The Agricultural World - Part I

7/28/2019 The Agricultural World - Part I

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The Agricultural World

The Human Matrix

Chapter 3


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Introduction

Importance of agriculture

All humans depend on agriculture for food

Urban-industrial societies depend on the base

of food surplus generated by farmers andherders

Without agriculture there could be no cities,

universities, factories, or offices


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Introduction

Agriculturethe principal enterprise of

humankind through most of recorded history

Today remains the most important economic

activity in the world Employs 45percent of the working population In some parts of Asia and Africa, over 80

percent of labor force is engaged in agriculture


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Agricultural regions

Formal agricultural regions

Peoples living in different environments develop newfarming methods

Numerous spatial variations have been created

Shifting cultivation Essentially a land rotation system

Where it is practiced

Tropical lowlands and hills in the Americas

Africa Southeast Asia

Indonesia


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Shifting cultivation how it is practiced

Small patches of land are cleared by chopping

vegetation and girdling trees

When vegetation has dried, it is burned These techniques give shifting agriculture the

name slash-and-burn

With digging sticks or hoes, farmers plant a

variety of crops in the clearings


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How it is practiced Intertillagethe practice of planting taller, stronger

crops to shelter lower, fragile ones from tropicaldownpours

Intertillage reveals a learning acquired over many

centuries Little tending of the plants is necessary until harvest

time

No fertilizer is applied to the fields

The same clearings may be planted for four or five

years until the soil loses it fertility New fields are prepared and old fields may be

abandoned for 10 to 20 years


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Amazon Basin


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Subsistence agricultureinvolves food production mainly for thefamily and local community rather than for market

Farmers keep few if any livestock, often relying on hunting andfishing for much of their food supply

Has proved an efficient adaptive strategy

Slash-and-burn farming may return more calories of food for thecalories spent than modern mechanized agriculture

Has achieved sustainabilityfor millennia in the absence of apopulation explosion


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How slash-and-burn farming is being attacked by

Western agricultural experts

People being forced off the land by rural development

schemes

Improved health conditions have causedpopulation

growth beyond the size supportable by this kind of

farming

People have passed to the second stage of the

demographic transformation causing land fallowperiods to be shortened

Environmental deterioration follows


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Shifting Cultivation - Uganda

This slash-andburn plot is in

the Ruwenzoris (Mountains of

the Moon).

A burgeoning population doesnot permit a suitable fallow

period; crop yields are poor

and the forest never recovers


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Shifting Cultivation - Uganda

Consequently, shiftingcultivation by too many peopleis responsible for tropicalrainforest destruction over avast area.

Intertillage is practiced withbananas, taro, cassava, beansand sorghum being planted inthe same field.

While some sugarcane andcoffee are grown for sale, this

is primarily subsistenceagriculture.


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Distinctive type of subsistence farming

Where practiced

Humid tropical and subtropical parts of Asia

Monsoon coasts of India

Hills of southeastern China

Warmer parts of Japan


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Paddy rice farming

Tiny, mud-diked, flooded rice fields, many

perched on terraced hillsides

Paddies must be drained and rebuilt each

year Forms the basis of vegetable civilizations

almost all caloric intake is of plant origin


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Bali, Indonesia


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Paddy rice farming

Many paddy farmers raise a cash crop for market

Tea

Sugar cane

Mulberry bushes for silkworm production

Fiber crop jute

Asian farmers also raise pigs, cattle, and poultry

Food fish are maintained in irrigation reservoirs in Asia


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Paddy rice farming

Draft animalswater buffaloused more by

farmers in India

Japanese have mechanized paddy rice

farming


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Paddy rice farming

Most paddy rice farms outside Communist area of Asia are tiny

Three acre plot is considered adequate to support a farmfamily

Irrigated rice provides a large output of food per unit of land

Small patches must be intensively tilled to harvest enoughfood

Small rice sprouts carefully transplanted by hand from seedbeds to paddy

Double-croppingharvest same parcel of land two or threetimes each year

Apply large amounts of organic fertilizer Per-acre yields exceed those of American agriculture


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Paddy Rice Farming

Suzhou, China

This woman is harvesting

rice seedlings to be

transplanted into the paddy

behind her. Planting seeds

closely in small seed beds

allows plant growth to beginwhile another crop of

seedlings is ripening in the

larger paddy


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Paddy Rice Farming

Suzhou, China

Once that crop is harvested,

the paddies are prepared for

a new planting of the partly

developed seedlings. With

this method, double-cropping

two or three crops a year(depending on the length of

the growing season) are

harvested.


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Paddy rice farming

Green Revolution

Achieved by introducing hybrid rice during the

last half of the twentieth century

Chemical fertilizers introduced Heightened productivity achieved


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Peasant grain, root, and livestock

farming

Where practiced

The colder, drier Asiatic farming regions

River valleys of the Middle East

Parts of Europe and Africa

Mountain highlands of Latin America and New

Guinea


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farming

A system based on bread grains, root crops, and

herd livestock

Dominant grain crops some of which are consumed

by the farmers

Wheat

Barley

Sorghum

Millet

Oats

Maize


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farming

Many farmers raise cash crops

Cotton

Flax

Hemp

Coffee

Tobacco


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farming

Livestock raised and their usage

Cattle, pigs, sheep

In South America they raise llamas and alpacas

Livestock provide milk, meat, and wool

Some livestock also pull the plow, serve as beasts of

burden, and provide fertilizer for the fields

Areas such as Middle East also use irrigation


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Mediterranean agriculture

A distinctive type of agriculture took shape in ancient

times

In a few areas this traditional subsistence system

survives intact today

Based on wheat and barley cultivation in the rainy

season

Drought-resistant vine and tree cropsgrapes, olives,

and figs

Livestock herdingsheep and goats Do not integrate stock raising with crop cultivation


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Crete


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Rarely raise feed, collect animal manure, orkeep draft animals

Communal herds pastured on rocky mountainslopes

No fertilizer use-therefore grain fields lie fallowevery other year

Farmers can reap nearly all of lifesnecessities

Wool and leather for clothing

Bread, beverages, fruit, milk, cheese, and meat


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Changed about 1850 when commercialization

and specialization of farming replaced the

traditional diversified system

Farmers began using irrigation in a major way Led to the expansion of crops such as citrus

fruits

Better described as market gardening


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Nomadic herding

Practiced particularly in the deserts, steppes, andsavannas of Africa, Arabia, and the interior of Eurasia

Graze cattle, sheep, goats, and camels

Main characteristic is the continued movement ofpeople and their livestock in search of food for thelivestock

Some migrate from lowlands in winter to mountains insummer

Some shift from desert areas in winter to adjacentsemiarid plains in summer


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Nomadic Herding - Niger

These herds belong to theTaureg, nomadic herders of

Africas Sahara and Sahel.Government programs to digboreholes (wells) has led to

environmental modification. As animals and human

populations increase,overgrazing and deforestationintensify with desertificationthe end result.

In places, animals havetrampled and denuded groundfor up to six miles around aborehole.

Many Taureg are giving up this

way of life to work in Algeriasoilfields


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Nomadic herding

Nomads in Sub-Saharan Africa are the only oneswho depend mainly on cattle

Nomads living in the tundras of northern Eurasiaraise reindeer

The few material possessions of the nomads must beportable, including housing

Livestock provides most all of lifes necessities

Some necessities are obtained by bartering withsedentary farmers

Until almost the modem age, nomads presented aperiodic military threat


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Kurdistan


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Nomadic herding

Today, nomadic herding is almost everywhere in decline

National governments have established policies encouragingnomads to become sedentary

This encouragement was started in the nineteenth centuryby British and French colonial administrators in North Africa

Russia adopted such a policy and had considerable success Many nomads are voluntarily abandoning traditional life to

seek jobs in urban areas or in Middle Eastern oil fields

Severe droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa has caused many toabandon nomadism

Today, nomadism survives mainly in remote areas, and maysoon completely vanish


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Plantation agriculture

A commercial agricultural system imposed on

the native types of subsistence agriculture in

certain tropical and subtropical areas

Plantation

ahuge land-holding devoted tothe efficient, large-scale, specialized

production of one tropical or subtropical crop

for market


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Welcome to Freehold

Plantation: a workplace

where labor harmony

reigns, in mutual

respect andunderstanding, we

united workers produce

and export quality

goods in peace andharmony.


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The plantation system

Relies on large amounts of hand labor

Originated in the 1400s on Portuguese-ownedislands of the coast of tropical West Africa

Today, the greatest concentration is in theAmerican tropics

Most plantations lie on or near seacoasts andshipping lanes

Produce is carried to non-tropical landsEurope, United States, and Japan


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Plantation workers Most live on the plantation

Rigid social and economic segregation of labor andmanagement

Two-class societywealthy and the poor

In the pastas in the antebellum southern UnitedStatesslaves were relied on to provide the labor

Today tension between labor and management is notuncommon

Because of the necessary capital investment,

corporations or governments are usually owners ofplantations

Societal ills of the system remain far from cured


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Tea plantation, Papua New Guinea


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Expansion of the system Provided the base for European and American

economic expansion into tropical Asia, Africa, andLatin America

Maximized the production of luxury crops Sugar cane Bananas

Coconuts

Spices

Tea and coffee

Spices Cacao

Tobacco


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Cotton, sisal, jute, hemp, and other fiber crops were requiredby Western textile factories from plantation areas

Profits from plantations were usually exported to Europe andNorth America impoverishing the colonial lands whereplantations were developed

Crop specialization Coffee dominates the upland plantations of tropical America

Tea is mainly confined to hill slopes of India and Sri Lanka

Today, coffee is the economic lifeblood of about 40developing countries

Sugar cane and bananas are major lowland crops of tropicalAmerica


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Most crops are partially processed before

shipping to distant markets

Neo-plantationmechanized plantations

Require less labor, cause underemploymentand displacement of local people

People flock to urban centers

Contribute to massive growth of cities in

developing countries


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Plantation Agriculture - Malaysia

This rubber estate

(plantation) exports

rubber through

Singapore. Reflective

of Malaysias pluralsociety, this Chinese

owned estate is Indian

managed with a Malay

and Japanese (dating toWorld War II

occupation) labor force.


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By 1877, Heva braziliensis

had diffused from Brazil via

England into Singapore.

Ruber soon boomed in

Malaya and indentured

laborers were brought fromIndia.

By 1919, Malay supplied half

the worlds rubber.

Environmental influence is

significant because rubber

can only grow in the tropics.


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Capital is important

because there is a

period of years before

the newly planted trees

yield any latex. Labor is essential

because trees must be

tapped and latex

collected daily to beprocessed in an on-site

factory.


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Market gardening

Also known as truck farming

Located in developed countries

Specialize in intensively cultivated nontropical fruits,

vegetables, and vines

Raise no livestock

Each district concentrates on a single product

Wine, table grapes, raisins

Oranges, apples Lettuce, or potatoes


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Market gardening

Entire farm output is raised for sale rather thanconsumption on the farm

Many participate in cooperative marketingarrangements

Many depend on seasonal farm laborers Appear in most industrialized countries and are often

near major urban centers

In the United Stateslie in broken belt fromCalifornia eastward through the Gulf and Atlanticcoast states


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Commercial livestock fattening

Farmers raise and fatten cattle and hogs forslaughter

One of the most developed fattening areas is theCorn Belt of the Midwestern United StatesFarmersraise maize and soybeans as feed

In Europe, feed crops are more commonly oats andpotatoes

Smaller zones of commercial livestock fattening alsoappears in southern Brazil and South Africa

Crop and animal raising is combined on the samefarm


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Some geographers call this type of agriculture: mixedcrop and livestock farming

Specialization

Farmers breed many of the animals they fatten,

especially hogs Other farmers concentrate on preparing cattle and

hogs for market

In factory-like feedlots, farmers raise imported cattleand hogs on purchased feed

Such feedlots are most common in the western andsouthern United States


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The question of feedlot nutritional efficiency

In the 1900s world grain production rose much faster

than did world population growth

Cereals provide most of the protein intake of the

worlds people At least one-half of Americas harvested agricultural

land is planted with feed crops for livestock

Over 70 percent of Americas grain crop is used to feed

livestock


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The question of feedlot nutritional efficiency

A cow must eat 21 pounds of grain to produce one

pound of edible protein

Protein lost through conversion fromplantto meat

could make up almost allthe worlds present proteindeficiency

Today, food that feeds Americans would feed 1.5

billion at the consumption level of China

Poorer countries such as Costa Rica and Brazil aredestroying rain forests to fatten beef for Americas fast-

food restaurants


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Commercial grain farming

Another market-oriented type of agriculture

Farmers grow wheat or, less frequently, riceor corn

Wheat belts Stretch through Australia

Americas Great Plains region

The steppes of Ukraine

The pampas of Argentina


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Together, the United States, Canada, Argentina,Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine produce 35 percentof the worlds wheat

Large family farms of 1000 acres or more in theAmerican Great Plains

Giant collective farms

Rice farms cover large areas of the Texas-Louisianacoastal plain and lowlands in Arkansas and California

Commercial rice farmers sow grain from airplanes


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Suitcase farming Innovation in the wheat belt of the northern

Great Plains

People who own and operate these farms donot live on the land

People own several suitcase farms, south-to-north through the plains states

Keep fleets of farm machinery, which they

send north with crews to plant, fertilize, andharvest the wheat


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Agribusinesses

Highly mechanized, absentee-owned, large-

scale operations

Rapidly replacing the traditional Americanfamily farm

United States governmental policies

consistently favor agribusiness interests

Family farm no longer of much consequence,especially in the grain lands

C i l G i F i


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Commercial Grain Farming

Austria

As in North America,agriculture in much ofWestern Europe isreally agribusiness.

This includes the use ofmachines for plowing,seeding and harvesting;fertilizers andpesticides; and, hybrid

seeds. This machine will both

harvest and thresh thewheat.


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Commercial dairying

In the large dairy belts, keeping dairy cows depends on large-scale use of pastures

Northern United States from New England to the upperMidwest

Western and northern Europe

Southeastern Australia and northern New Zealand In colder areas, some acreage must be devoted to winter feed

cropshay

Regionally, dairy products differ depending on closeness tomarkets

If near large urban areas milk, which is more perishable, isusually produced

New Zealanders, remote from world markets, produce butter


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Commercial dairying

Feedlot system

Especially common in the southern United States

Often situated on the suburban fringes of large cities

Essentially factory farms, buying feed and livestock

replacements

Have larger number of cows than family-operated dairy

farms

Rely on hired laborers

Highly profitable representing another stage inagribusiness and family farm decline


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Livestock ranching

How livestock-raising differs from nomadic herding Livestock ranchers have fixed places of residence

Operate as individuals rather than within a tribalorganization

Ranchers raise livestock for market on a large scale

not for subsistence Typically of European ancestry rather than being an

indigenous people

Faced with the advance of farmers, nomadic herdershave fallen back to areas climatically too harsh for

crop raising


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Livestock ranching

Raise only cattle and sheep in large numbers Where ranchers specialize in cattle raising

United States and Canada

Tropical and subtropical Latin America, and warmer parts ofAustralia

Mid-latitude ranchers in the Southern Hemisphere specialize insheep

Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina produce 70percent of worlds export wool

Sheep outnumber people 8 to 1 in Australia, and 16 to 1 in New

Zealand


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Urban Agriculture

Practiced by migrants to cities in developing

countries

Consist of tiny plots of land

Can produce enough to feed a familyvegetables, fruit, meat, and milk

May produce a surplus to sell


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Urban Agriculture

In China now provides 90 percent or more ofall vegetables consumed in cities

Nairobi and Kampala, Africa produce 20percent of food from city lands

Many inhabitants of Sarajevo in Bosniasurvived conflict because of urban agriculture

Cities in Russia derive much food from urban

agriculture


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Urban Agriculture

Nonagricultural areas Typically lie in areas of extreme climate

Often inhabited by hunting and gathering groups

Before agriculture all people lived as hunters and

gatherers Today, less than one percent live this way

In most groups a division of labor by gender occurs

Males do most of the hunting and fishing

Females gather food from wild plants

Most groups are unspecialized and rely upon a greatvariety of animals and plants


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Agricultural diffusion

The origin and diffusion of plant domestication Agriculture apparently began with plant domestication

Domesticated plantonedeliberately planted,protected, and cared for by humans

Genetically distinct from wild ancestors because ofdeliberate improvement through selective breeding

Tend to be larger than wild species, bearing larger,more abundant crops

For examplewild Indian maize grew on a cob only

0.75 inches long


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Plant domestication and improvementconstituted a process, not an event

Began because of close association between

humans and natural vegetation over a periodof hundreds or even thousands of years

Useful plants were protected by humans,

which led to deliberate planting


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Cultural geographer Carl Johannessen suggest thedomestication process can still be observed today

Study of current techniques used by native subsistence

farmers will allow insight into methods used by the first

prehistoric farmers Two steps normally needed to develop and improve

plant varieties

Selection of seeds or shoots only from superior plants

Genetic isolation from inferior plants to prevent cross-

pollination


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Example of the pejibaye palm in Costa Rica

Cultivators choose fresh fruit seed from superior trees

Superior seed stocks are built up gradually over the

years

Elderly farmers generally have the best selections

Seeds are shared freely within family and clan groups

Speedy diffusion follows seed sharing


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One Indian tribe of shifting cultivators raised14 varieties of maize, each in a field

separated by intervening forest to preserve

genetic isolation

Carl Sauer

Most experts believe repeated domestication

occurred at different times and locations


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Carl Sauers beliefs on domestication Domestication probably did not develop in response to

hunger

Starving people must spend every waking hoursearching for food

Started by people who had enough food to remainsettled in one place

Did not occur in grasslands or river floodplainsbecause of thick sod and periodic flooding

Must have started in regions where many differentkinds of wild plants grew

Started in hilly district areas, where climates changewith differing sun exposure and altitude


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Most geographers now believe agriculture arose in atleast three regions of great biodiversity

The Fertile Crescent located in the Middle East

Bread grains, grapes, apples, olives; and many others

Oldest archaeological evidence of crop-domestication10,000BP

Diffused to Central Africa creating a secondary center

of domestication adding such crops as sorghum,

peanuts, yams, coffee, and okra


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Great biodiversity


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Second great center developed in SoutheastAsia

Possibly included land now covered by

shallow seas Rice, citrus, taro, bananas, and sugarcane,

plus others

Stimulus diffusion yielded a secondary

centernortheastern China


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Great biodiversity


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Mesoamericathe third great region ofdomestication

Started about 5,000BP

Independent invention, not started by diffusion Maize, tomatoes, chili peppers, and squash,

among many others

Stimulus diffusion produced a secondary

center in northwestern South America, fromwhich came the white potato and manioc


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Great biodiversity

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American Indian crops were far superior innutritional value than those of the two earlier

eastern regions of domestication

Widespread association of female deities withagriculture suggests women first worked the

land

A i l l diff i


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Diffusion of domesticated plants did not end inantiquity Crop farming reached its present extent within the last

100 years

Example-lemons, oranges, grapes, and date palms

were taken to California by Spanish missionariesduring the eighteenth century

Introduction of European crops to the Americas,Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa that camewith the mass emigration of European farmers

Even more important diffusion of American Indiancrops to the Eastern Hemisphere

A i l l diff i


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The origin and diffusion of animal domestication Domesticatedanimalone dependent on people for

food and shelter

Differs from wild species in physical appearance andbehavior

Result of controlled breeding and daily contact withhumans

Apparently occurred later (with the exception of thedog) than did the first planting of crops

People may have first domesticated cattle and somebirds for religious reasons

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The pig and the dog may have attachedthemselves to human settlements to feast ongarbage

Farmers of the southern Asian crop hearth

and American Indians did not excel at animaldomestication

Asians did have some poultry

American Indians had the llama, alpaca,guinea pig, and the turkey

A i l l diff i


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Farmers of the Fertile Crescent deserve credit for thefirst great animal domesticationsnotably the herdanimals Wild ancestors of cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats

Most herd animals lived in a belt from Syria and

southeastern Turkey across Iraq and Iran to centralAsia

In this region or nearby, farmers first combineddomesticated plants and animals

People began using cattle to pull the plow, increasingcultivated acreage

Out of necessity, a portion of the harvest was put asideas livestock feed

A i l l diff i


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The beginning of nomadic herding

As grain-herd livestock farming expanded

tillers entered marginal lands

Crop cultivation proved difficult or impossible Population pressures forced people into

marginal areas

Livestock became more important than crops

People began wandering with their herds soas not to exhaust local forage

A i lt l diff i


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Modern innovations in agriculture

Twentieth century farming innovations and

diffusions in the United States

Example of expansion diffusionthe spread ofhybrid maize

Example of hierarchical diffusionnew

innovations often gain acceptance by

wealthier, large-scale farmers first


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A i lt l diff i


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The spread of pump irrigation on the Coloradonorthern High Plains

Studied by geographer Leonard Bowden

Irrigation brought different crops, markets, and farmingtechniques

Farmers had to decide if they wanted an entirelydifferent system of farming than the one they hadtraditionally practiced

First irrigation well began operation by 1935

At first diffusion was slow because of the GreatDepression

A i lt l diff i


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The spread of pump irrigation on theColorado northern High Plains

Beginning in 1948, irrigation spread rapidly

Bowden observed contagious diffusion from

the core area and time- distance decay Diffusion barriers weakened through time as

irrigation proved to be economically successful

Loans were easier to get as irrigation proved

to be successful

A i lt l diff i


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The Green Revolution

India accepted hybrid seed, chemical

fertilizers, and pesticides

Myanmar resisted the revolution, favoringtraditional farming methods

A splotchy pattern of acceptance still

characterizes paddy rice areas today

Non-accepters are called laggardsinevitability of innovations is assumed

A i lt l diff i


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India and the Green Revolution New hybrid rice and wheat seeds first

appeared in 1966

Allowed Indias 1970 grain production to

double from its 1950 level Many poor farmers could not afford the cost

for fertilizer and pesticides

Many of the poor became displaced from the

land by the wealthy and flocked toovercrowded cities

A i lt l diff i


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India and the Green Revolution

Use of chemicals and poisons on the land

heightened environmental damage

Adoption of hybrid seed created another

problemloss of plant diversity or genetic variety

Before widespread usage of hybrids, each farm

developed its own distinctive seed types by

saving seeds from the best plants

A i lt l diff i


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India and the Green Revolution

Gene banks have been set up to preserve

domesticated plant varsities from agricultural

areas around the world

Enormous genetic diversity vanished almost

instantly when farmers began using new hybrids

The Western innovation in plant genetics may

have caused more harm than good

Documents

The Agricultural World - Part I