World Agriculture 1: Introduction
No matter how much money a person has, they cannot survive without eating. The productivity of agricultural products is also a major factor in measuring a nation's power. In this installment, let's take an overview of the state of world agriculture.
Arable Land Area
Here are the top 10 countries by arable land area. This is directly linked to the size of the national territory. The United States, Russia, and China are as expected, but it is surprising that India's arable land area rivals that of the United States. In terms of land area, Russia is 1st, Canada 2nd, the United States 3rd, and China 4th, while India is 7th. India's land area is about one-sixth that of Russia and about one-third that of the United States.
The Secret of India
If we look at the arable land area as a percentage of the total land area...
In India, more than half of the land is arable. Since entering the 2000s, the share of the tertiary industry in India's GDP has expanded rapidly. Along with this, the share of the primary industry dropped sharply and is now around 15%. However, about 70% of the population still lives in rural areas, and the rural population continues to grow. Even now, the rural population is about 800 million. With such a large rural population, the vastness of this arable land area is understandable.
According to the principles of geography, income increases as the industrial sector shifts from primary to secondary to tertiary, so from this, we can see that there is a large gap between the rich and the poor in India.
Also, having been hit by repeated famines in the 1940s to 1960s, food self-sufficiency was a long-cherished desire. Therefore, they pushed forward with the "Green Revolution" and achieved a 100% self-sufficiency rate in the 1970s. Since then, agricultural protection policies have continued.
(Reference: Direction of Agricultural Policy in India) By the way, the "Green Revolution" refers to the modernization of agriculture, such as the improvement of rice and wheat varieties, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the introduction of irrigation facilities.
Looking at the world's grain production share, including the three major grains (wheat, rice, and corn), China and the United States are naturally included, and India is indeed in third place.
Agriculture is related to various factors such as climate, population, environmental issues, and religion.
I would like to delve into the state of world agriculture over the next few installments.
The data used this time is here.
I received it from the usual Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Since the government uses tax money to publish statistical data, it would be a waste not to make effective use of it, right?
I will publish the SAS program when the agriculture series is finished.