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Peripheral region:
Mezzogiorno Primary Activities
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Relief | 85% of the region consists of the Apennines. Due to lack of rainfall, limestone is not broken down leading to thin and unproductive soils |
Upland areas are unable to support arable farming. Instead, tree crops eg olive trees are grown along the slopes | |
In summer, goats and sheep are farmed in upland ares, which means only rough grazing is available. Goats and sheep are better adapted to upland areas | |
Steep slopes in the Mezzogiorno have made the mechanism of farms difficult as machines cannot access the steep land. | |
As a result, farming in the region remains labor intensive. | |
In the Plain of Campania, farming is much more productive due to the deep and fertile soils | |
Climate | The Azores high brings constant high pressure to the region over the summer months, which means very little rain falls. |
High temperatures lead to high evaporation rates of water in the rivers and soil, leading to drought | |
over 1 million hectares of land are irrigated in the region | |
Olives are grown throughout the region in the summers as they are drought resistant because they have thick barks and waxy leaves | |
Human factors: Land ownership | until the 1950's over 70% of the Mezzogiorno's population worked in agriculture. Only 25% of farmers owned their land |
The remaining 75% worked in large landlord estates called "latifundia" which were subdivided into minifundia and rented | |
Minifundia were 3-5 hectares, making it difficult for farmers to pay rent so they overgrazed and overcropped their land | |
Landlords rarely invested in their estates, meaning farm practices were labour intensive, outdated and expensive | |
Government Intervention | Government attempted to reform agriculture through the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno Scheme |
The scheme transferred over 10% of all land in the region from landlords to tenant farmers | |
The farmers were then trained in more profitable farming methods eg growing cash crops and a greater variety of crops | |
Irrigation schemes were developed in order to support the intensive production of crops in ares of drought | |
Autostrada de sole motorway was built to allow easy transport of goods in the region to larger markets in the north | |
Urbabn centres were developed in order to give farmers access to necessary farm materials and markets |