A growing region, also known as a farming region or agricultural region, refers to a geographic area characterised by specific

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

factors, soil conditions and agricultural practices that are favourable for the cultivation and production of crops, plants, or livestock. Depending on the environmental characteristics, a growing region can be dominated by a single crop or crop combination. For example, the American Corn Belt, the Philippine coconut landscape and the Malayan rubber landscape are examples of growing regions that are dominated by a particular crop. On the other hand, Queensland and New South Wales of Australia characterised by high inherent soil fertility and high seasonal rainfall have highly diverse crop production including wheat, barley, oilseeds, sorghum maize and wheat. Most crops are cultivated not in one place only, but in several distinct regions in diverse parts of the world. Cultivation in these areas may be enabled by a large-scale regional climate, or by a unique

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...

. Growing regions, because of the need for climate consistency, are usually oriented along a general

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

, and in the United States these are often called " belts". The growing region of a traditional

staple crop A staple food, food staple, or simply staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for an individual or a population group, supplying a large fraction of energy needs an ...

often has a strong cultural cohesiveness.

Examples

The need for growing

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

has also historically limited

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

to certain agricultural regions. In

Viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

, American Viticultural Area - AVA regions are a specialized

geographic Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

type; and European wine

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication used to identify where the ingredients of a food or beverage originated, most often used for the origin of wine grapes. Restrictions other than geographical boundaries, s ...

s of

Protected Geographical Status Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and traditional specialties, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), promote and protect na ...

origin are another.

Examples

References

See also