SUBSISTENCE AND COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE SUBSISTENCE AND COMMERCIAL

Classification of Economic Activities & Economics Factors - Physical environment and cultural considerations Exploit resources dependent upon technology Political decisions economic factors of demand Categories of Activity Quinary Activities Executive Decision Maker Quaternary Activities Info/Research/Management Tertiary Activities Retail & Wholesale/Personal & Prof. services Transportation & Comm. Secondary Activities Manufacturing/Processing/Construction/Power Production Primary Activities Agriculture/Gathering/Extractive Industries

Primary Activities: Agriculture Def. : growing crops and tending livestock, for sale or subsistence. 10% of the total earth land is for crop farming. Declining trend in agriculture employment in developing countries Developed - 8% in most of W. Europe, < 3% in the US. Agriculture is still the major components in developing countries

Agriculture in Gross Domestic Product Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Agriculture in Gross Domestic Product Figure 8.7 8-4 Source: The World Bank

Declining Agricultural Employment Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Declining Agricultural Employment Figure 8.6 8-3 Source: FAO and World Bank

Trends in Food Production Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Trends in Food Production Figure 8.11 8-6 Source: Data from Food and Agricultural Organization, World Resources Institute, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Origins and Diffusion of Agriculture, Fig. 8.12 SE Asia (no date given) rice, citrus, taro, bananas, sugarcane secondary center - North China Plain (millet) Fertile Crescent (10,000 bp) wheat, barley, rye, oats Mesoamerica (>= 5,000 bp) corn, tomatoes, beans, squash, chiles secondary center, Andean S. America (potato, manioc)

Fig 8.5 - average length of growing season

Differences between Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture Purpose of farming Percentage of farmers in the labor force Use of machinery Farm size Relationship of farming to other business

LDC Agriculture Shifting cultivation Pastoral nomadism Intensive Subsistence

Subsistence Agriculture Involves nearly total self-sufficiency on the part of its members. No exchange (or minimal, if any). food for themselves only. No knowledge of soil chemistry, fertilizing, or irrigation, once the soil become infertile, they move to another parcel of land, clear the vegetation, turn the soil and try again. 150 to 200 million people in Africa, Middle America, tropical South America and parts of Southeast Asia. In Africa, S and E Asia, Latin America Two types Extensive: large areas of land and minimal labor input per unit area. Production and pop density is low. Intensive: cultivation of small landholdings through the expenditure of great amounts of labor per unit area. Production and pop density are both high.

Subsistence Agricultural Areas Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Subsistence Agricultural Areas Figure 8.8 8-5

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture Nomadic herding (8.8) - wandering and controlled movement of livestock dependent on natural forage - the most extensive type of land use system. Sheep, goat, and camels are most common and others such as cattle, horses and yaks are important too. Animal provides milk, cheese, meat for food; hair, wool and skins for clothing; skin for shelter and excrement for fuel. Nomadic herding is declining. Social/economic/culture changes are causing nomadic groups to alter their ways of life or disappear entirely. Shifting cultivation - rotating field once soil lose fertility. Swidden and slash-and-burn. (8.9)

Shifting cultivation/Slash-burn Slash-and-burn : process of preparing low fertility soils for planting. Burning add minerals to the soils, in low level of population Shifting - rotating the fields to keep soil fertile After burning, plant crops such as maize (corn) millet (cereal grain), rice, manioc, yam, and sugarcane

Images of Shifting Cultivation Swidden Slash and burn Milpa

Intensive Subsistence Systems Half of the people of the world engaged in this activity Exchange of farm commodities Mostly in monsoon Asia. warm and moist river valleys and delta planting rice shoots by hand in standing fresh water is a tedious art (8.10) Cooler/ drier Asia - wheat and millet is planted. Rice provides 25 - 80% calories to over 2.8 billion pop. Water management is crucial to the rice production Rice Landscape - levees, reservoirs, canals, drainage channels, and terraces to extend level land to valley slopes Swine, ducks and chickens are main meat. Cattle used for labor and produce fertilizers.

Fig 8.10

Fig 8.24 Farmers Market in China Fig 8.28 - Fish harvesting in Thailand

Paddy Rice Supports highest population densities Multiple crops per year Labor intensive East and Southeast Asia plus eastern India.

The Economy of Chinese Village Rice planted in March and August, harvested in July and Nov. Water buffalo, transplanting of rice seedlings from seedbed. Two weeding by hands Harvest - threshing Vegetable gardening, spring/summer grows eggplants, squash and beans, green-leafed in fall to spring. Watering with the long-handled wooden dipper, additional fertilizer, usually diluted urine or a mixture of diluted urine and excreta was given every 10 days or so. Threshing rice

At the border-Wheat and Rice in China (Fig. 8.4) Impact on food system Noodle/rice Population density Rice’s labor needs

Water Buffalo and Rice Paddies in Asian Country                                                                            

China -Xinjiang - Uygur yurt                                                                            

Stone house of Nepal                                                                            

Icelandic sod farm house                                                                            

Maasai - in Mayotte, southern Africa, France affiliated                                                                            

Nias Island, West Coast of Sumatera, Indonesia                                                                            

Urban Subsistence Farming Provide 1/7 of the world food production - mostly in Asia engaged in small garden plots, backyard livestock breeding and raising fish in ponds and streams. China, Taiwan, Cuba, Kenya and many other countries residents engaged in urban subsistence farming. In parts of the developing world, this has reduced the incidence of adult and child malnutrition in cities. Many rely on this as sole income Advantages- convert waste from problem to resource by reducing run-off and erosion from open dumps and by avoiding costs of wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal. Examples - Sudan, Calcutta.. Disadvantage - diseases, water pollution

MDC Agriculture Mixed crop and livestock farming Dairy farming Grain farming Livestock ranching Mediterranean Commercial gardening and fruit farming Plantation agriculture

Intensive Commercial Agriculture Characterized by high yields per unit of cultivated land Large amount of input - justified by fruits, vegetable and dairy products. Truck Farm produces wide range of vegetable and fruits with refrigerated trucks and custom packaging. (distribution of truck farm 8.17) Livestock-grain farming - growing grain for livestock feed. corn and livestock at same farm reducing transportation cost. Close to the great coastal and industrial zone markets. livestock price higher than feed, farmer convert their corn into meat on the farm by feeding it to the livestock

Extensive Commercial Agriculture Farmland values decline westward with increasing distance from the northeastern market of the US, but not increasing while near west coast. Climate and environmental considerations (increasing aridity and mountain ranges..) Large-scale wheat farming - requires large amount capital input. Spring wheat (Dakotas, e Montana, S Canada) winter wheat (Kansas..) Argentina in S hemisphere. Wheat is the most grain production in the world Livestock ranching - oriented to the urban market of industrialized countries. Confined to areas of European settlement., Caused destruction of tropical rain forests in Central America and the Amazon basin due to expanded cattle ranching. (in land with low quality, low pop density, and require low labor)

Special Crops - mostly due to climate factor Mediterranean agriculture - grapes, olives, oranges, figs, vegetables and similar commodities - needs warm temp. all year round plus summer sunshine. Summer drought and winter rain, irrigation system is needed. Plantation crops - foreign to the areas tea in India and Sri Lanka, jute in India and Bangladesh, rubber in Malaysia and Indonesia, cacao in Ghana and Nigeria, can sugar in Cuba...., coffee in Brazil and Colombia, banana in central America. Most plantation in coastal area, easy for export.

Ranching and Crop Agriculture Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Ranching and Crop Agriculture Figure 8.21 8-12

fig 8-13 Iowa Corn Storage

fig. 8-22 Indonesia rubber plantation worker fig 8-19 contract harvesters

Relative Value per Acre Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Relative Value per Acre Figure 8.18 8-10 Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States.

Agricultural Regions of No. America Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Agricultural Regions of No. America Figure 8.17 8-9 Source: U.S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics; Agriculture Canada; and Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos, Mexico.

Plantation Agriculture Large-scale, specialized production of one tropical or sub-tropical crop Dual economy Export to developed world

Plantation - Cacao Tree - source of chocolate and cacao                                          

Opium Poppy Seeds in Afghanistan                                                  

More Plantation Agriculture

Principal Wheat-Growing Areas Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Principal Wheat-Growing Areas Figure 8.20 8-11

Origin of Green Revolution Started in 1960s, Philippino research crossed a Chinese rice with Indonesian variety and produced IR8 rice with bigger head of grain and stronger stem. In 1982, they produced IR36, the most widely grown crop on Earth IR36-mixed from 13 parents genetic resistance against 15 pests and growing cycle of 110 days which makes three crops per year possible. Charting of genome (12 chromosomes) is ongoing, it will eventually increase the production and develop the resistance to diseases and pests Green Revolution - 8.11 trends in food production 1961-1999. Saving an estimated one billion people from starvation. Increased calories per person, pop with adequate food in developing countries jumped from 55% to 80%.

Green Revolution Disadvantages - irrigation destroyed large tracts of land, groundwater depletion, water wars, loss of traditional/ subsistence farming, food production aiming at export, rural society destroyed, reduced variety of crops, rural pop moved to urban Not all areas benefited from Green Revolution - reasons (belated research effort, great range of growing conditions) Genetic diversity of crop varieties , fewer than 100 species provide most of the world’s food supply. Asia - gains fell off - little prime land, less water, adverse ecol. and social consequences. Even biotech can’t help (consumers’ resistance..) Loss of domestic food availability

Fertilizer Consumption of the world (UN)                                                                                                         

Women and Green Revolution Women and the Green Revolution Women grow at least half of the world’s food and up to 80% in Africa.. Women perform about 90% of the world in Africa. Men leave for urban for other jobs, women workload is increasing. Women mostly do not share equally with men in the rewards from agriculture. Working longer hours and less incomes due to cultural and economical factors. How women can benefit from the Green Revolution?

a b Figure 8.14 von Thunen’s model

Land Use Rings Meat Dairy Wheat Meat

Transport Gradients/Ag Zones Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Transport Gradients/Ag Zones Figure 8.15 8-7

Wheat >$ dairy Meat >$ wheat

Different Products with Different Prices, Costs and Transport Rates

Ring Modifications 8-8 Figure 8.16 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display. Ring Modifications Figure 8.16 8-8

Cutural Interaction in Agriculture Von Thunen’s Isolated State Early Core/Periphery Model ER = economic rent per acrre Y = Yield per acre P = market price per unit C = production cost per unit t = cost per mile to move a unit d = distance from market. ER = Y(P-C)-Ytd or ER = Y(P-C-td)

Gross and Net Profit ER = Y(P-C) gross profit (no transport costs) ER = Y(P-C-td) net profit(gross profit minus transport costs) distance

Gross Profits at Market Dairy: 20(7.50-5.00)-20(.25*0) = 50 Wheat: 300(1.00-.90)-300(.00333*0)=30 Meat: 100(2.5-2.4)-100(.002*0) = 10