AP Human Geography-Agriculture

Reaper

Definition: A machine that cuts grain standing in the field. Example: A reaper is used to help stimulate the farm's efficiency Application: A reaper reaps all grain that is just chill on the field

Combine

Definition: A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans gram while moving over a field. Example: Combines are driven through fields where they pick up any useful part of a plant. Application: Combines now allow for very efficient agriculture.

Swidden

Definition: A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning. Example:Once a land remains baron for a few years i owe you an apology Application: A Swidden gives hope for land that can be sustainable once again.

Subsistence Agriculture

Definition: Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer's family Example: Family in LDC Application: This family uses subsistence farming which allows them to be self sustaining(for the most part)

Commercial Agriculture

Definition: Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm. Example:Tyson farms Application: Commercial Agriculture has allowed for food to be mass produced in a way that has significantly impacted both the health and finances of the American People.

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

Definition: Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris. Example: RUINS SOIL-VERY BAD Application: Burn crops , and then remove ash from the area.

Agribusiness

Definition: Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations. Example: Tyson Chicken or Smithfield Pork Application: Agribusiness is a very large and powerful sector in the U.S.

Sawah

Definition: A flooded field for growing rice Example: Sawahs are seen in Africa and the middle east. Application:Sawahs provide an easy (easier) way for people to receive rice.

Ranching

Definition: A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area. Example: Cattle Ranching in West Texas Application: Because of Commercial farming, Ranching is seen less and less.

Pastoral Nomadism

Definition: A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals. Example: Camel Herders Application: These Nomads use their physical surroundings to feed their donkeys.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Definition: 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. Example: Families in LDCs must undergo intensive subsistence agricultural practices in order to provide for themselves. Application: These aforementioned families/farmers have significant impact(or lack there of) on then economy due to their self-sustainability.

Shifting Cultivation

Definition: A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period. Example: Feild Rotation Application:Shifting Cultivation is so important because it keeps the soil full of nutrients.

Cereal Grain

Definition: A grass yielding grain for food. Example: Oats, Wheat, Rye, and Barley Application: Cereal Grain is mass produced and is used in many different industries: from bread to beer.

Plantation

Definition: 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. Example: Sugar Cane plantation grows more than sugar. Application: Plantations are used in order to increase efficiency.

Truck Farming

Definition: Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities. Example: Crops may now be transported a lot further than previously done. Application: Truck farming offers and entirely new agricultural market.

Desertification

Definition: Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting. Example: Slash and Burn promotes desertification Application: Desertification destroys soil and ultimately makes it useless for years(until the nutrients are replenished)

Sustainable Agriculture

Definition: Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil- restoring crops with cash crops and reducing in-puts of fertilizer and pesticides. Example: Crop Rotation Application: This sustainable agriculture will keep our soil alive.

Crop

Definition: Grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season. Example: Oats, Wheat, Barley, Rye, Corn...anything really Application: Crops are now genetically engineered to grow anywhere in the world.

Pasture

Definition: Grass or other plants grown for feeding grazing animals, as well as land used for grazing. Example: Open Meadow Application: A pasture is where a herd of animals graze.

Double Cropping

Definition: Harvesting twice a year from the same field. Example: Winter Wheat is grown in addition to normal crop rotation Application: Double cropping can be bad for the soil, but offers an interesting source for surplus

Chaff

Definition: Husks of grain separated from the seed by threshing. Example: The Chaffs, husks, are separated by being threshed. Application: The Chaff is where most nutrients are fund.

Paddy

Definition: Malay word for wet rice, commonly but incorrectly used to describe a sawah. Example: Paddy is farmed in wet, moist places. Application:

Green Revolution

Definition: Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers. Example: Modern agricultural techniques spread in the '70s and '80s is known as the Green revolution. Chemically engineered crops=Example. Application:This revolution gave birth to what we now see as commercial farming.

Wet Rice

Definition: Rice planted on dryland in a nursery, then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth. Example: Seen primarily in the East Application: Wet rice is a large industry in Asia resulting in a lot of economic growth due to exportation.

Grain

Definition: Seed of a cereal grass Example: Crops from a grain farm are typically used for human consumption Application: Grain is grown extensively because of its large variety of uses.

Ridge Tillage

Definition: System of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation. Example: Application: This system is good because it does not promote the desertification of soil.

Milkshed

Definition: The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied. Example: A milkshed could be 100 miles around a city. Application: Since modern technology is so complex, milksheds have now expanded quite a bit.

Agriculture

Definition: The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain. Example: Growing Crops. Application: Agriculture has been a developing activity over the past several thousand years. It has changed more in the past 30 years than it has in all of the years before that.

Horticulture

Definition: The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Example: Lots of Horticulture in the Mediterranean Region Application: Horticulture is important because fruits an vegetables offer the most nutrients in our diets.

Prime Agricultural Land

Definition: The most productive farmland. Example:Much Prime agricultural land has been lost due to show times. Application:Prime Agricultural Land is hard to come by these days.

Hull

Definition: The outer covering of a seed. Example: The Hull breaks when the seed sprouts Application: The hull also protects the seed before it is able to sprout.

Crop Rotation

Definition: The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil. Example: Feild A grows x crop one year, y crop the next year, z crop the year after that, and then goes back to x crop once the cycle has restarted. Application: Crop rotation is one way to keep the land sustainable.

Transhumance

Definition: The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures. Example: Commonly seen in the UK Application: Sheep are typically seen migrating between mountains and pastures based off of where the food is.

Thresh

Definition: To beat out grain from stalks by trampling it. Example: When crops are harvested, they must be threshed. Application: Threshing is an important step because without it, crops would not properly develop after initial release of seeds.

Winnow

Definition: To remove chaff by allowing it to be blown away by the wind. Example: Winnowing can be seen in fields? Application:I DONT REALLY KNOW ABOUT THIS ONE

Winter Wheat

Definition: Wheat planted in the autumn and harvested in the early summer Example: Winter wheat offers another season for the growth of wheat. Application: Winter Wheat is primarily seen Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

Spring Wheat

Definition: Wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer. Example: Crop grown during the spring so that the harvest can be during the fall. Application: Planted in Montana and the Dakotas