Portfolio (Core Assessment) Global Sustainability

Assignment 2

The crops grown are mainly exported to countries like United States, Brazil and Colombia. They country also import food crop such as corn from the united states, coffee from Brazil and rice from country such as Argentina and Guyana. The table below shows how food crops are consumed domestically, where they are imported from and where they are exports to and the quantity;

DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION

CROP quantity

Corn 1.36M tons

Sorghum 0.11M tons

Rice 0.695M tons

Coffee 1290 bags

Sugarcane 1.3M tons

EXPORT

CROP COUNTRY QUANTITY

Rice Columbia (0.2M tons)

Coffee Columbia unofficial trade

Cocoa Brazil (0.8M tons)

Cotton U.S.A 124((1,000 HA and 1000 480-lb. Bales)

Rice U.S.A 375 (Thousand Metric Tons)

IMPORT

CROP COUNTRY(S) QUANTITY

Corn U.S.A 2.2M tons

Rice Guyana, u.s.a, Brazil and Argentina 0.52 M tons

Coffee Nicaragua worthy 60$ in 2013

Sugar Brazil and Central America 0.75M tons

WHEAT ARGENTINA 250,000 tons

(Todd Drennan and Clara Nuñez ,2015)

Impact of agriculture and food production to the environment in Venezuela

The use of pesticides and other chemicals due to the increase of monoculture has lead to diminishing biodiversity which negatively impact the environment.

Chemicals and other farm waste products are directed to rivers which result in water pollution. This has resulted to contamination of water which can be hazardous if consumed by people or animals.

The need for land to practice agriculture in Venezuela has lead to encroachment of land, some of which was previously under forest thus destroying natural eco-system.

The report above indicates that Venezuela relies on agricultural imports mainly coming in from the United States , about 70% of their cereals is imports from other countries, the soil in Venezuela is not as rich as the soil in other South American countries thus the major agricultural area is around the lake basin of West Caracas and inland areas of Puerto Cabello .The main cash crop is coffee ,while field crops are rice ,corn ,sorghum and sugarcane, the country can be described as a net importer of agricultural goods with most of its imports coming from the US ,the Us supplies the country with consumer agricultural crops and cereals. The agricultural practice in Venezuela is unsustainable due to poor post crop harvest management, inefficient logistics, changing weather conditions, price changes and currency devaluation that impacts on the prices of farm inputs, not forgetting the continued government control of prices of crops such as coffee impacting on their production as farmers are shifting to more lucrative crops and this trend my lead to expensive importation of abandoned crops. The country agriculture has been deteriorated by the impact of the loss of genetic content of its crops that was previously produced in larger quantities such as sesame oil .The government of Venezuela control of crop prices is unsustainable in the long-run it will kill most of the agricultural sectors as this controls fail to take into account the struggles of the farming population with the ever rising operating costs ,price regulations and the lack of quality inputs, this struggle has greatly discouraged progress in farming such as the use of new production and agricultural practices that could enhance production volumes and quality (Richard A. Haggerty, 1990) ,the rise of disease out breaks that have emanated from neighboring countries too has also impacted on the sustainability of agriculture in Venezuela.

This is the map of Venezuela, it has been included to show the farming areas of Caracas and Puerto Cabello, where much of the countries agriculture is practiced. while below is a water coservatio area around the valleys and a grazing land at Andes mountain.

INCLUDEPICTURE "http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/wetland/tropical/paramo7s.jpg" \* MERGEFORMATINET

Reference

Todd Drennan and Clara Nuñez ,2015 , Grain and feed annual grain production and imports fall, Venezuela’s. Available (online) at http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Grain%20and%20Feed%20Annual_Caracas_Venezuela_3-30-2015.pdf

Richard A. Haggerty, 1990 a country study: Venezuela, Washington: GPO congress library. ED