the agricultural world the human matrix chapter 3

The Agricultural World

The Human Matrix

Chapter 3

Introduction

Importance of agriculture All humans depend on agriculture for food Urban-industrial societies depend on the base

of food surplus generated by farmers and herders

Without agriculture there could be no cities, universities, factories, or offices

Introduction

Agriculture—the principal enterprise of humankind through most of recorded history Today remains the most important economic

activity in the world Employs 45 percent of the working population In some parts of Asia and Africa, over 80

percent of labor force is engaged in agriculture

Agricultural regions

Formal agricultural regions Peoples living in different environments develop new

farming methods Numerous spatial variations have been created

Shifting cultivation Essentially a land rotation system Where it is practiced

Tropical lowlands and hills in the Americas Africa Southeast Asia Indonesia

Formal agricultural regions


Shifting cultivation – how it is practiced Small patches of land are cleared by chopping

vegetation and girdling trees When vegetation has dried, it is burned These techniques give shifting agriculture the

name “slash-and-burn” With digging sticks or hoes, farmers plant a

variety of crops in the clearings


How it is practiced Intertillage—the practice of planting taller, stronger

crops to shelter lower, fragile ones from tropical downpours

Intertillage reveals a learning acquired over many centuries

Little tending of the plants is necessary until harvest time

No fertilizer is applied to the fields The same clearings may be planted for four or five

years until the soil loses it fertility New fields are prepared and old fields may be

abandoned for 10 to 20 years

Amazon Basin


Subsistence agriculture—involves food production mainly for the family and local community rather than for market

Farmers keep few if any livestock, often relying on hunting and fishing for much of their food supply

Has proved an efficient adaptive strategy Slash-and-burn farming may return more calories of food for the

calories spent than modern mechanized agriculture Has achieved sustainability for millennia in the absence of a

population explosion


How slash-and-burn farming is being attacked by Western agricultural “experts” People being forced off the land by rural development

schemes Improved health conditions have caused population

growth beyond the size supportable by this kind of farming

People have passed to the second stage of the demographic transformation causing land fallow periods to be shortened

Environmental deterioration follows

Shifting Cultivation - Uganda

This “slash-and’burn” plot is in the Ruwenzoris (Mountains of the Moon).

A burgeoning population does not permit a suitable fallow period; crop yields are poor and the forest never recovers

Shifting Cultivation - Uganda Consequently, shifting

cultivation by too many people is responsible for tropical rainforest destruction over a vast area.

Intertillage is practiced with bananas, taro, cassava, beans and sorghum being planted in the same field.

While some sugarcane and coffee are grown for sale, this is primarily subsistence agriculture.


Distinctive type of subsistence farming Where practiced

Humid tropical and subtropical parts of Asia Monsoon coasts of India Hills of southeastern China Warmer parts of Japan

Paddy rice farming

Tiny, mud-diked, flooded rice fields, many perched on terraced hillsides

Paddies must be drained and rebuilt each year

Forms the basis of “vegetable civilizations”—almost all caloric intake is of plant origin

Bali, Indonesia

Paddy rice farming

Many paddy farmers raise a cash crop for market Tea Sugar cane Mulberry bushes for silkworm production Fiber crop jute Asian farmers also raise pigs, cattle, and poultry Food fish are maintained in irrigation reservoirs in Asia

Paddy rice farming

Draft animals—water buffalo—used more by farmers in India

Japanese have mechanized paddy rice farming

Paddy rice farming

Most paddy rice farms outside Communist area of Asia are tiny Three acre plot is considered adequate to support a farm

family Irrigated rice provides a large output of food per unit of land Small patches must be intensively tilled to harvest enough

food Small rice sprouts carefully transplanted by hand from seed

beds to paddy Double-cropping—harvest same parcel of land two or three

times each year Apply large amounts of organic fertilizer Per-acre yields exceed those of American agriculture

Paddy Rice FarmingSuzhou, China

This woman is harvesting rice seedlings to be transplanted into the paddy behind her. Planting seeds closely in small seed beds allows plant growth to begin while another crop of seedlings is ripening in the larger paddy

Paddy Rice FarmingSuzhou, China

Once that crop is harvested, the paddies are prepared for a new planting of the partly developed seedlings. With this method, double-cropping – two or three crops a year (depending on the length of the growing season) – are harvested.

Paddy rice farming

Green Revolution Achieved by introducing hybrid rice during the

last half of the twentieth century Chemical fertilizers introduced Heightened productivity achieved

Peasant grain, root, and livestock farming Where practiced

The colder, drier Asiatic farming regions River valleys of the Middle East Parts of Europe and Africa Mountain highlands of Latin America and New

Guinea

Peasant grain, root, and livestock farming A system based on bread grains, root crops, and

herd livestock Dominant grain crops some of which are consumed

by the farmers Wheat Barley Sorghum Millet Oats Maize

Peasant grain, root, and livestock farming Many farmers raise cash crops

Cotton Flax Hemp Coffee Tobacco

Peasant grain, root, and livestock farming Livestock raised and their usage

Cattle, pigs, sheep In South America they raise llamas and alpacas Livestock provide milk, meat, and wool Some livestock also pull the plow, serve as beasts of

burden, and provide fertilizer for the fields Areas such as Middle East also use irrigation

Mediterranean agriculture

A distinctive type of agriculture took shape in ancient times

In a few areas this traditional subsistence system survives intact today Based on wheat and barley cultivation in the rainy

season Drought-resistant vine and tree crops—grapes, olives,

and figs Livestock herding—sheep and goats Do not integrate stock raising with crop cultivation


Rarely raise feed, collect animal manure, or keep draft animals

Communal herds pastured on rocky mountain slopes

No fertilizer use-therefore grain fields lie fallow every other year

Farmers can reap nearly all of life’s necessities

Wool and leather for clothing Bread, beverages, fruit, milk, cheese, and meat


Changed about 1850 when commercialization and specialization of farming replaced the traditional diversified system Farmers began using irrigation in a major way Led to the expansion of crops such as citrus

fruits Better described as market gardening

Nomadic herding

Practiced particularly in the deserts, steppes, and savannas of Africa, Arabia, and the interior of Eurasia

Graze cattle, sheep, goats, and camels Main characteristic is the continued movement of

people and their livestock in search of food for the livestock

Some migrate from lowlands in winter to mountains in summer

Some shift from desert areas in winter to adjacent semiarid plains in summer

Nomadic Herding - Niger

These herds belong to the Taureg, nomadic herders of Africa’s Sahara and Sahel. Government programs to dig boreholes (wells) has led to environmental modification.

As animals and human populations increase, overgrazing and deforestation intensify with desertification the end result.

In places, animals have trampled and denuded ground for up to six miles around a borehole.

Many Taureg are giving up this way of life to work in Algeria’s oilfields

Nomadic herding

Nomads in Sub-Saharan Africa are the only ones who depend mainly on cattle

Nomads living in the tundras of northern Eurasia raise reindeer

The few material possessions of the nomads must be portable, including housing

Livestock provides most all of life’s necessities Some necessities are obtained by bartering with

sedentary farmers Until almost the modem age, nomads presented a

periodic military threat

Kurdistan

Nomadic herding

Today, nomadic herding is almost everywhere in decline National governments have established policies

encouraging nomads to become sedentary This encouragement was started in the nineteenth century

by British and French colonial administrators in North Africa Russia adopted such a policy and had considerable success Many nomads are voluntarily abandoning traditional life to

seek jobs in urban areas or in Middle Eastern oil fields Severe droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa has caused many to

abandon nomadism Today, nomadism survives mainly in remote areas, and may

soon completely vanish

Plantation agriculture

A commercial agricultural system imposed on the native types of subsistence agriculture in certain tropical and subtropical areas

Plantation—a huge land-holding devoted to the efficient, large-scale, specialized production of one tropical or subtropical crop for market


“Welcome to Freehold Plantation: a workplace where labor harmony reigns, in mutual respect and understanding, we united workers produce and export quality goods in peace and harmony.”


The plantation system Relies on large amounts of hand labor Originated in the 1400s on Portuguese-owned

islands of the coast of tropical West Africa Today, the greatest concentration is in the

American tropics Most plantations lie on or near seacoasts and

shipping lanes Produce is carried to non-tropical lands—

Europe, United States, and Japan


Plantation workers Most live on the plantation Rigid social and economic segregation of labor and

management Two-class society—wealthy and the poor In the past—as in the antebellum southern United

States—slaves were relied on to provide the labor Today tension between labor and management is not

uncommon Because of the necessary capital investment,

corporations or governments are usually owners of plantations

Societal ills of the system remain far from cured

Tea plantation, Papua New Guinea


Expansion of the system Provided the base for European and American

economic expansion into tropical Asia, Africa, and Latin America

Maximized the production of luxury crops Sugar cane Bananas Coconuts Spices Tea and coffee Spices Cacao Tobacco


Cotton, sisal, jute, hemp, and other fiber crops were required by Western textile factories from plantation areas

Profits from plantations were usually exported to Europe and North America impoverishing the colonial lands where plantations were developed

Crop specialization Coffee dominates the upland plantations of tropical America Tea is mainly confined to hill slopes of India and Sri Lanka Today, coffee is the economic lifeblood of about 40

developing countries Sugar cane and bananas are major lowland crops of tropical

America


Most crops are partially processed before shipping to distant markets

Neo-plantation—mechanized plantations Require less labor, cause underemployment

and displacement of local people People flock to urban centers Contribute to massive growth of cities in

developing countries

Plantation Agriculture - Malaysia

This rubber estate (plantation) exports rubber through Singapore. Reflective of Malaysia’s plural society, this Chinese owned estate is Indian managed with a Malay and Japanese (dating to World War II occupation) labor force.


By 1877, Heva braziliensis had diffused from Brazil via England into Singapore.

Ruber soon boomed in Malaya and indentured laborers were brought from India.

By 1919, Malay supplied half the world’s rubber.

Environmental influence is significant because rubber can only grow in the tropics.


Capital is important because there is a period of years before the newly planted trees yield any latex.

Labor is essential because trees must be tapped and latex collected daily to be processed in an on-site factory.

Market gardening

Also known as truck farming Located in developed countries Specialize in intensively cultivated nontropical fruits,

vegetables, and vines Raise no livestock Each district concentrates on a single product

Wine, table grapes, raisins Oranges, apples Lettuce, or potatoes

Market gardening

Entire farm output is raised for sale rather than consumption on the farm

Many participate in cooperative marketing arrangements

Many depend on seasonal farm laborers Appear in most industrialized countries and are often

near major urban centers In the United States—lie in broken belt from

California eastward through the Gulf and Atlantic coast states

Commercial livestock fattening

Farmers raise and fatten cattle and hogs for slaughter

One of the most developed fattening areas is the Corn Belt of the Midwestern United States—Farmers raise maize and soybeans as feed

In Europe, feed crops are more commonly oats and potatoes

Smaller zones of commercial livestock fattening also appears in southern Brazil and South Africa

Crop and animal raising is combined on the same farm


Some geographers call this type of agriculture: mixed crop and livestock farming

Specialization Farmers breed many of the animals they fatten,

especially hogs Other farmers concentrate on preparing cattle and

hogs for market In factory-like feedlots, farmers raise imported cattle

and hogs on purchased feed Such feedlots are most common in the western and

southern United States


The question of feedlot nutritional efficiency In the 1900s world grain production rose much faster

than did world population growth Cereals provide most of the protein intake of the

world’s people At least one-half of America’s harvested agricultural

land is planted with feed crops for livestock Over 70 percent of America’s grain crop is used to feed

livestock


The question of feedlot nutritional efficiency A cow must eat 21 pounds of grain to produce one

pound of edible protein Protein lost through conversion from plant to meat

could make up almost all the world’s present protein deficiency

Today, food that feeds Americans would feed 1.5 billion at the consumption level of China

Poorer countries such as Costa Rica and Brazil are destroying rain forests to fatten beef for America’s fast-food restaurants

Commercial grain farming

Another market-oriented type of agriculture Farmers grow wheat or, less frequently, rice

or corn Wheat belts

Stretch through Australia America’s Great Plains region The steppes of Ukraine The pampas of Argentina


Together, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine produce 35 percent of the world’s wheat Large family farms of 1000 acres or more in the

American Great Plains Giant collective farms

Rice farms cover large areas of the Texas-Louisiana coastal plain and lowlands in Arkansas and California

Commercial rice farmers sow grain from airplanes


Suitcase farming Innovation in the wheat belt of the northern

Great Plains People who own and operate these farms do

not live on the land People own several suitcase farms, south-to-

north through the plains states Keep fleets of farm machinery, which they

send north with crews to plant, fertilize, and harvest the wheat


Agribusinesses Highly mechanized, absentee-owned, large-

scale operations Rapidly replacing the traditional American

family farm United States governmental policies

consistently favor agribusiness interests Family farm no longer of much consequence,

especially in the grain lands

Commercial Grain FarmingAustria

As in North America, agriculture in much of Western Europe is really agribusiness.

This includes the use of machines for plowing, seeding and harvesting; fertilizers and pesticides; and, hybrid seeds.

This machine will both harvest and thresh the wheat.

Commercial dairying

In the large dairy belts, keeping dairy cows depends on large-scale use of pastures Northern United States from New England to the upper

Midwest Western and northern Europe Southeastern Australia and northern New Zealand

In colder areas, some acreage must be devoted to winter feed crops—hay

Regionally, dairy products differ depending on closeness to markets If near large urban areas milk, which is more perishable, is

usually produced New Zealanders, remote from world markets, produce butter

Commercial dairying

Feedlot system Especially common in the southern United States Often situated on the suburban fringes of large cities Essentially factory farms, buying feed and livestock

replacements Have larger number of cows than family-operated dairy

farms Rely on hired laborers Highly profitable representing another stage in

agribusiness and family farm decline

Livestock ranching

How livestock-raising differs from nomadic herding Livestock ranchers have fixed places of residence Operate as individuals rather than within a tribal

organization Ranchers raise livestock for market on a large scale

not for subsistence Typically of European ancestry rather than being an

indigenous people Faced with the advance of farmers, nomadic herders

have fallen back to areas climatically too harsh for crop raising

Livestock ranching

Raise only cattle and sheep in large numbers Where ranchers specialize in cattle raising

United States and Canada Tropical and subtropical Latin America, and warmer parts of

Australia Mid-latitude ranchers in the Southern Hemisphere specialize in

sheep Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina produce 70

percent of world’s export wool Sheep outnumber people 8 to 1 in Australia, and 16 to 1 in New

Zealand

Urban Agriculture

Practiced by migrants to cities in developing countries

Consist of tiny plots of land Can produce enough to feed a family—

vegetables, fruit, meat, and milk May produce a surplus to sell

Urban Agriculture

In China now provides 90 percent or more of all vegetables consumed in cities

Nairobi and Kampala, Africa produce 20 percent of food from city lands

Many inhabitants of Sarajevo in Bosnia survived conflict because of urban agriculture

Cities in Russia derive much food from urban agriculture

Urban Agriculture

Nonagricultural areas Typically lie in areas of extreme climate Often inhabited by hunting and gathering groups

Before agriculture all people lived as hunters and gatherers

Today, less than one percent live this way In most groups a division of labor by gender occurs

Males do most of the hunting and fishing Females gather food from wild plants

Most groups are unspecialized and rely upon a great variety of animals and plants

Agricultural diffusion

The origin and diffusion of plant domestication Agriculture apparently began with plant domestication Domesticated plant—one deliberately planted,

protected, and cared for by humans Genetically distinct from wild ancestors because of

deliberate improvement through selective breeding Tend to be larger than wild species, bearing larger,

more abundant crops For example—wild Indian maize grew on a cob only

0.75 inches long


Plant domestication and improvement constituted a process, not an event Began because of close association between

humans and natural vegetation over a period of hundreds or even thousands of years

Useful plants were protected by humans, which led to deliberate planting


Cultural geographer Carl Johannessen suggest the domestication process can still be observed today Study of current techniques used by native subsistence

farmers will allow insight into methods used by the first prehistoric farmers

Two steps normally needed to develop and improve plant varieties

Selection of seeds or shoots only from superior plants Genetic isolation from inferior plants to prevent cross-

pollination


Example of the pejibaye palm in Costa Rica Cultivators choose fresh fruit seed from superior trees Superior seed stocks are built up gradually over the

years Elderly farmers generally have the best selections Seeds are shared freely within family and clan groups Speedy diffusion follows seed sharing


One Indian tribe of shifting cultivators raised 14 varieties of maize, each in a field separated by intervening forest to preserve genetic isolation

Carl Sauer Most experts believe repeated domestication

occurred at different times and locations


Carl Sauer’s beliefs on domestication Domestication probably did not develop in response to

hunger Starving people must spend every waking hour

searching for food Started by people who had enough food to remain

settled in one place Did not occur in grasslands or river floodplains

because of thick sod and periodic flooding Must have started in regions where many different

kinds of wild plants grew Started in hilly district areas, where climates change

with differing sun exposure and altitude


Most geographers now believe agriculture arose in at least three regions of great biodiversity

The Fertile Crescent located in the Middle East Bread grains, grapes, apples, olives; and many others Oldest archaeological evidence of crop-domestication

—10,000BP Diffused to Central Africa creating a secondary center

of domestication adding such crops as sorghum, peanuts, yams, coffee, and okra

Great biodiversity


Second great center developed in Southeast Asia Possibly included land now covered by

shallow seas Rice, citrus, taro, bananas, and sugarcane,

plus others Stimulus diffusion yielded a secondary center

—northeastern China

Great biodiversity


Mesoamerica—the third great region of domestication Started about 5,000BP Independent invention, not started by diffusion Maize, tomatoes, chili peppers, and squash,

among many others Stimulus diffusion produced a secondary

center in northwestern South America, from which came the white potato and manioc

Great biodiversity


American Indian crops were far superior in nutritional value than those of the two earlier eastern regions of domestication

Widespread association of female deities with agriculture suggests women first worked the land


Diffusion of domesticated plants did not end in antiquity Crop farming reached its present extent within the last

100 years Example-lemons, oranges, grapes, and date palms

were taken to California by Spanish missionaries during the eighteenth century

Introduction of European crops to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa that came with the mass emigration of European farmers

Even more important diffusion of American Indian crops to the Eastern Hemisphere


The origin and diffusion of animal domestication Domesticated animal—one dependent on people for

food and shelter Differs from wild species in physical appearance and

behavior Result of controlled breeding and daily contact with

humans Apparently occurred later (with the exception of the

dog) than did the first planting of crops People may have first domesticated cattle and some

birds for religious reasons


The pig and the dog may have attached themselves to human settlements to feast on garbage

Farmers of the southern Asian crop hearth and American Indians did not excel at animal domestication Asians did have some poultry American Indians had the llama, alpaca,

guinea pig, and the turkey


Farmers of the Fertile Crescent deserve credit for the first great animal domestications—notably the herd animals Wild ancestors of cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats Most herd animals lived in a belt from Syria and

southeastern Turkey across Iraq and Iran to central Asia

In this region or nearby, farmers first combined domesticated plants and animals

People began using cattle to pull the plow, increasing cultivated acreage

Out of necessity, a portion of the harvest was put aside as livestock feed


The beginning of nomadic herding As grain-herd livestock farming expanded

tillers entered marginal lands Crop cultivation proved difficult or impossible Population pressures forced people into

marginal areas Livestock became more important than crops People began wandering with their herds so

as not to exhaust local forage


Modern innovations in agriculture Twentieth century farming innovations and

diffusions in the United States Example of expansion diffusion—the spread of

hybrid maize Example of hierarchical diffusion—new

innovations often gain acceptance by wealthier, large-scale farmers first


The spread of pump irrigation on the Colorado northern High Plains Studied by geographer Leonard Bowden Irrigation brought different crops, markets, and farming

techniques Farmers had to decide if they wanted an entirely

different system of farming than the one they had traditionally practiced

First irrigation well began operation by 1935 At first diffusion was slow because of the Great

Depression


The spread of pump irrigation on the Colorado northern High Plains Beginning in 1948, irrigation spread rapidly Bowden observed contagious diffusion from

the core area and time- distance decay Diffusion barriers weakened through time as

irrigation proved to be economically successful Loans were easier to get as irrigation proved

to be successful


The Green Revolution India accepted hybrid seed, chemical

fertilizers, and pesticides Myanmar resisted the revolution, favoring

traditional farming methods A splotchy pattern of acceptance still

characterizes paddy rice areas today Non-accepters are called “laggards”—

inevitability of innovations is assumed


India and the Green Revolution New hybrid rice and wheat seeds first

appeared in 1966 Allowed India’s 1970 grain production to

double from its 1950 level Many poor farmers could not afford the cost

for fertilizer and pesticides Many of the poor became displaced from the

land by the wealthy and flocked to overcrowded cities


India and the Green Revolution Use of chemicals and poisons on the land

heightened environmental damage Adoption of hybrid seed created another problem

—loss of plant diversity or genetic variety Before widespread usage of hybrids, each farm

developed its own distinctive seed types by saving seeds from the best plants


India and the Green Revolution Gene banks have been set up to preserve

domesticated plant varsities from agricultural areas around the world

Enormous genetic diversity vanished almost instantly when farmers began using new hybrids

The Western innovation in plant genetics may have caused more harm than good

the agricultural world the human matrix chapter 3

Documents

agriculture slide

population explosion

shifting agriculture

agricultural world

amazon basin slide

shifting cultivation

calories of food

food supply