APHG

AP Human Geography Study Guide: Unit 5 - Agriculture

Vocabulary

Learn and define the following terms:

  • Agribusiness: The integration of various steps of production in the food-processing industry, often dominated by large corporations.

  • Agriculture: The deliberate modification of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain.

  • Commercial Agriculture: Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.

  • Combine: A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field.

  • 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.

  • Desertification: Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

  • Double Cropping: Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

  • Green Revolution: The rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.

  • Horticulture: The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

  • Milkshed: The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

  • Intensive Subsistence Agriculture: A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.

  • Paddy: The Malay word for wet rice, commonly but incorrectly used to describe a flooded field.

  • Pastoral Nomadism: A form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals.

  • 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.

  • Sawah: A flooded field for growing rice.

  • 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.

  • Slash-and-Burn Agriculture: A method of agriculture in which existing vegetation is cut down and burned off before new seeds are sown, typically used as part of shifting cultivation.

  • Sustainable Agriculture: Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides.

  • Transhumance: The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

Key Concepts

  1. Agricultural Revolution:

    • When it happened: The Agricultural Revolution, also known as the Neolithic Revolution, began around 10,000 years ago (circa 8000 BCE).

    • Where it started: It originated independently in several hearths, including the Fertile Crescent (Middle East), Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Mesoamerica.

    • Life before agriculture: People were primarily hunter-gatherers, relying on wild plants and animals for sustenance.

    • Discovery of agriculture: Likely through accidental observations, such as seeds sprouting from discarded food, leading to the intentional planting of crops.

  2. Types of Agriculture:

    • Commercial Agriculture: Large-scale production for profit, typically in MDCs (More Developed Countries).

    • Subsistence Agriculture: Small-scale farming to feed the farmer’s family, commonly found in LDCs (Less Developed Countries).

  3. Forms of Subsistence Agriculture:

    • Shifting Cultivation:

      • Includes slash-and-burn techniques.

      • Land is used for a few years and then left fallow.

    • Pastoral Nomadism:

      • Herding of domesticated animals.

      • Common in arid and semi-arid regions.

    • Intensive Subsistence Agriculture:

      • Requires significant labor input.

      • Commonly practiced in densely populated areas of Asia.

  4. Forms of Agriculture in MDCs:

    • Mixed Crop and Livestock

    • Grain Farming

    • Dairy Farming

    • Livestock Ranching

    • Mediterranean Agriculture

  5. Von Thünen’s Model for Land Use:

    • Learn the model’s structure and be able to identify each ring:

      • Central Market

      • Dairy/Perishables

      • Forest

      • Grains and Field Crops

      • Livestock Grazing

  6. Sustainable Agriculture:

    • Understand the three principles:

      1. Environmental health

      2. Economic profitability

      3. Social and economic equity