Unit 5
Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes
Notes
Agricultural practices
- Intensive agriculture uses a lot of labor or capital on small land areas (rice farming in Asia, market gardening). Extensive agriculture uses large areas with little input (ranching, shifting cultivation).
- Subsistence agriculture feeds the farmer's family; commercial agriculture produces for sale.
- Practices include shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn), pastoral nomadism, plantation agriculture (cash crops in former colonies), mixed crop and livestock, and ranching.
- Climate and terrain matter: terracing on slopes, irrigation in dry regions.
- Rural settlement patterns: clustered, dispersed and linear. Survey systems: metes and bounds, township and range (the U.S. grid), and long lot.
Agricultural revolutions
- First (Neolithic): domestication of plants and animals in hearths like the Fertile Crescent, about 10,000 years ago.
- Second (British): better tools (the seed drill), crop rotation and enclosure, which supported the Industrial Revolution.
- Third (Green Revolution): high-yield seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation from the 1950s–1960s. It raised food output in Asia and Latin America but increased chemical use, water demand and inequality between farmers.
- The Columbian Exchange spread crops and animals between hemispheres.
Modern agriculture
- Agribusiness and commodity chains; economies of scale favor large farms. Bid-rent theory explains why land near cities is used more intensively.
- Von Thünen's model: rings around a market city, with perishable goods (dairy, market gardening) nearest, then forests, grains, and ranching farthest out, based on transportation cost.
- GMOs, aquaculture, organic farming, and debates over food security and food deserts.
- Environmental effects: desertification, soil salinization, deforestation, and pollution. Sustainable practices: crop rotation, conservation tillage, and sustainable fishing.
- Women's roles in farming are large, especially in developing countries.
Practice
High input per unit of land.
It began in hearths like the Fertile Crescent.
It boosted yields in the mid-1900s.
Perishable goods must reach the market quickly.
Fertilizers and pesticides caused pollution.
It's common in the American Midwest.
Often in low-income neighborhoods.
Farmers clear land, farm it, then move on as the soil wears out.
Free response
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Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Describe von Thünen's model of agricultural land use.
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Agricultural activities form rings around a central market city based on transportation cost and perishability: dairy and gardening nearest, then forests, grains, and ranching farthest away.
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(b) Explain ONE way modern transportation has changed the model's pattern.
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Refrigerated trucks and air freight let perishable goods travel long distances, so farms no longer need to be close to cities (like fruit shipped across continents).
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(c) Explain ONE environmental effect of commercial agriculture.
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Fertilizer runoff causes eutrophication and dead zones in waterways, and clearing land for crops leads to deforestation and habitat loss.
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