HGAP 5.1 - 5.5

Agriculture

Agriculture

The process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock.

Climate

The long-term weather patterns in a region

Subsistence Agriculture

Primary goal is to grow enough food or raise enough livestock to meet the needs of the farmer and his or her family. The second goal is to sell or trade any leftover food or livestock for profit.

Commercial Agriculture

The primary goal is to grow enough crops or raise enough livestock to sell for profit.

Intensive

Practices are those in which farmers or ranchers use large amounts of inputs, such as energy, fertilizers, labor, or machines, to maximize yields.

Extensive

Practices use fewer amounts of inputs and typically result in less yields.

Capital

The money invested in land, equipment, and machines

Pastoral Nomadism

In drylands; Found in Southwest, Central, and East Asia; also located in North Africa; type of subsistent extensive agriculture practiced in arid and semi-arid climates throughout the world. Nomads rely on the animals for survival

Shifting Cultivation

In Tropical; Found in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia; type of subsistence extensive agriculture where farmers grow crops on a piece of land for a year or two, and when the soil loses its fertility they move to another field

Plantation

In Tropical / Sub-Tropical; Found in Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa; Large commercial farms that specialize in one crop, plantations are usually found in the low latitudes with hot, humid climates and substantial rainfall. Crops usually grown are tobacco, coffee, cotton, sugarcane, bananas, tea, cocoa, and rubber.

Mixed Crop and Livestock

In Cold and Warm Mid-Latitude; Found in Midwest US and Canada, Central Europe; is an intensive commercial integrated system that demonstrates an interdependence between crops and animals

Grain Farming

In Cold Mid-Latitude; Found in North Central US, South Central Canada, and East Europe; used in regions too dry for mixed crop agriculture, farmers often raise wheat.

Commerical Gardening

In Warm Mid-Latitude; Found in Southeast US and Southeast Australia; all about the growing of crops and/or the rearing of animals for raw materials, food, or export, particularly for profitable reasons. Crops usually grown are tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, apples, and oranges.

Dairy Farming

In Cold and Warm Mid-Latitude; Found in Northeast US, Southwest Canada, and Northwest Europe; Allows for the long-term production of milk due to enhanced refrigeration and transportation processes.

Milk Shed

The geographic distance that milk is delivered.

Mediterranean Agriculture

In Warm Mid-Latitude; Found on the Southern coast of Europe, Northern coast of Africa, and Pacific Coast of the US; Practiced in regions with hot, dry summers, mild winters, narrow valleys, and often some irrigation. Crops grown here include figs, dates, olives, and grapes.

Transhumance

The seasonal herding of animals from higher elevations in the summer to lower elevations in the winter.

Livestock Ranching

In Drylands; Found in Western North America, Southeast South America, Central Asia, and Southern Africa; Commercial grazing of animals confined to a specific area.

Clustered(Nucleated) Settlement

These settlements had groups of homes located near each other in a village and fostered a strong sense of place and often shared of services, such as schools.

Dispersed Settlement

Patterns in which farmers lived in homes spread throughout the countryside. Promoted individual self-sufficiency but made shared services difficult.

Linear Settlement

Pattern in which buildings and human activities are organized close <del>to</del> a body of water or along a transportation route.

Metes and Bounds

System used to describe plot boundaries

Public Land Survey (Township and Range) System

System created rectangular plots of consistent size

French Long-lot System

System allowed for long narrow grants of land that ran perpendicular to a river.

First (Neolithic) Agricultural Revolution

Was the origin of farming. It was marked by the domestication of plants and animals. Much of the farming that took place during this time was subsistence farming when farmers consumed the crops that they raised using simple tools and manual labor.

Hunters and Gatherers

type of subsistence lifestyle that relies on hunting and fishing animals and foraging for wild vegetation and other nutrients like honey, for food.

Animal Domestication

created the mutually beneficial relationship that exists today between animals and humans.

Plant Domestication

People first used vegetative planting or parts of the stems or roots of existing plants to grow others.

Major Agricultural Hearths

Southwest Asia(10,000 - 12,000 years ago, crops included barley, wheat, lentils, and olives, diffused to north Africa, southern Europe, and Central Asia), Southeast Asia(10,000 years ago, crops included mangos, taro and coconuts, diffused to southeastern Asia), South Asia(Indus Valley, 9,500 to 7,500 years ago, crops included barley, cotton, wheat and peas, diffused to Indian subcontinent and southwest Asia), East Asia(9,500 years ago, crops included rice, soybeans and walnuts, diffused to north central Asia and Korean peninsula), Sub-Saharan Africa(7,000 years ago, crops included yams, sorghum, compeas, coffee, and African rice, diffused to western and north Africa) Mesoamerica(5,500 years ago, crops included squash, peppers, maize, potatoes, and cassava, diffused to north and south america)

Independent Invention

When crops and animals were domesticated in multiple regions with seemingly no interaction among the people

Columbian Exchange

The global movement of plants and animals between Afro-Eurasia and America.

Second Agricultural Revolution

Began in the 1700s, and used the advances of the Industrial Revolution to increase food supplies and support population growth. During this time period, agriculture benefited from mechanization and improved knowledge of fertilizers, soils, etc.

Enclosure Movement

enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use.

2nd Revolution advances

lead to better diets, longer life expectancy, and an increase in the population. These factors ultimately led to a larger potential workforce. Also, rural-to-urban migration increased

Crop Rotation

the technique of planting different crops in a specific sequence on the same plot of land in order to restore nutrients back into the soil.

Irrigation

process of applying controlled amounts of water to crops using canals, pipes, and sprinkler systems.

2nd Revolution impact on demographics

led to fewer, yet larger productive farms. Impact: this caused a decrease in the number of farm owners and a larger drop in the need for agricultural labor.

Third Agricultural Revolution

revolution expanded the mechanization of farming, developed new global agricultural systems, and used scientific and information technologies to further previous advances in agricultural production.

Green Revolution

Dr. Norman Borlaug laid the foundation for scientifically increasing the food supply to meet the demands of an ever-increasing global population.

Impact of Norman Borlaug

developed a higher yield, more disease-resistant, and faster-growing varieties of grain. His work was used to set aside an entire movement that created hybrid wheat, rice, and corn seedlings.

Hybridization

Process of breeding two plants that have desirable characteristics to produce a single seed with both characteristics.

Machinery’s impact on Green Rev.

Introduction of these agricultural technologies assisted in the production and challenged traditional labor-intensive farming practices that had been in place for thousands of years.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

A process by which humans use engineering techniques to change the DNA of a seed.

Positive impacts of the Green Revolution

Global food production increased dramatically, with the introduction of new seed technologies ( mechanization, pesticides, etc. ) led to increased yields. Reduced hunger, lower death rates, and a growing population.

Negative impacts of the Green Revolution

environmental damage, gender inequality, economic obstacles, and Failures in Africa.

Green Revolution impact on gender roles

Even though much of the farming labor is performed by women, men usually dominate socially, politically; economically based on many of society's traditional beliefs.

Why didn’t GR help Africa?

Africa benefited very little from successes of the Green Revolution because of environmental, economic and cultural problems.