ABSTRACT
The Great Plains of North America is geographically a vast expanse of land with fertile soils, natural prairies, agricultural cropping regions, forests, mountains, undulating and flat regions, rivers, and lakes. It is located in the central part of North American continent and extends for about 1.4 million mi2. It stretches for 3,870 km in length from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in the North through to Texas coast line in the South and on to small region in Mexico. The width of this ecoregion is estimated at 1,612 km starting from foothills of Rocky Mountains to Indiana in the East (Figure 1.1). Precipitation depreciates from wet regions in east (1,050 mm year−1) to dry arid belts of West (720 mm year−1). Rocky Mountains create a rain shadow region. The Great Plains encompass wide variety of vegetation. It supports predominantly tall grass prairies in the Eastern zone, short grass prairies in the West, and mixed pastures and cropland all around. Great Plains is among the top most food grain producing regions of the world. It has large wheat, corn, and soybean belts that contribute grains and forage. Great Plains produce 60 percent wheat, 87 percent sorghum and 36 percent of cotton harvested in the entire USA. Annual grain production in the Great Plains is greater than 334 million tons. It amounts to 25 percent of global harvest of major dry land cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, legume soybean, and so on. However, Great Plains is one of the least densely populated agricultural belts. It has a population of 10 million human beings. It also supports a large population of cattle and other farm animals that has to be supplied with food (IISD, 2012a).
