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Five Types of Subsistence Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Subsistence Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Subsistence Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Subsistence Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Commercial Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Commercial Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Commercial Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Commercial Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Commercial Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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Five Types of Commercial Agriculture [AP Human Geography: Unit 5 Topics 1 & 10]

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There are a huge number of different farming practices that are lumped together under the disparaging term 'slash and burn', otherwise known as swidden or shifting cultivation.

It is also used to describe the rampant encroachment of farms and ranches into forested areas, first by felling the trees, then burning the stumps and then planting. This invasive 'pioneering' bears no real resemblance to the careful nurturing and rotating of plots practiced by generations of tribal peoples. But under-informed policy-makers have lumped all such practices together and portrayed them as an environmental evil.

In fact, across the ecologically vital forests of Amazonia, Borneo and Central Africa, tribal peoples have developed complex farming systems based on clearing land for a short period and then leaving it to return to forest for a longer period. This type of "slash and burn" is better referred to as "swidden agriculture" or "shifting cultivation".

Swidden and conservation

Some argue that part of the immense diversity of these forests is due to shifting cultivation practices, rather than endangered by them.

Fire is one tool that is carefully used in these farming systems, which have been developed over generations to be appropriate to both the land and the community.

In the mid to late 20th century, swidden was seen as a disastrous activity which was destroying forests that should either be used for conservation or logging. The impacts of mining, dam building, plantations and the voracious demand for timber were underplayed, whist swidden was held up as conservation's enemy number one. Several governments banned or severely restricted the practice whilst allowing vast areas of forest land to be cleared for logging, plantations and biofuel production.

This attitude prevails. Mining company, Vedanta Resources, for example has claimed that the 'Dongria Kondh tribe's agricultural practice of shifting cultivation results in large-scale destruction of forest and thereby bio-diversity' - not only incorrect but also somewhat ironic coming from the company that seeks to dig a vast mine in this biodiverse hill range.

Recently, scientists have realised that these farming systems, 'maintain very high levels of biodiversity while providing livelihood for populations in tropical forest areas worldwide'.

In the Peruvian Amazon, scientists have recorded an average of 37 species of tree on swidden plots and records show over 370 species are supported in the territories of the Karen swidden farmers in northern Thailand.

Far from being responsible for destroying biodiversity, tribal swidden systems are being recognised as having contributed to the diversity of forest areas and to maintaining the ecological value of these areas. This shows that tribal peoples are better at looking after their environment than anyone else.

Swidden in practice

The Wanniyala Aetto of Sri Lanka are a forest people who have traditionally practiced a form of agriculture called chena cultivation. The forest plots are cleared for one or two years and then left to rest for seven or eight. The plots look untidy, with a multitude of different plants coexisting, rather than neat beds of specific crops, but this diversity is the key to both their ecological value and their economic importance to the Wanniyala Aetto.

Much of the world's 'primary' forest has in fact been historically managed under shifting cultivation. Much 'secondary' regrowth is rich in biodiversity as the clearings encourage the growth of a range of plant species which in turn attract a diversity of birds and animals.

During the fallow periods, the regenerating plots continue to provide for the community - from animals to hunt to a range of forest products including medicines, fibres and fuel. In these communities, forests are a valued part of their livelihood system - rather than something to be cleared to make way for fields.

Jummas and Jhum cultivation

The Jummas - a group of several tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of northern Bangladesh - are named after Jhum, their form of shifting cultivation. The Jumma tribes have developed this farming system to suit the rugged, hilly landscape in which they live.

The Jhum system was an effective, sustainable system that provided for the needs of the Jumma tribes for generations. But the Jumma have been squeezed into an increasingly small area, first by the submergence of land when the Karnafuli River was dammed, then by the influx of thousands of Bengali settlers who have been encouraged by the government to settle in the Hill Tracts.

The Jummas and their Jhum cultivation are under threat from both the settlers and the Bangladesh army, exacerbated by the severe restrictions that have been placed on the Jumma tribes' access to, and use of, their forests. They are forced to shorten their fallow periods and so their yields from the land are decreasing, leading to both food shortages and economic hardship.

Yields from swidden

An argument against swidden agriculture is that it does not yield sufficiently to feed a burgeoning population. But the quality and diversity of the nutrition that is extracted from swidden plots is typically higher than from intensive agricultural systems. In one Amazonian area, less than 5% of the forest land is cultivated at any one time, the rest is in varying states of regeneration.

Many of the areas where swidden agriculture is practiced are unsuitable for permanent cultivation because the soils are too poor. By moving their plots from year to year, tribal communities have developed ways of ensuring a diverse and sustainable supply of food, rather than high, but short-term, yields.

As swidden is pushed out, new agricultural and biofuel-farming systems go in, which are typically far less biodiverse, alien to local people and beyond their control, and far less able to support local communities - either in terms of current livelihoods, or nutrition or future sustainability. This form of 'progress' is devastating for tribal communities. Learn more about:

Dongria Kondh
Jummas
Wanniyala-Aetto

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Shifting cultivation - Survival International

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What is it and who does it? Swidden agriculture, also known as shifting cultivation, refers to a technique of rotational farming in which land is cleared for cultivation (normally by fire) and then left to regenerate after a few years.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History

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pastoral nomadism | Definition, Examples, & Facts

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Pastoral nomadism, one of the three general types of nomadism, a way of life of peoples who do not live continually in the same place but move cyclically or periodically. Pastoral nomads, who depend on domesticated livestock, migrate in an established territory to find pasturage for their animals.

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Five month growing season

Temperatures over 21Â°C

Monsoon rainfall over 2000mm

Flat land flooded

Dry time for harvesting

Heavy alluvial or clay soils to provide an impermeable layer

Large labour force

Water buffaloes for ploughing

Rice seeds

annual floods deposit rich layers of alluvium (silt)

Rice

Manure from buffaloes for fertilising

Rice seeds

Problems of Rice Growing

Flooding â€" provides water and fertile silt to grow the rice but sometimes disaster strikes when the floods are so severe that they destroy the rice crop.

Drought â€" in some years the monsoon rains 'fail' and the rice crop is ruined.

Shortage of land and a growing population â€" many farms are too small to support the family. The ever-increasing population makes the situation worse. Food shortages are a real problem.

Little use of machinery or modern methods.

farmholdings are broken up into tiny plots and spread over a wide area. This makes efficient farming difficult.

The majority of the best farmland is held by a few wealthy landowners.

Many of the poorer farm labourers have no land at all and work within a latifundia system where they rent small plots, giving 60% of their output to the landlord and in addition having to work on the landowner's land for free.

Changes to Rice Growing in the Ganges Basin 1 The Green Revolution:

The use of HYVs or high yielding seed varieties, such as IR8, more than trebled food production, giving higher average yields and allowing double or treble cropping;

Greater use of fertilisers, tractors and mechanised ploughs;

Grants and loans to buy new seeds and equipment.

But there are both advantages and disadvantages:

Yields increased three times;

Multiple cropping;

Other crops grown which varied the diet;

Surplus to sell in cities creating profit;

Improving standard of living;

Allows purchase of fertilisers, machinery.

Poor farmers could not afford HYVs, fertilisers and machinery;

Some borrowed and ended up with large debts;

HYVs need more water and fertiliser, which is expensive.

Eutrophication caused by the increasing use of fertilisers.

2 Irrigation:

Despite the monsoon rains the water supply can be quite inadequate for growing rice, especially if more than one crops is grown. Irrigation is a must for farmers.

In the Ganges Valley there are:

Wells: holes are dug to reach underground water supplies, the water is then lifted from the well using a shaduf or a waterwheel or by modern electric pumps â€" the water is then fed along open channels to the field;

Inundation canals on the riverbanks, which fill up as the river floods and take the water to the fields.

Terraces can be constructed on sloping land to allow gravity-fed irrigation and help prevent soil erosion.

Terracing and gravity-fed irrigation

3 Appropriate Technology:

This technology is suited to the needs, skill, knowledge and wealth of people. Large expensive irrigation projects and dams have many disadvantages. Appropriate technology is needed, for example,

Individual wells with easy to maintain, simple pumps

Renewable energy sources which use local resources, e.g. wind, solar, power, biogas

Projects which use local labour rather than machinery

No hi-tech machines needing expensive fuel and foreign spares

Low cost schemes, which are sustainable.

4 Soil Conservation:

To stop the erosion of top soils, conservation schemes are needed:

To build terraces on sloping land

To plant cover crops and windbreaks

Add manure and straw to soil.

5 Land Reform
The aim of land reform is to:

increase farm size for small landowners

set an upper limit on the amount of land owned by the wealthiest landowners

give surplus land to the landless farm labourers

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Five month growing season Temperatures over 21Â°C Monsoon rainfall over 2000mm Flat land flooded Dry time for harvesting Heavy alluvial or clay soils to provide an impermeable layer Large labour force Water buffaloes for ploughing Rice seeds annual floods deposit rich layers of alluvium (silt) Rice Manure from buffaloes for fertilising Rice seeds Problems of Rice Growing Flooding â€" provides water and fertile silt to grow the rice but sometimes disaster strikes when the floods are so severe that they destroy the rice crop.

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Wheat is the most important crop, followed by barley. Various other grains are grown for household consumption, including millet, corn, soybeans, oats, sorghum and kaoliang. Also grown are some crops sold for cash such as cotton, flax, hemp, and tobacco.

Aside from the actual crops that are grown, this region shares most of the characteristsics of intensive subsistence agricultre with the wet rice region. Land is used intensively and worked primarily by human power with the assistance of some hand implements andd animals. In milder parts of the region where wet rice does not dominate, more than one harvest can be obtained some years through skilled use of crop rotation. Crop rotation is the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop to avoid exhausting the soil.

CLIMATE prevents farmers from growing wet rice in portions of Asia, especially where summer precipitation levers are too low and winters are too harsh. Agriculture in much of interior India and northeast China is devoted to crops other than wet rice because of these conditions.

Organization of Intensive Subsistence has been difficult because irrigation systems and equipment were developed to serve large communal farms rather than small individually managed ones, which cannot afford to operate and maintain machinery. On the bright side, production has increased greatly.

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Intensive Subsistence With Wet Rice NOT Dominant

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Wheat is the most important crop, followed by barley. Various other grains are grown for household consumption, including millet, corn, soybeans, oats, sorghum and kaoliang. Also grown are some crops sold for cash such as cotton, flax, hemp, and tobacco.

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plantation, a usually large estate in a tropical or subtropical region that is cultivated by unskilled or semiskilled labour under central direction. This meaning of the term arose during the period of European colonization in the tropics and subtropics of the New World, essentially, wherever huge tracts of crops cultivated by slave labour became an economic mainstay.

The typical plantation was a self-sustained community, an economic and political institution governed with a monopoly of authority by the planter. Plantation crops were determined by soil and climate, with tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo, and sugarcane, for example, each predominating in a certain zone of the southeastern colonies of North America.

The labour-intensive plantation declined abruptly in the United States with the abolition of slavery. Most plantations were divided into small farms operated by individual owners or tenant farmers; others continued to operate as large plantations that were worked by wage-labourers or sharecroppers, many of whom were held under the tacit bondage of economic insecurity.

In tropical regions worldwide, thousands of square miles of forest land have been cleared since the 18th century for the cultivation of sugarcane, coffee, tea, cacao, rubber trees, oil palms, sisal, and bananas. Such plantations frequently depend on foreign capital and agricultural training and tend to exploit the labour forces of native populations.

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Plantation | Sugar Cane, Cotton & Tobacco

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Plantation, a usually large estate in a tropical or subtropical region that is cultivated by unskilled or semiskilled labour under central direction. This meaning of the term arose during the period of European colonization in the tropics and subtropics of the New World, essentially, wherever huge

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Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. Such agriculture occurs across Asia and in countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Central Europe, Canada, and Russia. Though at first[when? ] it mainly served domestic consumption, countries such as the United States and Japan now use it for commercial purposes.[citation needed ]

The cultivation of crops alongside the rearing of animals for meat or eggs or milk defines mixed farming. For example, a mixed farm may grow cereal crops such as wheat or rye and also keep cattle, sheep, pigs or poultry. Often the dung from the cattle serves to fertilize the cereal crops. Before horses were commonly used for haulage, many young male cattle on such farms were often not butchered as surplus for meat but castrated and used as bullocks to haul the cart and the plough.

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Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. Such agriculture occurs across Asia and in countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Central Europe, Canada, and Russia. Though at first[when?

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dairying | Definition, Practices, Techniques, Types, & Facts

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dairying, branch of agriculture that encompasses the breeding, raising, and utilization of dairy animals, primarily cows, for the production of milk and the various dairy products processed from it. Milk for human consumption is produced primarily by the cow and the water buffalo. The goat also is

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Grain is the harvested seed of grasses such as wheat, oats, rice, and corn. Other important grains include sorghum, millet, rye, and barley. Around the globe, grains, also called cereals, are the most important staple food. Humans get an average of 48 percent of their calories, or food energy, from grains. Grains are also used to feed livestock and to manufacture some cooking oils, fuels, cosmetics, and alcohols.

Almost half of the grains grown around the world are harvested for people to eat directly. People turn wheat flour into bread, steam rice, and make corn tortillas. Grains are a food staple in almost every culture on Earth. A food staple is food that is eaten frequently, often at every meal. Staple foods can be eaten fresh or stored for use all year. Rice, corn, and wheat are the most common staple foods on Earth.

Grains are so important because they are a good source of important nutrients called carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are a type of sugar that provides energy for organisms to function. Grains have carbohydrates as well as other important nutrients, such as vitamins. While grains fill many nutritional needs, they often lack some important proteins. In many cultures, grains are part of a staple diet when combined with protein-rich legumes, such as beans. Together, grains and legumes make a healthy diet: corn and beans, rice and tofu, wheat bread and peanut butter.

A third of the world's grain supply is fed to animals. Most domestic animals, from cattle to dogs, are fed food rich in grains and grain products.

The rest of the world's grain supply is used in the manufacture of industrial products. Biodiesel is a fuel used for vehicles. One type of biodiesel is ethanol, which can be made from corn.

Grains are annual plants. This means they have only one growing season per year, yielding one crop. Every growing season, grasses grow, reach maturity, produce seeds, and then die. Grains are harvested from dead, or dry, grasses.

Some grains are winter grains, such as rye. They are able to withstand cold, wet climates. Others are summer grains, such as corn. Corn usually grows best in warm weather.

Grains can grow in almost any climate. Rice is the most important grain in many tropical areas, where it is hot and humid year-round. Rice is especially common in Asia. In Southeast Asia, rice is grown and harvested in flooded fields called paddies. Rice paddies can be flat or terraced. Terraced rice paddies look like steps on a green hill. This type of grain agriculture has been used for centuries.

Unlike rice, sorghum does not grow well in a wet climate. Sorghum favors an arid climate. The nations of West Africa, including Senegal, the Gambia, Burkina Faso, and Cape Verde, are the world's largest producers of sorghum.

In temperate areas-those with warm summers and cold winters-wheat is the most common grain. Wheat fields are common in the Great Plains of the United States and Canada, for instance. Corn, which is native to the Americas, is now grown in many temperate areas throughout the world. Oats, another grain that grows in temperate areas, are also used as a livestock feed.

Harvesting Grain

People first began eating grains about 75,000 years ago in western Asia. These grains, including einkorn and emmer, were ancestors of today's wheat. Einkorn and emmer grew wild near the banks of rivers. People harvested the grasses that grew naturally near their communities.

People began cultivating, or growing, grain more recently. In 2009, scientists announced that they had discovered the world's oldest known grain silos at Dhra in what is now the nation of Jordan. The silos, which date back 11,000 years, contained remnants of barley and an early type of wheat.

Ancient people ate grains in much the same way we do today. Wheat grains were made into flour and used in breads. Rice was steamed and eaten hot or cold. Oats were mashed with water or milk to make oatmeal. Beer, one of the oldest manufactured beverages in the world, is made from grain such as barley. Ancient beers had a very low alcohol content, but were good sources of carbohydrates.

In some ancient civilizations, grain products served as wages or forms of currency. Many of the workers who built Egypt's pyramids at Giza, for instance, were often paid in bread and beer.

Today, grain silos are a familiar sight to many people in the developed world. Harvesting is done almost entirely with enormous, expensive machinery. The most important piece of agricultural machinery for grain crops is the combine harvester. This remarkable machine does three jobs: it cuts the grain, threshes the grain, and winnows the grain. Cutting, of course, is removing the grain from the stalk of grass. Threshing is loosening the edible grain from its casing, called the chaff. (Chaff is inedible; organisms cannot digest it.) Winnowing is the process of removing the grain from the chaff. Combine harvesters help farmers expand the amount of grains they can harvest by combining three activities into one.

In the developing world, few farmers have the huge fields of grain that agribusinesses in the developed world do. Farmers in the developing world typically have a few acres, and provide grain for their local community. These farmers usually thresh and winnow with separate machines (threshers and winnowers) after harvesting the field. In many places, harvesting is still done with hand tools such as the sickle, a long, curved blade used for cutting many stalks of grain at once.

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Sources

Dunn, Margery G. (Editor). (1989, 1993). "Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography." Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

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Grain is the harvested seed of grasses such as wheat, oats, rice, and corn. Other important grains include sorghum, millet, rye, and barley. Around the globe, grains, also called cereals, are the most important staple food. Humans get an average of 48 percent of their calories, or food energy, from grains.

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Ranching is the practice of raising herds of animals on large tracts of land. Ranchers commonly raise grazing animals such as cattle and sheep. Some ranchers also raise elk, bison, ostriches, emus, and alpacas. The ranching and livestock industry is growing faster than any other agricultural sector in the world.

Ranching is common in temperate, dry areas, such as the Pampas region of South America, the western United States, the Prairie Provinces of Canada, and the Australian Outback. In these regions, grazing animals are able to roam over large areas. Some Australian ranches, known as stations, extend more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles). The largest, Anna Creek station, covers almost 24,000 square kilometers (9,266 square miles).

Cowboys are responsible for herding and maintaining the health of animals across these vast ranches. Cowboys often work with horses to herd cattle and sheep. Cowboy culture is an important part of the identity of ranching regions. In Mexico and South America, cowboys are known as vaqueros. In Australia and New Zealand, they are called jackaroos. Herding, round-ups, cattle drives, and branding often symbolize ranching and cowboy culture.

Herding is the practice of caring for roaming groups of livestock over a large area. Ranchers and cowboys often herd animals toward favorable grazing areas. Herding also involves keeping the herd safe from predators and natural dangers of the landscape. Grazing is so important to Australian stations, ranchers are known as s.

A round-up, called a muster in Australia, is a gathering of all livestock on a ranch. A round-up is usually conducted by cowboys on horseback, ATV, or other vehicle. It can be done for a wide variety of reasons: health care (such as immunization shots) for the animals, branding, or the shearing of sheep.

A round-up is one of the most difficult responsibilities of ranchers and cowboys. Animals often do not want to be rounded up and herded into a small, confined area. Even the most docile cattle or sheep are likely to become aggressive during a round-up. Round-ups also involve a large number of ranch personnel performing different tasks at the same time: veterinarians administering care to the animals, cowboys herding the animals, and wranglers caring for the ranchs horses.

A cattle drive is a massive effort of moving a herd of cattle from one place to another. In the 1700s and 1800s, cowboys on horseback took a year or more to drive cattle thousands of kilometers. Cattle drives start on ranches and usually end near points of major transportation routes, such as a harbor or railroad station. From there, cattle are loaded into vehicles and shipped to slaughterhouses.

Branding is the process of permanently marking an animal to indicate ownership. The traditional brand is known as a hot brand. A rancher or cowboy heats an iron instrument with a design unique to his ranch. Each animal belonging to that ranch has the design burned into its skin. The scar left by the burn is the animals brand.

Hot brands are less frequently used on modern ranches. Ear-tags and ink tattoos are more common. Many ranchers use microchips instead of brands. A microchip is implanted under the skin of the animal. The microchip uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) to not only identify the animals owner, but also to relay information about its location and health.

Livestock raised on ranches are an important part of a regions agriculture. Livestock provide meat for human and animal consumption. They also supply materials, such as leather and wool, for clothing, furniture, and other industries.

Some ranches, nicknamed dude ranches, offer tourist facilities. Some of these sites are working ranches that allow guests to help out in real ranching activities. Others focus on horseback riding, offering lessons and trail rides. Still others allow visitors to hunt native or imported animals. Resort ranches provide a more relaxing experience, with fun activities like trail rides and sing-alongs.

History of Ranching

People raised livestock throughout the Middle Ages, but usually only in small numbers on small areas of land. The practice of raising large herds of livestock on extensive grazing lands started in Spain and Portugal around 1000 CE. These early ranchers used methods still associated with ranching today, such as using horses for herding, round-ups, cattle drives, and branding.

Ranching was only firmly established in the New World of the Americas. When the first Spanish explorers came to the Americas, they brought cattle and cattle-raising expertise with them. A variety of ranching traditions developed in the Americas, depending on the region the settlers came from and the characteristics of the land where they settled.

are cowboys of the grasslands (or Pampas) of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In Central Mexico, particularly the state of Jalisco, cowboys are called s, like the charros from Castile, Spain, who settled the region. In Northern Mexico, wealthy ranchers known as s employed vaqueros to drive their cattle. Ranching in the western United States is derived from vaquero culture.

Throughout most of the 1800s, ranchers in the United States set their cattle and sheep loose to roam the prairie. Most of the grazing land was owned by the government. This was the so-called open range. Ranchers only owned enough land for a homestead and sources of water. Twice a year, cowboys rounded up cattle to brand calves (in spring) and gather steers for sale (in autumn).

Several factors contributed to the end of the open range. One was the invention of barbed wire in 1874. Farmers began to fence off their fields to protect them from being destroyed by livestock. This limited access to grazing land. Farmers and ranchers often came into conflict over land and water rights.

Overgrazing was also a problem. As more and more ranchers grazed their animals on the open range, the quality of the land became degraded. Cattle are not native to the Americas, and had to compete with native grazing animals, such as bison, for forage. Grasses did not have time to grow on the open range, especially in winter.

The winter of 1886-87, one of the harshest ever recorded, killed hundreds of thousands of cattle that were already weakened from reduced grazing. Many large ranches and cattle organizations went bankrupt. Afterwards, ranchers began fencing off their land, which they often leased from the American government.

In Western movies, ranchers and cowboys are played mostly by white men like Gene Autry, John Wayne, and Clint Eastwood. However, in the 1800s, more than one-third of all cowboys in the United States were Mexican vaqueros. Others were Chinese or Filipino. African Americans, seeking greater freedom in the West, also worked as cowboys and ranch hands during this period.

Working Animals

Ranches include animals other than livestock. These working animals help with the job of herding and rounding up livestock.

Horses are perhaps the most familiar working animal on ranches. If you imagine a cowboy, you probably picture him sitting astride a horse. Horses allow cowboys to travel over rangelands quickly and keep up with moving livestock. Horses are also strong and responsive, making them excellent herding animals.

The sport of rodeo developed from the skills required of cowboys and ranch horses. Informal competitions among ranchers and cowboys tested their speed, agility, and endurance. Today, events such as roping, barrel racing, and bull riding demonstrate those same qualities among professional athletes.

Dogs are also common on ranches. Several types of dogs have been bred for their herding abilities. Many of these highly intelligent, agile animals are simply called shepherds; Australian shepherds and German shepherds are probably the most familiar. Collies and sheepdogs are also used on ranches. Livestock guardian dogs do not herd animals, but are used to protect herds from predators. For example, the Great Pyrenees was bred to protect grazing animals from wolves and other predators native to the Pyrenees mountains in Spain and France.

Ranching Around the World

Today, ranches exist on every continent except Antarctica. South America enjoys an enormous ranching culture. The largest beef-producing company in the world is the Brazilian multinational corporation JBS-Friboi.

The South American ranching industry continues to grow. Many South American countries, led by Brazil and Argentina, are rapidly developing. The growing middle class has expanded the market for beef. Argentina and Uruguay are the worlds top per capita consumers of beef.

In Australia, like the Americas, ranching is a way of life and a strong part of the economy. A typical jackaroo (or female ) is a young, seasonal employee. Stations may employ their own veterinarians, mechanics, and engineers.

Sheep stations are more common than cattle stations in Australia. The difficult, annual process of shearing sheep is a symbol of Australian livestock culture. A shearing team or company usually moves from ranch to ranch with specialized shearing equipment and machinery.

In Africa, most ranches are wildlife ranches. Wildlife ranches, also known as game ranches, maintain healthy populations of species such as rhinoceros, elephant, leopard, and antelope. People pay a fee to hunt these animals on the ranch. Wildlife ranches also appeal to ecotourists. Ecotourism promotes traveling in a way that has minimum environmental impact and benefits local people.

Large-scale cattle ranching is rare in Asia but fairly common throughout the islands of the South Pacific. In the U.S. state of Hawaii, cowboy culture was born when Mexican vaqueros were brought in to help herd cattle in the 1830s. Cowboys in Hawaii are called s.

In Europe, few ranches exist outside Spain and Portugal. Most countries in Europe are too small to support ranches. In fact, Australias Anna Creek station is only slightly smaller than the entire nation of Belgium.

Ranching and the Environment

Ranching is an efficient way to raise livestock to provide meat, dairy products, and raw materials for fabrics. It is a vital part of economies and rural development around the world. However, the livestock industry has major, disruptive effects on the environment.

In South America, ranching has expanded beyond grasslands into rain forests. Ranchers clear large swaths of forest in order to create pastureland for their cattle. This clearcutting reduces habitat for native species such as monkeys, tropical birds, and millions of species of insects not found anywhere else in the world. During the past 40 years, about 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down, much of it for cattle ranching.

Ranches established on former rain forest lands are usually not economically productive. Cleared rain forest land usually makes poor grazing land. A rain forests biodiversity exists in its above-ground canopy, not the earth beneath. Grasses do not thrive in the thin, nutrient-poor soil.

Even outside of the rain forest, many ranching practices have significant effects on the environment. Overgrazing, a threat throughout the Great Plains of the United States and Canada, puts the native tallgrass prairie ecosystem at risk. This can lead to soil erosion. The loss of valuable topsoil can reduce the agricultural productivity for crops and grazing lands. Poor agricultural practices contributed to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which destroyed hundreds of ranches throughout the Great Plains.

Compaction of the soil from animal hooves further degrades the land. This is unique to introduced species. Bison, native to the Americas, have small, sharp, pointed hooves. Their stampeding aerates the soil and actually contributes to the prairie ecosystem. Cattle have heavy, flat hooves that flatten the soil and reduce its ability to absorb water and nutrients.

Drylands are especially at risk for overgrazing and reduction in the quality of soil. In fact, ranching can be a key cause of desertification.

Livestock ranching also contributes to air and water pollution. Runoff from ranches can include manure, antibiotics and hormones given to the animals, as well as fertilizers and pesticides. Chemicals from tanneries that treat animal hides can also seep into water.

Ranching is also a major contributor to global warming. In fact, livestock are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than transportation. Carbon is released when forests are cleared for pastureland. Manure produces nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. Cattle release large amounts of methane from their digestive systems.

Scientists, governments, and ranchers are working together to find ways to reduce these problems and make ranching a sustainable economic activity.

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Writers

Diane Boudreau
Melissa McDaniel
Erin Sprout
Andrew Turgeon

Illustrators

Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society
Tim Gunther, Illustrator

Editors

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing
Kara West

Educator Reviewer

Nancy Wynne

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Sources

Dunn, Margery G. (Editor). (1989, 1993). "Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography." Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Last Updated

Nov. 8, 2011

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Ranching is the practice of raising herds of animals on large tracts of land. Ranchers commonly raise grazing animals such as cattle and sheep. Some ranchers also raise elk, bison, ostriches, emus, and alpacas. The ranching and livestock industry is growing faster than any other agricultural sector in the world.

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Mediterranean crops are a very important group of species associated with the climate of the Mediterranean region. With long dry and hot periods, the cropping systems in this particular climate are usually highly specialized on certain products with very relevant nutritional, commercial, social and environmental value. Due to their historical relevance, this kind of agricultural products has acquired a significant share of the global food market, including the organic one.

The most relevant crops of this kind of systems are permanent crops, such as olives, grapes, citrus and nuts which most of their global production is located in areas with a Mediterranean climate. In addition to these crops, there are a strong presence of leguminous, fresh vegetables, wheat and it is often complemented with an extensive presence of livestock, mostly sheep and goat.

In the last several decades, most of the areas with a Mediterranean climate have been suffering from many different challenges, including climate change, depleting water resources and rapid urban sprawl.
FiBL has worked in numerous projects related to these regions and species. It is putting together available expertise in this field to provide sustainable solutions to organic and conventional farmers specialized in Mediterranean farming systems.

Some of the research focus of our experts on these areas have been pest control, integrated management, weed control, soil fertility, market development, capacity development, ruminant production, variety testing, viticulture, etc.

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Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL

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Mediterranean crops are a very important group of species associated with the climate of the Mediterranean region. With long dry and hot periods, the cropping systems in this particular climate are usually highly specialized on certain products with very relevant nutritional, commercial, social and environmental value.

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A market garden on an outlying island of Hong Kong

A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under 0.40 hectares (4,000 ; 1 acre) to some hectares (a few acres), or sometimes in greenhouses, distinguishes it from other types of farming. A market garden is sometimes called a truck farm in the USA.

A market garden is a business that provides a wide range and steady supply of fresh produce through the local growing season. Unlike large, industrial farms, which practice monoculture and mechanization, many different crops and varieties are grown and more manual labour and gardening techniques are used. The small output requires selling through such local fresh produce outlets as on-farm stands, farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture subscriptions, restaurants and independent produce stores. Market gardening and orchard farming are closely related to horticulture, which concerns the growing of fruits and vegetables.

Cucumbers reach to the ceiling in a greenhouse in Richfield, Minnesota, where market gardeners grew a wide variety of produce for sale in Minneapolis. ca. 1910

Traditionally, "market garden" was used to contrast farms devoted to raising vegetables and berries, a specialized type of farming, with the larger branches of grain, dairy, and orchard fruit farming; agricultural historians continue to thus use the term. Such operations were not necessarily small-scale. Indeed, many were very large, commercial farms that were called "gardens" not because of size, but because English-speaking farmers traditionally referred to their vegetable plots as "gardens": in English whether in common parlance or in anthropological or historical scholarship, husbandry done by the hoe is customarily called "gardening" and husbandry done by the plough as "farming" regardless of the scale of either. A "market garden" was simply a vegetable plot, the produce of which the farmer used to sell as opposed to use to feed his or her family. Market gardens are necessarily close to the markets, i.e. cities, that they serve.

Truck farms produce vegetables for market. The word 'truck' in Truck farms does not refer to the transportation truck, which is derived from Greek for "wheel", but rather from the old north French word troquer, which means "barter" or "exchange". The use for vegetables raised for market can be traced back to 1784 and truck farms to 1866.

Selling to the wholesale market usually earns 10-20% of the retail price, but direct-to-consumer selling earns 100%. Although highly variable, a conventional farm may return US$0.03 to US$0.30/m ² (US$120 to US$1,210 per acre; US$300 to US$3,000 per hectare) but an efficient market garden can earn in the US$2 to US$5/m ² (US$8,100 to US$20,200 per acre; US$20,000 to US$50,000 per hectare) range, or even higher. However, the size of a market garden has a practical upper bound, while with conventional farming, a farmer can farm vast areas because access to a direct market is not a requirement.

Larger market gardens often sell to such local food outlets as supermarkets, food cooperatives, community-supported agriculture programs, farmers' markets, fresh food wholesalers, and any other higher-volume channels that benefit from buying a range of vegetables from a single supplier, their freshness allowing for a premium over the revenue from the supermarkets and frequently other local suppliers. A larger market garden can by mixed crop production maintain a sales alternative to the wholesale commodity-style channels often used by farms that specialize in high volumes of a limited number of crops.

Relying on cities for markets, however, can have drawbacks. For example, in England, south Sussex was famous for growing tomatoes for the London market that were delivered by train. The arrival of railways in the 19th century at first stimulated growth of market gardens in certain areas by providing quick access to the city, but it eventually allowed commuting residents to move there and turn many market garden areas into suburbs. Urban sprawl still eats up farmland in urban regions. Buying the rights to develop farmland from the farmers solved this problem in Suffolk County, New York.

Chinese market gardener in Australia, ca. 1893

In some more affluent countries, including Australia and the United States, market gardening is rated as a high social utility occupation. It is typically taken up by recent immigrant groups for one or two generations, until they can accumulate capital, language and trade skills. The succession of dominant market garden groups in Australia, for example, was - from the early 19th century Anglo-Celtic, people from German-speaking countries, Chinese (after the peak of the gold rushes in mid-late 19th century), then southern European migrants from Italy, Malta and Yugoslavia (before it disintegrated), then southeast Asian migrant and refugee communities following the Vietnam War, such as the Vietnamese and Cambodians.

Involvement in a market garden lets immigrant groups who otherwise have few marketable skills apart from their labour, become actively involved in the market economy. Benefits are that it does not rely on education or language, it adapts well to providing work for extended family groups, and in large market growing regions even wider community support networks. Sharing of knowledge and experience within communities reduces risks, and supports a network of other trades such as carriers, market agents, and heavy machinery contractors, and contract farm labour. Market-gardening land is typically relatively cheap and allows immigrants to purchase land, often with an accompanying residence, far more readily than in urban settings. However, like all agriculture it risks crop failure, market collapse and competition from industrialized broad-acre farming and 'fresh-frozen' imported produce. Other risks are from hazards such as pesticide use, especially where the market gardeners are not trained in their use or able to read product information. Another consequence is marginalization of the succeeding generation where they are relied upon as the fittest and strongest to succeed in continuing the farm rather than pursue other ambitions and opportunities.

Market gardening has in recent decades become an alternative business and lifestyle choice for individuals who wish to " return to the land", because the business model and niche allow a smaller start-up investment than conventional commercial farming, and generally offers a viable market (in microeconomics, basic or staple foods are considered as necessities and have highly inelastic demand curves, meaning that consumers will buy them in relatively constant quantities even if prices or incomes vary), especially with the recent popularity of organic and local food. It is in some instances considered hobby farming, although market gardening is a recognized type of farming with a distinct business model that can be significantly profitable and sustainable. There is a spectrum with overlap from with the efforts of amateur gardeners who sometimes sell from home or at markets, as an extension of their pastime, to fully commercial market gardening as the main or sole income stream. The latter requires the most discipline and business sense. Successful practitioners who have written books about it include Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier.

A greenhouse with edible plants for use in a culinary school in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA

An example of a market garden operation in North America might involve one farmer working full-time on two acres (0.81 ha; 8,100 m ²). Most work is done with hand and light power tools, and perhaps a small tractor. Some 20 different crops are planted throughout the season. Hardier plants, like peas, spinach, radish, carrots and lettuce are seeded first, in earlier spring, followed by main season crops, like tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beans, cucumber, onions, and summer squash. A further planting timed for harvest in the cooler fall conditions might include more spinach and carrots, winter squash, cabbage, and rutabaga. Harvesting is done at least weekly, by hand, sometimes with part-time help, and produce is sorted, washed and sold fresh at the local farmers' market, and from an on-farm stand. A pick-up truck is used for short-distance transport of crops and other farm materials. The workflow is a steady cycle of planting and harvesting right through the growing season, and usually comes to an end in the cold winter months.

A somewhat larger market garden operation, ranging from 10 to 100 acres (4.0 to 40.5 ha; 40,000 to 405,000 m ²), may be referred to as intensive mixed vegetable production, although the essential business and farming tasks are the same. Such operations are often run by a full-time farmer or farm family, and a few full-time employees. The tractor is relied upon for many tasks, and manual labor requirements, particularly for setting transplants and harvesting, are often significant, with crews of 10, 20 or more people employed seasonally. This has led in the U.S. to groups of "transient" or "migrant" workers who follow the harvest seasons to different farms across the country. In cooler climates, greenhouses are generally used to produce transplants, and sometimes greenhouse production is extended through winter or with hydroponics. Harvest and post-harvest handling are more sophisticated at the larger scale, with some mechanized harvest and processing equipment, walk-in coolers, and refrigerated delivery vehicles.

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A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under 0.40 hectares (4,000 ; 1 acre) to some hectares (a few acres), or sometimes in greenhouses, distinguishes it from other types of farming.