Agriculture- Key Issue 2 & 3
Principle Practices of Subsistence
Agriculture
• sensitive land management.
• limited use of chemicals.
• better integration of crops and livestock.
Forms of subsistence agriculture
• Shifting Cultivation
• Pastoral Nomadism
• Intensive
Characteristics ofshifting cultivation
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Land is cleared by slashing the vegetation.
Debris is burned to provide the soil with nutrients.
A new site is designated every few years.
Swiddens not under cultivation are used for fruit trees.
Most commonly found in humid low-latitude climates
Occupies the largest percentage of the world's land
area
Defenders of shifting cultivation say
that it is the best approach for the
tropics because…
• Permanently clearing fields and using
fertilizers will destroy tropical soils.
• It destroys less tropical rain forest than
permanently clearing the land.
• It is part of the cultural diversity of folk
customs in the tropics.
Pastoral Nomadism
• Only about 15 million people are nomads, but
they sparsely occupy 20 percent of the earth's
land area.
• Most commonly found in a dry climate
• Pastoral Nomads occupy only their own territory,
moving with the seasons to find food and water.
Intensive Subsistence
• Practiced by the largest percentage of the world's
people
• The largest proportion of farmers in Asia practice
it
• Greater use of animal power, compared to
shifting cultivation
• involves large amounts of efforts used to
produce the maximum feasible yield from a given
piece of land.
Asian agriculture is characterized by
shortages of…
• equipment
• funds
• Land
• To increase crop yields, farmers in southeastern China
commonly practice double cropping
• To separate husks from seeds, Asian farmers beat the
heads on the ground, a practice known as threshing.
Practices for growing rice in Asia
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preparing fields with a plow drawn by oxen
flooding the plowed field with water
growing seedlings in a nursery
transplanting seedlings into the flooded field
The reason why most people in North
China grow crops other than wet rice
is our CLIMATE!
Transhumance
• The seasonal migration of livestock between
mountains and lowland pastures
Commercial agriculture is
distinguished from subsistence
agriculture by
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low percentage of farmers in the labor force
farm size
heavy use of machinery
surplus production
Types of Commercial Agriculture in
the US
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Mixed crops and livestock
Dairying
Grain farming
Livestock Ranching
Mediterranean agriculture
Gardening and Fruit Farming
*don’t usually sell their products directly to consumers, but to
wholesalers who distribute them to retailers
LDCS:
• Unlike other forms of commercial agriculture, plantations are found
primarily in less developed countries.
Commercial Agriculture- Mixed Crop
and Livestock Farming
• The most common form of commercial agriculture in Europe and the
US (west of the Appalachian mountains) is mixed crop and livestock
farming.
• This method is good because it permits farmers to spread the
workload and income throughout the year. Usually involves Crop
Rotation to maintain the fertility of the fields.
• The U.S. Midwest, from Ohio to the Dakotas with it’s center in Iowa,
is the mixed crop and livestock region in the Us and is known for corn
followed by soybeans. Known as the .”Corn Belt”
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Crops grown in the mixed crop and livestock region are used primarily
to feed animals.
Commercial Agriculture- Dairy Farming
• Most important in Northeast US, Southeast Canada, and Northwest
Europe
• Huge spike in Dairy Farming in LDCs (increased 20% in 25 years)
• India just surpassed the US as the world’s largest milk producer.
• *** MILK IS A PERISHABLE GOOD SO FARMS MUST BE CLOSE TO
THEIR MARKET FOR TRANSPORTATION FACTORS***
• The ring surrounding the city from which milk can be supplied
without spoiling is called the Milkshed. If outside the milkshed
dairy farms may specialize in butter, cheese, etc.
• Many US dairy farmers left the profession because it is not very
profitable and extremely labor intensive
Commercial Agriculture- Grain Farming
• Grain is the seed from various grasses, like wheat corn,
oats, and barley
• Crops on grain farms are grown for consumption by
humans not livestock
• Wheat is the most important crop- used to make
bread flour. It is stored easily without spoiling,
transported long distances, and has a high value per
unit weight. It is the world’s leading export crop.
US/Canada=“breadbasket”. Located in regions that are
too dry for mixed crop and livestock agriculture.
• The U.S. is the largest commercial producer of grain.
3 areas of grain production in North
America
1. “Winter-wheat Belt”- Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma. In the winter
wheat area, the crop is planted in autumn and develops a strong
root system before it stops in the winter. The wheat survives the
winter under a snow blanket and is harvested in summer.
2. “Spring-wheat Belt”- Dakotas, Montana, and Southern CanadaWinters are too severe for winter wheat so they plant in the spring
and harvest in the late summer
3. Washington State
The McCormick Reaper is a machine that cuts grain standing the field
and first permitted large scale wheat production in 1830
Today the combine machine combines reaping, threshing, and
cleaning in one task
• The predominant form of agriculture in the
U.S. Southeast is commercial gardening
Commercial Agriculture- Livestock
Ranching
• Livestock Ranching is the commercial grazing of
livestock over and extensive area. It practiced in the
dry (arid) lands of the southwestern U.S. where the
soil is too poor to support crops
• Has declined in the southwestern United States
primarily because crops yield more income per area
now that we have better irrigation techniques.
• Ranching is practiced in dry climate regions
• Hollywood has romanticized the cowboy. Cattle were
driven on hoof to the nearest railroad in Kansas where
they were put into cattle cars
• In the United States many farms are
integrated into a large food production
industry. This is known as agribusiness.
Leading producers of commercial
grain…
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China
United States
Russia
India
• Northwest Europe= Dairying
• South Europe= Mediterranean
• East Europe= Grain
Von Thünen's model, 1826, Germany
• Explains how important it is to be close to a market for certain
commercial farms
• The primary factor for choosing commercial farm products is
market location
• Takes into consideration: 1. the value of the yield 2. The cost of
transporting the yield
• can best be used to explain the location of dairying in the Northeast
United States
• The farther a dairy farm is from a large urban area the lower the
percentage of output devoted to fresh milk. This occurs primarily
because processed milk is less perishable.
• timber production was located in the second ring from the city
because of product weight
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Strategies for increasing food supply
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expanding arable land area
increasing land productivity
identifying new food sources
increasing exports of surplus production
Mediterranean agriculture
• Practiced in different areas of the world, but
they all have similar climate (all boarder a sea)
• Produces fruits, grapes, olives, and cereals
Problems in BOTH LDCs and MDCS
• Farmers have inadequate incomes
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• LDCs generate funds to promote development
through selling export crops
• To raise money for development, farmers
inLDCs are encouraged to growluxury crops for
export, cash crops, and items for consumption
abroad
Warm-Up
• How do you behave differently in groups than
you do on your own?