CHAPTER 10: AGRICULTURE
The Cultural Landscape:
An Introduction to Human Geography
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Pg 308
•  How much of the population in less developed countries are
farmers?
•  Where are 97% of the world’s farmers located?
•  What percent of the people in the United States are farmers?
•  Farming-depends on local diversity of environmental and cultural
conditions in each place
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KEY ISSUE 1 - WHERE DID AGRICULTURE
ORIGINATE?
Origins of agriculture – pg 308-309
!  Agriculture = deliberate modification of Earth s surface through the cultivation of
plants and/or rearing of animals
!  Cultivate = to care for
!  Crop = any plant cultivated by people
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KEY ISSUE 1 - WHERE DID AGRICULTURE
ORIGINATE?
Origins of agriculture – pg 308-309
!  Hunters and Gatherers
!  What size were the hunter gathering groups?
!  Why?
!  There are perhaps 250,000 hunter gathering groups remaining today; living in
the periphery of settlements
!  Invention of Agriculture pg 309
!  When it began? = unclear
!  Diffused from many hearths
!  Where was an early centers of crop domestication?
!  How long ago were the first crops thought to have been domesticated?
!  (Barley, wheat, rice)
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KEY ISSUE 1 - WHERE DID AGRICULTURE
ORIGINATE?
!  What two important crop domestication hearths were in Latin America?
!  What about animal domestication?
!  Where? How long ago?
!  What types of animals?
•  Which region may have been the first to integrate cultivation of crops with
domestication of herd animals?
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CROP HEARTHS
Figure 10-2
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ANIMAL HEARTHS
Figure 10-3
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KEY ISSUE 1 - WHERE DID AGRICULTURE
ORIGINATE?
Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture (pg 310)
!  Subsistence agriculture = produced mainly for the farm family s survival
!  Most common in LDCs
!  Commercial agriculture = produced mainly for sale off the farm
!  Most common in MDCs
!  The most widely used map of world agriculture regions is based upon whose
work?
!  How many regions are identified on the map? How are these regions divided?
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AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE
Figure 10-4
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KEY ISSUE 1 - WHERE DID AGRICULTURE
ORIGINATE?
Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture (pg 310)
!  Five characteristics distinguish commercial from subsistence agriculture
!  Purpose of farming !  Percentage of farmers in the labor force –
!  What caused the decline in the number of farmers in the United States?
!  Use of machinery !  Farm size !  Prime agricultural land - ??? – what is causing it to be lost in the United States?
!  Relationship of farming to other businesses
!  Agribusiness - ?? (pg 313)
!  What is included in ‘agribusiness’?
!  (Review Figure 10-4 –study the practices of subsistence and commercial farmingpg 312-313)
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AGRICULTURAL WORKERS
Figure 10-5
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AREA OF FARMLAND PER TRACTOR
Figure 10-6
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KEY ISSUE 2 - WHERE ARE AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN LDCS?
Shifting cultivation (pg 314)
!  Most prevalent in low-latitude, A-type climates
!  Occupies about ! of the world’s land area
!  Two features:
!  Land is cleared by slashing and burning debris
!  Slash-and-burn agriculture
!  Swidden - is one of the five names for land cleared by shifting cultivation
!  Land is tended for only a few years at a time
!  Types of crops grown vary regionally
!  They are not always arranged in rectangular fields and rows.
!  How do Brazil’s Kayapo people arrange their fields?
!  Traditionally, land is not owned individually
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KEY ISSUE 2 - WHERE ARE AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN LDCS?
Pastoral nomadism (herding domesticated animals) (pg 318)
!  Found primarily in arid and semiarid B-type climates
!  Are territorial in their movement
!  Animals are seldom eaten
!  The size of the herd indicates power and prestige
!  Type of animal depends on the region
!  For example, camels are favored in North Africa and Southwest Asia
!  Transhumance (?) practiced by some pastoral nomads
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KEY ISSUE 2 - WHERE ARE AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN LDCS?
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture (?) (pg 319):
!  Found in areas with high population and agricultural densities
!  Done by hand or with animals – no machines
!  Especially in East, South, and Southeast Asia
!  Abundant labor force
!  To maximize production, little to no land is wasted
!  Intensive with wet rice dominant (pg 319 – 320)
!  Which countries produce more that half the world’s rice?
!  Intensive with Wet Rice Not Dominant
!  The most important crop in these areas?
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RICE PRODUCTION
Figure 10-12
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KEY ISSUE 2: WHERE ARE AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN LDCS?
Plantation Farming (pg 321)
!  Found in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
!  Products are grown in LDCs but typically are sold to MDCs
!  Plantations (?): specialize in one or two cash crops
!  Important crops = coffee, sugarcane, cotton, rubber, and tobacco
!  A large labor force is usually needed in sparsely settled regions
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KEY ISSUE 3 - WHERE ARE AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN MDCS?
Mixed crop and livestock farming (pg. 322)
Most common form of agriculture in the U.S. west of the Appalachians, and in much of Europe, from France to
Russia
!  Most land = devoted to crops
!  Most profits = derive from the livestock
!  What are the most frequently planted crops in the mixed crop and livestock region in the U.S.?
!  Crop Rotation
Why rotate crops?
!  Typically involved in mixed crop and livestock farming
!  Cereal grain? (pg 323)
Dairy farming
!  Regional distribution: the milkshed
!  Most important commercial agriculture practiced on farms near large urban areas of the Northeast United States
!  What happens to milk production when the dairy farm is far from the urban center?
!  Two primary challenges (pg 325)
!  Labor-intensive
!  Expense of winter feed
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CORN (MAIZE) PRODUCTION
Figure 10-15
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MILK PRODUCTION
Figure 10-17
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KEY ISSUE 3 - WHERE ARE AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS IN MDCS? (PG 322)
Grain farming (pg 325)
!  Grain - ??
!  What is the most important grain crop grown?
!  The largest commercial producer of grain = the United States
Livestock ranching (pg 326)
!  Practiced in marginal environments
!  Declined in importance due to its competition with farming, which has a higher
income per area and ranching.
Mediterranean agriculture (pg 328)
!  Have similar climatic conditions due to location bordering the ocean/sea
!  Based on horticulture (?)
Commercial gardening and fruit farming (pg328)
!  A.k.a. - Truck farms
!  Where is it being done in the U.S.?
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WHEAT PRODUCTION
Figure 10-19
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MEAT PRODUCTION
Figure 10-21
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KEY ISSUE 4 - WHY DO FARMERS FACE
ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES? (PG 329)
Challenges for commercial farmers
! Access to markets is important
! The von Thünen model (1826)
!  The choice of crop to grow is related to the proximity to the market
!  How perishable is the product?
Figure 10-24
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KEY ISSUE 4 - WHY DO FARMERS FACE
ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES?
Challenges for commercial farmers (pg 329)
!  Importance of Access to Markets
!  Von Thunen model
!  Overproduction in Commercial Farming (pg 330)
!  Agricultural efficiencies have resulted in overproduction
!  Demand has remained relatively constant
!  As a consequence, incomes for farmers are low
!  U.S. government policies to address excess productive capacity?
!  Sustainable agriculture pg. 331
!  What is the the most popular form of sustainable agriculture?
!  Sensitive land management
!  Integrated crop and livestock
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KEY ISSUE 4 - WHY DO FARMERS FACE
ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES?
Challenges for subsistence farmers
! Population growth
! International trade
! Drug crops
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DRUG TRADE
Figure 10-27
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KEY ISSUE 4 - WHY DO FARMERS FACE
ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES?
Strategies to increase food supply
!  Expanding agricultural land
!  Desertification
! Increasing productivity
!  The green revolution (a.k.a. – ‘Third Agricultural Revolution’- what does this imply?)
! Identifying new food sources
!  Cultivating oceans, developing higher-protein cereals, and improving palatability of
foods
! Increasing trade
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AGRICULTURAL LAND AND POPULATION
Figure 10-28
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GRAIN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
Figure 10-32
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THE END.
Up next: Industry
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