Agriculture 2 Flashcards
(33 cards)
Second Agricultural Revolution
- improvements in methods and techniques of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce
- Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and other neighboring countries
What changes did European farming undergo in the 17th and 18th century?
- new crops came from trade with the Americas
- new crops were well suited for the climate and soils of Western Europe
- European gov. passed laws such as Great Britain’s Enclosure Act
- farmers increased the size of their land, fenced in land, and instituted field rotation
What did the Great Britain’s Enclosure Act do?
-encouraged consolidation of fields into large, single-owner holdings
What did the seed drill do?
-enabled farmers to avoid wasting seeds and to plant in rows, making it simpler distinguishing weeds from crops
How did the Industrial Revolution contribute to the Second Agricultural Revolution?
- the railroad helped move agriculture into new regions
- the internal combustible engine made possible the intention of tractors, and multitude of large farm equipment
What did Johann Heinrich von Thünen observe?
-in the town of Rostock in Germany, he noted that one commodity/crop gave way to another in succession, as one moved away from Rostock
What was the Von Thünen model?
- model that analyzes the spatial character of economic activity
1: nearest town: market gardening/ dairying; high level of intensity
2: forest: wood for fuel/building
3: grains/ extensive field crops
4: reaching, livestock
What did geographer Lee Liu observe?
- in a province in China, farmers close to the village and farmers further away from the village had different methods
- land improvements near village; land degradation father from village
Third Agricultural Revolution/ Green Revolution
- 1930s
- recently successful development of higher yield, fast-growing varieties of rice/other cereals in developing countries which led to increased production/unit area and narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs
How did the Green Revolution start?
- 1930s: agricultural scientist in American Midwest began experimenting for seeds with higher crop yields in Mexico
- 1940s: research on corn that would grow better; they did
- 1960s: scientist in Philippines produced IR8 (desirable properties)
- 1982: produced IR36 by 1992 it was widely grown
1994: developed one even better than IR36
How does Vandana Shiva feel about the Green Revolution?
- She states that it’s a failure because it has reduced genetic diversity, vulnerability to pests, soil erosion, water shortages, etc.
- But beneficial to petrochemical companies, dam builders, large landowners, and manufactures of agricultural machiner
What are genetically modified organisms (GMO)? What is percentage of GMO in processed food in the US?
- crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods
- 75% of all processed foods
Change of subsistence and commercial in regions
- Latin America: dramatic increases in production of cash crops
- Asia: production of cereal crops increased for foreign/domestic market
- Subsaharan Africa: commercialized agriculture increase/ agricultural exports decrease
What is occurring in Gambia?
- projects to convert wetlands to irrigated agricultural lands for rice year-round
- lands women used for subsistence became for commercial use
- women found themselves with less time for other activities
Women percentage in agricultural labor force
- Subsaharan Africa: 85%<
- China: 75%
- India: 70%
What are the large green circles standing out in arid regions?
-places where center-pivot irrigation systems circle around a pivot, providing irrigation to a circle of crops
What is the Cadastral system?
- method of land survey through which land ownership and property lines are defined
- adopted in places where settlement could be regulated by law, and land surveys were crucial
Rectangular survey system
-appears as check boards across agricultural fields
Township-and-range system
- designed to facilitate the movement of non-Indians evenly across farmlands of the US
- imposed a rigid gridlike pattern on the land
- basic unit was 1 sq. mi. section
- land was bought in 1/1, 1/2, 1/4
Homestead Act
-a homesteader received one section of land (160 acres) after living on the land or five years
Metes and bounds survey
- east of the Appalachian Mountains
- relies on natural features to demarcate irregular parcels of land
Long-lot survey system
- found in Canadian maritimes and in parts of Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas
- divided land into narrow parcels stretching back from river, roads, or canals
Primogeniture
- all land passes to the eldest son
- parcels tend to be larger ad farmers work a single plot of land
- Northern Europe, colonization: Americas, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand
Traditional farm-village life common in…
- Subsaharan Africa, China, India, and Southeast Asia
- in India, farming is 70%
