crop yield

Information about crop yield

In agriculture, crop yield (also known as "agricultural output") is not only a measure of the yield of cereal per unit area of land under cultivation, it is also the seed generation of the plant itself, i.e. one grain of wheat produces a stalk yielding three grain, or 1:3. The figure, 1:3 is considered by agronomists as the minimum required to substain human life [1]: one of the three seeds must be set aside for the next planting season, the remaining two either consumed by the grower, or one for human consumption and the other for livestock feed.

A crop yield ratio of 1:5 is the point where surplus can begin.
  • The higher the yield, the more the surplus cereal.
  • The more the surplus, the more livestock can be established and maintained, thereby increasing the physical and economic well-being of the farmer and his family. This, in turn, resulted in better stamina, better over-all health, and better, more efficient work.
  • In addition, the more the surplus the more draft animals -- horse and oxen -- could be supported and harnessed to work, and manure, the soil thereby easing the farmer's burden.
  • Increased crop yields meant few hands were needed on farm, freeing them for industry and commerce. This, in turn, led to the formation and growth of cities.
  • Formation and growth of cities meant an increased demand for food stuffs by non-farmers, and their willingness to pay for it.
  • This, in turn, led the farmer to (further) innovation, more intensive farming, the demand/creation of new and/or improved farming implements, and a quest for improved seed which improved crop yield. Thus allowing the farmer to raise his income by bringing more food to non-farming (city) markets.
And so the process repeated itself.

Historically speaking, a major increase in crop yield took place in the early eighteenth century with the end of the ancient, wasteful cycle of the three course system of crop rotation whereby a third of the land laid fallow every year -- and hence taken out of human food, and animal feed, production. It was to be replaced by the four-course system of crop rotation, devised in England in 1730 by Viscount Charles Townshend or "Turnip" Townshend during the British Agricultural Revolution [2] as he was called by his early, but quickly converted, detractors. Both simple and obvious in hindsight, the new procedure was nothing short of revolutionary. In the first year wheat or oats were planted; in the second year barley or oats; in the third year clover, rye, rutabaga and/or kale was planted; in the fourth year turnips were planted but not harvested. Instead, sheep were driven on to the turnip fields to eat the crop, trample the leavings under their feet into the soil, and by doing all this, the sheep also fertilized the land with their droppings. In the fifth year (or first year of the new rotation), the cycle began once more with a planting of wheat or oats, in an average, a thirty percent increased yield.

See also

Notes

1. ^ Pipes, Richard, "Russia under the Old Regime (Charles Scribner's Sons, NY 1974)p.8
2. ^ Durant, Will, The History of Civilization: Vol. IX The Age of Voltaire p.47
Agriculture (from Agri Latin for ager ("a field"), and culture, from the Latin cultura "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil". A literal reading of the English word yields "tillage of the soil of a field".
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Yield may mean:
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Tillage, or cultivation (a term which also has broader meanings related to the raising of plants in general) is the agricultural preparation of the soil by digging it up. Tillage can also mean the land that is tilled.
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Charles Townshend (August 29, 1725 – September 4, 1767), was born at his family's seat of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England. He was a politician and the second son of Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend, and Audrey (d.
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The British Agricultural Revolution describes a period of agricultural development in Britain between the 16th century and the mid-19th century, which saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output.
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Corporate farming is a term that describes the business of agriculture, specifically, what is seen by some as the practices of would-be megacorporations involved in food production on a very large scale.
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Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities. These goals have been defined by a variety of disciplines and may be looked at from the vantage point of the farmer or the consumer.
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