CHAPTER 8
PRIMARY ACTIVITIES AGRICULTURE AND
RESOURCE EXPLOITATION
HUNTING AND GATHERING
Before farming, hunting and gathering were
the universal forms of primary production.
It is only practiced by very few people now, in very
isolated areas. These numbers are declining as contact with more
technologically advanced cultures is made.
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture defined as the growing of crops and the tending of livestock whether
for subsistence or commercial reasons, has replaced hunting and gathering as
the most significant of the primary economic activities.
In developing areas farming is 75-90% of the labor
force. In developed areas, it is 10% or less.
United States
SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE
Subsistence Agriculture consists of any agricultural economy in which the crops and/or animals
are used nearly exclusively for local or family consumption.
In most of Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America,
a large percentage of people are primarily involved with feeding themselves
from their own land and livestock.
SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE
Two types of subsistence agriculture are recognized;
extensive and intensive.
Although each
type has several varieties, the essential contrast between them is yield per
unit of area used.
SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE
Extensive Subsistence Agriculture involves large areas of land and minimal labor input per acre.
Both product per land unit and population densities are low.
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture involves the cultivation of small parcels of land through the
expenditure of great amounts of labor per acre.
Yields per unit area and population densities are high.
NOMADIC HERDING
Nomadic Herding the wandering, but controlled movement of livestock, solely dependent
on natural forage is the most extensive type of land use system.
Sheep and goats are the most common with cattle,
horses and yaks locally important. The common characteristics are hardiness,
mobility and ability to subsist on sparse forage. These animals provide milk,
cheese, meat, hair, wool and skins and dung for fuel.
Declining in numbers (Russia and The Sahel)
SHIFTING CULTIVATION
Another form of extensive subsistence agriculture is
found in the tropical rainforest areas of the world where people engage in a
kind of nomadic farming. This shifting cultivation is called swidden or
slash and burn. In these areas of the world, the soils have little ability
to hold nutrients because of the large amounts of rain.
The trees and brush are hacked down and burned and
these areas are planted with corn, millet, rice, manioc, yams and sugar cane.
Then the field is moved to another area and the plot is allowed to re-vegetate.
More and more commercial crops such as coffee are
grown as a cash crop.
SHIFTING CULTIVATION
Initial yields are high, but drop off as the nutrients are used or washed
away.
Productivity is maintained by rotation of plots rather than crops.
Problems include declining soil fertility and
population pressures.
Nearly 5% of the worlds population and 1/5 of the
worlds land area are predominantly engaged in tropical shifting agriculture.
INTENSIVE SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture involves the cultivation of small parcels of land through the
expenditure of great amounts of labor per acre. Yields per unit area and
population densities are high.
The major crops produced are rice, wheat, corn,
millet and pulses (peas and beans).
Most of these people live in monsoon areas of Asia
and rice is the major crop which under ideal conditions can provide high yields
per unit of land.
URBAN SUBSISTENCE FARMING
Urban Subsistence Farming is an important part of food production in urban areas of the least developed
parts of the world.
Positive: more food on marginal land using (recycling) garbage, human wastes.
Negative: environmental/degradation (water supplies) and health problems (spread
of disease) from indiscriminant use of fertilizers (human waste) and
pesticides/herbicides.
THE COST OF TERRITORIAL EXPANSION
Rapidly growing populations have led to more and
more intensive, extensive and exhaustive use of land for agriculture.
When population pressures dictate land conversion,
serious environmental deterioration may result.
Tropical rain forests
Semi-deserts
THE GREEN REVOLUTION
Increased productivity of existing cropland rather
than expansion of cultivated area has accounted for most of the growth of food
production over the past few decades.
The Green Revolution is a shorthand reference to a
system of seed and management (fertilizer and pesticide/herbicide) improvements
adapted to the needs of intensive agriculture that have brought larger harvests
from a given parcel of farmland.
THE GREEN REVOLUTION
Between 1965 and 1995, world cereal production rose
90% and over Ύ of the increase was due to increases in yields rather than
expansion of cropland.
Genetic improvement in rice and wheat has formed the
basis of the Green Revolution.
Harvests have
risen dramatically.
NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION
Irrigation has mined water and destroyed some soils
through salinization.
Less genetic diversity.
Industrialization of Farming.
Very energy intensive.
Only the most developed parts of the world can
afford this type of agriculture.
COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE
In the most developed areas of the world,
agriculture is managed like an industry the farm place is a factory that must
turn out consistent products that can be processed efficiently.
INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE
Intensive Commercial Agriculture is practiced in areas where large amounts of capital (machinery,
fertilizers) and/or labor per unit of land are used with the crops being sold
in the market place.
Often called truck farms (fruits, vegetables
and dairy products).
EXTENSIVE COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE
Extensive Commercial Agriculture is characterized by low amounts of labor (highly mechanized) per unit of
land area and is practiced further from markets on less expensive land.
Typified by
wheat (grain) farming and livestock raising.
MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURE
Special circumstances most often climatic make
some places far from markets intensively developed agricultural regions.
Mediterranean Agriculture grapes, olives, oranges, figs, vegetables these crops need warm
temperatures all year long.
Warm temperatures all year winter rain summer
dry irrigation.
These are some of the most productive regions of the
world.
PLANTATION CROPS
Plantation Crops specialized crops usually native to the tropics in areas where the
climate is conducive to these crops: coffee, sugar, cacao, tobacco, rubber,
tea, bananas
Plantation crops are not for local consumption and
are usually grown near coastlines to export.
RESOURCE EXPLOITATION
In addition to agriculture other primary economic
activities include fishing, forestry and mining of materials.
The development of these primary activities is
dependent on the occurrence of these resources (availability), the technology
to exploit these resources, and the cultural awareness of their value.
RESOURCE EXPLOITATION
There are renewable and non-renewable resources.
Fishing and forestry are gathering industries based
on the harvesting of renewable resources. In some cases, this gathering can
be extractive when the renewable resource cannot recover.
The mining of minerals and mineral fuels is
non-renewable.
RESOURCE EXPLOITATION
The maximum sustainable yield of a resource
is the maximum volume or rate of use that will not impair its ability to be
renewed or to maintain the same future productivity.
Tragedy of the commons.
FISHING
Fish provide a significant amount (7%) of protein
consumed by the world. Reliance on fish is greatest in developing countries of
eastern and southeast Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America.
Almost all marine fishing is from the coastal areas.
The wetlands, bays, estuaries, provide the nutrients from rivers and the
spawning grounds for many species.
FISHING
Both over-fishing and pollution have endangered the
supply of the traditional and desired food species.
Aquaculture or fish farming is becoming more and
more important.
Asian rice paddies.
Catfish and crawfish (SE U.S.)
Shellfish
Fish farming is now about 30% of the worlds fish
harvest and is growing every year.
FORESTRY
Commercial forests are restricted to two very large
global belts.
1. The middle
latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere
2. The
equatorial zones of Central and South America, Central Africa, and Southeast
Asia.
FORESTRY
Two major uses of wood:
Industrial paper, construction, furniture, 50% of all industrial wood
is harvested in the U.S.
Fuel charcoal heat, cooking; mostly in developing worlds being
depleted at a rate above the maximum sustainable yield.
Tropical lowland hardwood is mostly cut down for
fuel.
MINING
Mineral resources are not distributed evenly across
the world. We have exploited the easiest ones.
Three types of minerals that are determined by
geology: metallic minerals, mineral fuels and non-metallic minerals.
METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC MINERALS
Metallic minerals copper, iron, nickel, zinc,
lead, etc. The metals market is highly volatile and is driven by changes and
supply and demand.
Non-metallic minerals include construction materials, gravel, building stone, gypsum and
limestone for cement.
MINERAL FUELS
Mineral Fuels are also known are fossil fuels.
Coal was the earliest in importance and still is the most plentiful of the
mineral fuels. Supply measured in centuries.
MINERAL FUELS
Petroleum is the most unevenly distributed of the major resources with 80% of
known reserves in 8 countries. 2/3 of the worlds total is in the Arab states
of the Middle East.
30 to 70 years of known resources.
Natural Gas has been called the nearly perfect energy resource. A highly efficient,
versatile fuel that requires little processing and is environmentally benign.
50 years of known resources.