People have been able to practice agriculture in a wide variety of places. The most widely used map of world agricultural regions is based on work done by geographer Derwent Whittlesey in 1936.
Key Issue 3: Where Is Agriculture Distributed?
Whittlesey conceptualized 11 distinct agricultural regions, along with areas where agriculture was not present. Five of these regions are important forms of agriculture in developing countries, while 6 are forms of commercial agriculture important in developed countries. The five agriculture regions primarily associated with developing countries are intensive subsistence, wet-rice dominant; intensive subsistence, crops other than rice dominant; pastoral nomadism; shifting cultivation; and plantation. The six agricultural regions primarily associated with developed countries include mixed crop and livestock; dairying; grain; ranching; Mediterranean; and commercial gardening.
Subsistence Agriculture in Population Concentrations Three-quarters of the world’s population live in developing countries, and most are fed by intensive subsistence agriculture. The term intensive suggests that farmers are required to work intensively to subsist on a parcel of land.
Intensive Subsistence Farming In developing countries, farmers produce food for their own consumption, subsistence farming. Agricultural practices in these regions developed over thousands of years, informed by local environmental and cultural patterns. Agricultural density (the ratio of farmers to arable land) is extremely high in parts of East and South Asia, challenging families to produce enough food for their survival from a very small area of land. Most of this work is done by hand or animals rather than the machines, in part due to abundant labor, but largely from lack of funds to buy equipment. Rice is the most important crop in this agricultural region. Land is maximized for planting crops; paths are left as narrow as possible, corners of fields and irregularly shaped pieces of land are used rather than left idle, livestock are rarely permitted to graze on land that could be used for growing crops, and grain is grown to feed animals. Land is used even more intensively in parts of Asia by obtaining two harvests per year from one field, a process known as double cropping.
Wet Rice Not Dominant In portions of Asia, climate is not suitable for growing wet rice in the interior of India and northeastern China. Wheat is the most important crop, followed by barley. In addition, some crops are grown in order to be sold for cash, such as cotton, flax, hemp, and tobacco. Land is used intensively and worked primarily by human power, with the assistance of some hand implements and animals. In milder parts of the region where wet rice does not dominate, more than one harvest can be obtained some years through skilled use of crop rotation, which is the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil.
Wet-Rice Dominant The term wet rice refers to rice planted on dryland in a nursery and then moved as seedlings to a flooded field to promote growth. Intensive wet-rice farming is the dominant type of agriculture in southeastern China, East India, and much of Southeast Asia. There are four steps to rice production. First, a field is generally prepared by animal power, leveling the area for flooding. Then, the field is then flooded with water. This flooded field is called a sawah in Indonesia and is increasingly referred to as a paddy, which is the Malay word for rice. Third, month-old, rice seedlings that were grown in a nursery are then transplanted in the flooded field. Rice plants are then harvested with knives, and then threshed by beating the husks on the ground. All steps are intensive, and the consumers of the rice perform the work.
Shifting Cultivation is practiced in much of the world’s tropical, or A, climate regions, which have relatively high temperatures, and abundant rainfall. This type of agricultural activity is practiced by approximately 250 million people across 36 million square miles.
Features of Shifting Cultivation Two key features are characteristic of shifting cultivation:
Farmers clear land for planting by slashing vegetation and burning the debris; shifting cultivation is sometimes called slash-and-burn agriculture.
Frequent relocation Farmers grow crops on a cleared field for only a few years, until soil nutrients are depleted. Farmers then leave it fallow (with nothing planted) for many years so the soil can recover.
People who practice shifting cultivation generally live in small villages in the tropics and grow food on the surrounding land. Before planting, they must remove the vegetation that typically covers tropical land. On a windless day the vegetation is burned. The rains wash the fresh ashes into the soil, providing needed nutrients. The cleared area, known as swidden, is prepared by hand, perhaps with the help of a simple implement such as a hoe. The cleared land can support crops only briefly, usually three years or less as soil nutrients are rapidly depleted. The swidden is then abandoned and left to regrow from 6 to 20 years. When the swidden is no longer fertile, villagers identify a new site and begin clearing it.
Crops of Shifting Cultivation Each village grows crops according to their local custom and taste. The primary crops include upland rice in Southeast Asia, maize (corn) and manioc (cassava) in South America, and millet and sorghum in Africa. Yams, sugarcane, plantain, and vegetables are also grown in some regions. Most families grow only for their own needs, so one swidden may contain a large variety of intermingled crops, which are harvested individually at the best time. A “farm field” appears much more chaotic than do fields in developed countries where a single crop is grown over an extensive area.
Ownership & Use of Land in Shifting Cultivation Traditionally, land was owned by the village as a whole rather than separate plots owned by each resident. The chief or ruling council allocated a patch of land to each family and allowed them to retain the output. Today, private individuals now own the land in some communities, especially in Latin America. Land used for shifting cultivation covers roughly one-fourth of the world’s land area, a higher percentage than any other type of agriculture, although less than 5 percent of the world’s people are involved in shifting cultivation.
Future of Shifting Cultivation According to the United Nations, land used for shifting cultivation is decreasing in the tropics at the annual rate of roughly 30,000 square miles, or 0.2 percent. Less than half of the land area originally occupied by tropical rain forest remains today, as World Bank loans for development in these regions formerly supported deforestation. Today, shifting cultivation is being replaced by logging, cattle ranching, and the cultivation of cash crops. Shifting cultivation can only support a small number of people in an area without causing environmental damage. Critics of shifting cultivation claim other agricultural techniques that produce higher yields should be used instead. Proponents of shifting agriculture consider it to be the most environmentally sound approach for agriculture in the tropics. Practices used in other forms of agriculture, such as applying fertilizers and pesticides and permanently clearing fields, may damage the soil, cause severe erosion, and upset balanced ecosystems. In addition, local cultural diversity would be affected if shifting cultivation were to be abandoned.
Pastoral Nomadism & Plantations A form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals is known as pastoral nomadism. Pastoral nomads live primarily in the large belt of arid and semiarid land that includes Central and Southwest Asia & North Africa. The animals provide milk, and their skins and hair are used for clothing and tents. Pastoral nomads consume mostly grain and not meat because their animals are usually not slaughtered. Pastoral nomads mostly obtain grain from farmers in exchange for animal products but have been known to plant crops in some circumstances. The camel is the most highly desired animal in North Africa & Southwest Asia, along with sheep and goats. Pastoral nomads do not wander randomly across the landscape but have a strong sense of territoriality. The goal of each nomad is to control a territory large enough to contain the forage and water needed for survival. The precise migration patterns evolve from intimate knowledge of the area’s physical and cultural characteristics. Pastoral nomadism is now generally recognized as an offshoot of sedentary agriculture, not a primitive precursor of it. It is simply a practical way of surviving on land that receives too little rain for the cultivation of crops. Some pastoral nomads practice transhumance, which is seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture areas. Pastoral nomadism is a declining form of agriculture. Today, national governments can limit the movement of nomadic people and force them to leave their traditional territories. Areas that can be irrigated for permanent agriculture or exploited for the extraction of natural resources will limit the territory available for nomads.
Plantation Farming A plantation is a large commercial farm in a developing country that specializes in one or two crops. Most plantations are located in the tropics and subtropics, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Despite being located in developing countries, many plantations are owned or operated by Europeans or North Americans, and they produce crops intended for markets in developed countries. Among the primary crops grown on plantations are cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, and tobacco.
Agricultural Regions & Climate The correspondence between agricultural and climate maps is readily apparent. For example, pastoral nomadism is the predominant type of agriculture in Southwest Asia & North Africa, corresponding to a dry climate, while shifting cultivation is the primary type of agriculture in subSaharan Africa. Agricultural differences vary between places with similar climates in both developing and developed countries.
Fishing The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in Earth’s waters is known as fishing. Aquaculture, or aquafarming, is the cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions. The world’s oceans are divided into 16 major fishing regions, including six each in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, two in the Indian Ocean, and one in the Mediterranean. Fishing is also undertaken in lakes and rivers. The Pacific Northwest and Asia’s inland waterways are the areas with the largest yields.
Fish Consumption & Production Human consumption of fish and seafood has grown from 27 million metric tons in 1960 to 141 million metric tons in 2016. During the past 50 years, global fish production has grown from roughly 36 to 202 million metric tons. The increase can be attributed to the expansion of aquaculture. The capture of wild fish has stagnated since the 1990s, despite population growth and increased demand to consume fish. Despite accounting for only 1 percent of all calories consumed by humans, per capita consumption of fish has nearly doubled in developed and developing countries over the past 50 years. Humans consume only 85 percent of the fish produced. The rest is converted to fish meal and fed to poultry and hogs.
Overfishing The populations of some fish species in Earth’s waters have decreased due to overfishing. Overfishing is the capturing of fish faster than they can reproduce. The U.N. estimates that one-fourth of fish stocks have been overfished and one-half have been fully exploited, leaving one-fourth underfished.
Commercial Agriculture: Crop-based The system of commercial farming found in developed countries has been called agribusiness because farming is not an isolated activity but is integrated into a large food production industry. Even though most farms are owned by individual families, large corporations control agribusiness. Agricultural products are not sold directly to consumers, but to food processing companies. Around 20 percent of U.S. laborers work in food production and services related to agribusiness-food processing, packaging, storing, distributing, and retailing. Agribusiness encompasses such diverse enterprises as tractor manufacturing, fertilizer production, and seed distribution. Commercial agriculture is divided into six main types each discussed in the entries that follow.
Grain Farming A grain is a seed from various grasses, such as wheat, corn, oats, barley, rice, millet, and others. Commercial grain agriculture is distinguished from mixed crop and livestock farming because crops on a grain farm are grown primarily for consumption by humans rather than livestock. Large-scale grain farming is mechanized and many practice monoculture, that is the practice of growing the same crop year after year. Commercial grain farmers sell their output to manufacturers of food products, such as breakfast cereals and breads. Wheat is the most important grain because it is used to make bread flour. Wheat can be stored relatively easily without spoiling. Because wheat has a relatively high value per unit weight, it can be shipped profitably from remote farms to market. The share of wheat production world-wide is increasing in developing countries and their use of large-scale commercial agriculture. Commercial grain farms are located in regions too dry for mixed crop and livestock production. Wheat is the world’s leading export crop.
Mediterranean Agriculture Most crops in the Mediterranean lands are grown for human consumption rather than animal feed. Mediterranean agriculture predominates in lands that border the Mediterranean Sea in Southern Europe, North Africa, and western Asia. Farmers in California, central Chile, the southwestern part of South Africa, and southwestern Australia also practice Mediterranean agriculture. These areas share similar environmental characteristics—moderate winter temperatures and hot and dry summers.
Horticulture Horticulture, the growing of fruits, vegetables, and tree crops, forms the commercial base of Mediterranean farming. Typically, the two most important cash crops grown in Mediterranean agriculture are grapes and olives. A large portion of California farmland is devoted to fruit and vegetable horticulture, which supplies a large portion of the citrus fruits, tree nuts, and deciduous fruits consumed in the United States.
Commercial Gardening Commercial gardening and fruit farming is the predominant type of agriculture in the southeastern United States with its long growing season and humid climate. Relative proximity to the heavily populated northeastern United States provides access to a large market of consumers. This type of agriculture is called truck farming. Truck farms grow many of the fruits and vegetables that consumers in developed countries demand. Some of these fruits and vegetables are sold fresh to consumers, but most are sold to large processors for canning or freezing. Truck farms are usually large-scale operations that take full advantage of machines at every stage of the growing process. Farms tend to specialize in a few crops, and a handful of farms may dominate national output of some fruits and vegetables. Specialty farming, a form of truck farming, has spread to New England. Farmers grow crops such as asparagus, strawberries, and nursery plants, for a limited market of affluent customers.
Commercial Agriculture: Animal-based Dairy farming is the most significant agriculture undertaken near large urban areas in developed countries. Ranching is adapted to semiarid or arid land and is practiced in developed countries where the vegetation is too sparse and soil too poor to sustain crops.
Livestock Ranching Ranching is the commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area. Commercial ranching is conducted in several developed countries besides the United States, and increasingly in developing countries. As with other forms of commercial agriculture, the growth of ranching has been in developing countries. China is the leading producer of meat, ahead of the United States, and Brazil is third. Developed countries were responsible for only one-third of world meat production in 2017, compared to two-thirds in 1980. Through the diffusion of irrigation techniques and hardier crops, ranch land in the United States has been converted to crop production. In addition, cattle raised on ranches are sent to feed lots for fattening rather than sold directly to meat processors.
Dairy A dairy farm specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products. As milk is highly perishable, dairy farms must be located closer to the market than other products. The ring surrounding a city from which milk can be supplied without spoiling is called the milkshed. Dairy farmers, like other commercial farmers, usually do not sell their products directly to the consumers. Instead they generally sell their milk to wholesalers, who distribute it in turn to retailers. In general, the farther the farm is from large urban concentrations, the smaller is the percentage of output devoted to fresh milk. Farms located farther from consumers are more likely to sell their output to processors to make butter, cheese, or dried, evaporated, and condensed milk. The reason is that these products keep fresh longer than milk does and therefore can be safely shipped from remote farms. The issues other commercial farmers face, rising costs and declining revenues, are also encountered by commercial dairy farmers. By its very nature, dairy farming poses two additional challenges—its labor intensive nature because cows must be milked twice a day throughout the year. Dairy farmers incur additional expenses in purchasing grain or hay to feed the cows through the winter.
Commercial Agriculture: Mixed Crop & Livestock Mixed crop and livestock farming is the most common form of commercial agriculture in the United States west of the Appalachians and east of 98° west longitude and in much of Europe, from France to Russia.
Features of Mixed Crop & Livestock Most of the crops grown in mixed crop and livestock farming agriculture are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans. In turn, livestock supply manure to improve soil fertility to grow more crops. A typical mixed crop and livestock farm devotes nearly all land area to growing crops but derives more than three-fourths of its income from the sale of animal products, such as beef, milk, and eggs. Mixed crops and livestock farms permit farmers to distribute the workload more evenly through the year. In the United States, corn is the most frequently planted crop because it generates higher yields per area than other crops. Soybeans are the second most important crop in the United States. Corn and soybeans are commonly fed to livestock and soybean oil is used as an ingredient in many processed U.S. foods.
Importance of Access to Market In developed countries, the use of land is primarily determined by the market forces of supply and demand. The value of the land impacts the form of commercial agriculture practiced. The distance from the farm to the market affects the farmer’s choice of which crop to plant. Geographers employ the von Thünen model to illustrate the importance of proximity to market in the choice of crops on commercial farms. In choosing a location, the farmer considers two costs: the cost of the land and the cost of transporting products to market. In the early nineteenth century, von Thünen observed that specific crops were grown at different distances from the city. His model is based on a series of concentric rings.
First ring Market-oriented gardens and milk producers were located near the city. These products must reach the market quickly because they are perishable and costly to deliver.
Second ring The next ring out from the cities contained forests, where timber was cut for construction and fuel uses. Proximity to market is key for this commodity because of its weight.
Third ring The next ring was used for various crops and for pasture. Crops grown were rotated from one year to the next.
Fourth ring The outermost ring was devoted exclusively to animal grazing, which requires a great deal of space.
This model assumes that all land in a study area has similar site characteristics and was of uniform quality, although von Thünen recognized that the model could vary according to topography and other distinct physical features (e.g., a river or body of water extending into a ring). Farms located close to the market produce crops with the highest transportation costs, whereas those located far from the market choose to produce crops that have lower transportation costs.
9.3
Wet rice
Rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth.