Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world. It represents a traditional subfield of the discipline of geography. However, in recent decades, many economists have also approached the field in ways more typical of the discipline of economics

Sub disciplines:
Thematically, economic geography can be divided into these sub disciplines:
Geography of agriculture
Geography of industry
Geography of international trade
Geography of resources
Geography of transport and communication
Geography of finance

These areas of study may overlap with other geographical sciences.



New economic geography:

With the rise of the New Economy, economic inequalities are increasing spatially. The New Economy, generally characterized by globalization, increasing use of information and communications technology, growth of knowledge goods, and feminization, has enabled economic geographers to study social and spatial divisions caused by the arising New Economy, including the emerging digital divide.

The new economic geographies consist of primarily service-based sectors of the economy that use innovative technology, such as industries where people rely on computers and the internet. Within these is a switch from manufacturing-based economies to the digital economy. In these sectors, competition makes technological changes robust. These high tech sectors rely heavily on interpersonal relationships and trust, as developing things like software is very different from other kinds of industrial manufacturing—it requires intense levels of cooperation between many different people, as well as the use of tacit knowledge. As a result of cooperation becoming a necessity, there is a clustering in the high-tech new economy of many firms.

People are engaged in various economic activities within the economy. There are several ways to group them: primary/secondary/tertiary; organized/unorganized; and public/private. These groups are called sectors.



Primary Sector: There are many activities that are undertaken by directly using natural resources. For example, the cultivation of cotton. Cotton production depends mainly (though not entirely) on natural factors like rainfall, sunshine and climate. So cotton is a natural product. Similarly, in case of activity like dairy, we are dependent on the biological process of the animals and availability of fodder etc. The product milk is a natural product. Minerals and ores are also natural products. When we produce a good by exploiting natural resources, it is an activity of the primary sector. This is because it forms the base for all other products that we subsequently make. Since most of the natural products we get are from agriculture, dairy, fishing, forestry, this sector is also called agriculture and related sector.





Secondary Sector: This sector covers activities in which natural products are changed into other forms through ways of manufacturing that we associate with industrial activity. It is the next step after primary. The product is not produced by nature but has to be made and therefore some process of manufacturing is essential. This could be in a factory, a workshop or at home. For example, using cotton fibre from the plant, we spin yarn and weave cloth. Using sugarcane as a raw material, we make sugar or gur. We convert earth into bricks to make houses and buildings. Since this sector gradually became associated with the different kinds of industries that came up, it is also called as industrial sector.





Tertiary Sector: After primary and secondary, there is a third category of activities that falls under tertiary sector. These activities help in the development of the primary and secondary sectors. But these activities, by themselves, do not produce a good but they are an aid for the production process. For example the goods that are produced in the primary or secondary sector would need to be transported by trucks or trains and then sold in wholesale and retail shops. At times, it may be necessary to store these in go downs. We may also need to talk to people or send letters/mails (communicate) or borrow money from banks to help production and trade. Transport, storage, communication, banking, trade are some examples of tertiary activities. Since these activities generate services rather than goods, the tertiary sector is also called the service sector.









Service sector also includes some essential services that may not directly help in production of goods. For example, we require teachers, doctors and those who provide personal services such as washermen, barbers, cobblers, lawyers and people in administrative and accounting works. In recent times, certain new services based on information technology such as internet café, ATM booths, call centres, software companies etc have become important.

Various economic activities, though grouped into three different categories, are highly interdependent. Further examples of economic activities can be cited which shows how the three factors are dependent on each other.





(a) Farmers sell sugarcane to a particular sugar mill. If these farmers refuse to sell sugarcane, the mill will have to close down. This is an example of the secondary (industrial) sector being dependent on the primary sector. The manufacturing sector depends on the primary sector for raw materials.



(b) In turn, the primary sector depends on the secondary sector. One aspect of dependence is the fact that the output of the former is used as inputs in the latter. If fabric manufacturers decided not to buy from the Indian market and import all cotton from abroad, the plight of the Indian cotton cultivators is unimaginable. Indian cotton cultivation will become less profitable and the farmers may even go bankrupt, if they cannot quickly switch to other crops. Cotton prices will fall. The other aspect is that output of the manufacturing sector is used as inputs in agricultural production. For example, farmers buy many goods such as tractors, pumpsets, electricity, pesticides and fertilizers. If the prices of fertilizers or pumpsets go up, cost of cultivation of the farmers would rise and their profits would be reduced.









(c) People working in industrial and service sector get the food that they need from the primary sector. If the farmers decide not to sell their products food will become scarce and workers of the industrial and tertiary sectors will suffer. On the same footing, if there is a strike by transporters and lorries (service sector) refuse to carry vegetables, milk and other food items from the place of their production to the markets, the farmers will be unable to sell their products.


(d) The industrial sector thrives on the services from the tertiary sector and the existence of the service sector would be meaningless if it had no services to render to the other two sectors.

Subsistence farming, form of farming in which nearly all of the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and the farmer’s family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or trade. Preindustrial agricultural peoples throughout the world have traditionally practiced subsistence farming. Some of these peoples moved from site to site as they exhausted the soil at each location. As urban centres grew, agricultural production became more specialized and commercial farming developed, with farmers producing a sizable surplus of certain crops, which they traded for manufactured goods or sold for cash.

The term subsistence farming refers to self contained and self sufficient unit where most of the agricultural production is consumed and some may be sold in local market is sold. The goods produced by the farmer is only for family food i.e wheat, maize etc. There is a direct and close relationship between production and consumption. The goal of productive agricultural activity is family survival. The subsistence farming is for subsistence living.

In most of the LDC's including Pakistan, the land holding is gradually decreasing with the increase in population. The agriculturists particularly in remote areas are using old techniques of production. The goal of the productive activity of the majority of the farmers in cultivation is family survival. The farmers, are working for subsistence living.


Subsistence farming persists today on a relatively wide scale in various areas of the world, including large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Subsistence farms usually consist of no more than a few acres, and farm technology tends to be primitive and of low yield.


*Characteristics of subsistence farming

The main characteristics of traditional or subsistence farming in brief are as under.

(1) Land use

. Traditional farms are very small usually only 1 to 3 hectares. The goods produced on these small farming units is used mainly for consumption of the family. The consumption survival considerations dominate the commercial ones.

(2) Labour

. Labour used per hectare tends to be high in traditional farming. Mostly the family labour works on the subsistence farms. However the traditional farms may hire some labour during the busy time of the year. Family farm members may and do supplement their income by working off the farm part during slack times.

(3) Power and transport.

In many countries including Pakistan livestock is the main source of power. They plough the field, transport products and carrying out processing tasks like grinding sugar cane. The level of technology mostly used is simple and less productive.

(4) Productivity and efficiency

. The subsistence farming or traditional farms are characterized by low of inputs which are mostly provided by the farmer himself . For example seeds, cow dung manure etc are not purchased by the farmers. Yields per hectare, production per person and overall productivity tend to be low.

(5) Rationality and risk.

The traditional farmers are economically rational. They can be motivated to raise standard of living. The subsistence farmers are not adverse to changes but proposed changes must fit in into their current farming operations. The traditional farmers are now mentally ready to take risks of using modern inputs into their small scale farming operations.

(6) Income and level of living.

The income and level of living of the subsistence farmers is mostly below poverty line.

(7) Decision making freedom.

The subsistence farmers have narrow limits on decision making. His degree of freedom both on the farm and in the home is extremely restricted.

(8) Role of livestock.

Livestock play important role in traditional farming system. Farm animals provide a special protection to farm families. Animals are like saving banks. Farmers invest surpluses in them. When they grow, they can be sold or consumed during crop failure or for expenditure on marriages etc. The meat milk and eggs, etc are available free to the subsistence farmers.

(9) Fertilizer, fuel, hides.

Animal manure is an important source of both fertilizer and fuel in many LDC's. Clothing and blankets are mostly made from animal hides and sheep hairs.

(10) Social and cultural reasons.

In traditional farming cattle, goats, horses, camels etc are highly valued in many LDC's for social and cultural reasons. A family's social status is measured by the number and kind of animals he owns.

(11) Degree of outside contract.

The subsistence farmers have less contract with the persons living in adjacent villages.

(12) Huge wastages of resources.

In subsistence farming there is much wastage of resources and production due to the use of unscientific method of production lack of transport shortage of storage facilities.

(13) Element of uncertainty.

In subsistence farming the element of uncertainty is very high. The failure of one or more than one major crop ruins the farmer.