Population and the Environment, Agriculture and climate:4.3-4.7

Question 1

What are the three types of farming?

Answer 1

• Arable
  > farming of crops/cereal
• Mixed
  > mix of Arable and Pastoral farms
• Pastoral
  > farming of livestock

Question 2

what are the conditions for arable farming?

Answer 2

• requires high quality soil
  > farmer founded Tyrell crisps due to a lot of farmable soil in the UK

Question 3

what are the benefits for mixed farming?

Answer 3

• commercially sensible as it is flexible in what they sell
  > able to fall back on other crops/ livestock
• Fife in Scotland
  > good quality soil and space to graze

Question 4

What are the benefits for pastoral farming?

Answer 4

• doesn’t require high quality soil
  > able to raise livestock almost everywhere
• Pampas in Argentina
  > richest grasslands in the world
  > able to raise high quality beef due to space and feeding on Pampas grass

Question 5

what are the four ways of farming?

Answer 5

• intensive
• commercial
• subsistence
• extensive

Question 6

what is the goal of intensive farming

Answer 6

• aim to produce in places where they don’t normally grow or out of the growing season
• done by creating an environment which still allows in sunlight but stimulated different environments
  > use of greenhouses and ploytunnels

Question 7

what is the goal of subsistence farming?

Answer 7

• producing enough food to feed yourself and your community
  > rarely enough to be sold
• uses ancient techniques
  > slash and burn
• low input and low output
  > lowest yield in farming
  > harder environmental impact
  > unable to change the environment
  > more human element
• normally in the LIC
  > low economy input as there is no product to sell

Question 8

what is the goal of extensive farming?

Answer 8

• focus on maintaining the land, not getting profit
  > cows in Yorkshire Dales
  > lake district
  > South Downs
• land is not used for any type of farming
  > often hard for machinery to reach the areas
  > not the correct weather conditions for any more profitable type of farming
• low input and low output
• often on the margins of profit
• land

Question 9

what is the goal of commercial farming?

Answer 9

• to farm at a large scale
• agribusiness: large scale
  > wants a high yield for a high profit
• to get the highest yield product is used
  > fertilizer
  > technology/machinery
• normally specialises in one crop
  > able to focus all of the machine/effort in finding a market for the one crop
• Rural North America
  > low population density for a large area for farming
  > Canadian Winter Wheat
• try to increase inputs to increase the output
  > needs money to do this

Question 10

What are inputs in agricultural systems?

Answer 10

• physical, human, and economic factors that determine the type of farming in the area
• Human
  > labour
• physical
  > climate
  > relief
  > soil fertility
  > drainage
• economic
  > seeds
  > energy/fuel

Question 11

What are processes in agricultural systems?

Answer 11

• activities carried out to turn inputs into outputs
• vary depending on the inputs and technology available
• growing crops, rearing livestock, daily routines, seasonal patters

Question 12

What are outputs in agricultural systems?

Answer 12

• products from the farm
  > crops
  > livestock

Question 13

What are feedbacks in agricultural systems?

Answer 13

• reinvestment of profits back into farming
  > fertiliser
  > increase in land
  > better equipment

Question 14

what are the two types of soils?

Answer 14

• podsol
• Latosol

Question 15

what are the characteristics of podsol?

Answer 15

• found in taiga, south of the tundra
• inherently infertile
• UK highlands have podsol
  > used in sheep farming

Question 16

what are the characteristics of latosol?

Answer 16

• found in rainforest environment
• 5 degrees north and south of the equator

Question 17

What are problems with using soils for agriculture?

Answer 17

• takes thousands of years for soils to be deep and mature enough for agriculture
• according to World Economic Forum in 2012 soil is being lost between 10 and 40 x the rate which it can be replenished
• 40% of soil used for agriculture is either degraded or seriously degraded
• without soil management food production would decline by 30% over the next 30-50 years

Question 18

How does soil erosion occur?

Answer 18

• soil erosion is blamed on the removal of natural vegetation cover
• intensified by population pressures such as overgrazing and overcultivation
• reduces fallow periods and deforestation
• deep ploughing up and down slopes
  > aid in removal of topsoil by wind and water erosion
• use of monocultures

Question 19

How does waterlogging occur?

Answer 19

• whenever the water table rises to the point of soil saturation and there is not enough oxygen in the pore spaces for plant roots to respire
  > anaerobic environment
• rainfall exceeds the rate that soil can absorb or the atmosphere can evaporate
• gentle relief restricts throughflow of infiltrating soil water
• relief basins or depressions encourage accumulation of water
• seepage from rivers, canals, and reservoirs infiltrate soils
• soils have an impermeable layer
• excessive irrigation water is used to flood fields

Question 20

how does salinisation occur?

Answer 20

• over long periods of time, soil minerals weather and release salts
• salts are deposited via dust and precipitation
• poor drainage leads to water logging
  > water table rises which brings dissolves salts to the surface
• water evaporated leaving a crust of evaporated salt on the surface

Question 21

what are the three main reasons for soil erosion?

Answer 21

• water logging
• salinisation
• structural deterioration

Question 22

How can sufficient precipitation or irrigation decrease salinisation?

Answer 22

• the salts are leached out of the soil due to the water

Question 23

How does structural deterioration occur?

Answer 23

• the type of rock can change characteristics due to compaction by heavy machinery or salinisation

Question 24

What are the different types of soil managements?

Answer 24

• terracing
• contour
• crop rotation and cover crops
• direct drilling
• strip cropping
• selective afforestation with shelter belts
• controlled grazing
• improved drainage
• careful management of irrigation

Question 25

What is soil management?

Answer 25

• conservation of the soil by preserving and protecting vegetation cover
  > afforestation and reforestation help as their roots hold the soil together and help the reduction of run-off
• water management
  > prevention of salinisation

Question 26

How did the green revolution change farming?

Answer 26

• use of agrochemicals
• use of intensive machinery
• genetically modified crops/hybridization
• sophisticated irrigation system

Question 27

what are the positives of the green revolution?

Answer 27

• Philippines developed miracle rice stand which has a 6x increase in yield
• due to genetic modification there have been strands of plants which are more resistant to disease
  > maize, cotton, and soy
• GM crops in 2013 were being grown in 13% of farms

Question 28

what are the negatives of the green revolution?

Answer 28

• new rice strains in the Philippines are more vulnerable to disease
• agrochemicals causing death
  > 34,000 deaths due to cancer linked to pesticide spraying in Punjab region
• unknown drawbacks of GM crops/ unknown health risks
  > banned in commercial farms in the UK
  > banned in 40 countries

Question 29

What is Food security?

Answer 29

• Food availability
  > food is available in sufficient quantities and on a consistent basis
  > capacity to bring in food through trade and aid
  > stock and production
• Food access
  > people are able to regularly acquire adequate quantities of food
• food utilisation
  > consumed food must have positive nutritional impact on people
  > though cooking, storage, hygiene, individuals health, water, sanitation, feeding and sharing practices in the household

Question 30

What are the main strategies to ensure food security?

Answer 30

• improved agricultural productivity
  > reduced hunger and poverty
  > higher yields
• economic growth
  >increases revenue to fund transfers and other programmes
• expansion of social protection
  > reduced hunger and ensures all members of society have a health diet
  > 150 million people are prevented from falling into extreme poverty thanks to social protection according to the FAO
  > still 2/3 of the world’s poor still do not have access to the forms of social support

Question 31

How much of the world’s population live in a monsoon climate?

Answer 31

• 60%

Question 32

What does farming look like in a monsoon climate?

Answer 32

• main crop produce is rice
  > due to the water logged soil
• land is terraced
• most people are subsistence farmers
  > very reliant on the monsoon weather, vulnerable to climate change

Question 33

How much of the earths landmass does the Tundra cover?

Answer 33

• 20%
• very few people living in those areas

Question 34

What does farming look like in a Tundra climate?

Answer 34

• most of the ground is permafrost, so little arable farming
  > only a few weeks where the temperature exceeds 0 degrees
• hard to support life, so little pastoral farming
• most people are hunter gatherers with a nomadic lifestyle
  > fishing
  > may get revenue from tourism

Question 35

What factors influenced the severity of food insecurity in Somalia since 2011?

Answer 35

• internal conflict/civil war
• poverty
• drought prevalence and intensity