AP Human Geography Chapter 9 Agriculture

What is the agricultural revolution?

The era when human beings began to domesticate plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering is known as the agricultural revolution. Researchers believe that the agricultural revolution began circa 8,000 b.c., as the world's population rapidly increased relative to era's past. The domestication of plants and animals provided humans larger and more stable sources of food, allowing more people to survive. Environmental and cultural factors likely played into the genesis of the agricultural revolution

Describe wheat.

The principal cereal grain consumed in the developed regions of Europe and North America is wheat, which is consumed in bread, pasta, cake, and many other forms. It is also the most consumed grain in the developing regions of Central and Southwest Asia, where relatively dry conditions are more suitable for growing wheat than other grains.

Describe rice.

The principal cereal grain consumed in the developing regions of East, South, and Southeast Asia is rice. It is the most suitable crop for production in tropical climates.

What is subsistence agriculture?

The production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer's family

What is commercial agriculture?

The production of food primarily for sale off the farm

What is a milkshed?

The ring surrounding a city from which milk can be supplied without spoiling is called the milkshed.

What is crop based commercial agriculture?

The system of commercial farming found in developed countries has been called agribusiness because the family farm is not an isolated activity but is integrated into a large food-production industry. Agricultural products are not sold directly to consumers, but to food processing companies. Around 20 percent of U.S. laborers work in food production and services related to agribusiness-food processing, packaging, storing, distributing, and retailing. Agribusiness encompasses such diverse enterprises as tractor manufacturing, fertilizer production, and seed distribution.

What is wet-rice dominant?

The term wet rice refers to rice planted on dryland in a nursery and then moved as seedlings to a flooded field to promote growth. Intensive wet-rice farming is the dominant type of agriculture in southeastern China, East India, and much of Southeast Asia. Wet rice is most easily grown on flat land because the plants are submerged in water much of the time. Most wet-rice cultivation takes place in river valleys and deltas. One method of developing additional land suitable for growing rice is to terrace the hillsides of river valleys. A field is generally prepared by animal power, leveling the area for flooding. The field is then flooded with water. This flooded field is called a sawah in Indonesia and is increasingly referred to as a paddy, which is the Malay word for rice. For the first month, rice seedlings are grown in a nursery and are then transported to the sawah. Rice plants are then harvested with knives, and the chaff (husks) is separated from the seed by threshing the husks on the ground.

What are the agricultural regions?

Whittlesey conceptualized 11 distinct agricultural regions, along with areas where agriculture was not present. Five of these regions are important forms of agriculture in developing countries, while 6 are forms of commercial agriculture important in developed countries.

What influences what people eat?

What people eat is influenced by a combination of level of development, cultural preferences, and environmental constraints. Most humans derive most of their dietary energy from grains, but the amount consumed varies widely. People in developed countries consume more protein through animal products. One in 10 humans is undernourished. The percentage of undernourished people has been declining.

What are the seven challenges for agriculture?

Losing agricultural land to competing uses. Improving the productivity of existing farmland. Conserving scarce resources, such as water and top soil. Identifying the appropriate role in agriculture for biotechnology. Balancing production of food for international trade rather than for local consumption. Meeting the needs of people who are undernourished. Making greater use of organic farming

What are the four rings of the von Thunen model?

1) First ring. Market-oriented gardens and milk producers were located in the first ring out from the cities. These products are expensive to deliver and must reach the market quickly because they are perishable. 2) Second ring. The next ring out from the cities contained wood lots, where timber was cut for construction and fuel; proximity to market is key for this commodity because of its weight. 3) Third ring. The next ring was used for various crops and for pasture; the particular commodity was rotated from one year to the next. 4) Fourth ring. The outermost ring was devoted exclusively to animal grazing, which requires a great deal of space. This model assumes that all land in a study area has similar site characteristics and was of uniform quality, although von Thünen recognized that the model could vary according to topography and other distinct physical features (e.g. a river or body of water extending into a ring).

According to economist Ester Boserup, what are the five basic stages of the reduction of fallow farmland?

1. Forest fallow: Fields are cleared and utilized for up to 2 years and left fallow for more than 20 years, long enough for the forest to grow back. 2. Bush fallow: Fields are cleared and utilized for up to 8 years and left fallow for up to 10 years, long enough for small trees and bushes to grow back. 3. Short fallow: Fields are cleared and utilized for perhaps 2 years (Boserup was uncertain) and left fallow for up to 2 years, long enough for wild grasses to grow back. 4. Annual cropping: Fields are used every year and rotated between legumes and roots. 5. Multi-cropping: Fields are used several times a year and never left fallow.

What is a crop?

A crop is any plant cultivated by people.

What is a dairy farm?

A dairy farm specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products. As milk is highly perishable, dairy farms must be located closer to the market than other products.

What is a GMO?

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is a living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology. A GMO combines genetic material of two or more species that would otherwise not mix in nature.

What is grain farming?

A grain is a seed from various grasses, such as wheat, corn, oats, barley, rice, millet, and others. Commercial grain agriculture is distinguished from mixed crop and livestock farming because crops on a grain farm are grown primarily for consumption by humans rather than livestock. Commercial grain farmers sell their output to manufacturers of food products, such as breakfast cereals and breads. Wheat is the most important grain because it is used to make bread flour. Wheat can be stored relatively easily without spoiling. Because wheat has a relatively high value per unit weight, it can be shipped profitably from remote farms to market.

Describe other crops.

A handful of countries obtain the largest share of dietary energy from other crops, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. These include cassava, sorghum, millet, plantains, sweet potatoes, and yams. Sugar is the leading source of dietary energy in Venezuela.

What are some cultural factors in the invention of agriculture?

A preference for living in a fixed place rather than as nomads may have led hunters and gatherers to build permanent settlements and to store surplus vegetation there. In gathering wild vegetation, people inevitably cut plants and dropped berries, fruits, and seeds. These hunters probably observed that, over time, damaged and discarded food produced new plants. They may have deliberately cut plants or dropped berries on the ground to see if they would produce new plants. Subsequent generations learned to pour water over the site and to introduce manure and other soil improvements. Over thousands of years, plant cultivation apparently evolved from a combination of accident and deliberate experiment.

What is ridge tillage?

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

What is the future of shifting cultivation?

According to the United Nations, land used for shifting cultivation is decreasing in the tropics at the annual rate of roughly 30,000 square miles, or 0.2 percent. Less than half of the land area originally occupied by tropical rain forest remains today, as World Bank loans for development in these regions formerly supported deforestation efforts. Today, shifting cultivation is being replaced by logging, cattle ranching, and the cultivation of cash crops. People in developing countries are also abandoning shifting cultivation at increasing rates, as the method can only support a small number of people in an area without causing environmental damage. Many people consider shifting agriculture to be the most environmentally sound approach for agriculture in the tropics. Practices used in other forms of agriculture, such as applying fertilizers and pesticides and permanently clearing fields, may damage the soil, cause severe erosion, and upset balanced ecosystems.

Why is it difficult to determine the origins of agriculture?

Agricultural activity began before recorded history, making determinations of its origins difficult. A timeline following the logical series of events based on fragments of information about ancient agricultural practices and historical environmental conditions has been pieced together by scholars.

What is wet rice not dominant?

Agriculture in much of the interior of India and northeastern China is devoted to crops other than wet rice. Wheat is the most important crop, followed by barley. In addition, some crops are grown in order to be sold for cash, such as cotton, flax, hemp, and tobacco. Land is used intensively and worked primarily by human power, with the assistance of some hand implements and animals. In milder parts of the region where wet rice does not dominate, more than one harvest can be obtained some years through skilled use of crop rotation, which is the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil.

What is agriculture?

Agriculture is deliberate modification of Earth's surface through cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain. Agriculture emerged when humans domesticated plants and animals for their use.

What is the most "typical" human?

An Asian farmer who grows enough food to survive, with little surplus

What agriculture is found near large urban areas in developed countries?

Animal-based dairy farming is the most significant agriculture undertaken near large urban areas in developed countries. Ranching is adapted to semiarid or arid land and is practiced in developed countries where the vegetation is too sparse and soil too poor to sustain crops.

What is aquaculture?

Aquaculture, or aquafarming, is the cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions. Both fishing and aquaculture are practiced in subsistence and commercial agriculture.

Describe the hearth in Southwest Asia.

Around 10,000 years ago, barley, wheat, lentil, and olives were cultivated in Southwest Asia. Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, animals such as cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep were domesticated in this hearth. From this hearth, cultivation diffused west to Europe and east to Central Asia.

Describe the role of machinery, science, and technology.

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, factories produced farm machinery. Inventions in farming in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made farming less dependent on human and animal power. The building of railroads in the nineteenth century and highways and trucks in the twentieth century have enabled farmers to transport crops and livestock farther and faster. Experiments conducted in university laboratories, industry, and research organizations generate new fertilizers, herbicides, hybrid plants, animal breeds, and farming practices that produce higher crop yields and healthier animals. GPS devices have allowed farmers to assist in the precise planting of seeds and for spreading different types and amounts of fertilizers. On ranches, GPS can be used to monitor the locations of cattle and tractors. Satellite imagery is a valuable resource for measuring crop progress, as well.

Describe agriculture and water in California.

California's limited water supply comes from two main sources: surface water, which is water that travels or gathers on the ground, like rivers, streams, and lakes; and groundwater, which is water that is pumped out from the ground. Recent persistent drought has severely reduced the amount of surface water captured. In years with normal rainfall, 70 percent of California's water is supplied by surface water. Today, only 40 percent is supplied by surface water as a result of prolonged drought conditions. The distribution of water in California does not mirror the distribution of demand— most water supplies are located in the north, while Central and Southern California is where demand is primarily situated.

Describe the hearth in Central and South Asia.

Chickens are theorized to have diffused from South Asia round 4,000 years ago. In Central Asia, the horse is speculated to have been domesticated, mirroring the diffusion of the Indo-European language.

Describe overfishing.

China is responsible for one-third of the world's yield of fish. The populations of some fish species in Earth's waters have decreased due to overfishing. Overfishing is the capturing of fish faster than they can reproduce. The U.N. estimates that one-fourth of fish stocks have been overfished and onehalf have been fully exploited, leaving one-fourth underfished.

What is agribusiness?

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

What is truck farming?

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

Describe diet and nutrition.

Consumption of food varies around the world, both in total amount and source of nutrients. These differences result from a combination of level of development, physical conditions, and cultural preferences. In more developed countries, people consume a greater amount of food from various sources than people in developing countries. Climate is a determining factor in what can be easily grown and consumed in developing countries. In developed countries, supply chains allow for food to be sourced from many different climates. Some food preferences and avoidances are expressed without regard for physical and economic factors.

What does cultivate mean?

Cultivate means "to care for".

Where do dairy farmers sell their products?

Dairy farmers, like other commercial farmers, usually do not sell their products directly to the consumers. Instead they generally sell their milk to wholesalers, who distribute it in turn to retailers. In general, the farther the farm is from large urban concentrations, the smaller is the percentage of output devoted to fresh milk. Farms located farther from consumers are more likely to sell their output to processors to make butter, cheese, or dried, evaporated, and condensed milk. The reason is that these products keep fresh longer than milk does and therefore can be safely shipped from remote farms.

Why is agricultural productivity important?

During the second half of the twentieth century, population increased at the fastest rate in human history. Massive global famine is projected by many experts, as increases in agricultural land cannot keep up with population growth. Increased agricultural productivity has prevented any famines from coming to pass, and has resulted in an expansion of food supply. Today, the same amount of land can produce greater yields due to new agricultural practices

What are the crops of shifting cultivation?

Each village grows crops according to their local custom and taste. The primary crops include upland rice in Southeast Asia, maize (corn) and manioc (cassava) in South America, and millet and sorghum in Africa. Yams, sugarcane, plantain, and vegetables are also grown in some regions. Most families grow only for their own needs, so one swidden may contain a large variety of intermingled crops, which are harvested individually at the best time. A "farm field" appears much more chaotic than do fields in developed countries where a single crop is grown over an extensive area.

How is farmland being lost to urbanization?

Expanding urban areas have caused a significant loss of farmland, especially in the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. In the United States, 200,000 hectares of the most productive farmland, known as prime agricultural land, is being encroached upon and replaced by expanding urban areas. This issue is especially evident in Maryland, where geographic information systems (GIS) have been used to identify prime agricultural land to preserve as Baltimore and Washington D.C. continue to grow and coalesce into a continuous built-up area.

Describe intensification by subsistence farmers.

For hundreds if not thousands of years, subsistence farming in developing countries yielded enough food for people living in rural villages to survive, assuming that no drought, flood, or other natural disasters occurred. Suddenly in the late twentieth century, developing countries needed to provide enough food for a rapidly increasing population as well as for urban residents, who cannot grow their own food. Subsistence farmers had to increase the supply of food by adopting new farming methods and leaving farm land fallow for shorter periods of time.

Describe fish consumption.

Human consumption of fish and seafood has grown from 27 million metric tons in 1960 to 132 million metric tons in 2012. Five-sixths of this increase can be attributed to consumption in developing countries. Despite accounting for only 1 percent of all calories consumed by humans, per capita consumption of fish has nearly doubled in developed and developing countries over the past 50 years.

How are GM crops used around the world?

In 2010, 10 percent of farmland was devoted to genetically modified crops; 77 percent of the world's soybeans, 49 percent of cotton, and 26 percent of maize were genetically modified in 2010. GM is especially widespread in the United States. Three-fourths of the processed food that Americans consume has at least one genetically modified ingredient. Developing countries are responsible for one-half of the genetically modified food grown, while the United States is responsible for the other one-half. The United States has urged sub-Saharan African countries to increase their food supply in part through increased use of GM crops and livestock. There is strong opposition to GM crops in some African countries, with detractors pointing to potential health problems, export problems, and increased dependence on the United States as issues to consider.

Describe the hearth in East Asia.

In East Asia, rice is thought to have been domesticated more than 10,000 years ago, along the Yangtze River in eastern China.

Describe the hearth in Latin America.

In Latin America, beans and cotton are thought to have diffused from Mexico, and the potato is considered to have originated in Peru. Maize (corn) is hypothesized to have emerged from the two hearths independently, diffusing north and south.

Describe the problem of desertification.

In a process called desertification, human actions are causing land to deteriorate to a desertlike condition. This process is more precisely referred to as semiarid land degradation. Excessive crop cultivation, animal grazing, and tree felling exhaust the soil's nutrients and hinder agriculture. The Earth Policy Institute estimates that 2 billion hectares of land have suffered desertification on Earth. Overgrazing is considered to be responsible for 34 percent of the total, deforestation for 30 percent, and agricultural use for 28 percent. The U.N. estimates that desertification removes 27 million hectares of land from agricultural production every year.

Describe percentage of farmers.

In developed countries, roughly 3percent of the workforce is engaged directly in farming, in contrast to the 42 percent of workers engaged in farming in developing countries. The vast majority of people engaged in farming activity in developed countries work as commercial farmers. Both push and pull factors have contributed to the decline of farmers in the United States. People were pushed away from farms by lack of opportunity to earn a decent income and at the same time they were pulled to higher-paying jobs in urban areas.

Why is access to markets important?

In developed countries, the use of land is primarily determined by market forces of supply and demand. The value of the land impacts the form of commercial agriculture practiced on it. The distance from the farm to the market affects the farmer's choice of crop to plant. Geographers employ the von Thünen model to help explain the importance of proximity to market in the choice of crops on commercial farms. In choosing an enterprise, the farmer considers two costs: the cost of the land and the cost of transporting products to market. The crops grown around cities can be identified using a concentric circle conceptualization, in the form of four rings:

Describe the problem of losing agricultural land.

In the past, world food production increased primarily by expanding the amount of land designated for agriculture. As population increased during the Industrial Revolution, people simply staked a claim of unsettled land in uninhabited territory to produce more agricultural land (as seen in the American West during the nineteenth century). Despite only 11 percent of the world's land area being cultivated, population is growing at a rate that outpaces development of agricultural land.

Describe characteristics of intensive subsistence farming.

Intensive subsistence farming is primarily undertaken in East, South, and Southeast Asia. Agricultural practices developed over thousands of years, informed by local environmental and cultural patterns, evolve into intensive subsistence farming methods. Agricultural density (the ratio of farmers to arable land) is extremely high in parts of East and South Asia, forcing families to produce enough food for their survival from a very small area of land. Land is maximized for planting crops; paths are left as narrow as possible, corners of fields and irregularly shaped pieces of land are used rather than left idle, livestock are rarely permitted to graze on land that could be used for growing crops, and land used to grow grain for animal feed is minimized. Land is used even more intensively in parts of Asia by obtaining two harvests per year from one field, a process known as double cropping.

What were the simplifications/assumptions that von Thunen made in his model?

J. H. von Thünen (1783-1850) Isolated State (1826): discussed agricultural location as primarily a factor of transportation cost and profit maximization by farmers prior to industrialization. For his model he made the following simplifying and intended assumptions: 1) the land is an isotropic flat plain (with no slope or gradient) 2) it has no rivers or mountains (barriers) 3) farmers transport their own goods to market via oxcart, across land, directly to the central city (there are no roads) 4) soil quality and climate are consistent 5) farmers behave rationally to maximize profits

What is fishing?

The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in Earth's waters is known as fishing.

What are the distinctive features of dairy farming that exacerbate economic difficulties?

Labor-intensive: Cows must be milked twice a day, every day; although the actual milking can be done by machines, dairy farming nonetheless requires constant attention throughout the year. Winter feed: Dairy farmers face the expense of feeding the cows in the winter, when they may be unable to graze on grass. In Northwest Europe and in the Northeastern United States, farmers generally purchase hay or grain for winter feed. In the western part of the US dairy region, crops are more likely to be grown in the summer and stored for winter feed on the same farm.

What is no tillage?

Leaves all of the soil undisturbed, and the entire residue of the previous year's harvest is left untouched on the fields.

What has land in the United States been converted toward?

Meanwhile, due to the spread of irrigation techniques and hardier crops, land in the US has been converted from ranching to crop growing. Ranching generates lower income per area of land, although it has lower operating costs. Cattle are still raised on ranches but are frequently sent for fattening to farms or to local feed lots along major railroad and highway routes rather than directly to meat processors.

What is the most common form of commercial agriculture in the US west of the Appalachians and in much of Europe?

Mixed crop and livestock farming

What is Mediterranean agriculture?

Most crops in the Mediterranean lands are grown for human consumption rather than animal feed. Mediterranean agriculture exists predominates in lands that border the Mediterranean Sea in Southern Europe, North Africa, and western Asia. Farmers in California, central Chile, the southwestern part of South Africa, and southwestern Australia also practice Mediterranean agriculture. Horticulture—which is the growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers— and tree crops form the commercial base of Mediterranean farming. The hilly landscape typically found in a Mediterranean climate encourages farmers to plant a variety of crops within one farming area. Typically, the three most important crops grown in Mediterranean agriculture are grapes, olives, and wheat. A large portion of California farmland is devoted to fruit and vegetable horticulture, which supplies a large portion of the citrus fruits, tree nuts, and deciduous fruits consumed in the United States

What is a cereal grain?

Most humans derive most of their calories through consumption of a cereal grain. A cereal grain is a grass that yields grain for food and the grain is the seed from a cereal grass. The three leading cereal grains are wheat, rice, and corn (maize). These three grains together account for 90 percent of all grain production and more than 40 percent of all dietary energy consumed worldwide.

What is mixed crop and livestock farming?

Most of the crops grown in mixed crop and livestock farming agriculture are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans. In turn, livestock supply manure to improve soil fertility to grow more crops. A typical mixed crop and livestock farm devotes nearly all land area to growing crops but derives more than threefourths of its income from the sale of animal products, such as beef, milk, and eggs. Mixed crops and livestock farms permit farmers to distribute the workload more evenly through the year. In the United States, corn is the most frequently planted crop because it generates higher yields per area than do other crops. Soybeans are the second most important crop in the United States. Corn and soybeans are commonly fed to livestock.

What is plantation farming?

Most plantations are located in the tropics and subtropics, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Despite being located in developing countries, many plantations are owned or operated by Europeans or North Americans, and they produce crops intended for markets in developed countries. Among the primary crops grown on plantations are cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, and tobacco.

What is double cropping?

Obtaining two harvests per year from one field

What is pastoral nomadism?

Pastoral nomadism is a form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals. Pastoral nomads live primarily in the large belt of arid and semiarid land that includes Central and Southwest Asia and North Africa. The animals provide milk, and their skins and hair are used for clothing and tents. Pastoral nomads consume mostly grain and not meat because their animals are usually not slaughtered. Pastoral nomads mostly obtain grain from farmers in exchange for animal products but have been known to plant crops in some circumstances. The camel is the most highly desired animal in North Africa and Southwest Asia, along with sheep and goats. Pastoral nomads do not wander randomly across the landscape but have a strong sense of territoriality. The goal of each nomad is to control a territory large enough to contain the forage and water needed for survival. The precise migration patterns evolve from intimate knowledge of the area's physical and cultural characteristics. Pastoral nomadism is now generally recognized as an offshoot of sedentary agriculture, not a primitive precursor of it. It is simply a practical way of surviving on land that receives too little rain for the cultivation of crops. Some pastoral nomads practice transhumance, which is seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas.

How does shifting cultivation work?

People who practice shifting cultivation generally live in small villages in the tropics and grow food on the surrounding land. Before planting, they must remove the vegetation that typically covers tropical land. On a windless day the vegetation is burned. The rains wash the fresh ashes into the soil, providing needed nutrients. The cleared area, known as swidden, is prepared by hand, perhaps with the help of a simple implement such as a hoe. The cleared land can support crops only briefly, usually three years or less. Soil nutrients are rapidly depleted and the land becomes too infertile to nourish crops. When the swidden is no longer fertile, villagers identify a new site and begin clearing it.

What is the importance of water?

Plants and animals require water to survive and thrive. Lack of water is putting stress on agriculture in many regions, while an overabundance of water can cause soil erosion.

What are hunters and gatherers?

Prior to the agricultural revolution, all humans probably obtained food through hunting for animals, fishing, or gathering plants. Groups of hunters and gatherers generally kept their numbers below 50, as a larger number would quickly exhaust the available resources within walking distance. Groups regularly traveled, with their direction and frequency of migration determined by the movement of game and the seasonal growth of plants at different locations. Men hunted game or fished, while women gathered berries, nuts, and roots. This division of labor is evidenced by archaeological and anthropological findings. Only an estimated quarter-million people of the world's population still survive by hunting and gathering.

What are sources of protein in different countries?

Protein is a nutrient needed for growth and maintenance of the human body. Many food sources provide protein of varying quantity and quality. One of the most fundamental difference between developed and developing regions is the primary source of protein. In developed countries, the leading source of protein is meat products, including beef, pork, and poultry. In most developing countries, cereal grains provide the largest share of protein.

What is ranching?

Ranching is the commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area. Commercial ranching is conducted in several developed countries besides the United States, and increasingly in developing countries. As with other forms of commercial agriculture, the growth of ranching has been in developing countries. China is the leading producer of meat, ahead of the United States, and Brazil is third. China passed the United States as the world's leading meat producer in 1990 and now produces twice as much meat. Developed countries were responsible for only one-third of world meat production in 2013, compared to two-thirds in 1980.

Describe productivity among commercial farmers.

Recently, productivity has also increased among commercial farmers. New seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, mechanical equipment, and management practices have allowed commercial farmers to obtain greatly increased yields per area of land.

What is wet rice?

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

What is shifting cultivation?

Shifting Cultivation is practiced in much of the world's tropical, or A, climate regions, which have relatively high temperatures, and abundant rainfall. This type of agricultural activity is practiced by approximately 250 million people across 14 million square miles. Plantation farming is also found in these areas

Describe sustainable land management.

Soil erosion is an issue in the U.S. Midwest, where nutrient-rich top soil is washed away by excessive rainfall, or made loose by tillage making them susceptible to being washed away or blown away by wind. Conservation tillage is a method of soil cultivation that reduces soil erosion and runoff. Under conservation tillage, some of all of the previous harvest is left on the fields through the winter. No tillage leaves all of the soil undisturbed, and the entire residue of the previous year's harvest is left untouched on the fields. Ridge tillage is a system of planting crops on ridge tops. Ridge tillage compares favorably with conventional farming for yields while lowering the cost of production. Ridge tillage will tend to increase organic matter, improve water holding capacity, and usually cause more earthworms. Although more labor intensive than other systems, ridge tillage is profitable on a per-acre basis.

Describe the hearth in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sorghum was domesticated in central Africa approximately 8,000 years ago, and yams are thought to have been domesticated in this hearth even earlier.

What does it mean that agriculture has multiple origins?

That agriculture had multiple origins means that, from earliest times, people have produced food in distinctive ways in different regions. This diversity derives from a unique legacy of wild plants, climatic conditions, and cultural preferences in each region. Improved communications in recent centuries have encouraged the diffusion of some plants to varied locations around the world. Many plants and animals thrive across a wide protion of Earth's surface, not just in their place of original domestication. Only after 1500 for example, were wheat, oats, and barley introduced to Western Hemisphere and maize to the Eastern Hemisphere.

What is a sawah?

The Indonesian term for a field flooded with water for growing rice

What is a paddy?

The Malay word for wet rice

What is food security?

The United Nations defines food security as 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. Ten percent of the world population is classified as not having food security.

What is dietary energy consumption?

The amount of food that an individual consumes is known as dietary energy consumption.

Describe farm size.

The average farm is relatively large in commercial agriculture. Combines, pickers, and other machinery perform most efficiently at very large scales and their considerable expense cannot be justified on a small farm. Farmers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy or rent land and machinery before beginning operations. Commercial farmers frequently expand their holdings by renting nearby fields. The amount of land devoted to agriculture has increased in the United States primarily due to irrigation and reclamation.

What are some environmental factors in the invention of agriculture?

The first domestication of crops and animals coincided with climate change. This marked the end of the last ice age, when permanent ice cover receded from Earth's mid-latitudes to the polar regions, resulting in a massive redistribution of humans, other animals, and plants at that time.

Which agricultural regions are in developing countries and which are in developed countries?

The five agriculture regions primarily seen in developing countries are intensive subsistence, wet-rice dominant; intensive subsistence, crops other than rice dominant; pastoral nomadism; shifting cultivation; and plantation. The six agricultural regions primarily seen in developed countries include mixed crop and livestock; dairying; grain; ranching; Mediterranean; and commercial gardening.

What is horticulture?

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers

What is the Green Revolution?

The invention and rapid diffusion of more productive agricultural techniques during the 1970s and 1980s is called the green revolution. The green revolution involves two main practices: the introduction of new higher-yield seeds and the expanded use of fertilizers. The new miracle seeds were diffused rapidly around the world.

What is the difference in agriculture between developing countries and developed countries?

The key differences in agricultural practices are between those in developing countries and those in developed countries. In developing countries most people work in subsistence agriculture, which is the production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer's family. Very few people in developing countries work in commercial agriculture which is the production of food primarily for sales off the farm.

Describe maize.

The leading crop in the world is maize (called corn in North America), though much of it is grown for purposes other than direct human consumption, especially as animal feed. It is the leading crop in some countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

What is the most basic contrast between the more developed and less developed countries?

The modern American or Canadian farm is mechanized and highly productive, especially compared to subsistence farms found in much of the rest of the world. This difference represents one of the most basic contrasts between the more developed and less developed countries of the world.

What is prime agricultural land?

The most productive farmland

How does agriculture and climate overlap?

The overlap between agricultural and climate maps is readily apparent. For example, pastoral nomadism is the predominant type of agriculture in Southwest Asia and North Africa, corresponding to a dry climate, while shifting cultivation is the primary type of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Differences in the type of agriculture can be present within developed and developing countries, as well. These variations can be seen in the deserts of eastern South California contrasted with the verdant valleys of the Salinas valley of Central California. Geographers are reluctant to place too much emphasis on climate as a determining factor in global agricultural differences, due to their strained history with environmental determinism. Agricultural differences in places of similar climate can be attributed to variations in cultural preferences and levels of development.

What are the main features that distinguish commercial agriculture from subsistence agriculture?

The percentage of farmers in the labor force, the use of machinery, and farm size.

Where did agriculture originate?

The planting of crops and domestication of animals originated in multiple hearths around the world across different eras. Hearths include Southwest Asia, East Asia, Central and South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

What is crop rotation?

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

Describe the typical farm in Asia's intensive subsistence agriculture regions.

The typical farm in Asia's intensive subsistence agriculture regions is much smaller than farms elsewhere in the world. Because agricultural density is so high in parts of East and South Asia, families must produce enough food for their survival from a very small area of land. Most of this work is done by hand or animals rather than the machines, in part due to abundant labor, but largely from lack of funds to buy equipment. The consumers of the rice also perform the work, and all family members contribute to the effort.

What is the unit of measurement of dietary energy in the US?

The unit measurement of dietary energy is the calorie in the United States.

Describe fish production.

The world's oceans are divided into 18 major fishing regions, including seven each in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, three in the Indian Ocean, and one in the Mediterranean. Fishing is also undertaken in lakes and rivers. The Pacific Northwest and Asia's inland waterways are the areas with the largest yields. During the past 50 years, global fish production has grown from roughly 36 to 158 million metric tons. The expansion of aquaculture can be attributed to this increase. The capture of wild fish has stagnated since the 1990s, despite population growth and increased demand to consume fish.

What is commercial gardening and fruit farming?

This type of agriculture is called truck farming. Truck farms grow many of the fruits and vegetables that consumers in developed countries demand. Some of these fruits and vegetables are sold fresh to consumers, but most are sold to large processors for canning or freezing. Truck farms are usually large-scale operations that take full advantage of machines at every stage of the growing process. Labor costs are kept down by hiring migrant farm workers who work for very low wages. Farms tend to specialize in a few crops, and a handful of farms may dominate national output of some fruits and vegetables.

Describe subsistence agriculture in population concentrations.

Three-quarters of the world's population live in developing countries, and most are fed by intensive subsistence agriculture. The term intensive suggests that farmers are required to work intensively to subsist on a parcel of land.

Describe dietary energy needs.

To maintain a moderate level of physical activity, an average individual needs to consume at least 1,844 kcal per day. Average consumption worldwide is approximately 2,902 kcal per day. People in developed countries are consuming 3,400 kcal a day. The United States has the highest consumption, 3,800 kcal per day per person. In sub-Saharan Africa average daily consumption is 2,400 kcal a day. Some people in sub-Saharan Africa are not getting enough to eat and have to spend a high percentage of their income to obtain food.

What are roles of farmers and the government in the green revolution?

To take full advantage of the new miracle seeds, farmers must use more fertilizer and machinery. Farmers need tractors and irrigation pumps to make the most effective use of the new miracle seeds. In developing countries, farmers cannot afford such equipment, fertilizers, and even the fuel for the tractors. To offset these costs, governments in developing countries must allocate scarce funds to subsidize the cost of seed, fertilizers, and machinery

Describe ownership and use of land in shifting cultivation.

Traditionally, land was owned by the village as a whole rather than separately by each resident. The chief or ruling council allocated a patch of land to each family and allowed them to retain the output. Today, private individuals now own the land in some communities, especially in Latin America. Land used for shifting cultivation covers roughly one-fourth of the world's land area, a higher percentage than any other type of agriculture, although less than 5 percent of the world's people are involved in shifting cultivation.

What is transhumance?

Transhumance is seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas.

What are the two features of shifting cultivation?

Two key features are indicative of shifting cultivation: Farmers clear land for planting by slashing vegetation and burning the debris; shifting cultivation is sometimes called slash-and-burn agriculture. Farmers grow crops on a cleared field for only a few years, until soil nutrients are depleted. Farmers then leave it fallow (with nothing planted) for many years so the soil can recover.