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AP Human Geography
Chapter 10
Agriculture
1. What is the “typical human” and how does this differ with your situation especially
with regard to how and what you eat?
2. Why do LDCs have such a high percentage of the world’s farmers?
3. How can the United States produce so much food with just less than 2% of the
population engaged in agriculture?
4. What is the most important distinction regarding farm products?
5. What are the main reasons for the variety of agricultural practices in the world?
6. Describe why farmers in the same culture make different decisions with respect to
what they grow.
7. From a global perspective, how do recent trends impact farmer’s decisions?
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Case Study / Wheat Farmers in Kansas and Pakistan
8. Fill in the chart below using information from the case study.
Pakistan
Size
Irrigation
Production
Profit
Commonalities
Kansas
Key Issue I
Where Did Agriculture Originate?
9. Why can’t the origins of agriculture be documented with certainty?
Origins of Agriculture
10. Define agriculture in your own words.
Hunters and Gatherers
11. Why did hunters and gatherers live in small groups?
12. Why is it important to preserve and study hunting and gathering societies?
Invention of Agriculture
13. What are the two original types of cultivation?
14. What factors contribute to the wide diversity of foods throughout the world?
Classifying Agricultural Regions
Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture
15. What is the most fundamental difference in agricultural practices around the world?
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16. Fill in the chart using the two Figures on page 336-337
Climate Region
Agricultural Types
Humid Low-Latitude
Dry
Warm Mid-Latitude
Cold Mid-Latitude
Polar
Highlands
17. Why are geographers wary of placing too much emphasis on the role of climate with
agriculture? Give at least three examples where climate plays no role in agricultural
production/selection.
18. Fill in the chart with detailed notes.
MDCs
Purpose of
Farming
Percentage of
Farmers in the
labor Force
Use of
Machinery
LDCs
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Farm Size
Relationship of
Farming to Other
Businesses
Key Issue III
Importance of Access to Markets
19. Which form of commercial agriculture is most important to be planted/raised closest
to market?
20. What are the two considerations in the Von Thunen model?
Application of the Von Thunen Model
21. Draw Von Thunen’s Model
22. What were his assumptions?
a. How did those assumptions create barriers?
Key Issue IV
Why Do Farmers Face Economic Problems?
23. What aspects do subsistence and commercial farmers have in common?
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Challenges for Commercial Farmers
24. Why are commercial farmers victims of their own success?
Overproduction in Commercial Farming
25. What has helped commercial farmers to be able to grow so much? How is dairy
farming an example of this?
26. Outline the three government policies that help farmers deal with the fact that they
produce too much food for the demand.
27. Why are farm subsidies higher in Europe?
28. Describe the overall irony with respect to food production through out the world.
Sustainable Agriculture
29. Why would a farmer incorporate sustainable practices?
Sensitive Land Management
30. What is ridge tillage, and what are the advantages to this system?
31. From an economic perspective, what is the main disadvantage of ridge tillage
compared to conventional methods?
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Limited Use of Chemicals
32. What are “Roundup Ready” seeds?
33. What are the major drawbacks to using “Roundup Ready” seeds?
Integrated Crop and Livestock
34. Why did the conventional way a mixed crop and livestock farm become obsolete in
recent years?
35. How is integrated crop and livestock farming a return to the past?
36. Fill in the chart with the appropriate details for each category.
Number of
Livestock
Animal
Confinement
Management of
Extreme Weather
Conditions
Flexible Feeding
and Marketing
Challenges for Subsistence Farmers
Subsistence Farming and Population Growth
37. What is Boserup’s main thesis with regard to food production vs. population growth?
38. Describe the five stage method.
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Subsistence Farming and International Trade
39. How can LDC farmers increase agricultural production?
40. What do many LDCs produce that helps them raise funds to pay for agricultural
supplies and machinery?
41. What is the major dilemma LDCs face with producing foods for export?
Drug Crops
42. Why would farmers in LDC’s choose to grow drug crops rather than more traditional
crops?
Strategies to Increase Food Supply
43. What is desertification, and where in the world is this a critical problem?
44. Why is over irrigation in dry areas a potential ecological problem?
45. Why do farmers in North America leave agricultural land fallow near urban areas?
Increasing Productivity
46. What was the Green Revolution, and how did it help the world avoid Malthus’s
thesis?
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47. Why is Dr. Norman Borlaug considered by many to be one of the most influential
people in human history?
48. Discuss where and to what degree the Green Revolution was a success.
49. What are the drawbacks to the Green Revolution for LDC farmers?
Identifying New Food Sources
Cultivating Oceans
50. What have been the problems with cultivating the oceans for fish? Give specific
examples.
52. What have many countries done to protect fishing areas?
Developing Higher-Protein Cereals
Improving Palatability of Rarely Consumed Foods
Increasing Trade
53. What are the three most important grains in the world?
54. What areas of the world import the most grains? Why?
Africa’s Food-Supply Crisis
55. Where in Africa is the food crisis the most severe? What has contributed the most to
this crisis?