Agriculture Defined as the growing of crops and the tending of livestock, whether for the subsistence of the producers or for sale or exchange, has replaced hunting and gathering as economically the most significant of the primary activities. Covers 5.8 million sq. miles (10% of the earth’s total land area) Certain areas (Nepal and Bhutan) 90% Europe 5%

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture Large use of land and little labor Two types of classified under Extenstive Nomadic Herding Shifting Cultivation

Nomadic Herding “Wandering” controlled movement of livestock, solely dependent on natural forage, across a region. Characteristics are hardiness, mobility, and an ability to subsist on sparse forage. Animals provide milk, cheese, and meat for food Found in Africa (next slide), Asia, and South America.

Shifting Cultivation Rotation of fields Swidden (English) Slash and burn Soil loses nutrients with too much farming. Need to find new dirt!! Destroying rainforests all over the tropics. Red dots represent fires burning all throughout Brazil into Bolivia. (taken by NASA in Sept. 2002)

Shifting cont… nearly 5% of the world’s people are engaged in tropical shifting. Crops: corn, millet, rice, manioc, yams, and sugarcane.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Intensive cont… Small land use Very labor intensive Changing, families feed their own from their plots while trading implementation for use on the fields. Found in SE Asia in the rice fields. There is no way to plant/harvest rice with machinery. Also produce wheat, maize, millet, peas, beans, etc…

Location of Intensive Subsistence Ganges River Basin – India Yangtze - China

Green Revolution Crop yields go up from the same plot of land. The Green Rev. is aided by Population Pressures and new agriculture technologies.

Commercial Agriculture Produce material for market Part of the exchange economy Usually consists of massive farms (1000+ acres) or could be small lots of plants (coffee)

Intensive Commercial Agriculture Large amounts of capital ($, machinery, fertilizer, labor) in agriculture Olive harvesting

Tobacco harvesting

Peanut Harvesting

Extensive Commercial Agriculture Farming that takes place further from the market on less expensive land. Large wheat farms as well as livestock ranching Farms – 1000 acres in Kansas, ND or Ranches - Argentina, Brazil, Australia

Von Thuen’s model

Special Crops Mediterranean Agriculture Grapes, olives, oranges, figs, vegetables, etc… Need warm temps and a great deal of sunshine Plantation Crops African coffee, Asian sugar, American cacao, tobacco, and rubber Introducing a foreign element into a native culture, alien labor force.

Rubber & Cacao

Figs and Oranges