Transcript Agricultural Geography

Agricultural Geography
Key Issue #2:
Where are Agricultural Regions in Less
Developed Countries (PINGs)?
Shifting Cultivation
• Where???
– Humid Low latitudes climate regions
– Amazon area, Central and West Africa, and
SE Asia
– It is practiced by about 250 million people
Shifting Cultivation
• Hallmarks
– Slash-and-burn agriculture
– Farmers grow crops on a cleared field for only
a few years until soil nutrients are depleted
and then leave it fallow (nothing planted) for
many years so the soil can recover.
Shifting Cultivation
• The process:
– Clear the dense
vegetation
– Burn the debris
– Prepare the fields by
hand
– Leave after about 3
years
– Return in 6-20 years
Shifting Cultivation
• Crops of Shifting cultivation
– Vary according to local custom and taste
– SE Asia – rice
– South America – maize
– Africa – millet and sorghum
millet
sorghum
Shifting Cultivation
• Ownership and Use of Land
– People who use shifting cultivation tend to live
in small villages and use the surrounding land
for agriculture.
– The land is owned by the village as a whole,
not an individual.
– The chief or ruling council allocates the land
to the people.
The Future of Shifting Cultivation
• The use of shifting cultivation is
decreasing by about .2% each year.
• Logging, cattle ranching, and cultivation of
cash crops are replacing it.
• Effect on the rainforest?
Pastoral Nomadism
• Pastoral nomadism is a form of
subsistence agriculture based on the
herding of domesticated animals.
• Adapted to dry climates such as North
Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia
• There are only about 15 million pastoral
nomads, but they occupy about 20% of
Earth’s land area.
Characteristics of Pastoral
Nomadism
• Depend on animals rather than crops for
survival
• Animals provide milk and skins for clothes
and tents
• The people primarily eat grain
• Women and children plant crops
• Size of the herd – source of power and
protection during adverse conditions
Choice of Animals
• The type of animal and size of the herd is
selected based upon the local culture and
physical characteristics
• The Middle East – camel followed by
goats and sheep
• Central Asia – the horse
Movement of Pastoral Nomads
• Pastoral nomads do not wander randomly;
they have a sense of territoriality
• Every group controls a territory
• Transhumance – seasonal migration of
livestock between mountains and lowlands
pasture areas
• Pasture – grass or other plants grown for
feeding grazing animals
The Future of Pastoral Nomadism
• Today, pastoral nomadism is declining,
partially due to modern technology
• In the future, pastoral nomadism will be
confined to areas that cannot be irrigated
or that lack valuable raw materials
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
• Shifting cultivation and pastoral nomadism
exist in areas of low population density
• Intensive subsistence agriculture – in more
dense areas; the people work more
intensely to sustain on a parcel of land
Intensive Subsistence with Wet
Rice Dominance
• The term wet rice refers to the practice of
planting rice on dry land in a nursery and
then moving the seedlings to a flooded
field to promote growth.
• The most important food source in:
– Southeast China
– East India
– Much of SE Asia
The process of “wet rice”
• First, a farmer prepares a field for planting,
using a plow drawn by buffalo or oxen
• Then, the plowed field is flooded with
water. The flooded field is called a
“sawah.”
• Rice plants are harvested by hand, usually
with a knife
Double Cropping
• Double cropping – the process of getting
two harvests on a field each year
• Common in places with warm winters
• Usually involves wet rice in the summer
and wheat, barley, or another dry crop in
the winter
Intensive Subsistence with Wet
Rice not Dominant
• Interior India and Northeast China
• Wheat is the most important crop, followed
by barley
• Crop rotation – the practice of rotating use
of different fields from crop to crop each
year to avoid exhausting the soil
Plantation Farming
• Plantation – a large farm that specializes
in one or two crops; a form of commercial
agriculture found in the tropics
• Generally found in PINGs, they are often
operated by Europeans or North
Americans
• The crops are often for sale PEDs
Crops of Plantation Farming
• Cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, and
tobacco
• Before the Civil War, plantations were
important in the U.S. South
• After the war, the plantations were
subdivided and sold to individual farmers
or worked by tenant farmers
Rubber Trees