INTRODUCTION TO AGRICULTURE:
What is it and where did it begin?
AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Agriculture and Land Use
Copeland
So what is agriculture?
 The textbooks define it as…
 The deliberate modification of Earth’s surface through
cultivation (growing) of plants and rearing (raising) of animals
to obtain sustenance or economic gain.
 Intentional planting of crops and raising of domesticated
animals
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY LEVELS
 PRIMARY
 Involves products closest to the ground; farming, ranching, fishing, forestry,
mining
 SECONDARY
 Manufacturing of a primary product; processed foods, cars, chemicals
 TERTIARY
 The service industry; bankers, lawyers, teachers
 QUATERNARY
 Services involved with the exchange of money or goods
 QUINARY
 Services involved with research and higher education
***Agriculture is classified as a primary activity
WHY study agriculture?
Use Chapter 10 to help
 Impact on people?
 Impact on other businesses/industry?
 Importance of survival to agrarian societies
 AGRARIAN: Relating to or concerning the land and its
cultivation
What is agriculture dependent upon?
Climate?
Culture and Traditions?
Demand?
AGRICULTURE TODAY…
 Agriculture has been transformed into a globally integrated system.
 The introduction of new technologies, political concerns about food
security and self-sufficiency, and changing opportunities for
investment and employment are among the many forces that have
dramatically shaped agriculture as we know it today.
 The industrialized agricultural system of today’s world has developed
from – and largely displaced – older agricultural practices, including
subsistence agriculture and pastoralism.
 Double-cropping and triple-cropping are being practiced in Asia.
 Transformations in agriculture have had dramatic impacts on the
environment, including soil erosion, desertification, deforestation, and
soil and water pollution, as well as the elimination of some plant and
animal species.
AGRICULTURE TOMORROW…
 World population will grow from around 7 billion people today to 8.3 billion
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people in 2030.
The world population will be increasingly well-fed by 2030.
The number of hungry people in developing countries is expected to decline,
but Sub-Saharan Africa is cause for serious concern.
Much of future food production growth will come from higher productivity.
The expansion of farmland for food production will be slower than in the past.
Globally, deforestation will probably continue to slow down.
At a global level there is enough water available, but some regions will face
serious water shortages.
Modern biotechnology offers promises as a means to improving food security.
FOOD PRODUCTION
 Providing food in the United States and
Canada is a vast industry.
 The mechanized, highly productive American
or Canadian farm contrasts with the
subsistence farm found in much of the world.
 This sharp contrast in agricultural practices
constitutes one of the most fundamental
differences between the more developed and
less developed countries of the world.
Top 10 Agricultural Products in U.S.
($ value exports)
1) beef
2) animal feed
3) corn
4) fruits
5) dairy
6) wheat
7) vegetables
8) poultry
9) tree nuts
10) sugar
The Economics of Farming
 The reason why farming varies around the world relates to distribution across
space of cultural and environmental factors.
 Elements of the physical environment, such as climate, soil, and topography, set
broad limits on agricultural practices, and farmers make choices to modify the
environment in a variety of ways.
 At a global scale, farmers increasingly pursue the most profitable agriculture
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Agricultural Location Theory
Locational Rent
von Thunen Model of Agricultural Land Use
Transportation of crops for economic gain
AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE
 The overall appearance of an area impacted through a system
of agriculture.
WHAT IS THIS?
(WHERE MIGHT THIS BE?)
WHAT IS THIS?
(WHERE MIGHT THIS BE?)
WHAT IS THIS?
(WHERE MIGHT THIS BE?)
WHAT IS THIS?
(WHERE MIGHT THIS BE?)
WHAT IS THIS?
(WHERE MIGHT THIS BE?)
WHAT IS THIS?
(WHERE MIGHT THIS BE?)
KEY ISSUES
 1. Where did agriculture originate?
 Major Agricultural Revolutions
 2. Where are agricultural regions in less developed countries?
 3. Where are agricultural regions in more developed
countries?
 4. Why do farmers face economic difficulties?
ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE
 Hunters and Gatherers
 Invention of Agriculture (Three Agricultural Revolutions)
HUNTERS AND GATHERERS
 Before the invention of agriculture, all humans probably obtained the food they needed for
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survival through hunting for animals, fishing, or gathering.
Hunters and gatherers lived in small groups.
The men hunted game or fished, and the women collected berries, nuts, and roots.
This division of labor sounds like a stereotype but is based on evidence from archaeology and
anthropology.
The group traveled frequently, establishing new home bases or camps.
The direction and frequency of migration depended on the movement of game and the
seasonal growth of plants at various locations.
CONTEMPORARY HUNTING AND GATHERING
 Today perhaps a quarter-million
people, or less than 0.005 percent of
the world’s population, still survive by
hunting and gathering.
 Contemporary hunting and gathering
societies are isolated groups living on
the periphery of world settlement,
but they provide insight into human
customs that prevailed in prehistoric
times, before the invention of
agriculture.
THE INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE:
THE FIRST AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
 Agriculture evolved into two types of cultivation.
 Vegetative Planting
 Seed Agriculture
TWO TYPES OF CULTIVATION
 Over thousands of years, plant cultivation apparently
evolved from a combination of accidental occurrences and
deliberate experiments.
 The earliest form of plant cultivation, according to Carl
Sauer, was vegetative planting, direct cloning from existing
plants, such as cutting stems and dividing roots.
 Coming later, according to Sauer, was seed agriculture.
Seed agriculture is practiced by most farmers today.
VEGETATIVE PLANTING HEARTHS
 There were several main hearths, or centers of origin, for vegetative crops (roots and
tubers, etc.), from which the crops diffused to other areas.
LOCATION OF FIRST VEGETATIVE
PLANTING
 Dr. Sauer believes that vegetative planting probably originated in
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Southeast Asia.
The region’s diversity of climate and topography encouraged
plants suitable for dividing.
The first plants domesticated in Southeast Asia.. . probably
included roots such as the taro and yam, and tree crops such as the
banana and palm.
The dog, pig, and chicken probably were domesticated first in
Southeast Asia.
Other early hearths of vegetative planting also may have emerged
independently in West Africa and northwestern South America.
SEED AGRICULTURAL HEARTHS
 Seed agriculture also originated in several hearths and diffused from
those elsewhere.
DIFFUSION OF SEED AGRICULTURE
 Seed agriculture diffused from Southwest Asia across
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Europe and through North Africa.
Seed agriculture also diffused eastward from Southwest
Asia to northwestern India and the Indus River plain.
Again, various domesticated plants and animals were
brought from Southwest Asia, although other plants, such
as cotton and rice, arrived in India from different
hearths.
Rice has an unknown hearth.
Sauer identified a third independent hearth in Ethiopia,
where millet and sorghum were domesticated early.
However, he argued that agricultural advances in Ethiopia
did not diffuse widely to other locations
DIFFUSION OF SEED AGRICULTURE IN
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
 Two independent seed agriculture hearths originated in the
Western Hemisphere: southern Mexico and northern Peru.
 Agricultural practices diffused to other parts of the Western
Hemisphere.
 This diversity derives from a unique legacy of wild plants,
climatic conditions, and cultural preferences in each region.
 Improved communications in recent centuries have encouraged
the diffusion of some plants to varied locations around the
world.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COMMERCIAL
AND SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE
 The most fundamental differences in agricultural practices are between those in less
developed countries and those in more developed countries.
 Subsistence agriculture is the production of food primarily for consumption by the
farmer’s family.
 Commercial agriculture is the production of food primarily for sale off the farm.
 Five principal features distinguish commercial from subsistence agriculture:
 purpose of farming;
 percentage of farmers in the labor force;
 use of machinery;
 farm size;
 (and) relationship of farming to other businesses.
LABOR FORCE IN AGRICULTURE
 A large proportion of workers in most LDCs are in agriculture, while only a small percentage
of workers in MDCs are engaged in agriculture.
FARM SIZE
 The average farm size is relatively large in
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commercial agriculture, especially in the United
States and Canada.
Commercial agriculture is increasingly dominated
by a handful of large farms.
In the United States the largest 4 percent of farms
account for more than one half of the country’s
total output.
One half of U.S. farms (2.2 million) generate less
than $10,000 a year in sales.
Large size is partly a consequence of
mechanization.
As a result of the large size and the high level of
mechanization, commercial agriculture is an
expensive business.
RELATIONSHIP OF FARMING TO OTHER
BUSINESSES
 Commercial farming is closely tied to other businesses.
 Commercial farming has been called agribusiness,
integrated into a large food production industry.
 Although farmers are less than 2 percent of the U.S.
labor force, more than 20 percent of U.S. labor works in
food production related to agribusiness: food processing,
packaging, storing, distributing, and retailing.
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONS
 First Agricultural Revolution
 Dating back 10,000 years, this achieved plant domestication and
animal domestication.
 Second Agricultural Revolution
 Witnessed improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and
storage of farm produce.
 Third Agricultural Revolution
 Currently in progress, its principal orientation is the
development of Genetically Modified Organisms
FIRST AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
 Studied by geographer, Dr. Carl Sauer
 Believed that agriculture would only flourish in a land of plenty
 Key area: Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers (Fertile Crescent)
 Labor-intensive crop growth, animal domestication
SECOND AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
 Coincided with the Industrial Revolution (1750-1900)
 Surpluses of food needed to feed those working in factories
 New technologies developed to improve crop yields (fields could double or
triple in size and use the same amount of labor)
 Supported by governments of Europe
 Enclosure Act of Great Britain – enforced the increase in the size of farms;
created large scale farms
 Increased productivity=> increased market area (transportation)
***As a result of the Second AG Revolution, more people left farms and
moved to urban areas to fulfill industry demand for workers.
THIRD AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
 Also known as the Green Revolution (biotechnology,
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genetic engineering and use of chemical fertilizers)
Dates back to the 1930s
Manipulation of seed varieties to increase crop yields
1960s – focus of the Green Revolution turned to India
Crops impacted: corn, wheat, rice (double-cropping, triple
cropping)
Decreased famine in numerous areas
“Hunger Areas” greatly impacted
*Third AG Revolution vital in the evolution of the modern supermarket and the
global AG market. Most food comes from highly industrialized, automated
operations that produce millions of dollars in profit each year.