Types of Farming
Agriculture is world’s leading industry
Two Worlds
•
Differences between commercial ag and subsistence:
•
•
LDC’s = Less Developed Countries
MDCs = More Developed Countries
1. Purpose of farming: subsistence ag is to produce food
for own consumption. Commercial ag is produced for
sale to others.
2. Percentage of farmers: in MDC’s less than 5% of
workers are farmers, compared to 55% in LDC’s.
3. Use of machinery: Commercial ag makes heavy use
of machinery where subsistence ag uses mainly hand
tools and animals.
4. Farm size: Commercial farms are much larger than
subsistence farms.
The commercial farms have to be larger in order to pay for
their heavy machinery, and to make a profit.
Major Types of Agriculture
Industrialized agriculture
Plantation
Traditional subsistence agriculture
Traditional intensive agriculture
Major Types of Agriculture
Industrial Agriculture:
• Fossil Fuel Energy
• Heavy Water Use
• Single Crops
(monoculture)
• Mostly in developed
countries
Industrial agriculture in California
Major Types of Agriculture
Plantation Agriculture:
• Form of industrial
agriculture in tropical
developing countries
• Cash crops: banana,
coffee, sugar cane, cocoa
• Increasing large livestock
Coffee Plantation
Major Types of Agriculture
Traditional Subsistence
Agriculture:
• Human labor and draft
animals producing food
for family survival
• Nomadic herding
• 42% of world’s people
Major Types of Agriculture
Traditional Intensive
Agriculture:
• Increasing human and
animal labor,
fertilizers, water to
get higher yields
• Enough food for
family and to sell
locally
Key Issue 2: Where are agricultural
regions in less developed countries?
• The three primary types of ag in LDC’s are:
– Shifting cultivation
– Pastoral Nomadic
– Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
Shifting Cultivation
Vegetation “slashed” and then
burned. Soil remains fertile for 2-3
years. Then people move on.
 where: tropical rainforests. Amazon,
Central and West Africa, Southeast
Asia
 Crops: upland rice (S.E. Asia),
maize and manioc (S. America),
millet and sorghum (Africa)
Declining at hands of ranching and
logging.
Pastoral Nomadism
The breeding and herding of
domesticated animals for
subsistence.
Bedouin Shepherd
 where: arid and semi-arid areas of
N. Africa, Middle East, Central Asia
 animals: Camel, Goats, Sheep,
Cattle
Somali Nomad and Tent
Most nomads are being pressured
into sedentary life as land is used
for agriculture or mining.
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
• Wet Rice Dominant
The Fields of Bali
Thai Rice Farmers
 where: S.E. Asia, E. India,
S.E. China
 very labor intensive
production of rice,
including transfer to
sawah, or paddies
 most important source of
food in Asia
 grown on flat, or
terraced land
Double cropping is used
in warm winter areas of
S. China and Taiwan
Key Issue 3: Where are agricultural
regions in more developed countries
•
The methods of farming typically found in
MDC’s are: 7 Methods
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Mixed crop and livestock farming
Dairy Farming
Prairie Cereal Farming
Livestock Ranching
Mediterranean Agriculture
Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming
Plantation Farming
Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
Where: Ohio to Dakotas, centered on Iowa;
much of Europe from France to Russia
 crops: corn (most common), soybeans
 In U.S. 80% of grain production is fed to pigs and
cattle!
 Highly inefficient use of natural resources
 Pounds of grain to make 1 lb. beef: 10
 Gallons of water to make 1 1b wheat: 25
 Gallons of water to make 1 1b. beef: 2500
Dairy Farming
Where: near urban
areas in N.E.
United States,
Southeast Canada,
N.W. Europe
Dairy Farm, Wisconsin
Over 90% of cow’s milk is
produced in developed
countries. Value is added
as cheese, yogurt, etc.
Prairie Cereal Farming
Where: worldwide in semi-arid mid-latitudes,
but U.S. and Russia predominant
Crops: wheat
 winter wheat: Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma
 spring wheat: Dakotas, Montana, southern Canada
Highly mechanized: combines, worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars, migrate northward in U.S., following
the harvest.
Livestock Ranching
Where: arid or semi-arid areas of western U.S.,
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and Portugal.
History: initially open range, now sedentary with
transportation changes.
Environmental effects:
1) overgrazing has
damaged much of the
world’s arid grasslands
(< 1% of U.S. remain!)
2) destruction of the
rainforest is motivated
by Brazilian desires for
fashionable cattle
ranches
Mediterranean Agriculture
Where: areas surrounding the
Mediterranean, California, Oregon, Chile,
South Africa, Australia
• Highly valuable crops: olives, grapes,
nuts, fruits and vegetables; winter wheat
Commercial Gardening
and Fruit Farming
Where: U.S. Southeast, New England, near
cities around the world
• crops: high profit vegetables and fruits:
– apples, asparagus, cherries, lettuce,
tomatoes
• mechanization: truck farming and cheap
labor costs are by use of immigrant labor.
• distribution: situated near urban markets.
Plantation Farming
• large scale mono-cropping
• where: tropical lowland Periphery
• crops: cotton, sugar cane, coffee,
rubber, cocoa, bananas, tea,
coconuts, palm oil.
The amount of energy needed to produce a single
hamburger is enough to power a small car 20 miles