The
Breadbasket or the
Granary of a country is a region which, because of richness of
soil and/or advantageous
climate, produces an agricultural surplus which is often considered vital for the country as a whole.
Rice Bowl is a similar term used in
South East Asia. Such regions may be the subject of fierce military disputes.
Regional breadbaskets/granaries
Sicilia and
Africa were considered the breadbaskets of the
Roman Republic. Later on
Egypt was considered the breadbasket of the
Roman Empire.
Africa
Zimbabwe was called the breadbasket of Africa until the
Land reform in Zimbabwe.
Bulgaria
The region of
Dobruja in the country's northeast is traditionally known as
Bulgaria's breadbasket. In addition, the country as a whole was once called "
Eastern Europe's breadbasket".
Portugal
Around the 1970s,
Alentejo was considered the breadbasket of
Portugal.
India and Pakistan
The
Punjab region is considered the breadbasket of India and Pakistan.
Russia
During Tsarist times the
Ukrainian provinces of the
Russian Empire were referred to as the Empire's breadbasket. During the Soviet era, the mantle passed to the
Ukrainian SSR.
There is also the
Central Black Earth Region within
Russia proper.
Australia
The
Murray-Darling Basin is seen as
Australia's breadbasket, being the source of 40% of the nation's agricultural income, a third of the wheat harvest, 95% of the rice crop and other products such as fruit, wine and cotton.
New Zealand
When New Zealand became a
British colony, the fertile lands produced food that would be shipped back to England, causing
New Zealand to become colloquially known (occasionally along with Australia) as 'Britain's Breadbasket', subsequently leading to the
Dunedin being the first ship to complete a truly successful transport of
refrigerated meat, she was refitted with a refrigeration machine with which she took the first load of frozen meat from New Zealand to the
United Kingdom.
North America
North America's
Great Plains are a common breadbasket shared between Canada and the United States.
Canada
In Canada the grain-growing areas are also called the
Canadian prairies. Sometimes the province of
Saskatchewan also known for producing a huge supplement of potash is further singled out from within this region as the main "Breadbasket" of Canada .
United States
In the US, this region is called the
Grain Belt.
Studies on regionalism
This region also shares some cultural and political traits which lead the authors of two books on
regionalism in North America to argue that they form a separate "nation."
In the book
Nine Nations of North America, author
Joel Garreau identifies the "Breadbasket" as one of nine cultural "nations" in North America. The
Kansas City Metropolitan Area would have served as the "capital" of this region.
In the book
The Day America Told The Truth by James Patterson and Peter Kim, this region is called the Granary instead, but its boundaries are essentially the same as those Garreau drew for the Breadbasket.
Both books include western
Indiana, northern and central
Illinois except for the immediate
Chicago metropolitan area,
Wisconsin except for the
Lake Michigan shoreline, the northern half of
Michigan's
Upper Peninsula, the states of
Minnesota,
Iowa,
North Dakota,
South Dakota,
Nebraska and
Kansas in their entirety, the easternmost tier of counties in
Montana,
Wyoming,
Colorado and northern
New Mexico, the northern and western portions of
Missouri and
Oklahoma, and the
Texas Panhandle.
Rice Bowl in Southeast Asia
The delta of
Chao Phraya in Thailand as well as the plains of
Java of Indonesia are considered the rice bowls of the region. The same could be applied to the delta of the
Mekong in Vietnam.
The
Irrawady delta in Myanmar used to be one of the most important source of rice in the region until its production declined due to various reasons, including its unstable political situation.
