida (dicot) family, such as lettuces, beans, cabbages, and potatoes. Crop plants provide a large proportion of the nutrition required by humans and animals. New varieties have been introduced into large-scale production in recent decades, as the products of countries once considered remote now earn international recognition. Crop growing has become a large, resource-intensive industry in developed and developing countries, with extensive use of chemical pesticides and similar products aimed at destroying agricultural pests. Some farms have become organic, which prohibits the use of pesticides. In less developed countries, farmers tend to use whatever technology and local knowledge is available to boost productivity.

Growing crops successfully requires different configurations of inputs and labor, including plowing, fertilizing materials, irrigation, and the need to leave soil fallow at intervals. The invention of the plow and its powering by animals considerably assisted in the growth of crop planting. Rotating crops has helped to mitigate the problems of poisoning or depleting the soil, and the need to let it lie fallow. Selection of hardy specimens has helped crops become more productive and useful. The provision of irrigation has assisted in promoting wet rice paddy farming and, with fish introduced into the ditches, provides an additional source of protein. In regions with favorable climates, two or more growing seasons for crop plants are possible. For nomadic people, swidden (slash-and-burn) farming may be used to clear comparatively fertile ground that is then used until its value decreases. Despite all of the accumulated knowledge and technology used to assist in growing crop plants, sudden climatic changes or infestation by pests can dramatically reduce harvests or even eradicate them entirely.

Industrialization of agriculture has inspired the creation of single-crop or cash crop farming. Such farming renders the farmer vulnerable to changes in the terms of trade and the vagaries of international marketing and business. In traditional forms of agriculture, farmers will grow a staple crop (such as rice or wheat) and will grow various others to provide nutritional and culinary variety. Excess of the staple crop is sold to a merchant, who then typically markets it in urban areas.

When single crops are grown, the farmer’s livelihood becomes subject to the risks facing that crop and market variations in demand and price. It also tends to place extra pressure on the fertility of the soil. Since farmers rarely have the capacity to do more than grow their crops, intermediaries often capture the additional added value available from prepared foods using those crops as inputs, leaving the farmers comparatively poor.

Large-scale crop growth has significantly changed the landscape of much of the settled land of the plant. Croplands are increasingly regularized and homogenized to facilitate the movement of machinery and the application of technological solutions. When large fruit plantations are created, they have often been worked by groups of transient migrant workers; sugar cane plantations of the Caribbean, for example, provided an economic imperative for the movement of slaves from Africa to the Americas. Grown crops become part of national and regional cultures, especially when they are used in localized signature dishes, which can be highly culturally specific. The thought of corn or wheat or rice farmers can have a powerful hold on the imagination, impeding rational discussion, causing difficulty when organizing multilateral trade agreements on agricultural products.

Bibliography:

James F. Hancock, Plant Evolution and the Origin of Crop Species (CABI Publishing, 2004);
John Poehlman and David A. Sleper, Breeding Field Crops (Blackwell Publishing Professional, 1995);
Joseph Smartt, The Evolution of Crop Plants (Blackwell Publishers, 2000).