Land Use and Agriculture in Hawaii

1) Describe the land use in your country. What percentage is agriculture? forest? urban? 

Hawaii has mild, year-round climate and it is a fertile place that sustains many different types of agriculture. Hawaii has both rural and urban areas. It is approximately 40 percent is agricultural/farmland. The state is home to approximately 3,600 crop farms and 1,100 livestock farms that include cattle, hogs, milk, eggs, and honey. The average agricultural sales per year in Hawaii are around $357 million dollars.Approximately 35 percent of Hawaii are forests and 25 percent is urban.

2) Look at the following three types of Agriculture : Monoculture, Polyculture, Slash and burn. Describe the pros and cons of each. Think about the social economic and environmental impacts.

I) Monoculture- is the cultivation of a single crop in a given area.

Pros:

-market driven

-cheaper option compared to rest

- single crop so cultivation is simpler

-economic advantage because farmers only harvest one type of crop.

Cons:

-lack of biodiversity

-single threat can destroy all the crops

-needs a complex irrigation system

-diseases/pests spread more effectively in monoculture. 

II) Polyculture- type of agriculture that uses many crops in the same space and they avoid large stands of single crops like monoculture. 

 Pros:

-needs less complex irrigation system

-reduces number of pests, weeds, and disease outbreaks because of increased variety of plants

-more stable type of agriculture

-consistent income for farmers since they don't need to depend on one type of production

Cons:

-higher investment in equipment

-laborious task for farmers

-farmers need to have knowledge of all their plants since there's such a large diversity

- difficult for farmers to control and supervise because of the different types of crops

III) Slash- agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of plants in forests/woodlands to establish fields.

Pros:

-removes debris 

-less equipment used for farmers, cheaper

-returns nutrients to soil

-crops are recycled on site so decomposition occurs on field

Cons:

-fire hazard until its burnt

-dangerous for animals

-dangerous for humans, smoke may be a negative impact on health

-soil left bare for a long time will create erosion

3)What type of agriculture is common in your country? What types of crops do they grow? Describe the current state of agriculture in your country.

 


In recent decades, Hawaii has started the difficult transition from monoculture to diversified agriculture that encourages farmers to grow, among other things, fruits and vegetables for local consumption.Presently the most common agriculture in Hawaii is polyculture.  There are many types of diverse and traditional Hawaiian crops such as plantains, sweet potatoes, kalo, avocado's, papayas, rollinia, ulu (breadfruit), surinam cherries, and various other crops grown.  These plantings are  usually watered from local irrigation ditches.  Other important crops that come to mind when we think of Hawaii are sugarcane, pineapple, macadamia nuts and coffee bean crops. Hawaii has a very progressing and prosperous current state of agriculture because all the crops are in great demand and the mild year-round climate is perfect for growing the crops.