Primary Industries: A Comprehensive Look at Agriculture and Livestock
The Primary Sector: Agriculture and Livestock
The primary sector comprises agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and forestry.
Agricultural Activities and Environmental Factors
Agricultural activities are conditioned by the physical environment, including climate, topography, and soil.
The Weather
Weather is a crucial factor for agricultural development.
The Relief
Agriculture is usually located in plains and valleys. Sometimes, hillsides are terraced to create usable land.
Soil
The type of soil affects the successful development of crops. Physical constraints of agriculture are very important when human groups have limited economic and technical means.
Agricultural Landscapes: Characteristics
We call an agricultural landscape one that has altered the natural landscape in order to obtain products of nature and evolved to increase their use. Elements that characterize agricultural landscapes are the plots, cropping systems, and the settlement.
The Plots
Plots are divisions of agricultural land devoted to farming. Plots are differentiated by size (large or small), shape (regular or irregular), and boundaries (open or closed).
- Open fields: Open patches formed by open fields without fences, of small size and regular forms.
- Closed fields: Large and irregular plots enclosed by walls or hedges, common in Atlantic Europe.
Culture Systems
- Polyculture: The agricultural area is divided into many plots where different species are grown.
- Monoculture: A farm specializes in growing a single product.
Extensive vs. Intensive Agriculture
- Intensive Agriculture: Practiced in densely populated places where land is scarce and properties are small. It involves using fertilizers and selected seeds, and requires more labor.
- Extensive Agriculture: Performed in sparsely populated places with a lot of land and scarce labor, aiming to obtain large amounts of produce grown at low prices.
Subsistence Agriculture: Characteristics
Subsistence agriculture is aimed at producing what is necessary for self-consumption, i.e., for consumption by the farmers themselves. Cultivation techniques are rudimentary. The farmer works with their own hands and with few tools, such as hoes. The constant exploitation of the land, low effectiveness of farming techniques, and poor quality of the seeds cause the yield to be very low. The population is often poor and has a poor diet.
Subsistence Agriculture Around the World
Examples include shifting cultivation by burning, extensive rainfed agriculture, and irrigated rice agriculture.
Market Agriculture
Market agriculture has two major goals: increase sales and reduce costs, which are achieved by:
- The mechanization of the countryside: Saves labor, increases production, and lowers prices for agricultural products.
- The specialization of agricultural production: Increases production and improves commercialization.
- The rapid commercialization of agricultural products: Speeds up marketing and uses appropriate transport for the type of product.
Examples of Commercial Agriculture
Speculation and Mediterranean agriculture are examples.
- Speculation: Has many benefits in the international market. It involves large holdings devoted to monoculture, highly automated techniques, and the application of more advanced knowledge to harvest large quantities of products.
- Plantation: Large holdings devoted to monoculture, labor-intensive enterprises, and are often owned by foreigners.
Livestock Around the World
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