Chapter 9 AP human geography agriculture

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps in the food processing industry usually through ownership by large corporations

Agricultural revolution

The process that began when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

Agriculture

The deliberate effort to modify a portion of earths surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain

Aquaculture

The cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions

Cash crop

A crop that is grown for sale, rather than for the farmers own use

Cereal grain

A grass that yields grain for food

Columbian exchange

The transfer of plants and animals as well as people, culture and technology, between the western hemisphere and Europe as a result of European colonialization and trade

Commercial agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm

Commercial gardening and fruit farming

Relatively small scale production of fruits, vegetables and other horticulture

Conservation tillage

A method of soil cultivation that reduces soil erosion and runoff

Crop

Any plant gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season

Crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil

Dairy farm

A from of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas primarily because of human actions such as excessive crop planting, animal grazing and tree cutting. Also known as semiarid land degeneration

Dietary energy consumption

The amount of food that an individual consumes measured in kilocalories

Double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field

Fishing

The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in the waters

Food security

Physical, social and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life

Genetically modified organism

A living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology

Grain

Seed of cereal grass

Green revolution

Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high yield seeds and fertilizers

Herbicide

A chemical to control unwanted plants

Horticulture

Growing of fruits, vegetables, flowers and tree crops

Intensive subsistence agriculture

A form of subsistence agriculture characteristic of Asias major population concentrations in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land

Milkshed

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied

Mixed crop and livestock farming

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock, most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans

Monocropping

The practice of growing the same single crop year after year

No tillage

A farming practice that leaves all of the soil undistributed and the entire residue of the previous years harvest left untouched on the fields

Organic agriculture

Farming that depends on the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances such as herbicides, pesticides and growth hormones

Overfishing

Capturing fish faster than they can reproduce

Paddy

The Malay word for wet rice, increasingly used to describe a flooded field

Pastoral nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals

Pesticide

A substance to control pests including weeds

Plantation

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale usually to a more developed country

Ranching

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area

Ridge tillage

A system of planting crops on ridge tops in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation

Sawah

A flooded field for growing rice

Second agricultural revolution

An increase in agricultural productivity through improvement of crop rotation and breeding of livestock, beginning in the United kingdom in the seventeenth century

Shifting cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another, each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period

Subsistence agriculture

Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmers family

Transhumance

Seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture area

Truck farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named for the Middle English word truck meaning barter

Undernourishment

Dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity

Wet rice

Rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth

Von Thunen Model

Model that shows the influence of proximity to urban markets in the form of agriculture practiced on a piece of land. Expansion of urban areas has contributed to reducing agricultural land.

The 4 rings are described as…