Agriculture

Agriculture, one of Britain's most important industries, supplies nearly 60 per cent of the country's food, directly employs over 650,000 people, and uses almost 80 per cent of the land area. However, its share of the gross domestic product is less than 3 per cent - the lowest figure among the developed capitalism countries. British agriculture is efficient, for it is based on modern technology and research.

Nearly 80 per cent of the land area is used for agriculture, the rest being mountain and forest or put to urban and other uses. Although the area for farming is declining by about 20,000 hectares a year to meet the needs of housing, industry and transport, the land in urban use is less than a tenth of the agriculturalland. There are 12 million hectares under crops and grass. In hill country, where the area of cultivated land is often small, large areas are used for rough grazing. Soils vary from the poor ones of highland Britain to the rich fertile soils of low-lying areas in the eastern and south-eastern parts of England. The cool temperate climate and the comparatively even distribution of rainfall contribute favourably to the development of agriculture. However, the social structure of British agriculture has a negative effect on its development. Most of the land is owned by big landlords. Farmers rent the land and hire agricultural workers to cultivate it. Part of the land belongs to banks, insurance companies.

There are about 243,500 farming units, of which about a half are able to provide fulltime employment for at least one person and account for over 90 per cent of total output. About 30,000 large farms account for about half of total output. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland output from small-scale holding is more significant than in the rest of Britain. In general small farms dominate in the country. This is vividly seen from the following tables:

Size of Farms (as a Percentage of Total Number of Farms)
Under				Over
2 Hect.	2-20	20-40	40-120	120 Hect.
15.1	37.3	19.9	17.7

However, due to tough competition, the number of small farms under 20 hectares is decreasing.

60 per cent of full-time is devoted mainly to dairying or beef cattle and sheep. This sector of agriculture accounts for three-fourths of agricultural production in value. Sheep and cattle are reared in the hill and moorland areas of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern and south-western England. Beef fattening occurs partly in better grassland areas, as does dairying and partly in yards on arable farms. British livestock breeders have created many of the cattle, sheep and pig breads with world-wide reputations, for example, the large white Yorkshire pig breed. Pig production is carried on most areas but is particularly important in eastern (Yorkshire) and southern England, north-east Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 1980s there were about 13,5 million head of cattle, about 8 million pigs and 31,4 million head of sheep.

The present pattern of farming in Britain owes a great deal to decisions taken during and after World War II. During the nineteenth century Britain became increasingly dependent upon imported food. The danger of this situation became apparent during the two world wars of the twentieth century when the country was almost starved into defeat by the German blockade. As a result, it was decided to encourage agricultural development to make the country less dependent on imports of food. Subsidies to farmers (especially to the owners of large farms) were introduced. After Britain's entry into the Common Market in 1973 agriculture was protected by an artificial price structure and by duties imposed on imported food.

There are three main types of farming: pastoral, arable, mixed. Arable farming is dominated in the eastern parts of England and Scotland, whereas in the rest of the country pastoral and mixed farming are prevalent. Besides the three above mentioned types of farming there is another type of farming - crofting - which is still practiced in the remote areas of northern and western Scotland. This pattern of cultivating a small area of land around the farm (the infield) and maintaining a much larger area of rough pasture for stock rearing (the outfield) is typical of crofting communities in Scotland and shows a clear adaptation to a difficult environment. There has been a great decline in crofting and it has virtually disappeared from large areas of the Highlands. This started in the eighteenth century when entire crofting communities were driven out by landowners who wanted to use the land for large scale sheep and cattle rearing. The process resembled the enclosures which took place earlier in England in the sixteenth century. In recent years this decline has continued on an accelerated scale. The owners of the crofts become ruined because of the low incomes and many of the crofts which remain are run on a part-time basis.

Grass supplies 60 to 80 per cent of feed requirements of cattle and sheep: its production has been enhanced by the increased use of fertilizers, irrigation, new methods of grazing control etc. Rotational grass covers about 28 per cent of the total cropland. Rough grazings are used for extensively grazed sheep and cattle.

As regards the cereals barley takes the lead. It is cultivated on 33 per cent of the total cropland, amounting to 2,4 million hectares with an average annual yield of 10 million tonnes. The crop is mainly concentrated in the eastern parts of the country. Wheat follows next covering about 17,4 per cent of the total croplands which amounts to 1,4 million hectares with an average annual yield of over 8 million tonnes. About half the wheat crops is normally used for flour milling, the remainder mainly for animal feed. Wheat like barley prevails in the eastern parts of England, especially in East Anglia and in the south-east, as well as in Central Scotland. Cropland used for oats has been reduced to about 2 per cent. The crops is cultivated mainly in the western and northern parts of England.

The potato crop is widespread all throughout the country. Large-scale potato and vegetable production is undertaken in the eastern and south-eastern of England, around the rivers Thames and Humber and in South Lancashire. Early potatoes are an important crop in south-west Wales, Kent and south-west England. High-grade seed potatoes are grown in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Sugar from sugar home-grown sugar beet provides about 47 per cent of requirements, most of the remainder being refined from raw sugar imported from developing countries. Sugar beet covers about 3 per cent of the total cropland.

The land utilised for horticulture is about 290,000 hectares of which vegetables grown in the open, excluding potatoes, cover about 73 per cent, fruit more than 20 per cent, flowers less than 5 per cent and protected crops (those grown under glass or plastic) less than 2 per cent of the land used for horticulture.

The fishing industry. Britain's second major source of food is the surrounding sea. The fishing industry provides about 70 per cent of British fish supplies, and is an important source of employment and income in a number of ports, especially those situated on the North Sea shore. In the 1980s there were about 17,000 fishermen in regular employment. The average annual landings of fish by British ships are about 700,000 tonnes. This marks a massive decline from landings earlier in the century and reflects the crisis which afflicts the industry.

Although fish are widespread in the oceans of the world, it is only in certain limited areas that they occur in sufficient numbers to make large scale fishing an economic proposition. Such areas are called fishing grounds and they are usually found where the waters are shallow with available light and oxygen, where there are large quantities of plankton, which provide food for the fish.

For centuries the British fishing industry depended upon fishing grounds near Britain, particularly those in the North Sea. By the fifteenth century, however, fishermen were already searching for new distant grounds. By the nineteenth century fishing is distant waters was highly developed and several distinct methods of fishing had been developed to cope with different kinds of fish with different fishing grounds. Two main types of fish are caught - pelagic fish and demersal fish.

Дата добавления: 2013-12-13