Agricultural Geography (Ap Human Geo)

Rural

Countryside. Place where farming is the primary activity.

Debt-for-Nature Swap

Forgiveness of international debt in exchange for nature protection in developing countries.

3rd Agricultural Revolution

A 20th century revolution with three key elements: mechanisation (Ex: tractors), biotechnology (Ex: hybrid seeds) and integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary activities (agribusiness).

Livestock Ranching

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area, agriculture is adapted to arid and semiarid land.

Dairying

A form of commercial farming which focuses on the development, distribution, and sale of milk, cheese and butter.

Mediterranean

A form of commercial farming which grows specialty crops such as grapes, olives, and other fruits and vegetables.

Commercial Grain Farming

A form of farming where a cereal crop is grown for profit.

Plantation

A large piece of agricultural land devoted to the production of a single export crop often a luxury crop.

2nd Agricultural Revolution

A movement which coincided with the Industrial Revolution where farmers developed new techniques of farming and used new tools like the seed drill or McCormick Reaper. While still relying on animal power, production increased dramatically.

Biotechnology

A procedure that uses living organisms, usually genes, to modify products, to make or modify plants and animals.

Clustered Rural Settlements

A rural settlement in which the houses are situated close to each other and fields surround the settlement.

Subsistence Agriculture

Agriculture designed primarily to provide for for direct consumption by the farmers' family or local consumption.

Commercial Agriculture

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

Truck Farming

Also known as market gardening. A form of commercial agriculture specializing in growing vegetable for the market.

Agrian

Another word for farming or agriculture or having to do with the use or ownership of farmland.

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture where large corporations control different aspects of food production thus creating large networks and using more technology.

Organic Agriculture

Crops produced without the use of synthetic or industrially produced pesticides, artificial fertilizers, or growth hormones.

Carl Sauer

Cultural Geographer who identified 11 areas where agricultural innovations occurred.

Desertification

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

Deforestation

Destruction of forests for food production.

Von Thumen's Model

Explains and predicts commercial agricultural land use with more intensive land uses closer to the market place and more extensive land farther from the market place.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Form of farming where farmers must work more intensively to subsist on a parcel of land and all possible farm land that can b farmed is.

Pastoral Nomadism

Form of subsistence agriculture based on herding as land used for grazing.

Double Cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

Luxury Crops

Non-subsistence crops such as tea, cacao, coffee, and tobacco.

Genetically Modified Crops

Plants used in agriculture where the DNA of which has been modified to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species

Aquaculture

Raising fish in ponds and underwater cages for human consumption

Seed Agriculture

Reproducing plants from annual application of seeds.

Vegetative Planting

Reproduction of plants by cutting stems and dividing roots.

Milkshed

Ring surrounding a city from which milk can be supplied without spoiling.

Dispersed Rural Settlements

Rural settlement pattern characterised by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.

Green Revolution

The Diffusion of Western agricultural knowledge and technology to Mexico and Asia designed to increase food production through hybrid seeds and new methods.

Intertillage

The clearing of rows in the field through the use of hoes, rakes, and other manual equipment.

Shifting Cultivation

The cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. Areas under cultivation shift or move after several years due to poor soil and a new area is cleared.

Agriculture

The deliberate modification of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock.

Swidden

The patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning under shifting cultivation.

Crop Rotation

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

Enclosure Movement

The process of consolidating small landholdings into a few larger farms in England during the eighteenth century which helps start the 2nd Agricultural Revolution.

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

1st Agricultural Revolution

The transition from hunting and gathering to plant domestication and animal domestication about 10,000 years ago.