Types of Agriculture and Their Characteristics

Agriculture Types and Characteristics

• Agriculture: Modifying the environment to raise plants or animals for food or other uses

• Mediterranean Climate: Hot/dry summers, mild winters, defined rainy seasons. Produces grapes, olives, figs, dates, tomatoes, zucchini, wheat, and barley. Found along Mediterranean coast, parts of California, Oregon, Chile, South Africa, and Australia.

• Tropical Climate: Hot, humid climate. Produces cassava, bananas, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, papaya, rice, and maize.

• Extensive Agriculture: Uses small amounts of labor on a large area of land.

• Intensive Agriculture: Uses a lot of labor on a small area of land.

Types of Agriculture

• Market Gardening (Intensive): Southeastern US, California, Southeastern Australia. Produces fresh fruits and vegetables, lettuce, broccoli, apples, oranges, and tomatoes. Many sold to processors.

• Plantation Agriculture (Intensive): Tropical climates. Specializes in one crop for global transport; e.g., cacao, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, bananas, tobacco, tea, coconuts, cotton.

• Mixed Crop/Livestock (Intensive): Cold & Warm Mid-Latitude climates. Integrates crops and livestock; crops fed to animals. Example crops include corn, grains, and soybeans.

• Shifting Cultivation (Extensive): Farmers move from one field to another; known as slash-and-burn agriculture. Cleared land using fire, fertilize the land. Move to new plots when soil loses fertility. Produces rice, maize, millet, and sorghum.

• Nomadic Herding (Extensive): Drylands/Desert climates. Nomads move herds to different pastures. Rely on animals for survival, not profit. Examples include cattle, camels, reindeer, goats, yaks, sheep, and horses.

• Ranching (Extensive): Drylands/Desert climates. Commercial grazing of livestock. Cattle, goats, and sheep are common livestock. Animals are eventually sent to feedlots then slaughter.

• Commercial Grain Farming (Extensive): Mid-Latitudes (too dry for mixed crop/livestock). Crops primarily for human consumption (e.g., wheat). Farms sell output to manufacturers.

Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods

• Clustered Settlement: Houses and farm buildings situated close together, surrounding fields.
• Dispersed Settlement: People live relatively far from each other on their farms.
• Linear Settlement: Long, narrow settlements along rivers, coasts, or roads.
• Surveying: Examining and measuring Earth's surface.
• Metes and Bounds: Describing land parcels using lines (metes) and features (bounds).
• Long Lot: Dividing land into long, narrow lots along waterways or roads.
• Township and Range: Dividing large parcels (townships and ranges) of land.

Agricultural Origins and Diffusions

• Fertile Crescent: Southwest Asia. Origin of settled farming and rise of cities.
• Columbian Exchange: Exchange of plants, animals, culture, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia due to Columbus' voyages.
• First Agricultural Revolution: When people first domesticated plants and animals. Allowed permanent settlement.
• Domestication: Taming of plants and animals for human use.
• Agricultural Hearths: Separate locations of plant and animal domestication.

The Second Agricultural Revolution

• Second Agricultural Revolution: Coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Increased yields and access through machines and transportation. Caused by industrialization and the enclosure movement.
• Effects of Second Agricultural Revolution: Increased food production, better diets, longer lifespans, more factory workers, and shifting demographics (urbanization).
• Enclosure Movement: British laws enabling landowners to enclose communal lands. Led to fewer, larger farms, less farm owners, improvements in farming techniques, and reduced agricultural laborers.
• Urbanization: Mass migration of people from rural areas to cities.

The Green Revolution

• Green Revolution: Spread of new technologies (high-yield seeds and chemical fertilizers) to developing countries in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Positive Impacts of Green Revolution: Increased crop production on existing land, lower food prices.
• Negative Impacts of Green Revolution: Damage to local land and agriculture, decreased biodiversity, and environmental effects of chemicals.

Agricultural Production Regions

• Subsistence Agriculture: Producing only enough food for survival.
• Commercial Agriculture: Producing crops for sale and profit.

Biotechnology

• Biotechnology: Applying scientific techniques to modify/improve plants, animals, and microorganisms to enhance value.