Chapter 10: Agriculture

Learning Objectives- After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1.	Compare and contrast hunting and gathering with agriculture, and explain the origins of agriculture making reference to where, when, and how it began and the different plants and animals that were domesticated in different locations.
2.	Note the differences between subsistence and commercial agriculture and identify the main characteristics of the different agricultural practices and note their geographic distribution into regions across the earth.
3.	Note the differences between clustered and dispersed settlements, as well as the different types of each and where they are typically found.
4.	Compare subsistence and commercial agriculture with regard to average farm size, percentage of farmers in society, and the use of machinery.
5.	Note the different types of subsistence agriculture and the geographic distribution of the regions they are practiced in.
6.	Identify the different forms of commercial agriculture used in MDCs and note their particular features (Examples: dairy farming, livestock ranching, Mediterranean agriculture).  Identify the locations where they are prominent geographically.
7.	Identify different strategies to increase food supply and note their limitations.
8.	Explain the concept of agribuisness and explain how the us government addresses the challenges of overproduction in the food supply.
9.	Explain the three major principles that underly the concept of sustainable agriculture.

Terms-  You should understand these terms and be ready to identify them:
Agribusiness Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.
Agriculture The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.
Clustered rural settlement A rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other and fields surrounding the settlement.
Cereal grain A grass yielding grain for food.
Commercial agriculture Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.
Crop rotation The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.
Dispersed rural settlement A rural settlement characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.
Grain Seed of a cereal grass.
Green revolution Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.
Intensive subsistence agriculture A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.
Pastoral nomadism A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.
Plantation A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country.
Ranching A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area.
Ridge tillage System of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation.
Seed agriculture Reproduction of plants through annual introduction of seeds, which result from sexual fertilization.
Shifting cultivation A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.
Slash-and-burn agriculture Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris.
Subsistence agriculture Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer's family.
Sustainable agriculture Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides.
Swidden A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning.
Truck farming Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities.
Vegetative planting Reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants.
Wet rice Rice planted on dryland in a nursery, then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth.