An agricultural geography of some semi-arid parts of the Mediterranean region in relation to the agricultural problems of West Punjab

Abstract

This study has been divided into four principal parts. In the first part the physical background has been described. The chapter on structure and relief purports to give only an outline in the context of which the other physical and cultural factors may be considered. Detailed descriptions of areas studied closely in the field or from large-scale maps has been given under agricultural regions. The account of climate, hydrography, vegetation and soil similarly treats only of essentials in relation to agriculture and its problems. The factor of variabil¬ ity of rainfall in Barbary has been given.special attention and some correlations have been established, i.e. between autumn rainfall and the total area sown and between spring rainfall and the yields.The second part treats of the cultural background. In this section, two aspects have been studied in special detail. European colonization in Barbary and its impact on the native cultivators of Barbary has been discussed in relation to its history and development. The modes of life and settlement in Barbary have been described regionally after a detailed examination of physical, cultural and economic factors.In the third part a number of outstanding agricultural problems have been examined in considerable detail with special reference to recent developments. The account of irrigation embraces the traditional and modern systems, their influence on crops and on the cultivators. Settlement of newly irrigated regions has also been examined in some detail. For Barbary the problem has been documented by studies in the field. Thereafter, water¬ logging and saline soils, soil erosion and dry-farming are treated rather generally mainly on the basis of documentary material. Attention has however been drawn to the most pressing problems to be faced today and the types of solutions that have been attempted.The final part includes first an account of land-use and agricultural methods.followed by a brief description of the product¬ ion and distribution of principal crops. Then, in the chapters on agricultural regions, all the factors described earlier have been integrated. Most of the micro-geographical studies made in the field and from 1:50,000 maps are incorporated into these chapters. The division of Barbary into agricultural regions and their detailed description with the help of sample regional and farm studies thus constitutes the principal result of this study.A brief account of present attempts towards modernisation is followed by the Conclusion in which several constructive suggestions have been made in relation to the population problem and the low standard of living.Throughout the study, the emphasis has been placed on Barbary which was the region studied in the field and on which a large proportion of documentary research war carried out. West Punjab stands, as it were, in the background. A fuller understanding of the agricultural landscape and of the problems of agriculture which has followed the study of Barbary may later lead on to an attempt at a closer survey of West Punjab on the basis of field work