Agriculture and Livestock: Impact on Global Economy

Farming is the cultivation of land for the purpose of obtaining food for human and animal consumption, and raw materials for industry. Agriculture appeared in the Neolithic period about 10,000 years ago.

Agriculture Today

In developed countries, this activity only occupies less than 5% of the workforce. It has high productivity due to technical advances. In underdeveloped countries, almost 80% of workers are engaged in agricultural tasks. In the poorest states, agriculture occupies most of the population and contributes over 20% of national wealth. The use of traditional farming techniques results in low productivity, which prevents meeting the food needs of the entire population.

Physical Factors of Agriculture

  • Weather: Each plant needs certain temperature and humidity conditions to grow.
  • Relief: The altitude and steepness of the terrain condition farming. Temperatures drop as elevation increases, limiting the development of species from a certain height. It is impossible to cultivate land with a slope over 10 degrees.
  • Soil: Each plant needs suitable ground.

Human Factors in Agriculture

  • The Volume of the Population: The need to feed a large population makes the area under cultivation extend and improves performance.
  • Agricultural Techniques: In developed countries, modern agricultural techniques increase production. In developing countries, traditional techniques result in less abundant harvests.
  • Destination:
    • Subsistence: Destined for consumption in the rural family.
    • Market: Specializing in a product or a few products, it is intended to obtain maximum benefit from advantageous species.
  • Agrarian Policies: Agrarian Reform Law, allowing water hydrological plans for new lands.

The Plot

Each plot is a part of the agricultural space. The plots may or may not be delimited by hedges, dry stone walls, or wire fences. When the plots are not closed, it results in a landscape of open fields or openfield. When we find a landscape dominated by sites with fences, we call it closos or bocage. When the plots are small, we speak of smallholdings, and if they occupy a large area, large estates. When the farmer seeks to maximize land, it is said to be intensive agriculture. Farming that does not fully exploit plots but leaves some fallow without sowing to facilitate the recovery of soil fertility is extensive agriculture. There are two types: developed and underdeveloped countries.

Irrigation Systems

  • Dryland Farming: Only receives water from the rains.
  • Irrigated Agriculture: The farmer provides the water that plants need through various artificial irrigation systems such as sprinklers or drip irrigation.

The Species Cultivated

If varieties of plants are cultivated in the same space, it is polyculture. Polyculture occurs in small plots, is devoted to the consumption of the peasant family, and uses irrigated areas. If one product is grown, it is monoculture. Monoculture simplifies the use of machinery and aims to obtain maximum production at minimum cost to make it competitive, since it is intended for sale.

Market Agriculture

  • Specialization of Production: Cultivating a single product simplifies work and the use of machinery and improves yields.
  • Mechanization of Farming: Human labor is replaced by machines, allowing less need to hire labor and making farming work faster.
  • Application of Modern Cultivation Techniques: Fertilizers and manures improve the soil’s capacity and allow for several harvests per year.
  • Application of Advances in Biotechnology: This has led to transgenic crops.

All these procedures require large investments of money, but costs are offset by increased productivity, allowing a profit.

Effects of the Agricultural Market

  • Lower prices.
  • Expedited commercialization.
  • Specialized transport.

Note: Fertilizers pollute soil and water and may affect the food we eat and our health.

Plantation Agriculture

Plantation agriculture is located in tropical developing countries in Africa, Central and South America, India, and Southeast Asia. It is characterized by:

  • Market-destined agricultural export.
  • Large owner.
  • Wide capital investment.
  • Monoculture.
  • Abundant labor.
  • High productivity.

Problems

  • The benefits are for foreign companies.
  • Some countries have to import food.
  • Very intensive exploitation.
  • If prices fall, exploitation may cease.

Traditional Agriculture

Subsistence agriculture is practiced on small properties. There is polyculture. Jobs are dominated by very primitive cultivation techniques and tools. It depends heavily on physical factors.

Itinerant Farming

Itinerant farming is the most archaic growing system. It involves cutting and then burning the forest to cultivate it. It is extensive and not very productive, and cannot feed a very large population.

Livestock

Livestock involves breeding animals to obtain products such as meat, milk, eggs, leather, wool, honey, etc. Species that are bred constitute cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, rabbits (rabbit farming), poultry (poultry farming), and bees (beekeeping).

Extensive Ranching

It is practiced in both developed and underdeveloped countries and presents these features:

  • Large farms where cattle feed on natural pastures.
  • Investment is limited.
  • Low productivity.

The types of cattle are beef and sheep.

Intensive Livestock

  • Self-developed countries.
  • Specialized farms.
  • Large investments with high productivity.
  • Livestock are raised in stables (feedlot).

Sometimes cattle are fed natural pastures and fodder plants as feed when the grass is scarce; this is called semi-stabled livestock. The characteristic is beef cattle, pigs, and poultry, whose production goes to market.

Fishing

Fishing is the capture of fish and other aquatic animals from the sea, rivers, or lakes. Currently, 75% of world catches are destined for human consumption.

Subsistence Fishing

Subsistence fishing is practiced near the coast in small boats, with or without an engine, and using craft methods. It is almost entirely for self-consumption and, to a lesser extent, the local market.

Coastal or Inshore Fishing

Coastal fishing is carried out near the coast in small boats equipped with medium or different fishing gear depending on the species to be captured.

Deep-Sea Fishing

Deep-sea fishing is done on the high seas, using large-tonnage ships equipped with modern technical instruments that detect and determine the size of fish stocks. Many of these vessels have the necessary facilities for cleaning, chopping, packing, and storing frozen catches.

Blue Revolution

Since 1950, catches have almost multiplied by five.

Forestry

Forestry is the economic exploitation of forests. Several forest products are derived from trees, such as wood, resin, and cork. Currently, the uncontrolled exploitation of forests is threatening large areas of forest on Earth. To prevent them from disappearing, in many places, forestry or forest farming is practiced to exploit them economically.

The Primary Sector in the EU, Spain, and Catalonia

Only 5% of the population is engaged in agricultural tasks, and the primary sector accounts for 2% of the EU’s GDP. There are two typical agricultural landscapes: the Mediterranean and Central Europe.

Mediterranean Landscapes

Mediterranean landscapes combine two types of agriculture:

  • Dry, generally low-yield, mainly dedicated to the cultivation of the traditional Mediterranean trilogy.
  • Irrigated agriculture, with more profitable cultivation of a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Added grain destined for livestock (barley) and industrial plants.

Central European Landscapes

Central European landscapes are characterized by high cereal yields due to mechanization and crop rotation: in winter, there are cereals (wheat and barley), and in summer, forage for livestock and sugar.