Main crops cultivation in tropical monsoon region
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Monsoon Asia encompasses East, Southeast and South Asia. It is characterized by an extremely high population density and, as a corollary, by a high land use intensity. Thus, the region has no more land for further expansion of cultivation and has to focus its effort on intensification of agriculture. Another distinctive feature of monsoon Asia is very high shares of the area and production of rice in the world. Some 90% of the total acreage as well as annual output of rice are concentrated in the region, making it rightly deserve the name "rice granary" of the world. Climate and landforms of the region were reviewed with regard to a widespread use of the land for rice cultivation. A high rainfall and/or a high concentration of rainfall in the rainy season, on the one hand, and the occurrence of extensive lowlands, on the other, are the two determining factors for the dominance of rice cultivation in Monsoon Asia. Particularly, a vast expanse of lowlands is a unique feature of the region, resulting from a combination of geological instability and high rainfall of the region.