Agriculture in Puerto Rico

. Photograph by Jack Delano, a photographer for the Farm Security Administration. Ca. 1941. Agriculture or farming is concerned with the cultivation of plants, animals and other food sources that sustain life. It also involves growing crops for other purposes. Coffee and sugar cane production in Puerto Rico has had a history of ups and downs, affected by hurricanes and by its isolated location, and its political status as a colony of Spain and of the United States. In 1900, the most important agricultural products in Puerto Rico were "cotton, rice, cacao, corn, coconuts, pepper, bananas, tobacco, vegetable dyes, coffee, sugar, pineapples and vanilla". The impact in August 1899 of two hurricanes severely affected the island. The 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane on August 8, and an unnamed hurricane on August 22 killed approximately 3,400 people and left thousands without shelter, food, or work. The hurricanes cost the economy millions of dollars due to the destruction of the majority of the sugar and coffee plantations. Afterwards, nearly 5‚000 Puerto Ricans migrated to Hawaii by 1910 to work in the sugar plantations of said state. In the 1940s and 1950s agriculture continued to play a crucial role in the island's economy with 45% of the labor force employed within the sector in 1940. The cultivation of pineapples was significant until the 1990s when the main buyer Lotus juice company closed. In 2012, there were 13,159 farms in Puerto Rico. While not a state, Puerto Rico is a member of the Southern United States Trade Association, a non-profit organization that assists the agriculture industry in developing its exports. In early 2020, farm owners in Ponce reported on the continuing challenge of finding laborers. ==New farms==

As a result of the 2009 economic crisis and the susceptibility of Puerto Rico to hurricanes, there's been an urgency to push for more farms on the island. While not large enough to produce on a mass scale, the quality of products is high. Farming has a more positive image among young people in Puerto Rico, however, in places like Ponce, where the weather tends to be hotter, farm owners complain that the turnover rate is too high. == Crops ==

Corn (maize) is commonly grown here, including strains of Bt corn producing the Cry1F endotoxin. On the other hand Banerjee et al., 2017 finds Cry1F-r in Puerto Rico is commonly caused by a particular mutation in ', the resistance allele '. The use of two or more effective Cry proteins may be necessary to provide multiple modes of action for resistance management. Both the Fall Armyworm C-strain and -R-strain are found here, and are shared with Louisiana. ==Gallery==

Mango tree with fruit in Rincón, Puerto Rico.jpg|Mango tree in Rincón Sugar cane land 1a34028v.jpg|In 1941 sugar cane production surged in Río Piedras, now a district of San Juan Sack of oranges at the Acabe del Café festival in Maricao, Puerto Rico.jpg|Oranges at festival in Maricao Holes ready for the trees (7210981860).jpg|Preparing to plant in Maricao Team work (7210990382).jpg|Students plant a tree at a school in Maricao Hacienda Lealtad, former coffee plantation in Lares, Puerto Rico 14.jpg|Newly planted coffee trees at Hacienda Lealtad in Lares after Hurricane Maria in 2017 destroyed all its coffee trees Vegetable stand at Fiesta Acabe del Café in Maricao, Puerto Rico.jpg|Vegetable and fruit stand at in Maricao in 2014 Cayey, 00736, Puerto Rico - panoramio (1).jpg|Avocado harvest in Cayey Coffee-Drying plot near Mayaguez.jpg|Coffee near Mayagüez in 1899 ==See also==