Scott, Peter: Australian agriculture. Resource development and spatial organization - Geography of world agriculture 9. (Budapest, 1981)
Г. SCOTT AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION Among the continents (excluding Antarctica) Australia is not only the driest and the least favourable to agricult tire, but also the only one to export more agricultural produce than it consumes. Its agriculture has adjusted to the predominantly dry conditions with marked climatic variability and exceptionally poor soils by specializing in largo scale extensive pastoralism and in highly mechanised grain farming. Two commodities — wool and wheat — make up one-half of Australia’s agricultural exports and one-third of the agricultural output. Australia is, in fact, the world’s largest exporter of wool and the third largest exporter of wheat. Over the past two decades, Australian agriculture has undergone substantial changes in export orientation, productivity and structure. Since the mid-sixties, the focus of agricultural exports has shifted from the United Kingdom ami Western Europe to Japan and South East Asia. These trends have been accompanied by important changes in farm size, in farm business organization and in the spatial patterns of agricultural systems. The author examines in detail the salient features and regional structure of Australian agriculture, the productivity and efficiency of resource use, the agricultural systems and farming types, and the potential for expanding production and export in the foreseeable future. AKADÉMIAI КГА1Ю . BUDAPEST