AP human unit 5

• Agriculture: the process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock for consumption and trade.

  • food, feed, fiber and fuel
• Before agriculture: hunting and gathering
• After agriculture:

  • Permanent Human Settlement 
  • Development
  • Civilization 
• Agricultural Origins and Diffusions:

  • Neolithic Revolution
  • Fertile Crescent and Nile Valley 
  • First domestication of plants and animals
  • Subsistence farming
• Subsistence farming: farming to feed oneself/family/group.

  • manual labor and simple tools
• Root crops:

  • crops that are reproduced by cultivating either the roots or cuttings from the plants (14,000 yrs ago.)
• Seed crops:

  • plants that are reproduced by cultivating seeds (10 - 12,000 yrs ago)
• An agricultural hearth is known as the "birthplace" of a crop, or where a crop is known to have originated before its spread throughout the world.
• • The 4 major agricultural hearths are the Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Southwest Asia, and Mesoamerica
  • Sub-Saharan Africa- Yam, millet, African Rice, coffee
  • East Asia- Rice, soybean, walnut, chinese chestnut
  • Southwest Asia- Lentil, olive, rye, barley, wheat
  • Mesoamerica- Squash, potato, cocoa, and maize (corn)
• following the connection of the eastern and western hemispheres with the voyage(s) of Christopher Columbus, the world becomes connected in terms of biodiversity.
• The Columbian Exchange is the exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following the European Age of Exploration(1450-1600) .
• SECOND AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION:

  Advances in the Industrial Revolution

  • New technology
  • new machines
  • new knowledge
  • Led to increased food production
  • Better diet, longer life, and more people available for work in factories
  • Enclosure Movement
  • Shifting demographics
• Von Thünen's Land Use Model:

  • he von Thünen’s model analyzes the spatial character of agriculture
  • transportation and cost of land
  • Transportation costs frequently still explains agricultural patterns despite:
  • changes in transportation (& food storage)
  • changes in technology (forests)
  • Special Circumstances:
  • Specialty - Florida citrus or Central Valley of California (Broccoli) 
• MODERN AGRICULTURE:

  11 main agricultural regions

  LDCs: 5 regions

  MDCs: 6 regions

  One off the books

  Influenced by the natural environment like climate, soils, landforms
• Intensive Farming:

  • Gives emphasis on maximizing yield from the given piece of land.
  • Heavy use of pesticides, capital, labor, high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of crops etc. M
  • Main objective is to increase the productivity of the given land as much as possible. 
  • Input is comparatively higher relative to the area of the cropland.
• Intensive Farming:

  It is commonly practiced in densely populated areas in order to fulfill the food-related needs of a large population from a comparatively small piece of land. In intensive farming, the farmers have to spend a lot of money in labor, machinery and high-yielding seeds in order to produce more crops, vegetables etc., per hectare of the cropland.
• Extensive Farming: It is a farming technique or agricultural production system in which low inputs of labor, capital, fertilizers etc., are used relative to the area of the cropland.
• Extensive Farming: The crop yield in extensive agriculture mainly depends on the natural fertility of soil, climate and availability of water; farmers don't put in extra efforts to produce more from the given cropland. It is practiced by the farmers of an area where the population density is low and land is plentiful and inexpensive so farmers make use of relatively low inputs of capital, labor, and fertilizers and depend on the natural fertility of soil and availability of water.
• Intensive Farming

   

  In this type of farming, the maximum yield is obtained from the given agricultural land through high inputs of capital, labor, fertilizers, machinery etc.

  It is practiced in the densely populated areas where the population is high but the agricultural land is limited and expensive.

  The yield per person may be less but it is always more per hectare, e.g. India, Japan and the United Kingdom.

  Croplands are small.

  It has a negative impact on the environment due to the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides.
• Extensive Farming

   

  It uses small inputs of labor, capital, and fertilizers relative to the area of the cropland.

  It is practiced in areas where population density is low, but the agricultural land is plentiful and inexpensive.

  The yield per person is more but it is less per hectare, e.g. USA, Australia, Canada.

  Croplands are large.

  It does not pollute the environment as it does not involve heavy use of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals.