Topic V: Agriculture and Rural Land Use

2. Topic V: Agriculture and Rural Land Use

3. What is Agriculture? • The modification of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain subsistence or economic gain. • A crop is a plant cultivated by people.

4. Agriculture • 1/3 of all land area committed to agriculture use • Developing countries = 2/3 involved in agriculture • Employment in agriculture is declining in developing countries • < 2 Million

5. How does agriculture relate to geography? • Geographers study where agriculture is distributed. • LDCs: agricultural products are consumed near where they are produced • MDCs: agricultural products are sold and consumed away from where they are produced.

6. How does agriculture relate to geography? • Geographers study why farming practices vary around the world. • Elements of physical environment that limit agricultural production.

7. How does agriculture relate to geography? • Local diversity is shown in the environmental and cultural mix influencing agricultural practices. • Globalization influences farmers to grow profitable rather than practical crops.

8. Classification of Economic Activities • Primary • Secondary • Tertiary • Quaternary • Quinary

9. Economic Geography • Study of how people earn their living • How livelihood systems vary by area • And the spatial linkage between economic activities

10. Primary Activities • Harvesting or extracting something directly from the Earth • Humans in direct contract with the natural environment • Hunting & gathering, farming, livestock herding, fishing, forestry

11. Secondary Activities • Add value to material by changing their form or combining them into more useful/valuable commodities • Intermediate products • Manufacturing and processing industries • Energy and construction industries

12. Tertiary Activities • Consists of those business and labor specializations that provide services to the primary and secondary sectors, general community, and private individuals • “service industries” • Linkage between producer and consumer

13. 2 types of Tertiary Activites • Quaternary: services performed by “white collar” professionals • Exchange of information, money, or capital • Quinary: high level decision making activities • Spheres of research and higher education

14. Primary Activities: Agriculture • Before farming hunting and gathering were the universal forms of primary production • Use of tools and fire enabled sustainable population growth in early communities • Cyclic Migration was the way of life

15. The First Agricultural Revolution • 12,000 years ago • First conscious cultivation of plants • Increased the carrying capacity of the Earth • Caused changes in social organization and technology

16. The First Agricultural Revolution • Living in permanent settlements • Land ownerships • Modification of the natural environment • Trading economies • Developed much later in the Americas than in Southeast and Southwest Asia • Many agricultural hearths

17. Diffusion of Agriculture • Vegetative cultivation in S.E. Asia same time (root removal) – 14,000 years ago • Agriculture diffused from agriculture centers through stimulus diffusion • Later through migration and colonialism

18. Diffusion of Agriculture • Seeds of agriculture began in the fertile crescent (Iran and Iraq) – 10,000 years ago - because of seed selection, plants got bigger over time - generated a surplus of wheat and barley - first integration of plant growing and animal raising (used crops to feed livestock, used livestock to help grow crops)

19. Diffusion of Agriculture • Animal Domestication • Fertile Crescent • began about 8,000 years ago

20. Animal Domestication • Relatively few animals have been domesticated • (all by 4500 years ago) • Goats* • Sheep* • Pigs* • Cattle* • Horses* • Camels • Yaks • (*Jared Diamond claims to be the five most important animals) • Attempts at domestication continue, but most fail • -Llama • -Alpaca • -Turkey • -Water Buffalo • -Cats • -Dogs • -Reindeer

21. Carl Sauer • Proposed that agriculture began in the Bay of Bengal 14,000 years ago • The cultivation of roots and cuttings came first (cassava, yams, and sweet potatoes) before seed crops • Proposed other agricultural hearths

22. World Areas of Agricultural Innovations Carl Sauer identified 11 areas where agricultural innovations occurred.

23. Chief Source Regions of Important Crop Plant Domestications

24. Subsistence Agriculture • Subsistence Agriculture – Agriculture in which people grow only enough food to survive. - farmers often hold land in common - Total self-sufficiency - some are sedentary, and some practice shifting cultivation

25. World Regions of Primarily Subsistence Agriculture On this map, India and China are not shaded because farmers sell some produce at markets; in equatorial Africa and South America, subsistence farming allows little excess and thus little produce sold at markets.

26. Shifting Cultivation • Clear land for planting by slash-and-burn, cultivate crops for several years until it becomes infertile • Leave land to lie fallow so soil can recover • 5% of world pop. Still practice shifting cultivation

27. Slash and Burn • Swidden agriculture: areas of land cleared and vegetation burned off, layer of ash increases soil’s fertility • Very efficient with low pop/high land/ low tech

30. Shifting Cultivation • Crops: rice in SE Asia, maize and cassava in S America, millet and sorghum in Africa • Often the land is: • Used for multiple crops in subsistence • Owned by village, and separated into family plots

31. Northern India

32. Shifting Cultivation • Decreasing as a main type of subsistence • Moving to more sophisticated types of agriculture with help of state and global organizations • Deforestation of rainforests bringing global attention Brazil

33. Boserup Thesis • Population increases necessitates increased inputs of labor and technology to compensate for reduction in the natural yields of swidden farming • Why?

34. Intensive Subsistence Systems • Work small parcels of land intensively • Double cropping and crop rotation prevalent • ½ of the worlds population • Hundreds of millions of Chinese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Indonesians

35. Settling down in one place, a rising population, and the switch to agriculture are interrelated occurrences in human history. Hypothesize which of these three happened first, second, and third, and explain why.

36. Second Agriculture Revolution • A series of innovations, improvements, and techniques used to improve the output of agricultural surpluses (started before the industrial revolution). • eg. seed drill advances in livestock breeding new fertilizers

37. Second Agricultural Revolution • Began slowly during the middle ages • Modification of tools and equipment of agriculture • Increased efficiency of food storage and distribution • Increased productivity • Aided in the growth of large urban areas

38. Industrial Revolution • Aided the Second Agricultural Revolution • Tractors and Machines • Changed the cultural landscape of agriculture….how?

39. Von Thunen’s Model of Farming • The modification of farming culture created a desire for a spatial understanding of agricultural layout • Created in the 1800s • Based on cities in Germany near Von Thunen’s farm

41. Reasons • Profitable options decrease with distance from the market • Rent differences reflects different values of distance • Production Costs + Transportation Costs = economic margin for a crop • Greater the transport cost the less rent a farmer can afford

42. Contemporary Variables • More efficient transportation • Transportation cost no longer proportional to costs • Firewood not a factor • Technology has reduced perishability

43. The Third Agricultural Revolution • Creation of the New World • Late 19th Century and gained momentum through the 20th Century • Big differences between the 2nd and the 3rd is degree

44. The Third Agricultural Revolution: 3 Phases • Mechanization, chemical farming with synthetic fertilizers, and globally widespread food manufacturing

45. Mechanization • Replacement of human labor with machines • Tractors, combines, reapers, pickers, since late 1800’s

46. Chemical Farming • Application of synthetic fertilizers to the soil • Also herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides • Important environmental impact

47. Food Manufacturing • Adding economic value to agricultural products through a range of treatments • Processing, canning, refining, packing, packaging

48. The Third Agricultural Revolution The Green Revolution • Began in the 1960s • Scientists created IR36—an “artificial” rice plant • By 1992 IR36 was the most widely grown crop on Earth

49. The Green Revolution • New high-yield hybrid varieties of wheat and corn were developed and diffused • Disastrous famines of the past have been avoided • Asia saw a two-thirds increase in rice production