Food Production Flashcards

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1
Q

Def. Sedentary Farming

A

When a farm is based on the same location over time

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2
Q

Def. Nomadic Farming

A

When a farm moves location from one place to another

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3
Q

Def. Subsistence Farming

A

Where crops and animals are produced by a farmer to feed their family istead of selling them on the market

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4
Q

Def. Commercial Farming

A

When crops and animals are produced to be sold on the market and make a profit.

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5
Q

Def. Arable Farming

A

Farms that grow crops from the groung to be eaten or sold

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6
Q

Def. Pastoral Farming

A

Farms that rear animals to be eaten, or produce milk, wool etc. to be sold

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7
Q

Def. Mixed Farming

A

Farms that grow crops and rear animals

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8
Q

Def. Extensive Farming

A

Farming where a relatively small amount of produce is generated from a large area of farmland. Inputs are low compared to the land are farmed

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9
Q

Def. Intensive Farming

A

Where a large amount of prodce is generated from a relatively small area of land. Inputs will be high to achieve a high yield by hectare.

Input could be either fertiliser, machines and labour.

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10
Q

What are the advantages of mxed farming?

A
  • Crops can be used to feed animals
  • Farmers get a variety of things to sell incase the market for one fluctuates or disappears
  • If one product does not go well, others can be sold - this work is more stable
  • The manure formed by animals can be used to fertilise the fields
  • The farmer has work throughout the entire year, and gets money at all seasons
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11
Q

What are the different factors that influence farming?

A
  • Temperature/Climate
  • Growing season of crop
  • Soil type
  • Slope/relief of land
  • Market available
  • Capital (amount of money a farmer can spend on inputs)
  • Technology available
  • Possibly restrictive or rewarding government policy
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12
Q

Explain how land relief can influence farmer’s decisions

A
  • South facing slopes have more sunshine
  • Steeper areas are more appropriate for sheep farming than other types of produce as they are more resistant to the tougher conditions
  • As the land gets higher, the temperature also decreases until it gets too cold to grow crops
  • Flat land is desireable for crop farming as it takes less input to reshape the land and machines can be used mor easily
  • It is easier to irrigate flat land
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13
Q

Def. Inputs

A

These are things that go into the farm and may be split into Physical Inputs (e.g. amount of rain, soil) and Human Inputs (e.g. labour, money etc.)

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14
Q

Def. Processes

A

These are things which take place on the farm in order to convert the inputs to outputs (e.g. sowing, weeding, harvesting etc.)

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15
Q

Def. Outputs

A

These are the products from the farm (i.e. wheat, barley, cattle)

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16
Q

What are the Inputs for subsistence farming in the Lower Ganges?

Not needed to be known in detail

A
  • Large labour force
  • Water buffaloes for ploughing
  • Rice seeds
  • Heavy alluvial or clay soils to provide an impermeable layer
  • Annual floods deposit rich layers of alluvium (silt)
  • Five month growing season
  • Monsoon rainfall over 2000mm from June to September
  • Dry time for harvesting
  • Temperatures over 21°C
  • 2 Hectares of flooded flat land (paddies)
  • Hand tools
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17
Q

What are the processes needed for subsistence farming in the Lower Ganges?

A
  • Weeding
  • Harvesting
  • Threshing
  • Planting
  • Ploughing

It takes 20000 hours to farm one hectare of land

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18
Q

What are the outputs needed for subsistence farming in the Lower Ganges?

A
  • Rice
  • Manure from buffaloes for fertilizing
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19
Q

Name 2 facts about water use for subsistence farming in the Lower Ganges

A
  • 5000 Liters of water results in 1kg of rice
  • 90% of the agricultural water in Asia is used in rice production
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20
Q

Why are farmers in some countries commercial farmers while farmers in the same country are subsistance farmers?

A

It depends on:
- The amount of land owned by the farmer
- The surplus of food that can be produced
- How close the market is
- The amount of labour available in the area
- The level of education of the workers
- The availability of capital for farmers
- The use of HYV (high yield variety crops)

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21
Q

What are the physical/Natural causes of food shortages?

A
  • Drought
  • Disease/pests
  • Natural disasters e.g. Tropical cyclones or floods
  • Soil exhaustion
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22
Q

What are the human causes of food shortages?

A
  • War/conflict
  • Overgrazing/over-cultivation, which leads to desertification
  • Rising population
  • Transport dificulties
  • Low investment
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23
Q

What are the impacts of food shortages?

A
  • Malnitrition, which causes dficiences such as Marasmus (lack of energy), Kwashiorkor (lack of protein), and Rickets (lack of calcium/vitamic D)
  • Stunted growth in children
  • Increase in food prices
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24
Q

What are the impacts of food shortages?

A
  • Malnitrition, which causes dficiences such as Marasmus (lack of energy), Kwashiorkor (lack of protein), and Rickets (lack of calcium/vitamic D)
  • Stunted growth in children
  • Increase in food prices
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25
Q

What are the solutions to food shortages?

A
  • Food aid - droppping in food in affected area via truck or helicopter
  • Help with buying drought resistent seeds and fertilisers
  • Education of farmers to manage land correctly
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26
Q

What are the physical/natural causes of food insecurity in the Sahel region?

A
  • Repetitive drought
  • Only a few weeks of rainfall per year, increasing the stakes if rain does not come
  • Diseses/pests
  • Climate change
  • Overgrazing
  • Soil erosion
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27
Q

What are the impacts of food insecurity in the Sahel region?

A
  • Stunting (1/3 children have stunted growth)
  • Death
  • Migration to cities, causing strain on areas marginal of the Sahel
  • Humans are forced to eat food even animals wouldn’t eat due to their bitterness
28
Q

How many people are food insecure in the world, and how many people go to bed hungry?

A

2 billion are food insecure

1 billion go to bed hungry

29
Q

What are the solutions to the food insecuity in the Sahel?

A
  • Creating irrigation systems
  • Hending out fertilisers and drought resistent seeds
  • Feeding centers and red cross food handouts assistence progams
30
Q

What are the human causes of food insecurity in the Sahel region?

A
  • Seeds are eaten when there is no other food
  • ‘Donor fatigue’ causes food aid charities such as red cross have too little funding to prevent crisis
  • Access to markets
  • Conflict such as in Sudan
  • Population growth
31
Q

How many peope in the Sahel region face food insecurity and for how many of them need immediate lifesaving food assistance?

A

20 million face food insecurity

2 million of need immediate lifesaving food assistance

32
Q

How is desertification reduced?

A
  • Planting trees
  • Terracing (making terreces out of hills to prevent rainfall run-off to keep soil fertility high)
  • Fuel efficient wood stoves (allowing more tees to grow)
  • Stone bunds (like barriers, slowing down water run-off, allowing rainwater to seep into the soil)
33
Q

How many square miles does Fair Oaks Farm take up

A

30 square miles

34
Q

Describe the position of the Sahel region

A

It lies between the tropic of cancer and the eqyuator, stretching across the south central latitudes of nothern Africa, from the Atlantic ocean to the Red Sea, for 5400km. It lies beneath the Sahara desert, and above the savannah regions, so it’s climate is also inn between. It includes Chad, Etritrea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Must know at least 3 countries in Sahel region

35
Q

How many mm of rainfall occurs in the Sahel region per year?

A

100-500mm, during 2 weeks - 1 month

36
Q

Describe Flooding in the Sahel region

A

In 2011, extreme flooding destroyed crops, leaving 18 million people without food and a million people in the risk of starvation.

37
Q

Explain Conflict in the Sahel region

A

Conflicts such as that in Darfur limits food productionand forces people to migrate, and farmland may be burned down. Sudan’s Darfur region has been hit by conflict since 2003, killing 250,000 people and making around 3 million homeless. This conflict contributes to the already fragile conditions where not enough food was being produced to sustain the population and drouht would occur 1/5 years.

The confict is over the limited food supply between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers, and the farmer were not allowing the herders to use ther water sources. This resulted in famine and violence. Therre are not enough trees to rebuild that which is destroyed.

38
Q

Explain Overgrazing, Overcultivation and Soil erosion in the Sahel region

A

It is caused by farmers remain in one area for too long, exhausing vegetation. Due to political boundaries, they cannot migrate to the rain. When vegetation has been eaten, killed, or cannot grow, the exposed topsoil is baked by the sunlight.

The same happens when too many crops are planted, drecreasing the crop fertility, until plants cant grow anymore. It can also dry up nearby aquifers or water sources which are used to sustain the crops.

When it rains, water carries the topsoil away, making it impossible for plants to grow back. This is soil erosion.

39
Q

Expain drought in the Sahel region

A

The rainfall rates are 100-500mm/year, and are concentrated in 2 months. Drought is frequent and lower than average rainfall yeasr have become more common sice the 1970s.

40
Q

Explain population growth in the Sahel region

A

Only 30 million people lived in the Sahel in 1950, but it is predicted 1 billion peope will live there in 2050. Now it is about half a billion. This is caused by a lack of education, and also migration from fragile areas strcuk by desertification or groups pushed into the sahel by rmed conflicts.

41
Q

Explain climate change in the Sahel region

A

The temperature is increasing one and a half times more than other areas of the world, and 80% of agricultural areas in the Sahel are already affected by climate change. Scientific studies suggest climate change has disturbed monsoons which in turn caused a shift in the rain belts over the Sahel, making it harder to grow crops as rain is unpredictable and can come in too large/small amounts.

42
Q

Explain access to markets in the Sahel region

A

Lack of access to markets and of infrastructure to deliver products causes food insecurity

43
Q

Explain disease and pest outbreaks in the Sahel region

A

Attacks by birds, pests and locusts reduce food production. For example, during the 2003-2005 locust outbreak, in Niger alone, 4000 villages were abandoned by villagers who lost their crops.

44
Q

Where is Fair Oaks Farm?

A

North West Indiana, which is in the Midwest region of the USA

45
Q

Why does Fair Oaks Farm have good farming conditions?

A
  • Fair Oaks Farm lies within the Corn Belt, this is a region in which corn (maize) and soybeans are the dominant crops.
  • This region is good for the farming of these crops because soils are deep, fertile, and rich in organic material and nitrogen, and the land is relatively level.
  • The warm nights, hot days, and well-distributed rainfall of the region during the growing season are ideal conditions for raising corn.
46
Q

What is the Growing Season in Fair Oaks Farm?

A

On average, the frost-free growing season in northern Indiana starts Apr 27 and ends Oct 7, totaling 163 days.

47
Q

What type of farming occurs in Fair Oaks Farm?

A

Commercial, Sedentary, Intensive and Mixed

48
Q

What products does Fair Oaks Farm produce/offer?

A

Fair Oaks Farm is a farm that is considerably diversified. It produces feed grains and raises livestock for the purpose of dairy farming and it also offers agritourism experiences.

49
Q

Give an example of agritourism in Fair Oaks Farm

A

The Dairy Adventure Center where visitors can watch cheese and ice cream being made from an observation deck, take in a 4-D film or try to prep a fiberglass cow for milking in 19 seconds – the time allotted to Fair Oaks technicians.

50
Q

What are the inputs for Fair Oaks Farm?

A
  • 25,000 acres (est 1999)
  • 10 dairy barns
  • Each cow consumes 40 pounds of grain, 50 pounds of silage and over 30 gallons of water
  • Fertle grass, due to good soil and frequent rainfall
  • Machinery such as the cow carousel
51
Q

What are the processes in Fair Oaks Farm?

A
  • 32,000 cows milked per day
  • Each dairy barn milks at least 3,000 cows per day
  • Cows are milked in a 72 cow carousel
  • The milking time is 8½ minutes (very efficient)
  • Manure is converted to energy to reduce waste and pollution
  • Cows milked 3 times per day
  • 500 cows milked per hour
52
Q

What are the outputs from Fair Oaks Farm?

A
  • Produces milk for 8 million people
  • 80 calves are born per day
  • 2.5 million pounds of milk are produced per day
  • Methane gas is released, but used in power generators
53
Q

How did Fair Oaks Farm diversify?

A

It produces both animals and plants, but also starts tourism, welcoming ½ million visitors per year

54
Q

Def. Food Insecurity

A

A lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.

55
Q

What is happening in the Sahel region rainfall rate from the 70’s onwards?

A

There is below average rainfall, and the rainfall was already natuurally unredictable and scarce.

56
Q

Def. Drought

A

Drought is a period below average rainfall.

Drought is period of unexpectedly low rainfall. For example, what is considered to be a drought may vary widely throughout the world e.g. in an equatorial climate it could mean 6 days without rain/in Libya it could mean less than 180 mm in a year.

57
Q

Def. Desertification

A

A process by which productive land becomes dry and useless.

58
Q

What are the causes of desertification?

A
  • Desertification is triggered mainly by the overuse of land and unsustainable agricultural practices (over-cropping, overgrazing, poor irrigation and deforestation) which lead to a loss of natural vegetation and healthy soil.
  • An expanding human population as well as the low level of priority placed on environmental protection efforts also contributes.
59
Q

How many people are food insecure in the Sahel region?

How was it in 2012 after the extreme food crisis?

A

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 18.7 million people in the Sahel region faced an extreme food crisis in 2012. Today, 20 million people in the region are at risk of food insecurity and 2.5 million of them need immediate lifesaving food assistance. An estimated 5 million children younger than 5 suffered from malnutrition.

60
Q

What are the short term effects of drought?

A
  • Soil erosion
  • Crop failures/poor yields
  • Livestock is not able to survive in these conditions and dies
  • Hunger and malnutrition
61
Q

What are the long term effects of drought?

A
  • Desertification
  • Desertification can cause people to migrate from their homes in search of more plentiful resources
  • Sustained periods of malnutrition can lead to health issues such as delayed growth and brain development
  • Conflict e.g., the war/genocide in Sudan
62
Q

What are the solutions to food insecurity in the Sahel region?

A
  • International Food Aid
  • Sustainable farming
63
Q

What are the 3 types of food aid?

A
  • Relief Food Aid - dDelivered directly in times of crisis
  • Programme Food Aid - Food is delivered to the governent to be sold in markets
  • Project Food Aid - Targeted to a specific group of people over long term developement work
64
Q

Explain an example of sustainable farming in the Sahel Region

A

The Great Green Wall

  • A plan to make a 8000km strip of forest across the Sahel to stop desertification.
  • The project started in 2007 and has already restored over 20 million hectares of land, providing food, jobs, and security for millions of people
65
Q

What are the pros and cons of the Great Green Wall?

A

Pros
- Has restored around 20 million hectares of land since 2007
- Creates local jobs for communities
- Improves food security

Cons
- Lack of government support and funding
- There may be increased temperature in the hottest areas
- More regional migration

66
Q

What happened in the Sahel during 2012?

A
  • Significant period of drought. Since many farmers in the region rely on rainfall to sustain agriculture, it meant that crops failed and led to food shortages
  • Flooding in the Sahel destroyed crops leaving 18 million people without enough food, with more than 1 million children at risk of starvation
67
Q

What happened from 2003-2005 in North Africa?

A

Locust swarms affected 20 countries in north Africa, destroying millions of hectares of crops. In the country of Niger 4000 villages were abandoned by residents whose crops had been decimated