ABSTRACT
Agriculture is by far the most important of the world’s economic activities; it uses one-third of the total land surface and employs 45 per cent of the working population. Yet the study of agriculture receives relatively little attention from geographers. In Britain and the USA far more notice is given to manufacturing industry and the problems of urban areas. This neglect perhaps reflects the relative unimportance of agriculture in the economies of developed countries, in contrast to its predominance in the developing countries and the world as a whole. In Britain and the USA only 2 per cent of the employed population are engaged in agriculture, and it contributes a similarly small proportion to the national income. In many developing countries, however, over half the population depends upon farming for a living and it is the most important contributor to the national income. But even in developed countries agriculture is more important than these statistics suggest, for between 12 per cent and 30 per cent of disposable income is spent on food, while agriculture is the major user of land. In England, for example, four-fifths of the land surface is used for agriculture purposes.
