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Agriculture – it’s a beast. Glossary. Agribusiness - Farms operated by large companies such as Birds Eye Arable - The growing of crops eg Wheat/Barley Cash Crops - Crops grown to be sold for a profit Chagras - A clearing in the Amazon Forest
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Glossary • Agribusiness - Farms operated by large companies such as Birds Eye • Arable - The growing of crops eg Wheat/Barley • Cash Crops - Crops grown to be sold for a profit • Chagras - A clearing in the Amazon Forest • Commercial Farming - Farming to make a profit • Eutrophication - Loss of oxygen in streams caused by fertiliser runoff • Extensive Farming - A farm using large areas of land but with little output • Green Revolution - New techniques used in LEDC's to increase production • HYV - Crops that produce higher yields than ordinary seeds • Irrigation - The artificial watering of the land • Intensive - A small farm using a lot of equipment or people to have a high output
Glossary continued • Market - The customers who buy the produce • Mixed Farming - The farming of crops and animals • Monoculture - When only one type of crop is grown • Multiple Cropping - Where two or more crops are grown on the same land • Pastoral Farming - The rearing of animals • Soil Erosion - The removal of soil by wind or rain • Staple Crop - The main crop grown eg Rice in Bangladesh • Subsistance Farming - Produce mainly grown for the family and not for sale
Factors affecting farming - Physical • Rainfall - Crops need between 250mm & 500mm per year • Temperature - Crops need a minimum of 6 degrees C and three months of 17 degrees to ripen • Growing Season - This is the length of time crops need to grow - wheat needs 90 frost free days • Altitude - The higher you are the colder it gets so this affects the type of farming • Aspect - This is the direction a slope faces - South facing slopes receive more heat • Relief - Steep slopes result in thin and infertile soils and machinery is difficult to use • Soil - Deep, fertile and well drained soil is best for crops
Factors affecting farming - Human • Labour - Farming requires either human labour or machinery • Market - This is the demand for the agricultural products • Accessibility - Transport costs increase with distance from the market • Subsidies - Governments provide money to encourage certain types of farming • Quotas - Governments can also place limits on certain products to prevent surpluses • Attitudes - Personnel interests of the public and farmer will also influence what is grown • Finance - This may influence what is grown as certain types of farming need more capital
The farm is a system • The Farm as a systemFarming operates as a system with inputs, processes and outputs Processes Ploughing Fertilising Harvesting Milking Lambing/Calving Planting Inputs Relief - Temperature Precipitation Length of growing season Soil type Farm size Machinery Outputs Grain - Barley/Wheat etc Flowers Vegetables Animals - Calves/lambs/piglets Milk/Wool
Classification of Farming Types • Arable - is the growing of cropsPastoral - is the keeping of animalsMixed - is when farmers grow crops and rear animals • Subsistence Farmers - produce food for themselves and their family, there is no profitCommercial Farmers - sell their crops and animals to make a profit • Intensive - High inputs of money, labour or technology to achieve high outputs or yields per hectare. The farms are usually quite smallExtensive - Low inputs, large areas of land, low outputs or yields per hectare • Sedentary is when the settlement is permanent and the landscape farmed every yearNomadic farmers move around looking for fresh pasture or new plots to cultivate
Farming in the UK - Sheep • Hill Sheep Farming in the Lake DistrictIn the upland areas of Britain, sheep farming is the main farming activity due to the difficult conditions and human factors. Breeds of hill sheep, e.g. Swaledales, can survive the extremes of weather and poor quality pasture. • Characteristics of a hill sheep farmThree zones of land use • The Fell - the tops of the hills over 300m altitude - sheep graze on this open land in the summer. • The Intake or Lower Slopes - divided into fields by dry stone walls - some pasture is improved by adding drainage and fertilizers • The Inbye - the small area of land on the valley floor close to the farm buildings - more fertile soils and sheltered. Used for lambing, shearing etc, and for growing some winter fodder crops
Sheep farming the problems • Recent Problems • Hill sheep farming is not always profitable • The threat of removal of subsidies from the E.U. • Costs, e.g. fuel, machinery, fodder have all risen but lamb prices in the 1990's have collapsed • Fewer young people want to carry on sheep farming • Conflicts with tourists and National Park Authorities
Sheep farming – changes and improvements • Changes and Improvements • New breeding stock to improve the quality and quantity of meat and wool • Greater use of fertilizers to improve the quality of the pasture • EU subsidies and grants to encourage conservation of dry stone walls, natural pastures, stone barns and hedgerows • Grants for new farm buildings so lambing can be done indoors • Diversification of farms to do organic farming, other animals such as deer/goats or non farming activities such as camping, sports activities and forestry • Some farms have been sold as second homes
Dairy farming - UK • Mainly found in the west and central UK • On gently sloping ground • Usually heavy clay soils • Mild and wet climate • Size is often 150 hectares with a herd of about 100milking cows • Machinery will include tractors, ploughs and hay cutting • Labour will consist of the farmers family • Output is mainly milk
Market Gardening • Located usually near large towns • Usually on flat well sheltered land • Soil is usually fertile loams • Climate is warm in summer with not too much rain • Farming is intensive with small area of land • Usually a small number of workers with a lot of specialised machinery • Output is mainly salad crops, fruit and vegetables
Arable Farming in East Anglia The main type of farming found in East Anglia is Arable due to the gently sloping ground which allows large scale use of machinery, deep fertile soils usually consisting of boulder clay, an ideal climate of warm dry summers and cool winters which kill off bugs and encourage ripening in the summer
Changes in Arable Farming • Chemicals - have allowed the continuous production of wheat and Barley to be grown by using fertilisers and pesticides/herbicides to increase production • Land Reclamation - To produce more and more yields, hedges have been removed, fields enlarged, marshes drained, woodland cleared and hills flattened to make the area ideal for crop growing • Improved Buildings - Drying sheds have been built to store grain to protect the harvest • Mechanisation - Fields were increased in size to allow larger machines such as combine harvesters etc to operate more easily. Also farms were joined together to increase profit margins and buy fertilisers etc more cheaply - This is called economy of scale
The Common Agricultural policy (CAP) • The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) governs farming in the countries of the European Union including the UK. • CAP protects farmers from competition from cheap foreign imports • CAP encourage farmers by using a variety of methods to produce the food needed by the inhabitants of the E. U. • In recent years E. U. farmers have produced surpluses in many food types and CAP have had to use a variety of methods to restrict the growth of certain foodstuffs.
Policies of the EU • Price Support Policies • These are a target price that is set for all farm produce as well as an intervention price. If the price of farm produce falls to the intervention price, the EU will buy the product. This guarantees a minimum price for the farmer but can lead to the EU building up food mountains.
Policies of the EU • Quotas • In the 1980's farmers in the EU were producing too much milk. Milk quotas were introduced in 1984 to limit the production from each farm. Farmers can increase their quota by buying another farmer's quota.
Policies of the EU • Subsidies • This is money paid to farmers for producing certain crops such as oil seed rape. They encourage farmers to grow more of the subsidised crop, making the EU more self-sufficient in many foodstuffs. But the drive to increase yields has led to many of the features seen below
Policies of the EU • Set-Aside • To limit the quantity of cereal crops being produced the EU pays farmers a subsidy to leave land uncultivated. All arable farmers must leave a proportion (15% of farms over 20 hectares) uncultivated or Set-Aside . They cannot farm this land but it can be used for other purposes, eg. golf courses or camp sites which will earn the farmer money, wildlife areas for which the farmer will be given an extra subsidy, or left under grass for which the farmer is paid a grant.
Diversification • This is when farmers develop business activities other than farming on their land as can be seen opposite.
Farming in LEDC’s • Most people in less economically developed countries are farmers and most of these are subsistence farmers. Subsistence farming means producing crops and rearing animals for the use of the farmer. Very little surplus produce is grown
Types of farming • Extensive Shifting Cultivation • An area of land is cleared by cutting and burning the vegetation. Crops are planted and harvested. When the land loses its fertility after about 5 years the area is abandoned and another area is cleared and farmed e.g. shifting cultivation in the Amazon Rainforest, Brazil • Extensive Pastoral Nomadism • In regions where grazing is poor, farmers herd animals over wide areas in search of pasture e.g. sheep herding in North Africa.
Types of farming • Intensive Arable Farming • The most common kind - Usually small patches of land near to the village are farmed. Most of the work is done by hand or using oxen - eg rice farming in S.E. Asia
Case Study - Subsistence Rice Farming in the Ganges Valley • Physical Factors • A five month growing season with temperatures over 21degrees centigrade • Monsoon rainfall over 2000mm • Flat land to allow the fields to flood • A dry period for harvesting • Rich alluvial soils to provide nutrients • A large labour force (intensive)
Human factors • Rice gives high yields per hectare which helps to feed the large population. • Water buffaloes are used for work and as a source of manure for the fields • Rice seeds are stored from one year to provide the next year's crop • Rice growing is labour intensive so many people can be employed in the paddy fields looking after the crops.
Problems of rice growing • Flooding - This provides water and fertile silt to grow the rice but sometimes disaster strikes when the floods are so severe that they destroy the rice crop. • Drought - In some years the monsoon rains fail and the rice crop is ruined. • Shortage of land and a growing population - many patches of land are far too small to support the family. The situation is made worse by the ever increasing population. Food shortages are a real problem.
Plantation farming – South Africa, Maria’s Pineapple Plantation • Plantation farming involves the growing of one type of crop over a large area such as Bananas as in Ecuador, Sugar Cane and coffee • It requires a lot of investment, usually from a wealthy company in an MEDC. Plantations are well organised to get the highest possible yields.
Advantages to LEDC’s • Plantations can provide employment • They provide investments in modern machinery and workers are trained • They provide export earnings for LEDC's
Disadvantages to LEDC’s • They can destroy large areas of natural vegetation • Much of the profit from plantations goes to MEDC's • Workers are low paid and usually exploited • If world prices in the crop fail the country gets very little income • Monoculture plantations are vulnerable to pests diseases or climatic hazards can wipe out a whole years crop
Background to the Green Revolution • In the mid 1960's scientists working in Mexico and the Philippines and backed by money from the USA developed new varieties of wheat, maize and rice. • With these new varieties farmers could increase yields from each hectare by two or three times. • These hybrid varieties became known as HYV's or high-yielding varieties • The use of chemical fertilisers was also increased • In less than 5 years yields of rice, wheat and maize rose by up to 40% in many countries in Asia including India and Bangladesh. • Grants and loans were made available to buy the new seeds and fertilizers • Although there were many advantages of HYV's there were also disadvantages
Advantages of the Green Revolution • Yields increased three times • Multiple cropping • Other crops grown which varied the diet • Surplus to sell in cities creating a profit improving the standard of living • Allows purchase of fertilizers, machinery etc
Disadvantages of the Green Revolution • Poor farmers could not afford HYV's fertilizers and machinery. • Some borrowed and ended up with large debts • HYV's need more water and fertilizer, which is expensive • New machinery replaced manual labour leading to unemployment and rural-urban migration
Irrigation • Despite the monsoon rains the water supply can be inadequate for growing rice, especially if more than one crop is grown. So irrigation is needed • In the Ganges valley there are: • Wells - holes dug to reach underground water supplies, the water is lifted from the well using a shaduf or waterwheel or electric pumps - The water is then fed along open channels to the fields • Inundation canals on the river banks which fill up as the river floods and takes the water to the fields
Appropriate Technology • This is technology suited to the needs, skills, knowledge and wealth of the people. Large expensive irrigation projects and dams have many disadvantages. Appropriate technology is needed, for example, • Individual wells with easy to maintain pumps • Renewable energy sources which use local resources such as wind power, solar power and biogas • Projects which use local labour rather than machinery • No Hi-tech machines needing expensive fuel and foreign spares • Low cost schemes which are sustainable
Questions you need to be able to answer • What are the main physical/Human inputs into a farm • What physical/ Human factors affect farming • What is a subsistent/commercial/extensive/intensive farmer • Define the term - Arable Farming
Questions you need to be able to answer • Using an example, explain what changes have taken place on a farm you have studied • Describe and explain the pattern of farming in the United Kingdom • What are the factors that make East Anglia suitable for Arable farming • For an extensive farming system you have studied explain the physical and human factors that affect this type of farming
Questions you need to be able to answer • In what ways do the EU have an effect on the farming type in the UK • Using an example explain how farms have increased production in the EU • Explain how modern farming can have an effect on the environment • Explain the ways farmers are increasing their income by diversifying
