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What is agriculture?



Agriculture, or farming, is the simplification of nature's food webs and the rechanneling of energy for human planting and animal consumption.


To simplify, agriculture involves redirecting nature's natural flow of the food web. The natural flow of the food web is-the sun provides light to plants. Plants convert sunlight into sugars which provide food for the plants(this process is called photosynthesis). Plants provide food for herbivores (plant-eating animals, i.e., sloths) and the herbivores provide food for carnivores (meat-eating animals, i.e., jaguars). Decomposers or bacteria, break down plants or animals that have died. Nutrients from the plants and animals go back into the soil and the whole process starts a new.

What happens with agriculture is that this web is interrupted. Instead of having herbivores eat the plants, the plants are protected for human consumption. This means that not only are plant eating animals excluded from the food web, but also carnivorous animals and even decomposers. However, if a farmer is planting corn to feed their cattle, the cattle eat the corn to fatten up and then are eventually slaughtered for human consumption. Even though a herbivore (cow) is eating the plant (corn) the web in interrupted when the cow is killed for human consumption.


Are there different types of agriculture?

Yes. There is conventional agriculture and sustainable agriculture (agro-ecology).

Conventional agriculture,

most commonly practiced in the United States, usually involves the following criteria:

1) altering or changing the natural environment (removing trees, tilling the soil, installing an irrigation system, etc.

2)mono-cropping, or planting one crop (ex: only corn is grown in a plot).

3)the crops grown are nonrenewable- after harvesting, the plot is bare again and requires cultivation (tilling and plowing of the soil), fertilization, planting, irrigation (watering), and harvesting all over again.

4)diversity is eliminated in order to maintain uniformity

5)using insecticides and pesticides to keep insects and animals from eating the crops; these chemicals are not only poisonous to insects, animals and humans, they also pollute ground water, streams, rivers, and oceans.

6)using inorganic fertilizers to provide nutrients to the soil

a lot of energy and work for the farmer to maintain this unnatural farming system; nature is more aligned with diversity (it wants to be wild), rather than controlled and uniform.



Here are some examples of crops which undergo conventional agriculture: corn, wheat, rice, bananas, soy bean, etc



What are the effects of conventional agriculture?

1)since the plot is stripped of its natural environmental features, the plants are vulnerable to disease, high herbivore predation, and soil erosion.

2)a decrease in bio-diversity means many animals lose their habitat and either relocate or become extinct.

3)after harvesting, the plot is empty, leaving the soil bare and prone to soil erosion.

4)the use of insecticides and pesticides pollutes the environment on many levels: the soil, streams, creeks, rivers, underground water sources, well water, the ocean, and even the air. When these chemicals are ingested (eaten) or inhaled, they can poison animals and people. This poisoning can cause severe illness and even death.

5)crop disease, drought (no rain), fire, or heavy rain-fall can destroy a crop, thus causing severe economic hardship for the farmer and even the consumer because when the quantity of a crop is low (when the supply is low) the price is increased



Sustainable agriculture (agro-ecology)

uses ecological principles to farm, hence the prefix agro- to farm and ecology- the science of the relationship between organisms and their environments.

Agro-ecology involves:


1)maintaining the natural environment and using ecological principles for sustained farming practices.

2)poly-cropping, or planting many crops together (ex: planting rows of corn, bean, and squash together rather than in separate plots, like in mono-cropping)

3)since many plants are planted together, and each one has a different harvesting period, the plot is never bare. This reduces soil erosion.

4)diversity is maintained and even increased over time

5)a diverse system of plants may attract several species of herbivores. Some of these herbivores like to eat specific kinds of plants. Predator species usually do not have a preference for which herbivores to eat. This predation keeps the herbivore population in check, thus reducing predation of any one crop.

6)Plants- such as citrosa, are natural insect repellents. This eliminates the need to use insecticides.

7)nutrients from each intercrop plant provide different nutrients to the soil, thus increasing its fertility (ability to sustain life).

8)less energy is required from the farmer because the agriculture system sustains itself.

Here are some examples of sustainable agriculture crops: shade coffee; multiple cropping in Germany- for example, they plant carrots, beets, and onions together in a plot; in Mexico, they do the same with corn, bean, and squash. In Italy, they plant both annual and perennial crops to create a diverse home garden; in other areas, they use cover cropping in orchards to inhibit weed growth, etc.



What are the effects of sustainable agriculture?


1)using ecological principles increases bio-diversity. Not only are animals' homes salvaged (saved), but the natural ecological system protects itself (sustains itself) from soil erosion, severe herbivore predation, and crop disease.

2)since insecticides and pesticides are not used, pollution and the harmful effects of ingesting these poisons are not an issue

3)since each intercropping plant supplies a different nutrient to the soil, less or (even no) fertilizers are added to the soil

4)this type of agriculture is aligned with nature and uses the principles of nature to sustain itself (there's nothing better than that!)

5)farmers experience less or no economic loss with this type of agriculture system because the natural environment protects itself from crop disease (due to diversity of species), soil erosion (benefits of intercropping plants with different harvesting periods), flooding (the intercropping plants absorb heavy rain-falls), droughts (the intercrops provide moisture and shade for each other), and fire (extra moisture and shade keeps plants from drying out and becoming more susceptible to fire).


regards sabahat

__________________
GEO to aise k sab tumhara ha,MARO to aisa jaise tmhara kuch bhi nhi.

Maza deti han zindagi ki thokerin unko,jinhen NAAM-E-KHUDA le kar sanbhal janey ki adat ho.

Location Theories

In economics and geography, theory concerned with the geographic location of economic activity; it has become an integral part of economic geography, regional science, and spatial economics. Location theory addresses the questions of what economic activities are located where and why. The location of economic activities can be determined on a broad level such as a region or metropolitan area, or on a narrow one such as a zone, neighbourhood, city block, or an individual site.


1ST MODEL

Johann Heinrich von Thünen, a Prussian landowner, introduced an early theory of agricultural location in Der isolierte Staat (1826) (The Isolated State).

The Thünen model suggests that accessibility to the market (town) can create a complete system of agricultural land use. His model envisaged a single market surrounded by farmland, both situated on a plain of complete physical homogeneity.

Transportation costs over the plain are related only to the distance traveled and the volume shipped. The model assumes that farmers surrounding the market will produce crops which have the highest market value (highest rent) that will give them the maximum net profit (the location, or land, rent). The determining factor in the location rent will be the transportation costs. When transportation costs are low, the location rent will be high, and vice versa.

This situation produces a rent gradient along which the location rent decreases with distance from the market, eventually reaching zero. The Thünen model also addressed the location of intensive versus extensive agriculture in relation to the same market. Intensive agriculture will possess a steep gradient and will locate closer to the market than extensive agriculture. Different crops will possess different rent gradients. Perishable crops (vegetables and dairy products) will possess steep gradients while less perishable crops (grains) will possess less steep gradients


The first model postulates that the intensity of production of a particular crop declines with distance from the market since transport costs increase with distance from the market and the locational rent is therefore lower. Intensive farming—which demands costly inputs—is only profitable where locational rent is high to cover costs, so intensive farming takes place only near the city.

Von Thünen's second model is concerned with land use patterns. Transport costs vary with the bulkiness and perishability of the product. Product A is costly to transport but has a high market price and is therefore farmed near the city. Product B sells for less but has lower transport costs. At a certain distance, B becomes more profitable than A because of its lower transport costs. Eventually, product C, with still lower transport costs, becomes the most profitable product. The changing pattern of the most profitable produce is therefore seen as a series of land use rings around the city. This phenomenon may be illustrated by a graph showing the varying locational rent of three products, the most profitable product at each point, and the land use pattern which results.


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SECOND THEORY


In 1909 the German location economist Alfred Weber formulated a theory of industrial location in his book entitled Über den Standort der Industrien (Theory of the Location of Industries, 1929).

Weber’s theory, called the location triangle, sought the optimum location for the production of a good based on the fixed locations of the market and two raw material sources, which geographically form a triangle. He sought to determine the least-cost production location within the triangle by figuring the total costs of transporting raw material from both sites to the production site and product from the production site to the market. The weight of the raw materials and the final commodity are important determinants of the transport costs and the location of production.

Commodities that lose mass during production can be transported less expensively from the production site to the market than from the raw material site to the production site. The production site, therefore, will be located near the raw material sources. Where there is no great loss of mass during production, total transportation costs will be lower when located near the market.

Once a least-transport-cost location had been established within the triangle, Weber attempted to determine a cheap-labour alternate location. First he plotted the variation of transportation costs against the least-transport-cost location. Next he identified sites around the triangle that had lower labour costs than did the least-transport-cost location. If the transport costs were lower than the labour costs, then a cheap-labour alternative location was determined.


THIRD THEORY


Another major contribution to location theory was Walter Christaller’s formulation of the central place theory, which offered geometric explanations as to how settlements and places are located in relation to one another and why settlements function as hamlets, villages, towns, or cities.

Fourth Model

William Alonso (Location and Land Use: Toward a General Theory of Land Rent, 1964) built upon the Thünen model to account for intra-urban variations in land use. He attempted to apply accessibility requirements to the city centre for various types of land use (housing, commercial, and industry).

According to his theory, each land use type has its own rent gradient or bid rent curve. The curve sets the maximum amount of rent any land use type will yield for a specific location. Households, commercial establishments, and industries compete for locations according to each individual bid rent curve and their requirements for access to the city centre. All households will attempt to occupy as much land as possible while staying within their accessibility requirements.

Since land is cheaper at the fringe of the city, households with less need for city centre accessibility will locate near the fringe; these will usually be wealthy households. Poor households require greater accessibility to the city centre and therefore will locate near the centre, competing with commercial and industrial establishments. This will tend to create a segregated land use system, because households will not pay commercial and industrial land prices for central locations.

The Thünen, Weber, Alonso, and Christaller models are not the sole contributors to location theory, but they are its foundation. These theories have been expanded upon and refined by geographers, economists, and regional scientists.

__________________
GEO to aise k sab tumhara ha,MARO to aisa jaise tmhara kuch bhi nhi.

Maza deti han zindagi ki thokerin unko,jinhen NAAM-E-KHUDA le kar sanbhal janey ki adat ho.

Types of Agriculture or Classification Of Agraiculture


Agriculture is one of the most widespread activities in the world, but its character is not uniform throughout. There are a number of ways to classify agriculture and some of the major criteria which can be adopted include the scale of farming, crop and livestock combinations, intensity of farming, means and ways of disposal of the farm produce and the level of farm mechanization etc. A number of scholars have attempted to identify various types of agriculture.

The following are the major types of agriculture in the world


*Nomadic Herding

This type is based upon the rearing of animals on natural pastures. This practice is followed by the people of the semi arid and arid regions. They keep moving with their animals in search of natural pastures and lead a nomadic life. The type of the animals reared differ from one region to the other. Northern Africa, parts of Arabia and parts of northern Eurasia are the typical regions of this type of farming. This is a subsistence type of activity.


*Livestock Ranching

Under this system of farming also the major emphasis is laid on rearing of animals but the farmers live a settled life. This type of farming has developed on a commercial basis in those areas of the world where large areas are available for animal grazing, such as the low rainfall areas of North America, South America and Australia. Animals are reared mainly for meat and wool and they are kept on large scale farms called the ranches

*Shifting Cultivation

This is the type of farming adopted generally in the rainy tropics. Under this system the land for cultivation is obtained by cleared off the forests with the help of slashing and burning technique and it is cultivated for a few years till the fertility declines or the land is overtaken by the weeds etc. Then the land is abandoned and a new plot is cleared for farming. This is a subsistence type of farming done manually without much use of animal power or other types of power. This is the subsistence type of activity adopted by the people living in the tropical forest regions of southeast Asia. Major emphasis is on the grain crops. This type of farming is now on a decline as due to its land spoiling nature it is being discouraged by the government agencies.

*Rudimentary Sedentary Tillage

This is also a subsistence type of activity and it differs from the foregoing type in terms of the fact that the same plot of land is cultivated continuously year after year. Fallowing of land is commonly adopted to maintain the soil fertility and it is also a farming type of the tropical regions. Besides the grain crops, some tree crops such rubber are also grown under this system.


*Intensive Subsistence Farming with Rice Dominant

This type of farming is practiced in the areas of tropical regions having a high density of population and receiving a large amount of precipitation. Rice is the dominant crop as it can employ and feed a large number of people per unit of area. Southeast Asian region is the major area of this type of farming. Use of manual and animal power is dominant and effort is made to enhance the productivity per unit of area with the use of manures etc.

*Intensive Subsistence Farming Without Rice Dominant

This is a slightly dry climatic variant of the foregoing type and as the amount of rainfall is not very high these regions grow grain crops other than rice, such as wheat and millets. Besides the comparatively less wet areas of Asia, northern Africa and the parts of Middle East this type of farming is commonly practiced in parts of southern Africa and Central America also.


*Commercial Plantations

Though practiced over a rather small area, this type of farming is quite important in terms of its commercial value. The major products of this type of farming are the tropical crops such as tea, coffee, rubber and oil palm etc. This type of farming has developed in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America where the influence of the Europeans has been important during the colonial period. Most of the plantations were developed to provide the tropical crops to the European markets. This is a highly capital intensive farming and most of the crops are tree crops.


*Mediterranean Agriculture

The typical rugged relief of the Mediterranean region has resulted in typical livestock and crop combinations in this region. Wheat and vineyards and citrus fruits are the major crops and the small animals the major livestock reared in the region. Horticulture is a major activity of this region and most of the crops other than these plantations are grown in winter with the help of winter rains.


*Commercial Grain Farming

This type of farming is a response to farm mechanization and it is the major type of activity in the areas of low rainfall and low density of population where extensive farming is practiced. Crops are prone to the vagaries of weather and droughts and monoculture of wheat is the general practice. Prairies, steppes and the temperate grasslands of South America and Australia are the main areas of this type of farming.

*Livestock and Grain Farming

This type is commonly known as mixed farming and this practice has originated in the humid areas of the middle latitudes, except in Asia. Its development is closely related to the market facilities, and it is a typically European type of farming where an effort is made to get the best out of crop farming and animal rearing. Great Britain and New-Zealand are the examples of areas where it is the common practice.

*Subsistence Crop and Stock Farming

This type resembles the foregoing type in terms of the crops and type of livestock but differs. In that practically nothing is sold off the farm. This type of farming has been common in areas of middle latitudes with lower fertility of soils or the areas of rough terrain and has declined significantly after the collectivization of farming in Russia which has been one of the major regions where this has been practiced.

*Dairy Farming

This type also had its origin in Europe from where it spread to other areas. Close proximity to the market and a temperate climate are the two favorable factors which have been responsible for the development of this type of farming. Countries like Denmark and Sweden have witnessed the maximum development of this type of farming.


*Specialized Horticulture

This type of farming has also developed to take advantage of a large demand for the products of horticulture and the areas of large scale urbanisation and high density of population in Europe have been favorable for its development. This type of farming has best developed in the vineyard cultivation areas of France, northern Hungary and the Swiss Lakes regions.
Although Whittlesey's agricultural classification is quite elaborate, the regionalisation on the basis of this classification is not something permanent. Due to changing market demands and the developing agricultural technology, a number of changes have come in the agricultural pattern of the world since Whittlesey's study. Large demands for fruits and vegetables in the urban areas have resulted in modified landuse in many parts of the world and such factors impart a dynamic character to the agricultural activity.


regards sabahat

__________________
GEO to aise k sab tumhara ha,MARO to aisa jaise tmhara kuch bhi nhi.

Maza deti han zindagi ki thokerin unko,jinhen NAAM-E-KHUDA le kar sanbhal janey ki adat ho.

hi sabahat. thanx 4 providing such useful notes. i have prepared my geography paper 1 but pap 2 is haunting me bcs of its diverse areas? now at this time i cant drop geography nd i m afraid abt my pap 2 that how to prepare it, plz help me in this regard

ur welcome misbah khan.dear now the trends have changed fpsc have converted the paper into current affair type paper,i think it a very good idea bcoz it will broaden your view about current geo.problems,rather than just rot learning from books.

so paper 2 seems easy to me.remember dear keep in touch with current affair programmes they usually discussed geo. problems as well like in 2011 agriculture and water issue were very important issues and also asked in exams. so don`t worry nothing will be out of syllabus.just keep listening t.v programmes,and don`t forget to visit css forum it will help you alot.

if you have any other query you are most welcome to ask.

regards sabahat

__________________
GEO to aise k sab tumhara ha,MARO to aisa jaise tmhara kuch bhi nhi.

Maza deti han zindagi ki thokerin unko,jinhen NAAM-E-KHUDA le kar sanbhal janey ki adat ho.

hay can anybody tell me that if we have to select those subjects which are we have not studied ever before and these are more than 3 than should we take them if we dont have other choice???? plz reply.

yes teal blue you can but make sure before choosing subject that you are comfortable with them and if you can prepare them easily.then there is no problem, take my own example i choose 3 subjects which i have never read before in my whole life but i did bcoz they were very interesting.

don`t be afraid this is css brother you have to take this risk. best of luck for your selection.

regards sabahat

__________________
GEO to aise k sab tumhara ha,MARO to aisa jaise tmhara kuch bhi nhi.

Maza deti han zindagi ki thokerin unko,jinhen NAAM-E-KHUDA le kar sanbhal janey ki adat ho.

@Syeda Sabahat:
Dear I don't know how to thank your efforts regarding this thread of Geo-2.
In simple words " May Allah bless you always".
Thankssssssssssssssssss as you have made my burden very light.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Hi sabahat. dear ur outlines made 4 each topic are very helpful. can u plss tell me that which chapters to study frm Human geog by De blijj, if it is convenient for u? and i want to complete my pap 2 in 12 days, is it engh time? i m starting frm today.