Human Geo Chapter 9.3 - 9.4 Vocab Flashcards
Intensive Subsistance Agriculture
Characteristic of Asia’s major population concentrations; where farmers must expend a large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land. It involves careful agricultural practices refined over 1000s of years in response to local environmental/cultural patterns. Because there is a high ratio of farmers to arable land in east/south Asia, families must produce a lot from a small land area, and most work is done by hand (lack of $).
Double Cropping
Harvesting twice a year from the same field. It is common in warm-winter places (like China & Taiwan), but is rare in India (with dry winters?). Usually, it involves alternating between wet rice (summer) and wheat, barley, or other dry crops (winter, drier season). This is how to use land MORE intensively in parts of Asia.
Crop Rotation
The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil. This is how to obtain harvest in milder parts of the wet-rice non dominant region. In colder climates, wheat other crops are planted in spring & harvested in fall, but no crops can be sown through the winter.
Wet Rice
Rice planted on dry land in a nursery and moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth. It occupies a small % of Asia’s farmland, but is their most important source of food. Intensive wet-rice farming is dominant in southeastern China, East India, & Southeast Asia.
Sawah
A flooded field for growing rice
Paddy
The Malay word for wet rice, increasingly used to describe a flooded field.
Shifting Cultivation
A form of subsistence agriculture where people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a few years and left fallow for many years. It is practiced in tropical (A) regions, with rain and high temperatures. 250 million people practice it, especially in rain forests of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, & Southeast Asia.
Pastoral Nomadism
A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals in dry climates (no crops possible). Ex. Bedouins of Saudi Arabia/North Africa & the Masai of East Africa. The animals provide milk, and their hair/skins are used for clothing/tents. Not slaughtered. The size of the heard shows power & security. Nomads eat mostly grain (by raising crops/trading animal products), not meat.
Transhumance
Seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture areas. Sheep or other animals may pasture in alpine meadows in the summer and go to the valleys for winter pasture. Some pastoral nomads practice it.
Plantation
A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specialize in the production of 1 or 2 crops for sale, usually to a more developed state. Most are located in the tropics/subtropics (Latin America, Africa, & Asia). They are owned/operated by Europeans or North Americans, and sell their crops to developed countries. Plantations were important in the US south during the civil war (after, they were subdivided & sold to farmers or worked by tenants).
Fishing
The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in the waters. Historically, the sea hasn’t provided much food supply, so increased use of food from the sea seems attractive, but overfishing has reduced fish supplies. The world’s oceans are divided into 16 fishing regions, and it is also conducted in lakes/rivers. Areas with largest yields: Pacific Northwest & Asia’s inland waterways.
Aquaculture, or aquafarmiing
Seafood cultivation under controlled conditions.
Overfishing
Capturing fish faster than they can reproduce. This leads to the decline of fish population. Overfishing has been acute in the North Atlantic & Pacific oceans, and has reduced the population of swordfish & tuna by 90%. 1/4 of fish stocks have been overfished and 1/2 exploited.
Agribusiness
Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations. It also encompasses tractor manufacturing, fertilizer production, & seed distribution. Farms are owned by families, other aspects by corporations. Products are sold to food-processing companies (General Mills/Kraft), not directly to consumers.
Monocropping
The practice of growing the same single crop year after year. Typical to grain farms. Commercial grain farms sell their output to manufacturers of food products (bread, breakfast cereals).