Agriculture
and other primary economic activities
Agriculture: the deliberate tending of crops and livestock in order to produce
food and fiber.
Three sectors of economic activity:
1. Primary (agriculture, mining, etc.)
2. Secondary (industry)
3. Tertiary (service)
a. Quaternary
b. Quinary
Early peoples were hungers and gatherers, and by 8000 B.C.E., many had settled down
because they were able to cultivate crops
and domesticate animals
Changes brought about by the Neolithic Revolution
1. increase in reliable food supplies
2. rapid increase in total human population
3. job specialization
4. widening of gender differences
5. development of distinction between settled people and nomads
Carl Sauer: first cultivation was vegetative planting, or planting from existing plants (cutting stems or dividing roots)
Seed agriculture came later. (Sauer, again)
Western India
Northern China
Ethiopia
Diffused elsewhere
Two independent sites in Western hemisphere
Southern Mexico
Northern Peru
Second Agricultural Revolution
Western Europe, 1600s
use of fertilizers
improved collars for draft animals so they could pull heavier loads
Led to Industrial Revolution!
Subsistence agriculture
most prevalent in LDCs and is the production of only enough food to feed the farmer’s family, with little or no surplus to sell.
In LDCs, high percentage of people in subsistence agriculture
Work done with hand tools and animal power
Small farm size
Subsistence farming subregions
Commercial Agriculture
Farmers and ranchers sell all of their output for money and buy family food at stores.
Dominant in more developed countries
Types of Commercial Farming
1. Mixed crop and livestock farming
• U.S. west of the Appalachian mountains
• Europe from France through Russia
• grow both crops, much of which is fed to livestock, and livestock
• practice crop rotation
2. Dairy farming
outlying large urban areas
milkshed—the ring of milk production surrounding a major city
3. Grain farming
from Oklahoma, Kansas & Colorado north into Canada
“World’s breadbasket”
4. Livestock ranching
the commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area
often in arid or semi-arid regions
5. Mediterranean agriculture
6. Commercial gardening and fruit farming
Southeast U.S.
truck farming
Rely heavily on machinery & fertilizers
Migrant labor
7. Plantation farming
a large farm that specializes in one or two crops
found in Africa, Latin America, Asia
What model is this?
RIGHT!
Von Thunen
Intensive agriculture closest to city
Extensive agriculture farther from city
Patterns of settlement
dispersed
Hamlets
or villages
Housing styles and building materials
Village
definition and size varies by region
dwellings and a few commercial buildings
most people work in primary sector
Village forms
1. round village
East Africa and parts of Europe
2. walled village
3. Grid village
4. Linear Village
5. Cluster village
Land ownership
Primogeniture—the land is passed on to the eldest son
Northern Europe and former British empire countries
Land is divided equally among heirs
Asia, Africa, southern Europe
Survey techniques
1. rectangular survey system
2. Metes and bounds
Natural features are used to mark irregular parcels of land
3. long-lot survey system
narrow parcels that extend from rivers, roads, or canals to give more people access to transportation
Third Agricultural Revolution
began in mid 20th century and is based on new, higher-yielding varieties of crops developed in laboratories and plant nurseries through biotechnology, the use of genetically altered crops in agriculture and DNA manipulation of livestock in order to increase production.
Green Revolution
the use of new higher-yield seeds
the expanded use of fertilizer
Environmental Impacts of Modern Agriculture
1. Erosion
2. Changes in the organic content of soil
Desertification
3. Depletion of natural vegetation
4. Presence of chemicals in soil and ground water
5. Loss of available farmland
How do we ensure future food supplies?
1. Expansion of agricultural land has been the most common way, but there are problems with this method.
11% of world’s land is currently cultivated
most of remaining land is not arable
land has been lost to desertification
land has been lost to urbanization
2. Increase land productivity
3. Identification of new food sources
4. Improved distribution of food
We’re done with
agriculture!
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