food production

• Why do a high percentage of people in LEDC work in farming:

  • Many people live in rural areas, most common job.
  • Many are subsistence farmers/grow their own food.
  • Much work is labour intensive (lack of machinery) as they cannot afford machines.
  • There are few other employment opportunities/factories etc.
• Subsistence farming: producing products for family only.
• Commercial farming: farming for profit, often using chemicals and artificial fertilisers.
• Irrigation: when crops are watered artificially/given more water.
• Labour intensive farming: using no machines.
• Pastoral farming: based on the raising of animals for meat and milk
• Arable farming: uses land for growing crops, such as wheat, corn, and rice.
• Mixed farming: a combination of crops and livestock on the same farm.
• Key causes of food shortages:

  • Poverty, people connot afford food.
  • Overcultivation/overgrazing
  • War/conflicts
  • Can't afford agricultural technology.
  • Inflation/prices of food become too high.
  • Corruption.
• Why LEDCs suffer from food shortages:

  • Drought.
  • Flooding.
  • Hurricanes, destroy crops so famine.
  • Wars/conflict - Sudan etc.
  • Pests - locusts etc eat crops.
  • Overpopulation/increasing population
  • Lack of technology
  • Lack of space to grow crops.
• CS: Famine; Ethiopia:

  • Overcultivation as fields are not given fallow time.
  • Overgrazing due to keeping too many cattle, especially in the northern region of Tigray.
  • Lack of investment in irrigation/fertilisers.
  • Still using traditional farming practices such as ploughing up and down slopes.
  • Poverty prevents them buying fertilisers/pesticides.
• CS: East Africa:

  • 2011 mid 2012 - Horn of Africa.
  • Severe food shortage across Somalia, Dijibouti, Ethiopia ond kenya.
  • Threatened livelihood of 9.5 million.
  • In somalia, mostly affected farmers in the south.
  • Bantu tribe were displaced due to the food shortages.
  • 920,000 refugees had moved to Kenya from Somalia.
  • Tens of thousands of people died in southern Somalia before famine was declared.
• Solutions to food shortages:

  Food aid:

  • Relief food aid - delivered directly in times of crisis.
  • Programme food aid - given to local government for sale.
  • Project food aid - targeting specific groups in country.

  Green revolution:

  • Creation HYVs to boost yield by 2-4 times.
  • Drought resistant.
  • Responsive to fertilisers.
  • Shorter growing season.
  • Farmers educated and offered credit to buy access to fertilisers and machinery.
• Poor harvest of crops impacts on LEDCs and MEDCs:

  • LEDC has many subsistence farmers.
  • MEDC not as dependant on agriculture as many people work in tertiary.
  • MEDC import food/can still earn money to buy food.
  • More likely to have stores of food in MEDC'S.
  • Poor harvest in LEDC will cause poverty/in MEDC'S just lower profits.
  • LEDC's can't afford to buy food or new seeds if poor harvest.
  • LEDC government has no money to import food.
• Increasing output in MEDC:

  • Use of fertilisers.
  • Irrigation
  • Removal of hedgerows (bigger farms so more machinery etc.)
  • Terracing on steep slopes.
  • Pesticides.
  • Hydroponics - plants grow without soil, add nutrients into sand etc.
  • Aeroponics - no soil at all.
• Increasing output in LEDC:

  • Increased mechanisation i.e. tractors.
  • Greater use of fertilisers.
  • More irrigation.
  • GM crops
  • Education about farming techniques.
• The farm system: A farm can be described as a system with inputs, processes and outputs.
• Inputs:

  • Rain
  • Temperature/growing
  • Sunshine
  • Relief
  • Soil
  • Labour
  • Transport
  • Machinery
• Processes:

  • Sowing
  • Fertilising
  • Feeding
  • Harvesting
• Outputs:

  • Milk
  • Cattle
  • Crops
  • Meat
  • Manure
  • Hay
• Reducing soil erosion:

  • Contour ploughing/do not plough up and down slopes.
  • Smaller herds of animals so less erosion.
  • Tree planting as windbreaks/plant hedgerows.
  • Let area fallow.
  • Add manure/ artificial fertilisers.
  • Crop rotation.
  • Terracing.
• Climate affecting farming:

  • Temperature determines crops grown.
  • Crops need to be grown where there is on adequate growing season.
  • There must be sufficient rainfall for crops to grow.
  • Too much rainfall may flood crops.
  • Cereal crops need sunshine to ripen.
  • In areas with frost/long winter hardy animals may be kept.
• Physical factors affecting farming:

  • Soil fertility/quality/depth.
  • Amount of rainfall.
  • Relief/height/slope/flat land.
  • Number for frost free days.
  • Drainage.
  • Temperature.
  • Amount of sunshine.
• Other factors affecting farming:

  • Market.
  • Availability of government subsidies.
  • Quotas.
  • Availability of finance.
  • Land availability/size of farm.
  • Demand/profitability
  • Accessability
  • Labour
• How relief of land influences farmers' decisions:

  • Crops usually grown on flat/low land as easier to mechanise.
  • Soil's likely to be more fertile.
  • Steep slopes used for grazing sheep/pastoral farming.
  • Thin soils on steep slopes will result in poor yields from crops.
  • Sheep are hardy ond can survive cold temps, on mountains.
  • Sloping land better drained than flat land.
• Extensive farming: Large scale farming, where farmers grow crops in large fields.
• Intensive farming: A type of farming where animals are kept in large numbers in a small area.
• Benefits of mixed farming:

  • Different types of products to sell.
  • If one product does not do well the farmer has others to fall back on.
  • Easier to adapt to market changes.
  • Manure from animals can be used to fertilise crops.
  • Crop waste can be used to feed animals.
  • Farmer has work throughout the year.
• Why some farmers are subsistence farmers:

  • Poverty
  • Lack of land
  • Lack of markets
  • Technology
  • Tradition
  • Lack of education and skills
• Effects of food shortages:

  • Malnutrition resulting in physical limitations e.g. Rickets (Vitamin D deficiency) and Kwashiorkor (protein deficiency).
  • Reduces a person's ability to work.
  • Agricultural land may not be well tended.
  • Food production may fall further.
  • Other economic production may fall too.
  • Leading to cycle of ill health and low productivity.
• How farming damages the environment:

  • Natural vegeration/trees destroyed.
  • Loss of habitat as trees cut down.
  • Poisoning of insects by fertiliser.
  • Impacts on food chain
  • Reduction in biodiversity.
  • Soil erosion.
• CS: Large Scale Commercial Farming; Lynford Farm in East Anglia, UK:

  Inputs:

  • Temps of 16 °C.
  • 50 mm of rainfall a year
  • High sunshine hours.
  • Very fertile peat soil.
  • 5 full time workers plus seasonal workers.
  • Several tractors, combined harvester, sprays, fertilisers, ventilatEd potato store.

  Outputs:

  • 5000 tonnes of potatoes to supermarkets.
  • 400 tones of peas to canning company.
  • Sugar beet to a factory in Ely (10 km away).

  Wheat to grain merchant - surplus to EU storage.
• CS: Small scale subsistence farming; Ganges Valley, India:

  Inputs:

  • Rich fertilised soil deposited by Ganges.
  • 21 °C temp.
  • Monsoon rains
  • Rice seeds
  • Small 1 hectare farms.
  • Lots of workers
  • Hand labour

  Processes:

  • Weeding
  • Irrigation
  • Watering

  Outputs:

  • Rice
  • Some wheat