Ch10/Sec1 cont.: Where Are Agricultural Regions in LDCs?
4 agricultural types characteristic of LDCs:
1) Shifting cultivation:

High temperatures & abundant rainfall

humid low-latitude/A climate regions (tropical rainforests of S. America, C. & W. Africa,
SE Asia) by 250 million people, 14 million square miles
 Small villages w/ crops in the surrounding lands

Subsistence farming w/ excess crops sold to other villagers
 2 distinctive features: a) slash-and-burn  clear area (swidden, ladig, milpa, chena, kaingin) b) depletion of the soil

leaving it fallow to replenish itself

Designate planting area

Cut down large trees that will take small trees down

Clear the undergrowth w/ a machete/long knife

Burn the debris

The rain will wash the ashes into the soil (nutrients)

Planting by hand, weeding in the 2 nd year by hoe

Swidden lasts for ~ 3 years

abandoned to be returned to in ~ 6 years (fruit trees might still be cared for) when new vegetation has grown to be cleared

Large village population or distant swidden

establishment of a new village
Crops of shifting cultivation: vary by local custom & taste

Maize & manioc in S. America

Millet & sorghum in Africa

Rice in SE Asia

Other common crops: yams, sugarcane, plantain
Arrangement of crops: farm fields may appear chaotic
Case study: the Kayapo people of Brazil
Not rectangular but concentric-ring farm fields
Sweet potatoes & yam  Corn & rice  Manioc & yams
Outer rings require less nutrients: papaya, banana, pineapple, mango, cotton, beans
When these trees are cut, they rot & provide nutrients for the soil in the inner rings
They change the crops in successive years

Ownership & use of land in shifting cultivation:

Traditionally: the chief/ruling council allocated land to each family

Nowadays: private individuals own the land
* Requires more land per person than other types of agriculture.
Future of shifting cultivation:

UN: shifting cultiv. is declining by 0.2% per year
 Replaced by logging, cattle ranching, & the cultivation of cash crops

Critics:
- a preliminary step in economic development
- should be replaced by more sophisticated agricult.’l techniques that yield more per land area

Defenders:
the most environmentally sound approach for the tropics
large-scale destruction of the rain forest may contribute to global warming
upset the traditional local diversity of cultures in the tropics

In exchange for a cancellation of their debts, certain LDCs have been pressured to decrease deforestation, e.g. Bolivia (Brazil was not)
2) Pastoral nomadism :

Dry climate

arid, semi-arid land

subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals, originally sheep

Central &
SW Asia, North Africa

Distinctive features:

Dependence on animals (milk, skin, hair) v. crops
 Do not slaughter them, consume mostly grains obtained from sedentary farmers in exchange for animal products
 Size of the herd: prestige & security
 Options for growing crops while being nomadic:
- Women & children at a fixed location
- Hired workers
- Recently flooded areas/when the rainfall is abundant
Types of animals: based on local physical (adaptation to the environment)
& cultural characteristics (prestige)
Camels, goats, sheep
The typical nomadic family needs 10-25 camels, 25-60 goats/sheep

Ch10/Sec2 cont.: Movements of Pastoral Nomads
Strong sense of territoriality: control over forage areas & water sources
(the size of the territory – wealth & prestige)
Intimate knowledge of the area’s physical & cultural characteristics:
likely water sources
condition of the animals
area’s political stability
Herding units of 5-6 families
Transhumance: seasonal migration of livestock b/w mountain (in the summer) & lowland pasture areas (in the winter)
(pasture = grass or other plants grown for feeding grazing animals, as well as land used for grazing)
The future of pastoral nomadism: declining due to

Modern technology (transportation & communications)

Government efforts to resettle nomads: need for the land
sedentary agriculture
mining & petroleum industries

Increasing confinement of nomads w/in ranches of fixed boundaries
(smaller, drier, & less valuable).
3) Intensive subsistence agriculture:

In densely populated LDCs in East, South, & Southeast Asia
 famers must work intensively to subsist on a parcel of land i.e. high agricultural density (the ratio of farmers to arable land is high)

careful agricultural practices refined over thousands of yrs in response to local physical & cultural characteristics

Farming by hand or animals (no machinery: abundant labor & lack of funds)
 Wasting no land: paths & roads are kept narrow; livestock cannot graze, no crops grown for animals

Intensive subsistence with wet rice dominant:

Wet rice = the practice of planting rice on dry land in a nursery & then moving the seedlings to a flooded field (sawah or paddy) to promote growth
 Relatively small % of Asia’s agricult.’l land but the most important source of food

Time-consuming & labor-intensive (done mostly by hand)


Easiest grown on flat land: river valleys, deltas, terraced hillsides

Double cropping: obtaining 2 harvest per year per field (wet rice in the summer, dry crops in the winter), esp. in S. China & Taiwan
Steps:
1.
Preparation of the field for planting by water buffalo or oxen
2.
Flooding of the plowed land w/ water from rainfall/riverflow/irrigation
3.
Dikes & canals are repaired to ensure the right quantity of water
4.
1/10 of the sawah is devoted to raising seedlings for ~ a month
5.
Seedlings are moved to the rest of the field (or dry seeds are scattered all over the field)
6.
Plants are harvested by a knife
[Chaff (husks) is separated by threshing the heads by beating or treading
 winnowing by the wind. If consumed by the farmer: hull is removed; commercial farming: whitening & polishing.]

Intensive subsistence with wet rice not dominant:

Dry crops: wheat, barley, millet, oats, corn, sorghum, soybean, cotton, flax, hemp, tobacco

Land is used intensively by humans w/ some hand tools and animals

Crop rotation:
- to obtain more than one harvest per year per field
- it is the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil (usually spring planting, fall harvesting)

China since the 1949 communist revolution:
agricultural producer communes  inefficient  private farming
4) Plantation farming:
 In the tropical & subtropical areas in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
 Situated in LDCs but operated & used by MDCs

A form of commercial agriculture involving a large farm that specializes in one or two crops

Crops: cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, tobacco, cocoa, jute, bananas, tea, coconuts, palm oil

In sparsely populated areas

plantations must import workers & provide them w/ food, housing, & social services

Work is spread evenly throughout the year (double cropping)