Because of the intense specialization of modern mechanized agriculture, farming has become a business interlocked with a number of supporting businesses. Farm management the control of capital outlay, production costs, and income has become as vital to a farmer's economic survival as skill in growing the crops themselves. Such organizations as Farm Business / Farm Management help farmers develop the skills needed to farm more productively and economically.
Farmers also have had to become actively involved in the marketing of their crops to ensure an adequate income. In many areas of the United States and Canada, farmers have banded together in cooperatives to gain economic leverage in buying supplies and selling their products. Some of these cooperatives have taken on some of the preliminary and intermediate steps in transforming the raw farm products into consumer goods, thus increasing the prices farmers receive from buyers.
Modern farmers also are concerned with the management of the resources that support agriculture. In earlier generations, it often was assumed that natural resources were unlimited and could be used and abused without consequence. The result of this ignorance was ecological destruction such as the Dust Bowl of the 1930's, in which the topsoil over large areas of U.S. Plains States dried up and blew away in the wind, rendering the land unfarmable. To prevent more disasters and the economic dislocation they produced, various soil conservation measures were introduced through government programs that gave farmers financial incentives to change their practices. The use of contour plowing and terracing on steeply sloping hillsides helped to slow the movement of water that could carry away soil, thus preventing the formation of gulleys. Reduced tillage techniques allowed more plant residue to remain on the surface of the soil, protecting it from the ravages of both wind and water.
See also: Regional Crops and Cultivation, Fibrous Plants
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