Land Utilization Types

Abstract

A typology of land use in its most elementary form is based on the kinds of crops grown. This approach is, however, not sufficient in itself. The same crop may be grown within completely different enterprises: e.g. intensive (high input) wheat growing in rotational systems on small farms in the Netherlands, extensive (low input) wheat growing in dry farming systems with ploughed fallow in the dry regions of the U.S.A., or irrigated wheat in Iraq. On the other hand, markedly similar systems may yield quite different crops, e.g. mixed farms on family holding of restricted acreage in many parts of the world, or large plantations, whether they produce tropical crops in Asia or Latin America or cultivate vineyards on a large scale in southern Europe. Thus, for the characterization of land use, a typology of the systems of land utilization is just as essential as that of the kinds of crops grown, e.g. the better known crop surveys.