Posted 01 February 2005 - 09:24 PM
Hey great notes, while we are on the subject of farming here are the notes that I made last year for the farming topic. I could actually contribute quite a lot of geography to this site I have just realised!
Extensive Commercial Farming
Where
• Great Plains of the USA
• Prairie Provinces of Canada
• Areas of FLAT land
• Originally land divided up, but as people left amalgamation of farms occurred.
Characteristics
• Large areas of land available for cultivation
• Low crop yields, but very high scale production
• Monoculture of cereal crops in huge fields CASH CROPS (maize/wheat)
• High reliance on machinery and technology permitted by the large flat areas of land.
• Relatively low labour requirement
• Planted in Autumn, growth in summer months
• Harvested in late summer, contractors may be used
• Harvest stored in silos before being distributed
• Marginal climate not suited to more intensive types of farming.
• Land is cheap enabling large areas to be purchased
• Low population density – little pressure on land for other needs
Changes
• Steps being taken to tackle soil erosion:
o Strip cultivation
o Contour Ploughing
o Shelter belts
o Rows of sunflowers
• Diversification of farming
• Reduction in the monoculture of wheat
• Introduction of organic farming – helps reduce mono culture
• Diversification can provide job security, although there is still a declining farming population
• New crops means greater dependence on contractors to harvest the new crops introduced into this farming system.
Shifting Cultivation
Characteristics
• Sustainable farming system because of the low population density
• Practiced in rainforest areas, e.g. Amazonia
• Clearing made in rainforest by cutting down / burning trees
• Large trees left because of difficulty of removal, they also provide protection
• Fruit bearing trees left as they are a source of food
• Houses may be built in the clearings
• Ash is scattered to improve fertility after the trees have been burned
• Little fertiliser used. This means nutrient levels quickly drop. Land must be abandoned after 3 / 4 years
• Plot may be revisited to harvest fruit which was planted
• Labour Intensive
• Little machinery (perhaps chain saws)
• Crops planted using digging sticks
• Crops often planted between remaining tree roots
• Land left fallow so nutrients can become re-established while a new clearing is cultivated.
• Process repeated
Changes
• All relate to the destruction of the rainforest
o Logging - Mahogany
o Mining – iron ore, bauxite
o Ranching
o Dams – Hydro Electric Power
o Road Building – Trans-Amazonian Highway
• Areas previously used for shifting cultivation are destroyed
• Shorter fallow periods – land has less tine to recover
• Likelihood of land degradation increased dramatically
• Loss of traditional ways of life
• Opposition to “westernisation”
• Migration to towns – overcrowding
• Loss of biodiversity – wildlife
• Only solutions involve changing how they live
Intensive Peasant Farming
Characteristics
• Monsoon lands of Asia, e.g. Thailand / India
• Very small areas of land, but very intensely cultivated
• Small fields
• Steep terraced hillside – increased area available for crops in a mountainous area
• Soil bunds – helps to retain water in the paddy fields
• Flooded fields – necessary for growth of young rice plants
• Water Buffalo – lack of finance for machines
• Landscape makes machines impractical
• Labour intensive – many workers
• Rice crop – staple food – many harvests a year – supports very high population density
• Rice seeds grown in nursery beds before being planted as seedlings in the flooded fields
• Water is drained as the grain ripens
• Harvest done by hand using sickles
• Villagers often live close to the paddy fields in nucleated settlements
Changes – The Green Revolution
• The changes in intensive peasant farming are basically the result of the green revolution
• Use of HYV or crops (rice, wheat and maize)
• Increased use of pesticides and fertilizers
• Improvements in irrigation
• Increased mechanisation
• Improved infrastructure – buildings, roads, electricity, etc
• Reduction in the use of cattle
• Subsistence to commercial farming
Positive Effects
• Higher yields means people are better fed
• Surplus crops can be sold
• Faster growing crops allow several crops per year
• Yields are more reliable, and crops can be disease resistant
• Irrigation allows harvests on increasingly marginal land
• Enhanced quality of life
Negative Effects
• HYV crops, irrigation, and machinery are very expensive, greatly increased costs result
• Only rich farmers can therefore benefit
• Those who cannot afford to modernise become uncompetitive, run into debt, and are forced of their land
• Overuse of irrigation leads to salinisation of land
• HYV crops are susceptible to pest damage
• Increased use of pesticides kills of wildlife
• Mechanisation and farm amalgamations leads to unemployment in an area which is already far beyond its carrying capacity
• Chemical fertilisers can cause pollution
By David Brooks
Click here to visit the Bearsden Academy Website
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
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