APHUG Unit 5 Summary

5.1 Introduction to Agriculture

  • Agriculture - the process of planting & harvesting domesticated plants and raising domestic animals for food

    • domesticated = not wild; grown or raised by humans on purpose

    How are agricultural practices influenced by physical geography & climate conditions?

Factors for Agriculture

  1. Physical Environment

    • presence or absence of nutritious soil

  1. Climate (long-term weather)

    • Tropical Climate (low-latitude) - great for agriculture

      • typically used for commodity crops (exports)

    • Arid Climate - no good for agriculture

    • Semi-Arid Climates - get just enough precipitation for agriculture (good for grazing and nomadic lifestyle)

    • Moderate Climate (mid latitude) - warm summers and cold winters w/ average rainfall; okay for agriculture

    • Mediterranean Climate - average temp. year-round, decent rainfall in winters

  • tropical = growing fruits

  • moderate = wheat, flat terrain

  • Mediterranean = palm oil, grapes, dates

Types of Farming:

Commercial Farming:

  • crops and livestock are grown solely for the purpose of being sold

  • grow to feed someone else

Subsistence Farming -

  • grow/ raise crops/ livestock to feed yourself and/or your family

Intensive Farming:

  • farmers and ranchers use a high amount of inputs (human labor, money, machines, pesticides, herbicides, etc.) in order to maximize maximize their yield

  • intensively used land and as maximum output per acre

Market Gardening (Truck Farming):

  • small scale farming of fruits & veggies

  • served to a specific local market

  • commercial & intensive → investing in greenhouses, pesticides, and labor

  • not much machinery

Extensive Agriculture:

  • farmers & ranchers use relatively low inputs and gain lower yields, relying on natural soil

    • no enhancers/pesticides

  • occurs primarily in LDC, as these countries can’t afford the intensive agriculture inputs (labor, pesticides, machinery)

  • Subsistence

Types of Extensive:

1. Shifting Cultivation - the cultivation of a plot of land until all the resources are exhausted and then moving to new land (shifting your agriculture location to where it’s supported cycle)

  • ex Slash & Burn

2. Nomadic Herding - breeding of domestic animals to drive across large pasture lands in different seasons

3. Ranching - use of large tracts of land to raise animals to sell their meat, hides, or wool

Plantation Farming:

  • very large scale farming of a single crop to sell on the market

  • typically specialized in a certain commodity crop

    • ex. palm oil, cotton, coffee, sugarcane, wheat etc.

  • requires large amounts of human labor, high quality seeds, herbicides, etc.

Mixed Crop/Livestock:

  • both crops + livestock on farm are raised for sell on the market

    • make money year-round

  • cycle of animal manure -. plants, plants → feed animals, excess sold

  • Commercial

5.2 Survey Methods and Settlement Patterns

Climate and physical geography affects the possibilities of agriculture, while humans respond and further change the agricultural landscape to suit their agricultural needs.

ex. Rice Paddies in the Philippines

  • Patterns of Settlement (where farmers settle)

  1. Clustered (Nucleated)

  • a village is packed together

  • fields are usually a distance away, surrounding the houses

  • shared services (ex.schools)

  • a strong sense of community

  • usually sedentary farming

  1. Dispersed (Isolated)

  • a village is spread out

  • assumption that there are enough resources for everyone to spread out

  • usually nomadic herding

  1. Linear

  • equal access to rivers and roads

  • Survey Methods

  1. Metes & Bound

(ex. East Coast)

  • land is split up by natural landmarks like trees and rivers, creating irregularly shaped areas

  1. Township & Range

ex. Midwest and Land Ordinance of 1785

  • land divided by precise straight lines, typically in a grid pattern, that doesn’t take into account the natural

  1. Long Lot

ex. Mississippi River Delta

  • land is divided into narrow strips, typically along a river or road, for equal access to trade and resources

Vocabulary

  • Urban - in the city, characterized by large, dense population

  • Rural - an area outside of the city, characterized by sparse population

  • Survey Methods - legal ways to establish boundaries of property ownership that often explains settlement patterns

5.3 Agriculture Origins & Diffusion

Agricultural Revolution: transition from hunter gathering societies to sedentary agriculture society

First Agricultural Revolution Hearths:

Fertile Crescent

  • wheat, barley, pigs, sheep

Indus-River Valley (Pakistan)

  • wheat, barley, peas, camels, buffalo

Southeast Asia (the Philippines)

  • sugarcane, root veggies, pigs

Central Americas

  • maize, potatoes, beans, turkey

Patterns of Diffusion - (expansion diffusion)

Columbian Exchange

Exchange of plans, animals, people, and resources between the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

Vocabulary:

  • Domesticated - the planting of seeds and taming of wild animals

  • Hunter Gathering - nomadic farming across large patches of territory to gather berries and kill animals, groups usually by families

  • Hearths - cultural centers in which new cultural traits develop and spread elsewhere (trendsetter/origin)

  • Expansion Diffusion - people stay in their hearth, while their culture’s traits diffuse out.

5.4 The 2nd Agricultural Revolution

Questions:

what is mechanism? mechanical efforts

where were the first canals and railroads?

what migration happened? rurual-urban as huge waves of farms out of work (because of machines) fled to factories in the city

Causes:

  • Agriculture Technology Advancements

    • Steel Plow - (John Deere) clear more land, faster, of weeds

    • McCormick Reaper/Harvester - horsedrawn, allowed more goods gathered

    • Seed Drill - allowed planting more at one time

Effects:

greater food production

Vocabulary: canal - man-made river

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