Human Factors Affecting Agriculture

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However favourable the physical environment may be, it is of limited

value until human resources are added to it. Economic man, the term introduced by Von Thunen, applies

resources are often available only in developed countries or where farming is carried out on a commercial scale.

This includes the types of transport available, the time taken and the cost of

moving raw materials to the farm and produce to the market. For perishable

commodities, like milk and fresh fruit, the need for speedy transport to the market demands an efficient transport network,

while bulky goods, like potatoes, transport costs must be lower for output to be

profitable. In both cases, the items should ideally be grown as near to their market as

possible.

The role of markets is closely linked with transport. Market demand depends upon the size and affluence of the market population, its religious and cultural beliefs, its preferred diet, changes in taste and fashion over time

and health scares.

Most economically developed countries with their supporting banking systems, private investment and government subsidies, have large reserves of readily available finance, which over time have been used to build up capital-intensive types of farming such as dairy, market gardening and mechanised cereal growing. Capital is often obtained at relatively low interest rates but remains subject to the law of diminishing returns. In other words the increase in input ceases to give a corresponding increase in output, whether that output is measured in fertiliser, capital investment in machinery, or hours of work expanded.

Farmers in developing countries, often lacking support from financial institutions and having limited capital resources of their own, have to

resort to labour intensive methods of farming. A farmer wishing to borrow money may have to pay exorbitant interest rates and may easily become caught up in a spiral of debt. The purchase of a tractor or harvester can prove a liability rather

than a safe environmental, economic and political conditions.

. Technological developments such as new strains of seed, cross-breeding of animals, improved

machinery and irrigation may extend the area of optimal conditions and the limits of production.

Lacking in capital and expertise, Third World countries are rarely able to take advantage of these advances and so the gap between them and the developed world continues to increase.

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In Britain, farmers have been helped by governments subsidies. Today, most decisions

affecting British farmers are made by the European Community. Sometimes EC policy

benefits British Farmers e.g support grants to hill farmers and sometimes it reduces their income,

e.g reduction in milk quotas. Certainly countries in the EC have improved yields, as evidenced by the butter and beef ‘mountains’ and wine and olive oil

‘lakes’, and have adapted farming types to suit demand. Governments are also responsible for

agricultural training schemes and for giving advice on new methods.

Pre - 1949- Before the establishment of the Peoples Republic in 1949, farming was typical of South East Asia- I.e it was mostly intensive subsistence. Farms were small and fragmented with many tenants having to pay up half of their limited produce to rich.

Peoples communes, 1958 - After taking power in 1949, communists confiscated land from large landowners and divided it among the peasants. However, most plots proved too small to support individual farmers. After several interim experiments, the Government created the peoples communes. The communes, which were meant to become self-sufficient units, were organised into a three tier hierarchy - Production teams, Brigade teams and the Commune (head of hierarchy)

Responsibility System, 1979 - to current date - This system encouraged farming families to become more ‘responsible’, preceded the abolition of the commune system in 1982, Under it, individual farmers were given land in their own village or district. They then had contracts with the government to deliver a fixed amount of produce. Farmers were supplied with tools and seeds.Excess produce was kept and sold by the farmer. Increase in yields occurred by 6% by the hard work of the farmers. Standards of living improved for the farmers.

In the USSR, the belief was that large scale farms were preferable to smallholdings and that co-operative enterprise was better than that undertaken by individuals. During the 1920’s, the Kolkhoz system was created in which farmers were forced to join with their neighbours to form collective farms. Each Kolkhoz unit was managed by an elected committee.

Since WW2 the Soviet administration has ‘encouraged’ the sovkhoz system. A sovkhoz is a state-owned farm where the workers are paid a weekly wage and where the government sets and controls production targets which the farm must meet. The individual farmer as a decision maker has not existed in the USSR for most of this century, though the situation has changed in the late 1980’s. The sovkhoz are so large that the workers live in large blocks of flats.

This system has been less successful than had been hoped, possibly because of the lack of personal incentives, and it appears that output targets have not always been met. Recently, to try to increase production, farms which have exceeded their production targets have been allowed to sell their surplus produce privately.

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