by Matthew Tyler Funk

Created on: October 13, 2010   Last Updated: October 16, 2010

There are a number of factors which influence the productivity of agricultural operations. Many of these factors are fairly obvious, like the availability of water, or of sunlight in the location where crops will be grown. The type and health of the soil also plays a role in the productivity of the plants which are grown in that soil. Elevation, water quality, and soil drainage all factor in to the productivity of crops as well.

Another major factor in the productivity of any agricultural operation is whether the operation is a monocrop plantation or a polycrop food forest. Monocrop planting involves the mass planting of a single species of plant in a concentrated area. This practice is destructive of the environment, and requires toxic chemicals and immense energy and nutrient inputs to maintain production. It is far less efficient with a much lower production per acre and no diversity of harvest.

On a polyculture planting a food forest can be grown in which plants and animals are designed in to the system to work with nature and each other to make the whole system stronger. Species are grown together who are known to benefit one another, and such a system requires very if any inputs to continue functioning. Polyculture systems produce an abundance of food and can be designed to provide continuous year-round harvests of diverse crops on a single piece of land.

One very complex and unnatural influence on agricultural productivity comes in the form of government subsidies to large industrial food production systems. These subsidies go primarily to the companies engaged in the most inhumane, environmentally destructive, unsustainable and labor intensive farming practices.

Without government subsidies most reckless, inhumane and environmentally irresponsible industrial farming operations would not be profitable enough to continue producing their toxic foods. Those farming methods require too many unsustainable inputs to produce their food by working against nature instead of going with the flow. Their operations would not be economically viable if they had to factor in the price of what those farming methods really cost.

Although at first is may seem counter-intuitive, it's really quite easy to understand that the biggest single factor influencing the productivity of an agricultural operation is sustainability. By nature, sustainable practices focus on reducing inputs and increasing outputs and so by definition, more sustainable approaches to agriculture increase agricultural productivity.

For unsustainable operations, the biggest single factor influencing their productivity is the availability of government subsidies, without which such operations cannot continue to function profitably or productively.

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