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Chapter 18

Traditional Livelihoods of Rural Peoples

Primary Economic Activities

• Harvest or extract something from the earth

• Hunting and gathering, grazing, agriculture, fishing, forestry, quarrying

Locational Factors for Primary Economic Activities

--must be located close to the resource.

Secondary Economic Activities

• Add value to materials by changing their form or combining them into more useful—therefore more valuable—commodities

• Smelting, manufacturing, processing

Locational Factors for Secondary Economic Activities

--needs to be accessible to the resource, a source of energy, the market, and an appropriate labor force.

Why is Detroit located where it is?

Tertiary Economic Activities

• Provide services to the primary and secondary sectors

• Financial, business services, professional and personal services, wholesale and retail trade

Locational Factors for Tertiary Economic Activities

--Proximity to the market is the most important locational factor for tertiary activities.

Quaternary Economic Activities

• Involve the processong and dissemination of information

• Government, management, information processing, finance, insurance, legal services, computer services

Locational Factors for Quaternary Economic Activities

--Access to good telecommunications infrastructure and a suitable work force is important.

Quinary Economic Activity

• Include high-level decision-making roles in all types of large organizations

• Scientific research and high-level management

Locational Factors for Quinary Economic Activities

--Quinary economic activities tend to cluster.

Research Triangle Park, NC

The sectors of the economy are tied together by its infrastrcture

The Geography of Agriculture

• Why study agriculture?– Much of earth’s land surface is dedicated

to agriculture– Only 2% of Americans are engaged in

farming, but half of all families in LDCs depend on farming to sustain them.

– Agriculture is a major contributor to environmental change.

The First Agricultural Revolution

• Occurred in the Fertile Crescent perhaps as early as 12,000 years ago.

Domestication of plants and animals probably emerged as an extension of food gathering activities of hunting and gathering societies.

Intensive vs.Extensive Agriculture

• Intensive agriculture uses much labor and capital to increase productivity per unit of land.

• Extensive agriculture expends less labor and capital per unit of land.

Systems of Agricultural Production

• Subsistence agriculture is practiced by families and villages when they raise only enough animals and crops to feed themselves. There is very little trade.

• Commercial agriculture produces goods for sale in the city or on the international market.

Types of Subsistence Agriculture

• Shifting cultivation or swidden agriculture is a type of subsistence farming found in tropical rain forest areas.

• Also called slash-and-burn or milpa.


• Pastoral nomadism is a form of extensive subsistence agriculture.

• Animal herds are moved from one forage area to another in a cyclical pattern of migration.

Wodaabe of The Sahara Tibetan herdsmen


• Transhumance is a form of pastoral nomadism wherein stock is moved to the lowlands in the winter and to the highlands in the summer (vertical nomadism).


• Problems faced by subsistence agriculturalists:– Soil quality is often marginal.– They generally lack the tools and technology that developed

countries have had for nearly 100 years.– It is difficult for them to accumulate the capital that would

allow for an improvement in the standard of living.– Poor countries must often turn to cash crops for export,

leaving them without the food production needed to sustain their own population.

Second Agricultural Revolution

• Began in the late Middle Ages and included changes that brought more efficiency to farming during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Second Agricultural Revolution

• Open fields were enclosed by fences, hedges, walls.

• Crop rotation replaced the practice of fallowing fields.

• Seeds and breeding stock were improved.• Farming implements were improved--the use

of the heavy plow meant marginal lands could now be cultivated.

• Horse collar improved--horses replaced oxen for plowing.

Effect of the Industrial Revolution

• The advances of the Second Agricultural Revolution were sustained.

• Tractors and new farm machines were introduced.

• Commercial farming was extended--colonial production was needed to supply factories and feed new urban populations in the core.

Third Agricultural Revolution

• Intensive mechanization• The use of biotechnology (genetic

engineering of higher-yielding crop strains)

• A blending of primary (production), secondary (processing), and tertiary (marketing) sectors in a new vertical organization of agriculture.

The Von Thünen Model

Von Thünen’s basic premises:• Farmers select crops to cultivate and animals to

raise based on market location.• This decision is based on two factors (together

called “land rent”):– The cost of the land– The cost of transporting goods to market

• Farms located closer to the market select crops with higher transportation costs while more distant farms select crops that can be transported less expensively.

Agricultural Location

Von Thünen’s assumptions:

• That the terrain is flat• That there are no barriers to transportation to the

market• That soils and other environmental conditions are

the same everywhere• That social customs and government policies do

not influence the attractiveness of certain products.• That everyone is trying to maximize profits

Small, suburban market

One main highway

Grid highway network

Agricultural Location

– More intense use of land nearer the market– Less intense use of land further from the market

…applying von Thunen’sbasic assumptions

…von Thunen’s model withVariations in climate factored in--the north is colder than the South.

Market gardens are close to urban centers.

Agricultural Productivity in the U.S.Corn for grain

Bushels/Acre Hours of labor/ 100 bushels

1935-1939 26.1 108

1950-1959 39.4 34

1989-1992 118.7 3

Agricultural Productivity in the U.S.Cotton

Pounds/acre Hours of labor/ 500# bale

1935-1939 226 209

1950-1959 296 107

1989-1992 650 5

Agricultural Productivity in the U.S.Wheat

Pounds/acre Hours labor/

100 bushels

1935-1939 13.2 67

1950-1959 17.3 27

1989-1992 36.5 7

• In 1870, half of the U.S. population was directly employed in agriculture.

• As of 2006, less than 1% of the U.S. population is employed in agriculture.– Not because we are producing less, but

because new technologies have reduced the amount of labor required.

•What type of agricultural activity is depicted in each of the slides?

CattleGrazing

Labor intensive vs. capital intensive?

Intensive vs extensive land use?

Commercial vs. subsistence?

Sedentary vs. nomadic?

Wheat




Sedentary vs. nomadic?

Rice




Sedentary vs. nomadic

Bananas

• Labor intensive vs. capital intensive?• Intensive vs extensive land use?• Commercial vs. subsistence?• Sedentary vs. nomadic?

Vegetables


Fishing


PigsFeed Lot


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