The first garden of Europe - so often called Italy. The country supplies the world with a large number of garden fruits, citrus fruits, grapes and olives. Despite the richness of land resources and favorable natural conditions, Italian agriculture is the country's most backward industry.
Italy economy
Italy, whose agriculture and industry is very dependent on external energy resources, is characterized by significant differences in the profitability and specialization of the regions. The highly developed rich north is confronted by the poor agrarian south. The main type of management is small private enterprise with the active participation of state regulation. Despite a series of economic crises, its per capita GDP is on par with that of France and the UK.
In the structure of world exports, Italy is one of the leaders in the supply of cars, tractors, mopeds and bicycles, and industrial equipment. The chemical industry exports plastics and textile fibers. A significant share in the Italian economy has the fashion industry. The country produces a lot of clothes and shoes. Tourism income forms more than 1/3 of the country's GDP.
Italy's agriculture provides the world with high-quality olive oil, wines, fruits, pasta and cheese.
Characteristics of Italian agriculture
The country is distinguished by a highly productive agricultural sector. This specialization of Italian agriculture is due to favorable natural conditions that allow you to grow temperate climate crops and subtropical plants here. The main Po river is heavily used for irrigation.
In the foothills of the Alps are many meadows used for grazing.
Italian agriculture has the following structure:
- plant growing - field cultivation, vegetable growing and growing potatoes, horticulture and viticulture, floriculture,
- animal husbandry - cattle rearing, sheep breeding, pig breeding.
Specialization of the agricultural sector
The population is provided with food products of their own production by 75%, the remaining 25% is covered by imports from neighboring European countries. Italian agriculture is represented mainly by small farms, the average area of which is 7 hectares. A total of 6% of the country's population works here. Italy annually supplies the market with 6 million tons of fruit, 14 million tons of vegetables, and takes the first place in Europe in the collection of tobacco.
Among agricultural land in Italy, arable land occupies 35%, meadows and pastures - 19-20%, olive groves, orchards and vineyards - 11%.
In the north is the Padan Lowland. Fertile lands are concentrated here, on which sugar beets, soybeans, grains, corn and rice are grown. Italy is the second largest rice producer in the world after China. The economy in this part of the country has a capitalist form, differs in the intensive way of cultivating crops, and the wide use of hired labor.
Italian agriculture in the south is mainly represented by small private farms specializing in the cultivation of citrus fruits - orange, mandarin and lemons. Pomegranates, olives and olives grow here. Due to the mountainous terrain, manual labor is more commonly used.
Grapes in Italy are grown everywhere. Almost the entire crop is processed into wine.
Thanks to the subtropical climate and the widespread cultivation of vegetables in greenhouses, Italy supplies crop products to the world market earlier than other countries.
Livestock in the country is underdeveloped. Mostly small private owners are engaged in it, the number of livestock in each farm is small.
Cattle grazing is mainly carried out in alpine meadows. Bean and industrial crops grown in the fields go to feed livestock.
Causes of backwardness and development prospects
Italy is a member of the "common market" of Europe on contractual relations. This reduces the potential of local agriculture. The reduction in sown areas naturally leads to a decrease in production volumes. The import of their countries of the European Union of wheat, rye, meat, dairy products and eggs to Italy is increasing, which competes with local products.
Italian agriculture traditionally specializes in the cultivation of citrus fruits, Mediterranean fruits and vegetables. However, within the framework of the "common market", the country hardly managed to defend leadership in this industry. The loss of leadership in this sector would not only lead to a crisis in agriculture, but also hit the Italian economy as a whole.
The country has a mountainous and hilly terrain. This makes it impossible to use in many areas of technology, therefore, inefficient and costly manual labor is used.
The state sees the ways of effective development of the agricultural sector in the expansion of farms and the transition to a capitalist form of management.