Transcript Agriculture - TeacherWeb

Agriculture
Introduction
• Agricultural Geography
• Agricultural Hearth Areas
• Physical and Cultural Factors Influencing
Agricultural Production
• Subsistence vs Commercial Agriculture
• Agricultural Trends
Geographer’s Perspective
of World Agriculture
• Geographers are interested in the
patterns and distribution of
agriculture in the world today.
–What are the patterns of
agriculture worldwide?
–Why are agricultural areas
distributed in the manner that
they are?
Agriculture
• Agri - Latin for field
• culture - to cultivate
• The expanded definition of Agriculture
includes the cultivation of plants and
animals
• The goal of agriculture is produce
sufficient food supplies
Physical Factors
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Land/Soil (fertility)
Water (precipitation & rivers)
Sun ( temperature, evaporation rates)
Climate
Cultural Factors
• Population Distribution
• Diet of population
• calorie supply, protein, health
• Living Material
• clothes, houses
• Lifestyle/Cultural Tradition
• nomadic, sedentary/rain dances
• Economics
• cash crops with greatest profit ie. viticulture
• Government/Political Policies
• Argentina wheat, Japan rice
Agricultural Hearth
Areas
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Indus River in Pakistan
East China (Huang Ho River)
Ganges Delta (India and Bangladesh)
MesoAmerica (Mexico and Central America)
Andean America (Peru)
West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger)
Mesopotamia (Iraq)
Nile River (Egypt)
Agricultural Hearth
Areas
• Vegetative Planting using the roots of one
plant and dividing it to
produce more
– Southeast Asia
– West Africa
– Northwestern South
America
• Seed Agriculture –
using seeds from
plants to produce
more plants
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western India
northern China
Ethiopia
Southern Mexico
northwestern South
America
Forms of Agriculture
• Subsistence
– produced for
consumption
– work by hand
– most people work
• shifting agriculture
• nomadic herding
• rice (intensive
subsistence)
• plantation
agriculture
• Commercial
– produced for market
– mechanized
– few laborers
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livestock & ranching
horticulture
dairy farming
mixed crop
grain
medditeranean
Agricultural Trends
• Hand Labor
• Small Plots
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Mechanization
Large corporately
owned holdings
No fertilizers
natural fertilizers
chemical fertilizers
Natural Seed Production
Hybrid Seeds
Farm to family
Farm to processing to
supermarkets
Nature controlled water
man controlled water
Methods of Agriculture
• LDCs – low yield, high impact farming
– Subsistence or barter systems
– Intensive hand labor
– Limited knowledge of irrigation, soil, and/or return on
investments
• MDCs – high yield med-high impact farming
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Commercial Agriculture
High tech
High yield
Large amounts of land required
For distribution, not consumption
Terrace Farming
• Manipulation of hill/mountainsides for flat
surfaces to farm
• Practiced mainly along river valleys
• Causes massive erosion and leaves areas
prone to flooding
• Common in East and Southeast Asia
– Rice
Shifting Cultivation
(Slash and Burn)
• Burning or destroying all natural vegetation and
planting crops on the soil
• Produces crops for 1-3 years
• Land is vacated and the process is repeated
elsewhere
• Destruction of rainforests in South America and
Central Africa (Amazon and Congo respectively)
• Occupies ¼ of the world’s land area
• Only 5% of the world’s population practice this
Heavily
Forested Area
Slash and Burn
Swidden
Planting and Growing
Seasons (1-3)
20-30 Years
Abandoned
Field
Intensive vs. Extensive
• Intensive Subsistence Farming
– Small amounts of land use
– High yield
– Wet rice, subsistence grain
• Extensive Subsistence Farming
– Large amounts of land use
– Inefficient
– Labor intensive
– Shifting cultivation, pastoral nomadism