Unit 4 – The primary sector

It includes:
Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing, Mining

How important is it today

Involve 40% of world’s population. It makes up a big proportion in economy of
developed countries.

What is GDP?
It is amonetary measure that express all benefits a country have in a specific period of
time.

How important it is today the primary sector.?

Developed countries:
 5% of the active population work in this sector.
 It contributes less than 5% of GDP.
 Hight productivity due to technical advantages.

Less developed countries:

 More than 40% of active population work on this sector.
 Low productivity due to lack of technical advantages and the use of
traditional methods

Agrarian Landscape
They can be influenced by natural factors:

Relief: Determinate the activity we can carry out

 Altitude: with more altitude is difficult to cultivate
 Gradient: a gradient of more than 10º makes agriculture difficult

Soil: Substances and nutrients that the land have

 Porosity: depends on the amount of oxygen and the retention of water
Agriculture in developed countries
Europe and North America put an end to subsistence farming and initiated commercial
agriculture ( with economic soals )

The new commercial agriculture

 It is specialized ( to have more benefits )
 It is mechanized ( machines have replaced human labour )
 Uses modern techniques such us fertilities, green houses, etc…
 Uses biotechnology to modify crop.
 Transport can cover long distances.

Benefits and Problems

Benefits:
 Hight productivity leads to lower prices.
 Large quantities of agriculture are carried over long distances by the workers.
 This enable to produce to be distributed, conserve in cold places.

Problems:
 Pollute the soil and the water of the aquifers.
 Use a lot of water with modern irrigation systems.
 The increasing of machinery has lead to the decline of jobs.

Agriculture in less developed regions

In less developed countries, subsistence agriculture still exist ( people cultivate land
just for themselves )

Characteristics of subsistence agriculture

 Policulture: different crops are cultivated .
 Lack of mechanization: manual labour is the workforce used.
 Low productivity: old-fashioned techniques affect productivity.
Types of traditional agriculture
Shifting: It is an indigenous cultivation method in agriculture specially in America.
Farmers slash and burn a patch of land and start growing food crops. When soil fertility
declines they shift to another place. Burn a jungle again.
Rainfed cultivation: Land is divided into different plots for different crops. One part of
the land is left fallow ( with no crops ) to graze animals. Rain water is suded.

Irrigated monsoon: In Eastern Asia and India. Due to tropical climate, monsoon rains
flood land and this is used for agriculture. Rice is cultivated there.

Livestock and Fishing

Livestock is the economy activity that consist of domesticating animals that are raised
to produce force of labour and commodities ( food and resources )

Extensive livestock
 Big extension of land
 Low productivity
 Species like sheep and cattle ( Ganado )
 Agriculture is combined with livestock

Intensive Livestock / Factory Farming

 Designed for maximum benefits. Specialised farms for a single species.
 Hight productivity. Use of machines and hight concentration of animals.
 Use of stables: animals are kept indoors and controlled: illness.

Fishing is the activity of caching fish and animals from the sea, rivers and lakes. Most of
the catches are for human consumison.

Types of fishing
Coastal fishing: takes place very near the coast in small boatsusing traditional
methods. Are for home comsuption and local market.

Inshore fishing: it is carried out near the coast in smalls or medium -size boats. Their
equipment depends on the species of fish.

Off shore fishing: it is practiced out the sea. It uses big boats equipped wit modern
technical instruments.
Unit 5 – Mining, energy and
industry.
Mining
It is the activity that consist of the extraction of minerals ( substances with chemical
composition found on the earth surface )
Mining belongs to the primary sector, although it is linked to the secondary sector as it
provides raw materials for industry.

Problems of mining
 Enviromental: it destroy the landscape and pollute water and soil.
 Effects on land: it uses up deposites and exhaust the land.
 International conflicts: in less developed countries, mining con be lead to
combats to control the deposists.

Non Renewable Energy

Are the way that we use the materials to create energy but in the process we pollute.
Some examples are Coal, Oil, Gas, Etc…

Renewable Energy
The energy that we get from good natural resources that don’t pollute like wind,
water, solar light, etc…

The origins and develop of industry

Industry: it is the process of transforming raw materials into goods. It belongs to the
secondary sector.

Large scale production: it is the process of producing large quantities of goods by

using machines located in factories.
The origins of industry.
The industrial revolution started in Great Britain during the XVIII century.
The industrial revolution is the period of changes in economic and social organization
characterized by the replacement of hand labour by machines. It started in Great
Britain in 1760 and later on spread to other countries.

The organization of industry.

This process of change was produced between 1760 and 1914 ( first world war ) and
had two main stages / periods with different characteristics.
That is the reason why we divide it into two waves of industrialization.

Characteristics of industrialization
 It was produced by technical advantages such as new machines that
manufactured products.
 There was division of labour, the task of production was divided into multiple
activities for every work.
 As a result, large scale production was possible.

First industrial revolution ( 1760 – middle XIX )

 Started with the textiles industry.
 Factories were developed
 Development of new machines power by water, then by steam.

Second industrial revolution ( late XIX – XX century )

 Oil and electricity became important.
 Major improvent in transportation.
 Large scale mass production.
 Development of large companies.
Changes in work organization in the second industrial revolution
To improve the efficiency and mass production the work in factories was organizated
according to two modles: Taylorism and Fordism

Taylorism
Production efficiency methodology hat breaks every action, job, or task into small and
simple segment which can be clack

Fordism
 Henry Ford was a pioneer in mass production
 Implement the “ Assembly line ” ( cadena de montaje )
 Increased productivity
 Product price reduction lead to increased markets which lead to increased
profits.
Assembly line: is the creation of the conveyor belt that move the products to the
workers. With this method the workers don’t lost her time moving to the products.