Title: The Geography of Agriculture
1The Geography of Agriculture
2The Geography of Agriculture
- Agricultures Origins and History
- Classifying Agricultural Regions
3Introduction
- Importance of agriculture
- All humans depend on agriculture for food
- Urban-industrial societies depend on the base of
food surplus generated by farmers and herders - Without agriculture there could be no cities,
universities, factories, or offices
4Introduction
- Agriculturethe principal enterprise of humankind
through most of recorded history - Today remains the most important economic
activity in the world - Employs 45 percent of the working population
- In some parts of Asia and Africa, over 80 percent
of labor force is engaged in agriculture
5Agricultural regions
- Formal agricultural regions
- Peoples living in different environments develop
new farming methods - Numerous spatial variations have been created
6History of Agriculture
- Hunter-Gatherers
- Neolithic Revolution
- Domestication of Plants and Animals
- Diffusion of Agriculture
- Agricultural Industrialization
- The Green Revolution
- Hybrids, scientific application of fertilizer,
pesticide, and water - Modern Agribusiness
7Neolithic Revolution
- Primary effects
- Urbanization
- Social stratification
- Occupational specialization
- Increased population densities
- Secondary effects
- Endemic diseases
- Famine
- Expansionism
8 9Agricultural diffusion
- The origin and diffusion of plant domestication
- Agriculture apparently began with plant
domestication - Domesticated plantone deliberately planted,
protected, and cared for by humans - Genetically distinct from wild ancestors because
of deliberate improvement through selective
breeding - Tend to be larger than wild species, bearing
larger, more abundant crops - For examplewild Indian maize grew on a cob only
0.75 inches long
10Agricultural diffusion
- Plant domestication and improvement constituted a
process, not an event - Began because of close association between humans
and natural vegetation over a period of hundreds
or even thousands of years - Useful plants were protected by humans, which led
to deliberate planting
11Agricultural diffusion
- Carl Sauers beliefs on domestication
- Domestication probably did not develop in
response to hunger - Starving people must spend every waking hour
searching for food - Started by people who had enough food to remain
settled in one place - Did not occur in grasslands or river floodplains
because of thick sod and periodic flooding - Must have started in regions where many different
kinds of wild plants grew - Started in hilly district areas, where climates
change with differing sun exposure and altitude
12Agricultural diffusion
- Most geographers now believe agriculture arose in
at least three regions of great biodiversity - The Fertile Crescent located in the Middle East
- Bread grains, grapes, apples, olives and many
others - Oldest archaeological evidence of
crop-domestication10,000BP - Diffused to Central Africa creating a secondary
center of domestication adding such crops as
sorghum, peanuts, yams, coffee, and okra
13Agricultural diffusion
- 2. Second great center developed in Southeast
Asia - Possibly included land now covered by shallow
seas - Rice, citrus, taro, bananas, and sugarcane, plus
others - Stimulus diffusion yielded a secondary
centernortheastern China
14Corn v maize
15Great biodiversity
16Mesoamerica
17Agricultural diffusion
- 3. Mesoamericathe third great region of
domestication - Started about 5,000BP
- Independent invention, not started by diffusion
- Maize, tomatoes, chili peppers, and squash, among
many others - Stimulus diffusion produced a secondary center in
northwestern South America, from which came the
white potato and manioc
18Classifying Agricultural Regions
- Commercial Agriculture
- Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
- Dairy Farming
- Grain Farming
- Livestock Ranching
- Mediterranean Agriculture
- Truck Farming
- Subsistence Agriculture
- Shifting Cultivation
- Pastoral Nomadism
- Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
19Subsistence Agriculture Regions
20Shifting or swidden Cultivation
- --Vegetation slashed and then burned.
Soil remains fertile for 2-3 years. Then people
move on. - Where tropical rainforests. Amazon, Central and
West Africa, Southeast Asia - Crops upland rice (S.E. Asia), maize and manioc
(S. America), millet and sorghum (Africa)? - Intercropping planting taller, stronger crops to
shelter lower and more fragile ones. Also
provides a more varied diet. - Declining at hands of ranching and logging.
21Sorghum is used for breads, gruel, beer, and
syrup.
Manioc or Cassava
22Pastoral Nomadism
- The breeding and herding of domesticated animals
for subsistence. - Where arid and semi-arid areas of N. Africa,
Middle East, Central Asia - Animals Camel, Goats, Sheep, Cattle
- Transhumance seasonal migrations from highlands
to lowlands - Most nomads are being pressured into sedentary
life as land is used for agriculture or mining.
Bedouin Shepherd
Somali Nomad and Tent
23Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
- Wet Rice Dominant
- Where S.E. Asia, E. India, S.E. China
- Very labor intensive production of rice,
including transfer to sawah, or paddies - Most important source of food in Asia
- grown on flat, or terraced land
- Double cropping is used in warm winter areas of
S. China and Taiwan
The Fields of Bali
Thai Rice Farmers
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25Commercial Agriculture
- Products are Value-Added
- Very little of the value of most commercial
products comes from the raw materials - Adding value is the key to high profit margins
Roughly 6 of the price of cereal is the cost of
the grain.
26Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
- Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
- Where Ohio to Dakotas, centered on Iowa much of
Europe from France to Russia - crops corn (most common), soybeans
- In U.S. 80 of product fed to pigs and cattle
- Highly inefficient use of natural resources
- Pounds of grain to make 1 lb. beef 10
- Gallons of water to make 1 1b wheat 25
- Gallons of water to make 1 1b. beef 2500
27Dairy Farming
- Where near urban areas in N.E. United States,
Southeast Canada, N.W. Europe - - Over 90 of cows milk is produced in
developed countries. Value is added as cheese,
yogurt, etc.
Dairy Farm, Wisconsin
Von Thunens theories are the beginning of
location economics and analysis (1826)Locational
Theory butter and cheese more common than milk
with increasing distance from cities and in
West. Milkshed historically defined by
spoilage threat refrigerated trucks changed
this.
28Grain Farming
- Where worldwide, but U.S. and Russia predominant
- Crops wheat
- Winter wheat Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma
- Spring wheat Dakotas, Montana, southern Canada
- Highly mechanized combines, worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars, migrate northward in U.S.,
following the harvest.
29Combines
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31Livestock Ranching
- Where arid or semi-arid areas of western U.S.,
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and Portugal. - History initially open range, now sedentary with
transportation changes.
Environmental effects 1) overgrazing has
damaged much of the worlds arid grasslands (lt 1
of U.S. remain!)? 2) destruction of the
rainforest is motivated by Brazilian desires for
fashionable cattle ranches
32Mediterranean Agriculture
- Where areas surrounding the Mediterranean,
California, Oregon, Chile, South Africa,
Australia - Climate has summer dry season. Landscape is
mountainous. - Highly valuable crops olives, grapes, nuts,
fruits and vegetables winter wheat - California high quality land is being lost to
suburbanization initially offset by irrigation
33Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming
- Where U.S. Southeast, New England, near cities
around the world - Crops high profit vegetables and fruits demanded
by wealthy urban populations apples, asparagus,
cherries, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. - Mechanization truck farming is highly mechanized
and labor costs are further reduced by the use of
cheap immigrant (and illegal) labor. - Distribution situated near urban markets.
34Plantation Farming
- Large scale mono-cropping of profitable products
not able to be grown in Europe or U.S. - Where tropical lowland Periphery
- Crops cotton, sugar cane, coffee, rubber, cocoa,
bananas, tea, coconuts, palm oil. - What are potential problems with this type of
agriculture? Environmental? Social?
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36AgribusinessThe industrialization of agriculture
- Modern commercial farming is very dependent on
inputs of chemical fertilizer, pesticides,
herbicides. - Oil is required to make fertilizer and
pesticides. - It takes 10 calories of energy to create 1
calorie of food in modern agriculture. - Small farmer cant buy needed equipment and
supplies. - Fewer than 2 of U.S. population works in
agriculture
37Subsistence v Commercial Agriculture
- Purpose of Farming
- Percentage of Farmers in the workforce
- Use of machinery
- Farm Size
- Relationship to other businesses (agribusiness)