Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes Chapter 14: Topic 5.10 Flashcards
The study of how land is used and the impact of changing land use.
Land Cover Changes
The use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides has increased tremendously over the past several decades, and resulted in polluted air, water and land. To ensure minimal damage to the environment and people. many governments have regulated the amount and types of chemicals that can be used, in addition to how and when they can be applied.
Farming Pollution
Alteration of the natural vegetation in arid areas causes fertile land to become infertile. Ex: caused by the removal of forests or overgrazing livestock which can allow for increased wind erosion and result in the loss of the topsoil.
Desertification
This can be caused by improper use of irrigation or water high in salt content. it occurs when salts from water used by plants remain in the soil. This decreases a plant’s ability to uptake water and nutrients, which results in lower yields and may render soil useless.
Salinization
Counter the damaging effects of destroying the natural landscape, and the various flora and fauna that inhabit it, through the expansion and development of farmland. Protecting and preserving natural resources and the environment.
Conservation
Farmers build a series of steps into the side of a hill. This creates flat surfaces, which have several benefits over steeply graded hillsides:
- Amount of arable land increases in areas with steep hillsides.
- The land collects rainfall that sustains crops, rather than allowing it to run down a sloped hillside.
- The reduction in water running down the hillside limits soil erosion.
Terrace Farming
The process of applying controlled amounts of water to crops using dams, canals, pipes, sprinkler systems, or other manufactured devices rather than relying on just rainfall. Ex: Dry central and southern regions of California
Irrigation
1960s, the Soviet Union tried to divert water from rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea to increase cotton production in the region. The Aral Sea, was reduced to 10 percent of its former size by 1997. This is because the project was done poorly and much of the water went to waste. The water that remined was extremely saline, which destroyed a flourishing fishing industry and caused economic hardship for the population that lived near the lake. Some of the former lakebed is now classified as a desert and cannot be farmed.
Aral Sea - Problems with Irrigation
The removal of large tracts of forest, has occurred throughout human history as a common solution to the need for additional farmland.
Deforestation
An early agricultural practice and type of shifting cultivation, take place when all vegetation in an area of forest is cut down and burned in place.
Slash-N-Burn Agriculture
As citizens of semiperiphery countries enjoy improved standards of living, they seek a more western-style diet involving meat, dairy products, and processed and convenience foods.
Changing Diets
Traditionally, women helped men in the fields and in processing and storing the harvest. Also, women performed the task of selecting the best seeds to plant the following year. Recent economic development in periphery and semiperiphery countries has resulted in different sectors of the economy. Men are more likely to leave the farm and accept jobs in urban centers therefore, the women take on much larger roles in running and managing family farms.
Roles of Women in Agriculture
