Agricultural and Rural Land Use

Origin of Agriculture Most experts believe agriculture developed over time First agriculture is vegetative planting Cutting off a stem of another plant or dividing roots of a plant Seed agriculture came next where farming is done by planting seeds rather than part of the parent plant Agricultural Hearths: Carl Sauer’s theory says it started in SW Asia the diffused north and east to China and and Japan then west toward SW Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean

Agricultural Revolutions First Agricultural Revolution, sometimes called the Neolithic Revolution Involved humans domestication of seeds and animals 2nd Agricultural Revolution: started in 1880s in North America with globalization of industrialized agriculture and new technologies that increased food supply like mechanized farm technology and chemical fertilizers Impact of Industrialization: with the third agricultural revolution, we now produce the raw material then move it to a factory to be changed into something that can be more easily sold at market Example: milk Agribusiness: system of food production involving everything from development of seeds to marketing and sale of food products at market

The Green Revolution Began in 1940s as part of third agricultural revolution with development of hybrid seeds and fertilizers that increased output Started with U.S. funding of charities to increase output in third world countries Benefits have been huge in battling world hunger Grain production increased 45% world wide from 1945-1990 Asia increased rice production by 66% by 1985 India became self-sufficient with rice by 1980s Negatives of Green Revolution Reduced number of workers needed on farms Higher-yield crops are often more susceptible to viruses and bugs Farmers in peripheral countries often can’t afford technologies from the Green Revolution Environmental problems like pollution and soil contamination are more common, water resources have been strained

Subsistence Agriculture Defined: agriculture where farmers grow enough food consume but no surplus Most commonly seen in peripheral and less developed countries Three types: shifting cultivation, intensive subsistence and pastoralism Shifting cultivation: farmers rotate field to allow soil to replenish nutrients rather than farming the same types of land over and over Helps prevent leaching of soil nutrients Common in tropical zones because of thin topsoil Many farmers use slash-and-burn agriculture to prepare new plots of land called swidden Can cause environmental problems because of large areas of land necessary Used on nearly 25% of earths land

Intensive Agriculture Type of subsistent agriculture Happens when farmers cultivate small amounts of land very efficiently to produce food for their families Usually found in regions with high populations because of limited land availability Rice is dominant intensive subsistence agriculture crop Many intensive agriculture farmers practice double cropping where they grow more than one crop in a year

Final Subsistence Agriculture Pastoralism: breeding and herding of animals to produce food, shelter and clothing for survival Usually practiced in climates with limited arable land Can be sedentary or nomadic Usually practice transhumance (the movement of animal herds to cooler highland areas in summer and to warmer lowland areas in winter) Practice is declining world wide Mediterranean Agriculture Primarily associated with area around Mediterranean climates because of long, dry summers and cool wet winters Usually produces crops like wheat, vine and tree crops, olives and figs

Von Thunens Agricultural Location Theory Von Thunen was 19th Century German economist who developed theory about where and why agricultural activities would take place around a city's marketplace Model explains and predicts agricultural use patterns Basic patterns of Von Thunen Central marketplace is surrounded by agricultural activity zones that are in concentric rings representing a different type of agricultural land use Moving outward from city’s central marketplace, the farming activities changed from intensive to more extensive

Von Thunen’s Model

Why use von Thunen? Useful in comparing real situations to his theoretical farming situation-restricted to one variable, transportation costs Shows the influence of distance as a factor in human location decisions Settlement patterns in villages vary by culture In Europe, villages were on hillside to leave flatlands for farming and near rivers In Asia and Africa, villages were often round to protect cattle Let’s look at if Von Thunen is real!

Rural land use and Settlement patterns Factors Affecting Farm Locations: why do farms end up where they do? Physical factors: obviously, location on earth can be important but humans can modify the environment with innovations like irrigation, greenhouses, etc. Soil: evaluated by depth, texture, nutrient composition and acidity Relief: shape of potential field including slope and altitude, exposure to sun and access to water Climate: temperature and rainfall Political-cultural factors: certain factors can influence like Hindu’s holding cows sacred or Muslims not eating pig In less-developed countries government usually encourage farmers to adopt more advanced technology More-developed countries may pay farmers NOT to grow food Economic factors: farmers will try to grow crops that produce the most money Example: coffee in South America Oft times land rent (price farmer pays for each acre of land) is important with cheaper land usually located further away from city center

U.S. Agricultural Regions

Global land use patterns

Commercial Farming Defined: farming that produces crops to sell at the market place Mixed crop and livestock: involved growing crops and raising animals Farmers use crops to feed animals, animal manure to fertilize crops with the animal products (like eggs or milk) as the primary money producer Popular in Europe and North America, usually near large, urban areas Ranching: commercial grazing or raising of animals on a plot of land on which they graze Usually requires large amounts of land Common in North and South America Dairying: growth of milk-based products for the market place Farms closer to market place usually produce milk while ones further from the market typically produce cheese and butter Most are capital-intensive farms (use machinery) unlike labor-intensive farms (use human labor)

Global agricultural regions

More Commercial Farming Large-scale grain production: where grains are grown to be exported to other places for consumption Most common in Canada, U.S., Argentina, Australia, France, England and Ukraine Many farms actually produce grains for animals, not humans Plantation farming: uses large-scale areas (called plantations or agricultural estates) that specialize in farming of one or two high-demand crops for export Introduced by Europeans in tropical zones during colonial periods Today, most commonly found in low-latitude areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America where companies own plantations that are close to coastal areas for easy export Coffee, cocoa, sugar common goods produced

Globalization of Farming Started with colonization and plantation system In modern system, a neocolonial or postcolonial relationships has developed between former colonies and colonizers with colonies still producing raw products and colonizers manufacturing them Truck farms: when agricultural goods (example, flowers) are flown in from tropical zones for sell in core countries Humans in developed world have been forced into agribusiness Humans in less-developed countries have been forced to sell their lands to MNC and grow food primarily for export

World Food Production per Capita

Graph of agricultural exports

Global Food Availability

Biotechnology Defined: using living organisms to produce or change plant or animal products Often used with genetic modification-a form of biotechnology that uses scientific, genetic manipulation of crop and animal products to improve agricultural productivity and products Creation of modern “superplants” that grow faster and have higher yield Has moved into animals in recent years to produce more meat

Hunger Hunger around world is not usually caused by humans ability to grow food but by distribution of food supply and people’s ability to access those food supplies Under nutrition: lack of sufficient calories or nutrients Famine: mass starvation resulting from prolonged under nutrition Historically, women have higher rates of under nutrition Nearly 25,000 people in world die each day because of under nutrition Currently, biotechnology is looking for more sustainable yield crops

Desertification and Soil Erosion Soil erosion is caused when soil is not allowed enough time to recuperate between harvests It takes 100 to 500 years to naturally regenerate half an inch of nutrient topsoil with some estimates saying soil erosion destroys 55 billion tons of topsoil each year Desertification: loss of habitable land to the expansion of deserts Usually caused by cutting down rainforests like in Africa and the Sahara because cutting down the trees yields more immediate income than preservation of land To fight this, some countries are using debt-for-nature swaps where international debt is forgiven in exchange for preservation of rainforests