Unit 5-Agriculture Flashcards
Agriculture:
Practice of raising crops and livestock for human use and consumption
Cropland:
Land used to raise plants for human use
Rangeland:
Land used for grazing livestock
History of Agriculture:
• Likely began when gathered food fell to the ground, was thrown away, or passed through digestive system and started growing fruits that were larger and tastier than those in the wild because they grew from seeds selected for size and flavour
• People began planting seeds from plants who had the most desirable produce
Sprang from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East
Intensification:
• Way of increasing productivity and carrying capacity of a given unit of land
Switching from a hunter gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle based on agriculture increased the carrying capacity of the land
Traditional Agriculture:
• Crops are cultivated, harvested, stored, and distributed by human and animal muscle power, using hand tools and simple machines
Substience Agriculture:
- Farming families produce only enough food for themselves
* No use of large scale irrigation, fertilizer, farm machinery, or teams of labouring animals
Intensive Agriculture:
• Used draft animals, irrigation, and fertilizer, but doesn’t use fertilizer
Aims to produce food for family, as well as extra food to sell in the market
Food Security:
Guarantee of an adequate and acceptable food supply to all people at all times
Arable Land:
Land suitable for planting of crops
Kwashiorkor:
• Bloating of the abdomen, deterioration and discolouration of hair, mental disability, anaemia, immune suppression, developmental delays
Caused by lack of protein or essential amino acids
Marasmus:
• Protein deficiency and lack of calories
Wasting or shrivelling away
Extensification:
Increasing resource productivity by bringing more land into production
