Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in Ecuador

1017 Words3 Pages

Ecuador is one of the smaller Andean countries in South America. It is located on the west coast on the equator, Hence the name “Ecuador”. Even though Ecuador is small it has four distinct and contrasting regions. The Costa, or coastal plain, grows so many bananas so it’s the world’s most exported fruit. The Sierra, or Andean highlands, offers productive farmland. Oil from the Oriente and the jungles east of the Andes, improves the economy. (1) For a small country Ecuador has a lot of continental variety. These three different regions have a huge agricultural influence on Ecuador because they determine what is able to grow there. The agriculture in Ecuador employs one fourth of the people in Ecuador. (5)
The Costa region is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, and is made up of coastal lowlands, coastal mountains, and hilly hills that separate river valleys. Ecuador has a long and varied coastline. It is the country’s most fertile and productive land. The crops that would be commonly found in this region are: Bananas, rice crop, and cocoa. The truly coastal provinces have active fisheries. Coastal waters are rich with anchovies, mackerel, tuna, shrimp, fish, tilapia, and crab. Shrimp and tilapia are raised in small ponds. Cocoa is grown primarily by small scale farmers mainly in tropical cropping systems. Rice is a very important crop grown by small and medium scale farmers. (1) Most of this nation’s bananas, cacao, coffee and sugar cane are raised on plantations in the coastal lowlands. Oranges and rice are also grown in the coastal lowlands. Ecuador is the world’s leading producer of balsa wood which grows in the coastal lowlands. (5)
The Sierra region has two major chains of the Andes Mountains, the Co...

... middle of paper ...

...produce mainly beef and dual purpose cattle with dairy. For a country that’s no bigger than the state of Colorado, it’s amazing how diverse its agricultural regions are. (1)

SOURCES:
1) Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, (2013), “South America: Ecuador”, http://www.cia.gov/library/publications, World Fact book
2) CROPS, U.S. Library of Congress, 1989. http://countrystudies.us/ecuador/46.htm 3) Country Pasture/Forage Resource Profiles , J.M. Suttie and S.G. Reynolds in January, 2003 and modified by S.G. Reynolds in May 2006, http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/AGPC/doc/pasture/forage.htm 4) Encyclopedia of the Nations, 2014 Advameg, Inc., http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Ecuador-ENVIRONMENT.html#ixzz2rMkJUyg3 5) World Book Encyclopedia, 2014, World Book inc., Chicago, IL

6) Culture Shock Ecuador, Nicholas Crowder, Marshall Cavendish 2001, Tarrytown, NY

Open Document