Agriculture and Rural Land Use

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Agriculture and Rural Land Use
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Development and Diffusion of Agriculture

• Defining Agriculture
• The growing of plants or raising of animals, in
  order to produce food or sustenance for sale at
  the marketplace
• Another definition
• Deliberate modification of Earths surface
  through cultivation of plants and rearing of
  animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain
• Prior to the domestication of plants, humans were
  primarily nomadic hunters and gatherers
• Today, farms provide humans with the ability to
  stay stationary and build cities
• Today less than 250,000 people in the world are
  hunters and gatherers
• Less than 0.005 of worlds pop

• Subsistence vs. Commercial Farming
• Subsistence
• When a farmer can only grow enough food to feed
  his/her own family
• Often in LDCs
• 97 of worlds farmers live in LDCs
• Commercial
• When farmers grow food to be sold in groceries
  and markets, not just to be eaten by the farmers
  themselves
• Often in MDCs
• Increasing worldwide

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Origins of Agriculture

• Geographers believed that humans evolved from
  hunter and gatherers into stationary farmers
• Agricultural innovation occurred in and diffused
  from multiple hearths
• Argued that humans first learned to grow plants
  in Southeast Asia through vegetative planting
• Knowledge diffused North and East
• Other vegetative hearths are believed to have
  emerged through innovation in other places

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Origins of Agriculture

• First Agricultural Revolution
• Saw human development of seed agriculture and the
  use of animals in the farming process about
  12,000 years ago
• Growth of seed crops replaced hunter/gatherer
  lifestyle
• Humans able to stay in one place, grow
  population, and start to build communities
• Seed planting yields more crops than vegetative
  planting
• Increased the carrying capacity for earth
• Believed to have occur independently in several
  hearths

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Seed Agricultural Hearths
Hearth Diffusion Route Crop Innovation
Western India To Southwest Asia Wheat and barley
Southwest Asia To Europe, North Africa, and NW India Integrated seed agriculture with domestication of animals
Northern China To South Asia and Southeast Asia Millet
Ethiopia Remained isolated in Ethiopia Millet
Southern Mexico Throughout Western Hemisphere Squash and Corn
Northern Peru Throughout Western Hemisphere Squash, cotton, beans
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The Second Agricultural Revolution

• After the fall of Rome, farming grew into a
  feudal village structure
• During Middle Ages, most farmers worked their
  lands to feed themselves and their family in an
  open-lot system
• One in which there was one large plot of
  community farmland that all villagers farmed to
  produce a crop to eat
• As capitalism grew, feudalism diminished and
  villages enclosed their farmland
• Enclosures gave individual farmers their own
  plots of farmland
• Huge shift in agriculture

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The Second Agricultural Revolution

• Geographers still debate where and when the
  Second Agricultural Revolution began
• All agree its most influential phase coincided
  with Industrial Revolution
• Growing industrial economy and the decline of
  feudal villages in the 1600s and 1700s caused
  massive urban migration
• This wave caused a great jump in demand for food
  to be shipped to cities for workers

• With new demand came new innovations in farming
  and transportation technology
• Better collars for oxen, use of horse on the farm
• New fertilizers, field drainage and irrigation
  systems, and storage systems
• Higher farm outputs also encouraged the
  population boom that accompanied the Industrial
  Revolution

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Subsistence vs. Commercial Farming

• Five principal features distinguish commercial
  agriculture from subsistence agriculture
• Purpose of farming
• Subsistence for consumption
• Commercial for sale
• of farmers in the labor force
• Subsistence 50
• Commercial 5
• 2 in North America

• Use of machinery
• Subsistence more farmers, use more manual
  labor/power and tools
• Commercial small of farmers, more machines,
  more new technology
• Farm size
• Subsistence small farms
• Commercial large farms, 449 acres
• Relationship to farming to other businesses
• Subsistence none
• commercial closely related to other businesses,
  called Agribusiness

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Types of Subsistence Farming

• Shifting Cultivation
• Slash-and-Burn
• Intensive
• Pastoralism

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Shifting Cultivation

• Definition
• Subsistence farmers rotate the fields they
  cultivate in order to let the soil replenish its
  nutrients
• Different than crop rotation because farmer does
  not change crop type
• Farming same crop repeatedly on the same plot of
  land leaches the soil of nutrients that are
  needed for health crops

• Where is it found?
• Often in tropical zones
• Especially rain forest in Africa, the Amazon
  River basin in South America, and throughout
  Southeast Asia
• Topsoil is thin, need to change plot of land
  frequently
• The primary cause of poor soil quality in these
  regions is the heavy tropical rains that wash
  away soil nutrients

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Shifting Cultivation

• Slash-and-burn farming a common way that farmers
  prepare a new plot of land for farming
• Definition
• A form subsistence agriculture in which the land
  is cleared by cutting (or slashing) the existing
  plants on the land, then burning the rest to
  create a cleared plot of new farmland
• Called swidden
• Method is a form of extensive subsistence
  agriculture
• Uses a large amount of labor

• Slash-and-burn is not dependent on advanced
  technology
• Is dependent on human labor and extensive acreage
  for crops
• Little to no fertilizer used
• Often swidden farmers will mix different seeds on
  the same plot of farmland
• Called intertillage
• Slash-and-burn farming has caused environmental
  problems in some areas
• Rising population pressure
• Can only use land for 3 years or less

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Shifting Cultivation Crops

• Southeast Asia
• Upland rice
• South America
• Maize
• Manioc (cassava)
• Africa
• Millet
• Sorghum
• Also grown in some regions
• Yams, sugarcane, plantain, and vegetables

• Traditionally land owned by village not
  individuals
• Changing in South America
• Occupies 1/4th of worlds land area
• Less than 5 engage in
• Requires a LOT of land

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Shifting Cultivation

• Shifting cultivation is being replaced by more
  money-making farming practices, like
  cattle-ranching, logging, and production of cash
  crops to sell in the global marketplace
• Instead of the rotating, regenerative methods of
  shifting cultivation, more destructive forms are
  being used
• Such as permanent clearing of the rain forests by
  commercial farming companies

• Argument whether shifting cultivation is good for
  LDCs
• Supporters argue it is the most environmentally
  friendly for tropical regions
• Critics argue LDCs need to shift to more
  sophisticated techniques that yield more crops
  per acre

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Pastoralism (Nomadism)

• Definition
• Form of subsistence agriculture involving the
  breeding and herding of animals to produce food,
  shelter, and clothing for survival
• pastoral refers to sheepherding
• Usually practiced in climates with very limited,
  if any, arable land, such as grasslands, deserts,
  and steppes
• Mongolia, North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia
  and Central/southern Africa
• 15 million people, occupy 20 of earths land
  area
• Can be sedentary or nomadic

• Nomadic pastoralists often practice transhumance
• Movement of animal herds to cooler highland areas
  in the summer and lowland areas in the winter
• Like other subsistence agriculture, Pastoralism
  is declining worldwide
• Partly a victim to modern technology
• Nomads used to play important role in
  communications

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Pastoralism

• Characteristics of Pastoral Nomads
• Depend on animal, not crops for survival
• Consume mostly grain
• Do not slaughter animals
• Size of herd power/prestige
• Often women/children plant limited crops at fixed
  location
• Choice of animals
• Camels
• Well suited to arid climates
• Can carry heavy loads
• Sheep
• Relatively slow moving
• Affected by climatic changes
• Require more water, picky eaters
• Goats
• Need more water than camels
• Tough, agile
• Can virtually survive on any vegetation

• Movements of Pastoral Nomads
• Do not wander randomly
• Strong sense of territoriality
• Goal is to control enough land for animals to
  forage and get water
• Selections of routes based on history and weather

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Intensive Subsistence Farming

• Definition
• When a farmer cultivates a small amount of land
  very efficiently to produce food for the farmers
  family to eat
• Usually found in fertile areas that are highly
  populated
• China, India, and Southeast Asia
• Make the most of their small plot of land to feed
  their families, often showing ingenuity in their
  techniques
• LOTS OF MANUAL LABOR
• Terrace-farming in Southeast Asia

• Rice is the dominant intensive subsistence
  agriculture crop in areas such as South China,
  India, Bangladesh, and Southeast Asia where
  summer rainfall is abundant
• Areas to cold for rice, grains are grown
• Such as wheat, corn, and millet
• Often intensive farmers practice double-cropping
• Planting and harvesting a crop on a field more
  than once a year
• Example Growing corn in one season and wheat in
  another

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Intensive Subsistence with Wet Rice Dominant

• Wet rice
• Definition
• Refers to the practice of planting rice on dry
  land in a nursery and then moving seedlings to a
  flooded field to promote growth
• Occupies small of Asias agricultural land
• Regions most important source of food
• Time-consuming and done by hand
• Done best in flat fields
• River deltas/valleys
• Also terraces
• Some places double-crop
• Grow rice in summer when rainy
• Grow grains in winter

• Steps to growing rice
• Farmer prepares field for planting
• Uses plow with water buffalo
• Plowed land then flooded with water
• Too much or too little disaster
• Seedlings then transplanted from dry-land to
  paddy (or sawah)
• Plants harvested by hand

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Intensive with Wet Rice Not Dominant

• Climate prevents rice from being grown throughout
  Asia
• Wheat most important crop after rice
• Other grains include
• Barley
• Millet
• Oats
• Corn
• Soybeans
• sorghum
• Land still used intensively and worked primarily
  by human power
• Some assistance with animals

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Mediterranean Agriculture

• Definition
• Primarily associated with the region near the
  Mediterranean Sea and places with climates that
  have hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters
• CA, Chile, southern South Africa, and South
  Australia
• Mediterranean farming involves wheat, barley,
  vine and tree corps, and grazing for sheep and
  goats
• Olives, grapes, and figs are staple tree crops on
  Mediterranean farms

• Mediterranean agriculture can be either extensive
  or intensive, depending on the crop
• Wheat extensive
• Olives intensive
• Mediterranean farming is both subsistence and
  commercial depending on where it is practiced