Sucseed

Over Population Challenges In The Arable Industry 

 

Arable land is a field where crops could be grown, normally when we say arable land we mean how much arable land is available to us not counting the ones that have crops allready growing in them, this also includes that lands that could be potentially cultivated so we are thinking about lands with good soil, relevant weather, and somewhere that isnt controlled by the human population (Campbell - 2011). Overpopulation is a term where it measure the density of amount of people in a certain piece of land, this also refers to how our population limit keeps increasing which causes the enviromental deterioration, and decreases the amount of land that can be cultivated (Akhtar - 2015).

 

New Zealand is world reknown for their crops, and fruits so the exports has become one of the more important source of income for New Zealand. The main crops grown in New Zealand are Kiwi fruit, wine grapes, and apples, with avacados and olives becoming more important in the recent years. New Zealand is also known to exports its goods globally. since New Zealand is famous for its barley and wheat they have had an increase/decrease in the amount of wheat/barley harvested. I.E. in 2002 NZ harvested 42,200 hectares of wheat, and 78,100 hectares of barley, and in 2009 77,800 hectares of barley with 53,900 hectares of wheat, so as we can see the amount of wheat was increase but barley decreased (Bascand - 2010).

 

(New Zealand produces 70% of its cereal requirements and imports the rest. Overall, the production of grains and seed contributed around $380 million to New Zealand's economy in 2002. This equated to about 3% of the total agricultural output. - zyndebos) which leads us to think that arable farming is a big contributor to the New Zealand economy

With overpopulation becoming a greater problem it is starting to demand more food, and land, and since NZ is one of the main exporters in crops it is needing to increase the rate and amount of crops output, while decreasing the area of lands that could be cultivated - Arable land, this is because overpopulaton also affects NZ as alot of people start to immigrate to NZ as it is a developed country and is safe. According to Food and agricultural organisation, nearly two billion hectares worldwide has been degraded, this two billion represents 22% of cropland, pastures, forests and woodlands. It is also projected that by 2050 there are going to be 9 billion peopleto feed, which as we can see is no good since arable land is decreasing per year. With the amount of people increasing dramatically that means that there is going to be more Irrigation, deforestation, desertification, terracing, land fill, urban encroachment and issues surrounding topology which further reduce the availability of arable land (campbell - 2011).

 

Another issue that overpopulation is affecting New Zealand is China, as China is one of our biggest importers they have a big demand for our crops grown in the arable land, and since china's population is increase at a alarming rate that means New Zealand also has to increase the output once again, therefore New Zealand needs more people, but at the same time needs more arable land, which is not possible because if there aremore people there is going to be less space for arable land as they need to reside in New Zealand. If the issue is fixed New Zealand can make large profits from its arable industry.

 

There is also an upside to the increase in population, which is more people could start working in and around New Zealand once again increasing the income.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion the amount of people is increasing at a hurrying rate, and our arable land will decrease over time as there are going to be more immigrants in New Zealand, because people want a safe developed country like New Zealand, therefore this is going to be a big problem for New Zealand because they will have to feed more people at the same time try making money by exporting their crops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Picture above is from 2002 exports from New Zealand

 

 

 

Refrencing:

Campbell, P. (2011). The Future Prospects for Global Arable Land. Retrieved from http://futuredirections.org.au/publications/food-and-water-crises/53-the-future-prospects-for-global-arable-land.html

 

Akthar, S. (2015). Overpopulation. Retrieved from http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-overpopulation.php

 

Zydenbos, S. (2012). 'Arable farming', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/arable-farming

 

Bascand, G (2010). Agricultural Production Statistics: Arable crops. Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/Corporate/Corporate/CorporateCommunications_MRJun09prov.aspx

 

Growing crops in New Zealand. (2003). Retrieved from http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/prod_serv.nsf/929f646420956813cc256b16006b9ec1/8fc0c8c0659a8d2ecc256d4000836520?OpenDocument

 

 

 

Yaser Tamimi