Land occupies the leading place among the resources used in farming. Its central place has not diminished with the progressive advance of technology and the greater use of machines and fertilizers.
Land use planners now are no more captives of the natural environment. They are able to control and direct natural forces in many ways. This means that farmland can be used for more different purposes than ever before. The properties inherent in the land are now less restrictive. Many factors determine the proper, sound and full land uses in agriculture.
Nevertheless, the characteristics of land resources still set limits that influence the patterns of land uses. The successful land use planner is the one who learns to cooperate with the natural and biological processes that are linked to land.
What determines how farmland shall be used in any area or region? Why are certain combinations of crops and live stock grown in one region, but not in another? Questions like these seek answers of land use planners.
In general terms, two groups of forces- physical and economic- influence the use of land for agricultural production. Physical factors are the climate, soil, topography elevation, water supply, and the like. They are the properties that are naturally a part of land resources.
Economic factors have to do with man and his relation to land resources and his facilities, investments, nearness to living centres, patterns of management, and other significant elements. Technological change, economic and physical factors determine land uses in agriculture.
IV. O :
science and technology; farmland; chemical industry; agricultural land uses; technological change; leading place; natural forces
V. , , :
1. This farmland (to increase) its productivity if crop rotation is used. 2. Agriculture (to apply) new chemicals and machinery. 3. The farmers of the region (to use) new methods in planting, care and harvesting on the reclaimed land. 4. After graduating the Institute I (to be) a land use planner. 5. farming (to be) a highly specialized one in the nearest future. 6. The land use planners (to control) natural forces better than they do now. 7. The specialist of future (to be able) to cooperate with the natural and biological processes that are linked to land.
VI. 4 , - . .
VII. . :
1. Land resources do not diminish their fertility if we use them on the basis of advanced... and technology. 2. The farmers accumulated much new knowledge about . 3. Farming today is a... specialized production of food and raw materials. 4. We can control and direct theforces of.... 5. The use of land is influenced by the... groups of forces- the physical and the economic ones.6. What must be the proper... rotation? 7. Yields will increase rapidly if crop rotation...... properly.
VIII. :
1. , . 2. ? , - ? . 3. , , , - .
IX. , . :
1. This power station will supply many villages with electricity. 2. This farm has a good water supply. 3. We made some changes in our project. 4. This fact will change the problem radically. 5. You must water these vegetables very often. 6. Give him a glass of water, please. 7. Crop rotation is one of the means of weed control. 8. The farmer may control the condition of the soil on his plot of land.
