1. Agriculture

2. Introduction Agricultural Geography Agricultural Hearth Areas
Physical and Cultural Factors Influencing Agricultural Production
Subsistence vs Commercial Agriculture
Agricultural Trends

3. Geographer’s Perspective of World Agriculture
Geographers are interested in the patterns and distribution of agriculture in the world today.
What are the patterns of agriculture worldwide?
Why are agricultural areas distributed in the manner that they are?

4. Agriculture Agri - Latin for field culture - to cultivate
The expanded definition of Agriculture includes the cultivation of plants and animals
The goal of agriculture is produce sufficient food supplies

5. Physical Factors Land/Soil (fertility) Water (precipitation & rivers)
Sun ( temperature, evaporation rates)
Climate

6. Cultural Factors Population Distribution Diet of population
calorie supply, protein, health
Living Material
clothes, houses
Lifestyle/Cultural Tradition
nomadic, sedentary/rain dances
Economics
cash crops with greatest profit ie. viticulture
Government/Political Policies
Argentina wheat, Japan rice

8. Agricultural Hearth Areas
Indus River in Pakistan
East China (Huang Ho River)
Ganges Delta (India and Bangladesh)
MesoAmerica (Mexico and Central America)
Andean America (Peru)
West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger)
Mesopotamia (Iraq)
Nile River (Egypt)

10. Agricultural Hearth Areas
Vegetative Planting - using the roots of one plant and dividing it to produce more
Southeast Asia
West Africa
Northwestern South America
Seed Agriculture – using seeds from plants to produce more plants
western India
northern China
Ethiopia
Southern Mexico
northwestern South America

11. Forms of Agriculture Commercial livestock & ranching horticulture
produced for market
mechanized
few laborers
livestock & ranching
horticulture
dairy farming
mixed crop
grain
medditeranean
Subsistence
produced for consumption
work by hand
most people work
shifting agriculture
nomadic herding
rice (intensive subsistence)
plantation agriculture

13. Agricultural Trends Hand Labor Mechanization
Small Plots Large corporately owned holdings
No fertilizers natural fertilizers chemical fertilizers
Natural Seed Production Hybrid Seeds
Farm to family Farm to processing to supermarkets
Nature controlled water man controlled water

14. Methods of Agriculture
LDCs – low yield, high impact farming
Subsistence or barter systems
Intensive hand labor
Limited knowledge of irrigation, soil, and/or return on investments
MDCs – high yield med-high impact farming
Commercial Agriculture
High tech
High yield
Large amounts of land required
For distribution, not consumption

15. Terrace Farming
Manipulation of hill/mountainsides for flat surfaces to farm
Practiced mainly along river valleys
Causes massive erosion and leaves areas prone to flooding
Common in East and Southeast Asia
Rice

16. Shifting Cultivation (Slash and Burn)
Burning or destroying all natural vegetation and planting crops on the soil
Produces crops for 1-3 years
Land is vacated and the process is repeated elsewhere
Destruction of rainforests in South America and Central Africa (Amazon and Congo respectively)
Occupies ¼ of the world’s land area
Only 5% of the world’s population practice this

17. Heavily Forested Area
Slash and Burn
Swidden
Planting and Growing Seasons (1-3)
20-30 Years
Abandoned Field

18. Intensive vs. Extensive
Intensive Subsistence Farming
Small amounts of land use
High yield
Wet rice, subsistence grain
Extensive Subsistence Farming
Large amounts of land use
Inefficient
Labor intensive
Shifting cultivation, pastoral nomadism