UNIT 5: SUSTAINING HUMANITY

1. WHERE DOES OUR FOOD COME FROM?

1.1 PRIMARY SECTOR
- Comprises all activities that obtain basic resources from nature
● Include: Arable and livestock farming, fishing and silviculture
Arable and livestock farming (most important): population’s main source of food
Proper management (key factor): in reducing hunger and protecting environment

1.2 DIFFERENCES IN PRIMARY SECTOR: MEDCs AND LEDCs

MEDCs
- Employs 3% percentage of population
- Provides only 1.3% of GDP
- Highly technological and productive, with a
high turnover
- Most farmers own the land
- Have easy access to funding and markets
LEDCs
- Employs a 55% of the population
- Represents 19.6% of GDP
- Low degree of technology, productivity and
income
- Most holdings are family farms
- Difficulties in accessing land, funding and
markets

2. FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE FARMING

2.1 NATURAL FACTORS
CLIMATE:
- It is the main factor affecting farming
- Plants and livestock species require: temperature and humidity levels
RELIEF:
- Altitude, orientation and slope (inclination of land) affect farming
SOIL:
- Their use depends on: texture, depth, organic and mineral matter and acidity.
WATER:
- The availability of surface and groundwater determines which crops can grow.
- Today's irrigation methods are becoming very popular between farmers.

2.2 HUMAN FACTORS

DEMOGRAPHIC PRESSURE
- Highly populated areas: require intensive farming
- Less populated areas: require extensive farming and land abandonment
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
- Technology helped overcome certain geographic limitations that once impeded farming:
→ Irrigation systems (lack of water) → Hydroponic crops (land scarcity)(no soil)
→ Greenhouses (low temperature) → Machines (limits of human strength)
HISTORICAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL FACTORS
- Subsistence farms: cultivate a wide variety of plants
- Commercial farms: are more specialized
- Large holdings are very different from small holdings
- Crops: based on labor costs and availability of subsidies
3. HOW DO HUMANS SHAPE FARMING LANDSCAPES?
3.1 RURAL AREAS
- Are tracts of land with villages and natural areas (are therefore not urban)
- Also may accommodate the secondary sector and services
3.2 FARMING ACTIVITY
- Farmland: natural landscape modified by humans to obtain primary sector products
- Arable land: land where crops are grown
3.3 RURAL HABITATS
- Depending on how the rural population is distributed, settlements may be:
● Compact, semi-compact and dispersed

4. HOW CROPS ARE CULTIVATE AROUND THE WORLD?

4.1 CULTIVATION METHODS
- In terms of irrigation, crops can be:
● Irrigated: grows thank to artificial supply of water (can be drip, sprinkler or flood)
● Rainfed: exclusively on rainwater
- With regards to crop diversity, difference between:
● Monoculture: one crop
● Polyculture: variety of crops
- Types of land use:
● Incisive farming: maximizes productivity through modern methods
● Extensive farming: uses large areas of land and no modern methods.

4.2 DIFFERENT FARMING METHODS

- Traditional farming methods (extensive): mainly used for subsistence, sometimes in sale at local level.
● Polyculture, low mechanisation, no fertilisers, low productivity.
- Modern commercial farming (intensive): products are mainly for sale, sometimes internationally.
● Monoculture, advanced techniques, high productivity.

5. TRADITIONAL FARMING METHODS PRODUCE LESS

SLASH AND BURN CULTIVATION EXTENSIVE RAINFED FARMING

- Amazon Basin, equatorial Africa, SE Asia
- Forest is cut and burnt to clear small fields.
- The ash fertilizes the soil, which is broken
up later.
- Slash-and-burn farming maintains the
ecological balance.
- Savannahs from: South America /Africa / Asia
- Combines arable and livestock farming.
Manure fertilizes the land.
- Land divided in 3 parts: cereals, other millet or
mize and left fallow.
- Follow a three-year crop rotation

MONSOON IRRIGATED FARMING

- Asian countries: Vietnam and Cambodia
- Intensive method based on: rice monoculture
- Fields are small (on mountainous terrain and terraces)
- Low degree of mechanization and very labor intensive
- Several harvest a year
5.1 FACTORS THAT MAKE TRADITIONAL FARMING METHODS LESS PRODUCTIVITY
1. Insufficient technology and training 4. Market inaccessibility
2. Low investment 5. Fluctuating prices
3. Lack of access to land 6. Violence
6. MODERN FARMING METHODS
- Are capable of producing large amounts of food
- Market farming:
● Increase food production
● Cause major imbalances and increase environmental degradation
6.1 MODERN MARKET FARMING METHODS

HIGHLY MECHANIZED EXTENSIVE FARMING EXTENSIVE PLANTATION FARMING

- United States, Canada and Australia (New - Tropical regions
countries) - Very technological
- Large regular-shaped fields - Produces cocoa, coffee, tea etc (Intensive
- Monoculture of maize, wheat, soybeans, monoculture)
rapeseed, cotton,... - Intensive monoculture
- Uses cutting-edge techniques and knowledge - Most products are exported causing food
(seed selection, plant protection products)
shortages for local population.

HIGH-TECH COMMERCIAL FARMING

- Use advanced farming practices that
maximises yields (smart farming)
- Specialised in certain products (fast
transport and commercial networks)

7. LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

TRADITIONAL FARMING METHODS MODERN FARMING METHODS

- Livestock production is used for
self-consumption
- Animals are feed on harvest scraps or graze
- Low machinery and veterinary care
- Livestock farming is sedentary
- Products sold internationally.
- High machinery and facilities
- Large farms to increase productivity
(most productive species are selected)
- Difference between extensive (cattle and
sheep) and intensive (pig and poultry)

INDUSTRIAL LIVESTOCK ORGANIC LIVESTOCK

- Holdings spend a lot of money for the growth
of animals
- It is a major source of pollution
(greenhouse gasses)
- Concerns about welfare of animals and it is not
efficient
- We eat: sheep, poultry, pigs and cattle
- Expensive but high-quality products, protects
the environment and animals
- Raised outdoors, farms respect the life cycle
(no hormones or antibiotics are used
- Almost all holdings are family farms.
8. FISHING
Fishing uses the sea’s natural resources to provide food for people and raw materials for industry.
8.1 FISHING METHODS:
● Coastal: small/medium-sized boats and near the cost
● Deep-sea: large boats that spend days or weeks in the sea
● Large-scale: factory ships spend months at the sea
● Small-scale: small boats, sold locally
● Industrial: large boats, sold internationally

8.2 IMPORTANT FISHING AREAS:

- Continental shelves (areas of shallow water and abundant nutrients)
- Areas where cold and warm ocean currents meet
- Areas where deeper water and cold currents circulate