1. Agriculture
Chapter 10 Notes

2. Key Issue 1: Where did agriculture originate?
When – 8,000-5,000 B.C.
Before recorded history
Agriculture – deliberate modification of the Earth to domesticate and cultivate plants and animals
Rice cultivation in Vietnam

3. Hunters and Gatherers Hunting animals, fishing
Gathering fruits, nuts, berries, and roots
Lived in small groups, nomadic

4. Modern Day Isolated, .005% of population
African Bushmen – Southern Africa
Aborigines in Australia

5. Invention of Agriculture
Likely by accident
Aided by experiment – adding water, manure, composted material
Watermelon example from Unique Landscaping

6. Types of Cultivation
Vegetative planting– direct cloning from existing plants
Ex: cutting stems or dividing roots
Seed agriculture – annual planting of seeds, most practiced today
Sod planting, vegetative

7. Location of Agricultural Hearths
Multiple, independent points of origin, then diffused across the Earth
First Vegetative Planting Hearths– Possibly SE Asia, West Africa, and NW South America

8. Vegetative Planting Hearths

9. First Hearths of Seed Agriculture
3 in Eastern Hemisphere: western India, northern China, Ethiopia
2 in Western Hemisphere: Central America, northern Peru

10. Seed Hearths

11. Diffused quickly from western India to SW Asia where important advancements were made
Domestication of wheat and barley and integration of domesticated animals
Barley

13. An account of barley rations issued monthly to adults (30 or 40 pints) and children (20 pints) written in Cuneiform on clay tablet, written in year 4 of King Urukagina (circa 2350 BCE). From Ngirsu, Iraq. British Museum, London. BM

14. Classifying Agricultural Regions
LDCs – Subsistence agriculture
Production is primarily consumed by farmer’s family
MDCs – Commercial agriculture
Production’s primary use is for sale off the farm

16. Purpose of Farming
LDCs – For personal consumption, though some may be sold in surplus years
Commercial farming – production usually sold off of farm to food-processing companies rather than consumers

17. Some farmers choose to sell directly to consumer at organized locations such as a farmer’s market

18. Percent of Farmers in Labor Force
MDCs – Less than 5%
LDCs – 55%

19. Use of Machinery
MDCs utilize greater technology and machinery on the farm
Better transportation options to market
Ex: heavier cows
Cattle drives everyday at the Fort Worth Stockyards

20. Scientists are helping to develop technology that can not only track cattle with a Global Positioning System (GPS) but may allow their movements to be controlled across a landscape--and even be remotely rounded up into a corral.

21. Farm Size Large in commercial farming Avg. of 435 acres (175 hectares)
Most are still family owned and operated – 98%

23. Relationship of Farming to other Businesses
Commercial farming is tied to other businesses
Agribusiness – there are many other business involved in the food-production industry
John Deere factory Waterloo, IA

24. Mapping Agricultural Regions
Related to climate and culture
Some crops need certain conditions
Hog production virtually nonexistent in Muslim regions

25. Key Issue 2: Where are agricultural regions in LDCs?
Shifting cultivation
Pastoral nomadism
Intensive subsistence x2
Plantation (discussed in Key Issue 3)

26. Shifting Cultivation High temp/rainfall, low latitude
Slash-and-burn – used to clear land for farming, fertilize ground with ashes – called swidden

27. Fields are tended by hand
Low integration of technology

28. Shifting cultivation by the Trio tribe in the rainforest of Southern Suriname

29. Pastoral Nomadism Based on the herding of domesticated animals
Located in dry climates where crops struggle
N. Africa, Middle East, Central Asia
15 million sparsely occupy 20% of Earth’s land area

30. Masai - Kenya

31. Bedouins – Saudi Arabia / N. Africa

32. Choice of Animals Camel most common in N. Africa/Middle East
Sheep, goats next
Central Asia – Horse
Bedouins near the Nile

33. Intensive Subsistence –Wet Rice Dominant
Intensive = lots of work, aims for efficient use of land because of large populations
Wet Rice – plant on dry land, move to flooded field

34. Process Prep field with plow and animal power
Flood the field – sawah not paddy
Works best in river valleys and deltas
Paddy is wet rice. Sawah is the flooded rice field.

35. Intensive Subsistence –Wet Rice Not Dominant
Areas where climate prevents rice production, summer precipitation too low or winters too cold
Interior India and Northeast China
Wheat, barley, etc is more important

36. Key Issue 3: Where are agricultural regions in MDCs?
6 main regions based primarily on climate

37. Plantation Farming
Form of commercial agriculture generally located in LDCs
Tropics and subtropics
Owned by Europeans and North Americans for sale in MDCs

38. Large farm that specializes in one or two crops
Cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, tobacco, tea, cocoa, bananas etc.
Pre-Civil War in the US

39. Key Issue 4: Why do farmers face economic difficulties?
Issues for commercial farms
Issues for subsistence farms
Strategies to increase food supply

40. Commercial Farmers Access to markets Overproduction
Purpose is to sell and make profit
Must consider distance from farm to market, longevity of product, and profitability
Overproduction
Often produce too much food, lowers prices, and incomes

41. Factors influencing location of agriculture
• Climate and natural environment
• Culture
• Economic factors
Urban market
High transportation cost items
(vegetables, eggs, dairy, flowers)
Intensive land use – high land rent
Medium transportation cost items
(corn, soybeans, mixed farming)
More extensive land use – medium rent
DISCUSSION:
* Von Thünen developed his model in Is it still relevant today?
* Are transportation costs still an important factor in where certain products are raised today?
Lowest transportation cost items
(forestry, wheat, livestock ranching)
Most extensive land use – lowest land rent
Simplified von Thünen model of agricultural land use (1826)

42. Von Thunen Model
Must consider cost of land vs. cost of transporting products to market
Ex: wheat
No transport costs:
Gross profit from sale of wheat grown on 1 hectare of land:
Wheat can be grown for $0.25 per kilogram.
Yield per hectare of wheat is 1,000 kilogram
Gross profit is $250 per hectare ($0.25 per kilogram x 1,000 kilograms per hectare)

43. With transport costs:
Net profit from sale of wheat grown on 1 hectare of land:
a. Cost of transporting 1,000 kilograms of wheat to the market is $62.50 per kilometer.
b. Net profit from the sale of 1,000 kilograms of wheat grown on a farm located 1 kilometer from the market is $ ($250 gross profit-$62.50 per kilometer transport costs.)
c. Net profit from the sale of 1,000 kilograms of wheat grown on a farm located 4 kilometer from the market is $0 ($250 gross profit-$62.50 per kilometer x 4 kilometers)
So…you better be within 4 miles from market

44. Von Thunen’s Model Is his model still relevant?
Are transportation costs still an important factor in where certain products are raised today?

45. Issues for Subsistence Farmers
Population growth
Growing population in LDCs requires more food for their people, but need to sell food to other countries
1) Must use more modern farming methods (requiring more labor since don’t have machines)
2) Land is left fallow for shorter periods

46. International trade
Must sell some of their crops to buy higher-yield seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and machinery
Irony: Feeding the MDCs to feed their own people.
Drug crops (export crop chosen by some LDCs, especially in Latin America and Asia)

47. Drug Trade
Figure 10-27

48. Strategies to Increase Food Supply
Expanding agricultural land (in LDCs)
Desertification (human actions causing semiarid land degradation); overgrazing, water-logging of land
Increasing productivity
The green revolution (invention & rapid diffusion of more productive agricultural techniques during the 1970s and 1980s)- higher-yield seeds & fertilizer

50. Identifying new food sources
Cultivating oceans, developing higher-protein cereals, and improving palatability of foods (soybeans & krill)
Increasing trade (between MDC & LDC)
Grow more in MDCs and export

51. Agricultural Land and Population
Figure 10-28

52. Grain Imports and Exports