APHG Unit 5

• Agricultural practices


  Influenced by the physical environment and climatic conditions
• Mediterranean climate


  • Humid winters, dry summers
  • Heavy rain and unexpected high winds
  • Hot or cold temperatures, never freezing
  • Many diverse soil types
• Why Mediterranean agriculture?


  • Rich soil supports crops that need nutrients
  • Lots of hills, rain → ideal for fruit trees with large roots
• Dry/arid climate


  • Very little precipitation
  • Always hot, sunny
• Pastoral nomadism


  • Herding animals (Cattle, Reindeer, Camels, etc.)
• Why pastoral nomadism?


  • Soil doesn't suit growing crops
  • Very little vegetation → Need to constantly move to feed animals
• Tropical climate


  • Generally high temperatures
  • Wet/Dry seasons
  • Soil easily eroded because of rainfall
• Why plantation & shifting cultivation agriculture?

  • Crops need hot, humid conditions
  • Restores fertility in soil after use
  • Wet/Dry seasons work well with monocropping
• Intensive farming


  A type of agriculture designed to produce as much yield as possible utilizing machinery and inputs such as human/animal labor, fertilizers, and care for soil
• Intensive farming


  • High expenditures of energy
  • Small tracts of land used to maximize crop yields through concentrated farming
• Plantation agriculture


  • Large-scale commercial farming of one particular cash crop
  • Takes place in LDCs whereas markets where produce is sold are located in MDCs
  • Some LDC economies still rely on production of specialty crops
  • Labor-intensive but low labor cost
• Market gardening


  • Local production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers on small tracts of land
  • Investment in tech like greenhouses, pesticides, and fertilizers are needed to ensure harvests
  • Driven by perishability and demand for fresh items
  • Near areas where farmers can access local markets, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.
• Mixed crops/livestock system


  • Crops and livestock raised/grown specifically for profit
  • On-farm: Crops and livestock raised on the same farm
  • Between-farm: Two farmers share resources, one grows crops, other raises livestock
  • Integrated system in which specific crops are grown to be fed to livestock for quality meat
  • Mostly occurs in east NA and in Europe

  
• Settlement patterns


  • Clustered: Families live close to one another, fields surround houses and barns or farm buildings
  • Linear: Line of buildings concentrated on a road or river, facilitates communication, property is in long, narrow strips
  • Dispersed: Farmers live on individual farms, more isolated from neighbors, more difficult for communication within community
• Survey methods


  • Metes and bounds: Relies on description of land ownership by natural features, based on trees, streams, etc., easily contested between land owners due to changing natural environment
  • Township and range: Rectangular land division, range is the measurement east to west, township is measurement of distance north to south, Western U.S. was divided this way
  • Long lots: Divides land into narrow parcels stretched from rivers, roads, canals, or any other shared significant location
• Agricultural origins


  Early hearths of domestication of plants and animals arose in the Fertile Crescent and several other regions of the world, including the Indus River Valley, Southeast Asia, and Central America
• Causes of agricultural diffusion

  • Migration due to population pressures, conflicts, or different types of opportunities
  • Trade throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa
  • Contact between different cultures (through trade, relocation migration, conflicts between groups, etc.)
  • Globalization, more connections between governments, businesses, farmers and consumers
  • Different cultures can connect through computers and communicate new ideas faster than ever before
• Impact of agricultural revolutions on agricultural diffusion

  • 1st Agricultural Revolution: Farming was adapted, some hunter-gatherer groups made permanent settlements, began the growth of various crops and domestication of animals
  • 2nd Agricultural Revolution: New technological advancements were made so farming became more efficient, growth of crops and allowed for the industrial revolution to be supported, which made it easier to transport agriculture
  • Green Revolution: Chemical fertilizers were introduced into farming which boosted crop production, helps with growth and yield of crops, so there could be surplus to spread long distances, during this period there is also a global market for many agricultural products due to the surplus, as well as the crops being grown to be hardier
• Columbian Exchange


  • Exchange of goods, animals, crops, diseases, and people between the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, began after Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas (1492)
  • Positive impacts: Increase of food security and production, crops from the Americas were adopted in regions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with similar climate conditions to where the crops were native to
  • Negative impacts: Spread diseases to Native American people, forced migration of enslaved people for labor, established the dominance of core countries
• Second agricultural revolution


  Start of technological advancements in agriculture, in the 1700s in Western Europe (started in Britain), diffused from this region globally to other MDCs
• Inventions of the second agricultural revolution

  • Horse-drawn seed drill
  • Mechanical reaper
  • Steel plow
  • Privatization of farming (enclosure system)
• Crop rotation (Norfolk four field system)


  Yearly rotation between wheat, turnips, barley, clover, and ryegrass, added nutrients to the soil and allowed for a field to go unplowed for a whole year

  
• The second agricultural revolution went hand in hand with the industrial revolution, manufacturing allowed for the inventions to be produced on a massive scale, and food produced fed the booming population
• Green revolution


  Characterized by the use of high-yield seeds, increased use of chemicals, and mechanized farming
• The green revolution had positive and negative consequences for both human populations and the environment
• Agricultural revolution


  Led to many inventions and improvements to agriculture
• Crop Rotation


  1. Yearly rotation between wheat, turnips, barley, clover, and ryegrass

  2. Added nutrients to the soil and allowed for a field to go unplowed for a whole year

  
• Norfolk Four Field System

  Named crop rotation system

  
• Second Agricultural Revolution


  Went hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution
• Manufacturing


  Allowed for the inventions to be produced on a massive scale
• Food production


  Fed the booming population
• Green Revolution


  • Positive effects: Higher-yielding crops, more food produced around the world, increased food production, more food and increased efficiency brought down the cost of production and food, large supply of grain, less reliance on human labor, more reliance on machinery
  • Negative effects: Increase in industrialized farms, decrease in family farms, chemical fertilizers and other genetic modification advancements led to more environmental risks and health concerns, factory (animal) farms increased leading to more concerns for animal rights, LDCs left out and forced to rely on MDCs, machinery dominance displaced agricultural workers, dominance of large corporations led to less care for workers, animals, and sustainability practices
• High-yield seeds


  Seeds that respond well to fertilizer, resulting in a higher amount/yield of crops
• GMOs


  Genetically modified organisms, altered the genetics of plants through genetic engineering
• Hybrid Plants


  Bred to result with the desired characteristics
• Chemical fertilizers


  Helped crops grow faster
• Pesticides


  Stopped insects from destroying the crops
• Herbicides


  Targeted invasive species of plants
• Mechanization


  Changing from hand labor to machine labor, made the process of planting and harvesting more efficient
• Green Revolution impact


  • India and Pakistan in the 1960s adopted Mexican wheat program that produced smaller, fast-growing wheat that required less land to produce high-yields, resulting in significantly increased harvests