Agricultural

Geography
 Why Do People
Consume Different Foods?
Origins of Agriculture
Agriculture originated when humans learned to
domesticate plants and animals for their use.
Agriculture is defined as the deliberate
modification of Earth's surface through cultivation
of plants and rearing of animals to obtain
sustenance or economic gain. The word cultivate
means "to care for," and a crop is any plant
cultivated by people.
Invention of Agriculture
The origin of agriculture cannot be documented with certainty
because it began before recorded history. Scholars try to
reconstruct a logical sequence of events based on fragments
of information about ancient agricultural practices and
historical environmental conditions. Improvements in
cultivating plants and domesticating animals evolved over
thousands of years. This section offers an explanation for the
origin and diffusion of agriculture.
Hunters and Gatherers
Before the invention of agriculture, all humans probably obtained the
food they needed for survival through hunting for animals, fishing, or
gathering plants (such as berries, nuts, fruits, and roots). Hunters and
gatherers lived in small groups of usually fewer than 50 persons
because a larger number would quickly exhaust the available resources
within walking distance. These groups traveled frequently, establishing
new home bases or camps.
• The direction and frequency of migration depended on the movement of game and
the seasonal growth of plants at various locations. We can assume that groups
communicated with each other concerning matters such as hunting rights and
intermarriage. For the most part, they kept the peace by steering clear of each other's
territory. The group collected food often, perhaps daily. The amount of time needed
for each day's food search varied, depending on local conditions. The men hunted
game or fished, and the women collected berries, nuts, and roots. This gendered
division oflabor sounds like a stereotype but is based on evidence from archaeology
and anthropology. Today, perhaps a quarter-million people, or less than 0.005 percent
of the world's population, still survive by hunting and gathering rather than by
agriculture. Contemporary hunting and gathering societies are isolated groups that live
on the periphery of world settlement, but they provide insight into human customs
that prevailed in prehistoric times, before the invention of agriculture
Agricultural Revolution
The process that began when human beings first domesticated plants
and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering
became known as the agricultural revolution. Geographers and other
scientists believe that the agricultural revolution occurred around the
year 8000 B.C.E. because the world's population began to grow at a
more rapid rate than it had in the past. By growing plants and raising
animals, human beings created larger and more stable sources of food,
so more people could survive. Scientists do not agree on whether the
agricultural revolution originated primarily because of environmental
factors or cultural factors.
Environmental Factors

The first domestication of crops and animals coincided with climate

change that marked the end of the last ice age. At that time,
permanent ice cover receded from Earth's mid-latitudes to the polar
regions, resulting in a massive redistribution of humans, other animals,
and plants.
Cultural Factors
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 or 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
observation and experiment into a deliberate process.
Agricultural Hearths
• Scientists agree that agriculture originated in multiple hearths around
the world: Southwest Asia, East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin
America Even within these hearths, scientists have determined that
agriculture was invented independently by multiple groups.
SOUTHWEST ASIA
The earliest crops domesticated in
Southwest Asia around 10,000 years ago are
thought to have been barley, wheat, lentil, Barley
and olive. Southwest Asia is also thought to Wheat
have been the hearth for the domestication
of the largest number of animals that would
prove to be most important for agriculture,
including cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep,
between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago.
Domestication of the dog is thought to date Olive
even earlier, around 12,000 years ago. From Lentil
this hearth, cultivation diffused west to
Europe and east to Central Asia
EAST ASIA
Rice is now thought to
have been domesticated
in East Asia more than
10,000 years ago, along Rice
the Yangtze River in
eastern China. Millet was
cultivated at an early date
along the Yellow River.
Millet
Central and South
Asia
Chickens are thought to have
diffused from South Asia
around 4,000 years ago. The
horse is considered to have
been domesticated in Central
Asia. Diffusion of the Chicken
domesticated horse is
thought to be associated with
the diffusion of the Indo-
European language.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sorghum was domesticated in
central Africa around 8,000
years ago. Yams may have been
Sorghum
domesticated even earlier.
Millet and rice may have been
domesticated in sub-Saharan
Africa independently of the
hearth in East Asia. From
central Africa, domestication of
crops probably diffused further Yam
south in America.
Latin America
Latin America. Two important hearths of
crop domestication are thought to have Beans Cotton
emerged in Mexico and Peru around 4,000
to 5,000 years ago. Mexico is considered a
hearth for beans and cotton, and Peru for
potato. The most important contribution
of the Americas to crop domestication,
maize (corn), may have emerged in the
two hearths independently around the
same time. From these two hearths,
cultivation of maize and other crops
diffused northward into North America
and southward into tropical South Potato Maize
America. Some researchers place the
origin of squash in the southeastern
present-day United States.
1. Make a list of five foods that you eat, the
hearth where each originated, and when it
was domesticated.
2. Based on your list. in what hearth and
historical period would you be most at home,
from a dietary perspective?
Agriculture Regions in
Developing Countries
The five agricultural regions that predominate
in developing countries are:
Intensive subsistence, wet rice dominant: The large population
concentrations of East Asia and South Asia.
Intensive subsistence, wet rice not dominant: The large population
concentrations of East Asia and South Asia, where growing rice is difficult.
Pastoral nomadism: The drylands of Southwest Asia and North Africa,
Central Asia, and East Asia.
Shifting cultivation: The tropical regions of Latin America, sub-Saharan
Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Plantation: The tropical and subtropical regions of Latin America, sub-
Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
• Intensive Subsistence Farming In developing countries, most people produce food for their
own consumption. This is especially true in intensive subsistence agriculture, the most widely
practiced form of agriculture in densely populated East, South, and Southeast Asia. Intensive
subsistence agriculture involves careful agricultural practices refined over thousands of years
in response to local environmental and cultural patterns. Because the agricultural density- the
ratio of farmers to arable land - 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 the work is
done by hand or with animals rather than with machines, in part due to abundant labor but
largely from lack of funds to buy equipment. Rice is the most important crop (Figure 9-26).
The typical farm in Asia's intensive subsistence agriculture regions is much smaller than farms
elsewhere in the world. Many Asian farmers own several fragmented plots, frequently a result
of dividing individual holdings among several children over several centuries. To maximize
food production, intensive subsistence farmers waste virtually no land. Corners of fields and
irregularly shaped pieces of land are planted rather than left idle. Paths and roads are kept as
Paths and roads are kept as narrow as possible to minimize the loss of
arable land. livestock are rarely permitted to graze on land that could be
used to plant crops, and little grain is grown to feed the animals. 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. Double cropping
is common in places that have warm winters, such as southern China and
Taiwan, but is relatively rare in India, where most areas have dry winters.
Normally, double cropping involves alternating between wet rice, grown in
the summer when precipitation is higher, and wheat, barley, or another
dry crop, grown in the drier winter season. Crops other than rice may be
grown in the wet-rice region in the summer on nonirrigated land.
• Wet-Rice Not Dominant Climate discourages fanners from growing wet rice in portions of
Asia, especially where summer precipitation levels are too low and winters are too harsh.
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. Other grains
and legumes are grown for household consumption, including millet, oats, com, sorghum,
and soybeans. In addition, some crops are grown in order to be sold for cash, such as
cotton, flax, hemp, and tobacco. Aside from what is grown, this region shares most of the
features of the wet-rice region. 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. In colder climates, wheat
or another crop is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, but no crops can be
sown through the winter.
GROWING RICE: PREPARING THE
FIELD Water
buffalo plow the rice paddy, Goa, India.
GROWING RICE: TRANSPLANTING PLANTS Rice
plants are transplanted by hand, Dali, China.
• Wet-Rice Dominant The intensive agriculture region of Asia can be divided
between areas where wet rice dominates and areas where it does not. The term
wet rice refers to rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved as
seedlings to a flooded field to promote growth. Wet rice occupies a relatively small
percentage of Asia's agricultural land but is the region's most important source of
food. Intensive wet-rice farming is the dominant type of agriculture in
southeastern China, East India, and much of Southeast Asia. China and India
account for nearly 50 percent of the world's rice production, and more than 90
percent is produced in East, South, and Southeast Asia. Successful production of
large yields of rice is an elaborate process that is time-consuming and done mostly
by hand. The consumers of the rice also perform the work, and all family
members, including children, contribute to the effort. Growing rice involves four
principal steps.
As the name implies, all four steps are
intensive:
The field is prepared, typically using animal power (Figure 9-27). Flat
land is needed to grow rice, so hillsides are terraced. 2. The field is
flooded with water (Figure 9-28). The flooded field is called a sawah in
Indonesia and is increasingly referred to as a paddy, which is actually
the Malay word for wet rice. 3. Rice seedlings grown for the first month
in a nursery are transplanted into the flooded field (Figure 9-29). 4. Rice
plants are harvested with knives (Figure 9-30). The chaff (husks) is
separated from the seeds by threshing (beating) the husks on the
ground. The threshed rice is placed in a tray for winnowing, in which
the lighter chaff is allowed to be blown away by the wind.
• A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift frequently
from one field to another is known as shifting cultivation. It is
practiced in much of the world's tropical, or A, climate regions, which
have relatively high temperatures and abundant rainfall (refer ahead
to Figure 9-36). It is practiced by roughly 250 million people across 36
million square kilometers (14 million square miles), especially in the
tropical rain forests of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and
Southeast Asia.
• Features of Shifting Cultivation Two distinctive features of shifting
cultivation are: • Slash and bum. Farmers clear land for planting by
slashing vegetation and burning the debris; shifting cultivation is
sometimes called slash-and-bum agriculture. • Frequent relocation.
Farmers grow crops on a cleared field for only a few years, until soil
nutrients are depleted, and then leave it fallow (with nothing planted)
for many years so the soil can recover.
Pastoral Nomadism A form of subsistence agriculture called pastoral nomadism is based on
the herding of domesticated animals in dry climates, where planting crops is impossible.
Pastoral nomads, unlike other subsistence farmers, depend primarily on animals rather
than crops for survival. The Bedouins of Saudi Arabia and North Africa and the Masai of
East Africa are examples of pastoral nomads. The animals provide milk, and their skins and
hair are used for clothing and tents. Their animals are usually not slaughtered, although
dead ones may be consumed. To nomads, the size of their herd is both an important
measure of power and prestige and their main security during adverse environmental
conditions. Like other subsistence farmers, though, pastoral nomads consume mostly grain
rather than meat. To obtain grain, many present-day nomads do raise crops or obtain them
by trading animal products. Nomads select the type and number of animals for the herd
according to local cultural and physical characteristics. The choice depends on the relative
prestige of animals and the ability of species to adapt to a particular climate and
vegetation:
• Plantation Farming A plantation is a large commercial farm in a developing country
that specializes in one or two crops. Most plantations are located in the tropics and
subtropics, especially in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Although generally situated
in developing countries, plantations are often owned or operated by Europeans or
North Americans, and they grow crops for sale primarily to developed countries.
Among the most important cash crops grown on plantations are cotton, coffee,
rubber, tobacco, and sugarcane (Figure 9-35). Also produced in large quantities are
cocoa, jute, bananas, tea, coconuts, and palm oil. Until the Civil War, plantations
were important in the U.S. South, where the principal crop was cotton, followed by
tobacco and sugarcane. Slaves brought from Africa performed most of the labor
until the abolition of slavery and the defeat of the South in the Civil War.
Thereafter, plantations declined in the United States; they were subdivided and
either sold to individual farmers or worked by tenant farmers
Agriculture Regions in
Developed
Countries
The six agricultural regions that predominate in developed
countries are:

Mixed crop and livestock: The U.S. Midwest and central Europe
Dairy: Near population clusters in the northeastern United States, southeastern
Canada, and northwestern Europe.
Grain: The north-central United States, south-central Canada, and Eastern Europe.
Livestock Ranching: The drylands of western North America, southeastern Latin
America, Central Asia,sub-Saharan Africa, and the South Pacific.
Mediterranean: Lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the western United
States, the southern tip of Africa, and Chile.
Commercial gardening: The southeastern United States and southeastern
Australia.
• Mixed cropping is a system of sowing two or three crops together on
the same land, one being the main crop and the others the
subsidiaries.
sses primarily cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, donkeys, and mules; other animals, such as buffalo, oxen, llamas, or camels, may predominate in the agriculture of other

• What a livestock means?

• Image result for livestock meaning
• farm animals
• livestock, farm animals, with the exception of poultry. In Western
countries the category encompasses primarily cattle, sheep, pigs,
goats, horses, donkeys, and mules; other animals, such as buffalo,
oxen, llamas, or camels, may predominate in the agriculture of other
areas.
• What is called dairy?
• A dairy is a farm that specializes in milk and products made from milk.
Cheese, yogurt, cream, and ice cream are all things that might be
produced at a dairy. While one kind of dairy is a farm where cows or
goats are kept and milked, other dairies focus only on making
products from milk that farmers sell to them.
• Whats does grain mean?
• ˈgrān. : a seed or fruit of a cereal grass. : the seeds or fruits of various
food plants including the cereal grasses and in commercial and
statutory usage other plants (as the soybean) : plants producing grain.
• Ranching is the practice of raising herds of animals on large tracts of
land. Ranchers commonly raise grazing animals such as cattle and
sheep. Some ranchers also raise elk, bison, ostriches, emus, and
alpacas. The ranching and livestock industry is growing faster than any
other agricultural sector in the world.
• Mediterranean agriculture is an agro-ecological strategy, an
adjustment to particular climatic conditions in Mediterranean zones:
mild, humid winter with no or very little frost, and a warm, dry
summer.
• Commercial gardening is a more intensive type of gardening that
involves the production of vegetables, nontropical fruits, and flowers
from local farmers. Commercial gardening began because farmers
would sell locally to stop food from spoiling faster because of the
transportation of goods from a far distance.