Page 47 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

I

-23-

cultivation had been noticeably reduced. Tliis was explained economically as the
result of importing large quantities of vegetables from abroad by a "ring” of
contractors who controlled the market (Government of Bahrain, Annual Report for
1958). In the same report, the ongoing changes in the contemporary market
economy were discussed by noting that the traditional limited diet had been
changed by the introduction of more varied foods. The date, which was the staple
food of the local population, had been displaced. At the same time the by-products
of the date, fuel, and building materials, were replaced by still other imports.
Without sufficient returns on energy and funds invested in the date crop, it was
largely abandoned for more lucrative endeavors.
Land tenure is also a major factor in the agricultural use of Bahrain.
Under the present "short tenure" system, agricultural land is owned by absentee
landlords who lease land to individual farmers for not longer than one to two years.
Within this short period it is uneconomical to experiment with new, more efficient
farming methods. Hence, farmers will not take the initiative for improving or
reclaiming abandoned land. It can be easily seen that the abandonment observed in
spatial analyses is a composite of many causes. One may not use it as a priori
evidence of either cultural or natural explanations.
This study places the socioeconomic and natural environmental factors
which have governed BahrainTs current land-use patterns in a better perspective,
one that utilizes the available body of historical, archeological, and geological
information. This acts as an aid to others seeking to understand the complex
problems of the islands. Tlie short forty-to fifty-year record used for modern
planning and engineering purposes does not adequately reckon with the long term
processes that have shaped and given rise to the modern state. Hie
geoarcheological analysis presented here provides a background and context for not
only Bahrain's past, but the modern state as well.