Cereals and oilseeds

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The vast majority of food consumed daily by the world population is provided by the most important branch of agricultural production - crop production, the foundation of which has always been considered grains and oilseeds.

Let's talk about these important components of the industry, achievements and prospects.

Cereals

Cereals make up the most significant part of the total volume of agricultural products produced on a global scale. They grow on 60% of all arable land, and in some states they completely occupy sown areas. This is not surprising, since such crops are the fundamental basis of the nutrition of the population of any country, a significant part of the animal diet and an essential raw material, often the main one for many industries. Nearly 80% of the world's grain production was occupied by wheat, corn and rice. Let's talk about these plants.

Wheat

Known since ancient times, the culture occupies a leading position among grains. Breeding work to develop new, more resistant varieties does not stopfor an hour, thanks to which varieties adapted to local conditions are grown in different regions.

The most productive areas for the cultivation of this cereal are the plains of America and Canada, the cultivated arable lands of Argentina, Russia, Australia, China and other countries and continents.

Rice

In terms of the size of crops, rice, which is the staple food for residents of Asian countries, ranks second in the world. This crop is the main component of many industrial areas, the waste of which replenishes the feed ration of livestock.

Specific technology for the cultivation of rice is possible only in the humid tropics, so the southern and southeastern countries of the Asian continent are geographically defined as areas for its production. The undoubted leader in the cultivation and harvesting of rice is China, serious producers are Japan, Thailand, India.

Corn

It is traditionally used: food and fodder crop. Mexican in origin, corn is a heat-loving plant, the cultivation of which is concentrated in places with a mild warm climate in temperate latitudes.

The main areas of its production are the American plains, located south of the Great Lakes. The countries of North and South America are recognized as the largest exporters of corn.

Oilseeds

Oilseeds are plants whose fruits or seeds produce fatty oils.

Seedsoilseeds contain up to 60% fat and are the basis for obtaining vegetable oils of inestimable nutritional or technical importance. They are used as food or raw materials for the production of finishing and lubricants, are used in the baking, confectionery, canning, pharmaceutical, perfume industries, in paint and varnish production, etc.

Oilseeds include botanical species of various families: pumpkin, olive, legumes, beech, pine, euphorbia, lamb and many others. There are a lot of them, the complete list of families of these plants consists of more than 30 names. The oils produced from them today account for 70% of the total amount of fat consumed in the world.

Progressive ideas of replacing animal fats with vegetable ones and the relative availability of these products have significantly increased the intensity of their production and sale in recent times. Developing countries specializing in the cultivation of oilseeds are reducing export supplies of oils due to the development of their own processing capacities and are no longer selling raw materials, but finished products.

Oilseeds are plants with valuable tonic properties - tea, madder (coffee), mallow (cocoa). They are grown in very limited areas - in the tropics and subtropics, that is, the places of their production are concentrated in several southern Asian countries - Malaysia, India, etc.

Peculiarities of oilseed production in Russia

Even thoughthat in Russia most of the territories are located in zones with a rather severe climate, and the sown areas are concentrated in temperate and continental latitudes (in the Volga region, Siberia, the Caucasus, the Urals and the Far East) traditional agricultural sectors, including the cultivation of oilseeds, intensively are developing. The production of agricultural products in Russia covers many crop industries, except for the cultivation of exotic plants unadapted to domestic conditions.

Three dominant types of cereals are also known as oilseeds in Russia - sunflower, soybeans, rapeseed. Their crops occupy almost 4 million hectares and they are cultivated for vegetable oil and flour with a high protein content. Oils are used in cooking, flour is part of the animal diet.

Factors affecting crop production and production stages

The cultivation of these plants depends on purely territorial factors: climatic features, soil composition and fertility, geographical location. For example, corn does not develop well in arid zones on dry soil, and high humidity and heavy rains prevent good wheat crops. Therefore, an important role has always been given to planning the volume of crops and the compliance of the requirements of certain plants with the climate of the region.

There are 4 stages into which the whole process of grain and oilseed production is divided:

• seedbed preparation;

• sowing;

• Harvest;

• Ensuring storage conditions and transportation to potential buyers or processors.

Next, let's talk about the cultivation of oilseeds, which occupy the main sown areas in Russia.

Sunflower

Representing oilseeds, the sunflower is a versatile plant. There is always a consistently high demand for it in the country, since the main part of vegetable oils is produced from sunflower. The oil is famous for its high taste qualities, it is well cleaned of impurities during the production process. The sphere of consumption of this product is extensive: it is in demand for food purposes, it is used in the production of paints, varnishes, fuels and lubricants, and in soap making. Waste cake and meal are an excellent basis for feed production.

Sunflower is cultivated as an ornamental plant and an excellent honey plant. Through the efforts of breeders, even rubber-bearing species have been brought into cultivation. Sunflower is most productive in warm areas with fertile black soil. It needs a long growing season, and during flowering - a fairly high air temperature (25-30˚С) and soil moisture availability. The maximum yield is up to 45 centners per hectare. The most successful in sunflower cultivation in Russia are the Southern, Central and Volga federal districts.

Soybeans

Oilseeds are also represented by a native of East Asia - soybeans. It has been cultivated in the country not so long ago, but already veryIt is popular and occupies vast territories in the Far East (in the Amur Region and the Khabarovsk Territory) and the Chernozem Region, represented by the Stavropol Territory and the Krasnodar Territory. The area of cultivation of soybeans, as a long-day crop, is limited by the requirements of a sufficiently humid and warm climate. Market analysts have made the claim that soybean plantings will double in the next few years as a result of a huge selection work, the results of which already today are a number of released varieties adapted to more severe growing conditions.

Insignificant consumption of soybeans in the Russian food industry compensates for the constant increase in demand for it as an exported product readily bought abroad. In addition, since the beginning of the century, there has been a sharp increase in the consumption of soy-based animal feeds, which provide good growth.

Rapeseed

The huge family called "oilseeds" includes rapeseed, the expansion of acreage for which has become one of the priorities of the agrarian policy of the Russian Federation. Today, rapeseed crops amounted to 1 million hectares. Rapeseed oil, high in unsaturated fatty acids, is an excellent food product. Abroad, it is preferable to sunflower, which occupies a leading position in Russia, so the market for this product is guaranteed in the foreseeable future.

Rapeseed is valuable as a fodder and honey crop. The green mass and seeds of the plant are fed to animals, the diet of which is replenished with waste from the production of oil - cake and meal. The duration of rapeseed flowering is 30 days, which allows the crops to be used as a food base for bees.

We also note the phytosanitary effect of this crop, its ability to accumulate organic matter in the soil, significantly improving the structure.

Thus, oilseeds and cereals are the basis of the agricultural sector - crop production.