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Unit 2: The primary sector. Agrarian activities
The primary sector comprises economic activities devoted to obtaining resources directly from nature.
Rural spaces
FISHING
GLOSSARY TIME
Rural landscape are a combination of these three landscapes:
Fishing involves catching fish and other acuatic animals for direct consumption or use as raw materials for industry
Agriculture
Livestock farming
Silviculture
Polyculture
Monoculture
Intensive farming
Extensive farming
Industrial fishing is the most profitable type from a commercial point of view.
- Abiotic landscapes: very little presence of life.
- Man-made landscapes: humans have had a significant impact.
- Biotic landscapes: with an abundance of living things and very little human activity.
We have three types of fishing:
- Coastal fishing: near the coast. It's a daily activity and use traditional techniques.
- Deep-sea fishing: in areas a long way from the coast. It uses medium-sized boats and go out for more than ten days.
- Deep-sea fishing in international waters: hundred of miles from the coast. They use one large factory ship and seasons can last several months.
FARMING SYSTEMS
The different farming systems include:
There're two types according to the variety of species:
- Polyculture: different species. The production is intended to supply the population.
- Monoculture: a single crop. The production is intended for sale on the market.
There're two different systems:
- Intensive farming: the land is used to its full
potential.
- Extensive farming: uses small inputs of labor, fertilizers, and capital
There're two main techniques:
- Dryland: use only rain water
- Irrigation farming: water is supplied to
crops.
Agrarian activity. Factors
The agrarian landscape and its elements
There're two main factors that determine the type of rural landscapes
Physical Factors
Human factors
Agrarian activities transform the natural environment over time and give rise to agrarian landscapes.
--> Demographic presure: population increase has led to a rise in the surface area of land dedicated to crops and pastures. That results in deforestation and overexploitation.
--> Technological development: in advanced societies, traditional farming tools are combined with modern tools such as tractors, harvesters and milking machines. Referred to farming techniques, chemical fertilisers and perticides are used, crops are irrigated with advanded systems and they are protected in greenhouses.
--> Economic and social organisation:
- Agrarian economies: subsistence economies produce enough to cover their food needs. Market economies produce food in order to sell it and tend to specialise in one crops or type of livestock.
- Social organisation: land property can be private or collective and land exploitation can be direct or indirect.
- Agrarian policies: implemented by governments.
--> Climate: all types of plants need a certain number of sunlight and can tolerate specific maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation and winds. Furthermore, different crops adapt better to different conditions. Some require more humidity (rice) and others very high temperatures (sugar and coffee).
--> Relief of the land: farmers prefer to grow their crops on plains and in valleys, but they can farm into mountainous terrain with the construction of hillside terraces. Also, above a certain height, low temperatures precrops from growing.
--> Soil and vegetation: the soil has important effects on crops, as the minerals it contains provide nutrients needed by plants. Other important characteristics are: depth, texture, porosity, acidity and the vegetation it has before farming.
Silviculture
Pages: 106-108
It is concerned with the use of woodland in order to provide food and raw material for various industries.
--> Inhabited space:
- Settlement: is the way in which the agrarian population is distributed across the land. It can be: dispersed, concentrated and interspersed.
- Habitat: includes traditional dwellings and agricultural buildings.
--> Farmland: agrarian land is organised into fields.
The main use of woodland is to harvest the wood from trees. But forests also fulfil important environmental roles, as they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and reduce the greenhouse effect . They also add humidity to the atmosphere, protect the soil from erosion and contain rich biodiversity.
- Cork: is obtained from the bark of cork oak trees and it's used to manufacture cork for the bottles of wine.
- Resins: secreted by certain plants. It's used in the cosmetics and chemical industry.
- Rubber: is extracted from the sap of certain tropical trees. It's used to manufacture tyres.
- Wood: It's used to construction and furniture manufacture.
Overexploitation + clearing+ forest fires = DEFORESTATION
- In terms of the size, fields can be small (-10hectares), medium (10-100Ha.) and large (+ 100 Ha.).
- Their shape can be regular or irregular.
- In terms of locations, they can be open (no boundary
markers) or closed (surrounded by fences, trees or
walls).
Openfield
MINING
Bocage
It is concerned with locating, extracting and refining rocks and minerals that are found on or beneath the surface.
They are of two types.
1. Underground mining: →Minerals and rocks from under the ground
examples : Coal & Petroleum
2. Surface Mining: Close to Earth Surface.
examples :Granite and Marble.
LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEMS
Livestock farming is a primary sector activity based on raising animals in order to use them for food, textiles or as lab in agriculture.
THE MODERNISATION OF LIVESTOCK FARMING
We can classified livestock farming systems based on the following factors:
- Farm size:
Extensive livestock farming
Intensive livestock farming
- Livestock mobility:
Nomadic: livestock is continually moving in
order to provide animals with fresh pastures.
Seasonal migratory: livestock is moved on
a seasonal basis, between summer and winter
pastures.
Sedentary: livestock doesn't move.
- Type of diet and enclosure:
Confined: or industrial livestock farming to obtein
the maximum yield to be sold on the market.
Unconfined: or organic livestock farming that
respects the environment and animal welfare although
production output is lower.
- The mechanisation of the livestock farms: leading to the intensification of production.
- The introduction of foreign breeds: that produce more meat or milk than native breeds.
- The development of specialised farms: breed one single type of livestock