Unit 5: Agriculture Flashcards
What is agriculture
Deliberate modification of Earth’s surface through cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain.
What is a crop
Any plant cultivated by people
Developing countries to US percent of the world’s farmers
Dev: 97%
US: 2%
How does the US feed its people without a lot of farmers
The advanced technology used allows them to produce enough food for people in the US at a very high standard, as well as food for many people elsewhere in the world.
What are the characteristics of a hunter-gatherer society
-small groups
• Men hunted/fished, women gathered
• Direction and frequency of migration depended on movement of game and seasonal growth of plants
• Limited material culture bc no permanent settlements
• Strong ties to land, but nomaadic and mobile.
How many hunter-gatherers are there today and where do they live
There are a quarter million ppl (.005%) that are still hunter gatherers. Isolated groups that live in the periphery of world settlement.
What was the agricultural revolution
The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering
How did environment contribute to agricultural revolution
• Climate change over 10,000 years ago.
• Marked end of the last ice age, resulted in a massive
redistribution of humans, other animals and plants at that
time.
How did culture contribute to agricultural revolution
- People wanted to live in a fixed place so they built permanent settlements and to store surplus vegetation.
- People started to put cut plants on the ground and pour water over it (farming)
Animal hearths
- Southwest Asia
- Central Asia
Crop hearths
- Southwestern Asia
- East Asia
- Sub-saharan Africa
- Latin America
Where did vegetative platning originate
In southeast Asia
What is subsistence agriculture and where is it found
Found in developing countries. The production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer’s family
What is commercial agriculture and where is it found
Found in developed countries. The production of food primarily for sale off the farm.
What are the main features that separates commercial and subsistence agriculture
Percentage of farmers in the labor force, the use of machinery, the farm size
Subsistence agriculture (mostly LDCs): % Farmers in Labor force
44%
Subsistence agriculture (mostly LDCs): Use of Machinery
Subsistence farmers do much or the work with hand tools and animal power
Subsistence agriculture (mostly LDCs): Farm size
Small
Commercial agriculture (mostly MDCs): % Farmers in Labor force
.5%
Commercial agriculture (mostly MDCs): Use of Machinery
Rely on machinery to perform work rather than people or animals
Commercial agriculture (mostly MDCs): Farm size
-Large
How does this impact food consumption: Level of development
• Ppl in developed countries tend to consume more food from different sources than do people in developing countries
How does this impact food consumption: Physical conditions
- Climate is important in influencing what can most easily be grown and therefore consumed in developing countries
- In developing countries, food is shipped long distances to locations with different climates
How does this impact food consumption: Cultural preferences
Some food preferences and avoidances are shown without regard for physical and economic factors.
Most humans get their calories from by eating
Cereal grain, or simply cereal, which is a grass that yields grain for food. Grain is the seed from a cereal grass.
What three cereal grains make up 90% of all grain production and 40% of all dietary energy consumed
- wheat
- Rice
- Maize (corn in North America)
What is food security
The UN defines it as physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
How much of the world doesn’t have food security
1/8
What is the average kcal consumption worldwide
2900kcal
Who has the world’s biggest food consumption rate
United states
What is undernourishment
• Dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity
How much of the world suffers from undernourishment and where
870 million people are undernourished and 99 percent of the, come from people living in developing countries: India, China, Sub-Saharan Africa, South
How many agricultural regions are there
11
What are two examples of how climate impacts culture
Southwest Asia and North Africa have dry climates, so pastoral nomadism is the agriculture type
Sub-sharan Africa: shifting cultivation with a tropical climate
What is pastoral nomadism
• A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding of domesticated animals
What type of climate is pastoral nomadism found
Dry climates
What regions of the world do pastoral nomadism
Southwest Asia, North Africa, Central Asia
What do the pastoral nomads use their animals for
Milk, clothing, tents. They consume mostly grain rather than meat
How do pastoral nomads get grain
They raise crops or get it From sedentary subsistence farmers in exchange for animal products
What factors contribute to the choice of animals used in pastoral nomadism
The relative prestige of animals and the ability of the species to adapt to a particular climate and vegetation
What is territoriality with pastoral nomads
Strong sense of territoriality. Will not invade others’ territory unless war
What is transhumance
• Seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas
How have changes in technology threatened the pastoral nomad’s way of life
Pastoral nomadism is a declining form of agriculture and is partly a victims of modern technology. They used to be
important role as carriers of goods and information across the sparsely inhabited Drylands. With new technology, the nomadic population can control nomads more effectively
In what way do modern government currently threaten pastoral nomads
They are trying to resettle nomads in China, Kazakhstan, several countries of Southwest Asia (Israel, Saudi Arabia,
Syria). Nomads are reluctant to move. Gov’t wants them to move so they can use the land for something else.
Pastoral nomads will be increasingly confined to areas that cannot be irrigated or that lack valuable raw materials
In what climate does shifting cultivation predominate
Tropical, or A, climate regions, that have relatively high temperatures and abundant rainfall
Where is shifting cultivation found
Tropical train forests of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southwest Asia
What are the two distinctive features of shifting cultivation and explain them
Farmers clear land for planting by slashing vegetation and burning the debris (shifting cultivation is aka slash and burn agriculture)
• Farmers grow crops in a cleared field only a few years until soil nutrients are depleted, and then leave it fallow (with nothing planted) for many years so the soil can recover
What is a potash
The only fertilizer available for shifting cultivation farmers-is potash (potassium) from burning the debris when the site is cleared
How long are swiddens used
3 years or less
What factors contribute to the choice of crops used in shifting cultivation
- Local custom and taste
* - maize (corn) in Southeast Asia, manioc (cassava), in South America millet and sorghum in Africa
What percentage of the world’s land area is devoted to shifting cultivation
1/4
What percentage of the wordl’s people work shifting cultivation
-Less than 5 percent
Why is shifting cultivation being replaced
It is being replaces by logging, cattle ranching, and the cultivation of cash crops.
-Doing that is a better development strategy than shifting cultivation
Developing countries see it as an inefficient way to grow crops bc it can only support a small population in an area without causing environmental damage
Pros of shifting cultivation
- Clear forests for development
- Best for environment
Cons of shifting cultivation
-Doesn’t yield enough crops per land area
-Not an effective development strategy.
-May upset the traditional local diversity of culture
in the tropics
What is meant by intensive
• Implies that farmers must work intensively to subsist on a parcel of land
-Greater amounts of capital and paid labor relative to the space
What are the characteristics of an intensive subsistence farm
-Near densely populated areas with access to local markets
-Inputs; Often labor-intensive production on small plots
EX: Farmers who grow a wides variety of crops like corn, cassava, millet, or yams and raise some livestock
What are the characteristics of an intensive commercial farm
-Near urban centers or transportation hubs
Inputs: Large amounts of labor and machinery, often on large amounts of land
EX: Truck farming and dairy farming
What are the characteristics of an extensive commercial farm
-Near transportation centers with access to processing centers
Inputs; Minimal amount of labor and machinery on a large expanse of land
EX: Livestock ranching, grain farming
What are the characteristics of an extensive subsistence farm
-Sparsely populated areas with access to local markets
Inputs: Minimal amount of machinery, but sometimes labor intensive work on a large plot of land that might be owned communally
EX: Pastoral nomadism and shifting cultivation
What is extensive farming
Uses fewer inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the amount of space being used
What is wet rice
Refers to rice landed on dry land in a nursery and then moved as seedlings to flooded field to promote growth
What is a sawah and what is a paddy
Sawah: flooded rice field name in Austronesian language
Paddy: what the North Americans call a sawah. Paddy is the Malay word for wet rice
What is double-cropping
Land used even more intensely in parts of Asia by obtaining two harvests per year from one field
EX: getting corn and wheat from your field
Where is double-cropping possible and not possible
Common in places that have warm winters. Not possible in areas that have dry winters
In areas of intensive subsistence agriculture where wet rice is not dominant, what is the major crop
Wheat followed by barley.
How are multiple harvests made possible in less milk regions
Through skilled use of crop rotation (practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil.
What is a plantation
A large commercial farm in a developing country that specializes in one or two crops.
Where are plantations located
In the tropics and subtropics (Latin America, Africa, and
Asia)
Who were plantations operated by
Europeans or North
Americans