Agricultural Geography

Key Issue #2:

Where are Agricultural Regions in Less Developed Countries (PINGs)?

Shifting Cultivation

• Where???– Humid Low latitudes climate regions– Amazon area, Central and West Africa, and

SE Asia– It is practiced by about 250 million people

Shifting Cultivation• Hallmarks

– Slash-and-burn agriculture– Farmers grow crops on a cleared field for only

a few years until soil nutrients are depleted and then leave it fallow (nothing planted) for many years so the soil can recover.

Shifting Cultivation

• The process:– Clear the dense

vegetation– Burn the debris– Prepare the fields by

hand– Leave after about 3

years– Return in 6-20 years

Shifting Cultivation• Crops of Shifting cultivation

– Vary according to local custom and taste– SE Asia – rice– South America – maize– Africa – millet and sorghum

millet sorghum

Shifting Cultivation

• Ownership and Use of Land– People who use shifting cultivation tend to live

in small villages and use the surrounding land for agriculture.

– The land is owned by the village as a whole, not an individual.

– The chief or ruling council allocates the land to the people.

The Future of Shifting Cultivation

• The use of shifting cultivation is decreasing by about .2% each year.

• Logging, cattle ranching, and cultivation of cash crops are replacing it.

• Effect on the rainforest?

Pastoral Nomadism

• Pastoral nomadism is a form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals.

• Adapted to dry climates such as North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia

• There are only about 15 million pastoral nomads, but they occupy about 20% of Earth’s land area.

Characteristics of Pastoral Nomadism

• Depend on animals rather than crops for survival

• Animals provide milk and skins for clothes and tents

• The people primarily eat grain

• Women and children plant crops

• Size of the herd – source of power and protection during adverse conditions

Choice of Animals

• The type of animal and size of the herd is selected based upon the local culture and physical characteristics

• The Middle East – camel followed by goats and sheep

• Central Asia – the horse

Movement of Pastoral Nomads

• Pastoral nomads do not wander randomly; they have a sense of territoriality

• Every group controls a territory

• Transhumance – seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowlands pasture areas

• Pasture – grass or other plants grown for feeding grazing animals

The Future of Pastoral Nomadism

• Today, pastoral nomadism is declining, partially due to modern technology

• In the future, pastoral nomadism will be confined to areas that cannot be irrigated or that lack valuable raw materials

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

• Shifting cultivation and pastoral nomadism exist in areas of low population density

• Intensive subsistence agriculture – in more dense areas; the people work more intensely to sustain on a parcel of land

Intensive Subsistence with Wet Rice Dominance

• The term wet rice refers to the practice of planting rice on dry land in a nursery and then moving the seedlings to a flooded field to promote growth.

• The most important food source in:– Southeast China– East India– Much of SE Asia

The process of “wet rice”• First, a farmer prepares a field for planting,

using a plow drawn by buffalo or oxen

• Then, the plowed field is flooded with water. The flooded field is called a “sawah.”

• Rice plants are harvested by hand, usually with a knife

Double Cropping

• Double cropping – the process of getting two harvests on a field each year

• Common in places with warm winters

• Usually involves wet rice in the summer and wheat, barley, or another dry crop in the winter

Intensive Subsistence with Wet Rice not Dominant

• Interior India and Northeast China

• Wheat is the most important crop, followed by barley

• Crop rotation – the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil

Plantation Farming

• Plantation – a large farm that specializes in one or two crops; a form of commercial agriculture found in the tropics

• Generally found in PINGs, they are often operated by Europeans or North Americans

• The crops are often for sale PEDs

Crops of Plantation Farming

• Cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, and tobacco

• Before the Civil War, plantations were important in the U.S. South

• After the war, the plantations were subdivided and sold to individual farmers or worked by tenant farmers

Rubber Trees