Understanding Agricultural Practices and Landscapes
Definitions
Primary Sector
The primary sector encompasses activities that involve obtaining natural resources, including agriculture, breeding, holding, forestry, fishing, and mining.
Agricultural Area
An agricultural area is created when humans modify natural spaces for agricultural, forestry, husbandry, and other related activities.
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of plant products for human or animal consumption, or as raw materials for industry.
Cropping Systems
Cropping systems aim to overcome natural limitations and increase productivity.
Tenant Farming
In tenant farming, landowners lease land to farmers in exchange for fixed payments or products.
Sharecropping
In sharecropping, landowners lease land to farmers in exchange for a share of the production.
Agricultural Landscapes
Agricultural landscapes are defined by the type of crop production and its destination.
Subsistence Agriculture
Subsistence agriculture is characterized by archaic techniques, low productivity, labor intensiveness, and dependence on the physical environment.
Market Agriculture
Market agriculture employs modern techniques, resulting in high productivity. Production is marketed, requiring significant infrastructure like roads and ports. This is practiced in Europe and North America.
Livestock
Livestock refers to the breeding of animals for various products.
Logging
Logging is the economic use of forests to obtain products.
Forestry
Forestry involves cultivating and managing forests, ensuring their regeneration and conservation.
Fishing
Fishing is the catching of fish and other aquatic species for food or industrial use.
Aquaculture
Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms like fish and mollusks for commercial purposes, in both saltwater and freshwater environments. Examples include bass, turbot, trout, carp, bream, and mullet.
Forest Products
Forest products include wood, camphor, rubber, cork, pulp, and resin.
Early Agricultural and Livestock Species
Early agricultural and livestock species include dogs, sheep, goats, grains, legumes, and flax.
Mediterranean Trilogy
The Mediterranean trilogy consists of grapes, olives, and wheat.
The Agricultural Area: Physical Factors
Sun-exposed slopes are more suitable for cultivation. Cold temperatures hinder plant development, with a minimum temperature of 10°C required. Altitudes below 200m are ideal. Vegetation cover contributes to soil fertility. Adequate rainfall (900-1200mm annually) is essential. Flat surfaces facilitate farming. Hail and heavy rain are detrimental, and strong winds can damage crops. Thicker soil allows for better root development, and porosity improves oxygen and nutrient availability.
Cropping Systems
Cropping systems are classified according to three aspects:
Water Usage
- Irrigated Agriculture: Uses large quantities of artificial water (e.g., rice, fruit trees, sugar beet, cotton, vegetables).
- Rainfed Agriculture: Relies on precipitation (e.g., Mediterranean trilogy).
Variety of Plant Species
- Monoculture: Cultivates a single species (e.g., oats, rice, maize), often for commercial purposes.
- Polyculture: Cultivates multiple species in the same area (e.g., fruits, vegetables, legumes), often for personal consumption with surplus sold.
Land Use
- Intensive Agriculture: High investment of resources and human capital to maximize yield.
- High Productivity: Abundant harvests with scarce labor (e.g., citrus fruits).
- Low Productivity: Little capital, abundant labor (e.g., Asian rice paddies).
- Extensive Agriculture: Lower investment and labor.
- High Productivity: Modern technology used on large plains (e.g., American farms).
- Low Productivity: Rudimentary techniques, low yields.
Livestock
Capital and Investments
- Extensive: Low capital investment, low productivity, large land area (e.g., cattle, sheep).
- Intensive: High capital investment, high productivity (e.g., cattle, poultry, pigs).
Cattle Feeding
- Free-range: Livestock graze on natural pastures (e.g., cattle in sparsely populated areas).
- Housed: Cattle kept in stables and fed artificially (e.g., intensive farming in the USA and Europe).
- Semi-housed: Outdoors in summer, housed in winter.
Livestock Mobility
- Nomadic: Continuous movement of herders and livestock.
- Transhumant: Seasonal movement between summer and winter pastures.
- Sedentary: Livestock remain in one location.
Shifting Cultivation
Land is cleared and burned, with the ashes used as fertilizer. Practiced in South America and Africa.
Monsoon Agriculture in Asia
Grain is planted, land is plowed and flooded, ducks are used for pest control, and rice is planted and harvested.