Commercial & Subsistence Agriculture [AP Human Geography Unit 5 Topic 6]

Summary

This video explores the differences between subsistence and commercial agriculture, emphasizing practices like intensive and extensive farming. It explains how subsistence agriculture focuses on family or local food production, while commercial agriculture aims for profit, using more advanced technology and larger scale operations. The video also covers concepts like bid rent theory, mono cropping, and monoculture, illustrating how agricultural practices are influenced by land prices and market proximity. Examples include pastoral farming and dairy farming, showing how different agricultural types balance land, labor, and capital to maximize efficiency and profits.

Takeaways

• 😀 Subsistence agriculture is focused on producing food for personal or local consumption, not profit.
• 😀 Commercial agriculture aims to produce food for profit, often using advanced machinery and larger farms.
• 😀 Subsistence agriculture often uses less machinery and labor, while commercial agriculture relies more on technology and capital.
• 😀 More economically developed countries tend to have more commercial agriculture with machines, while developing countries often have more manual labor in agriculture.
• 😀 Extensive subsistence agriculture uses less capital and machines but requires more land, such as pastoral farming.
• 😀 Intensive subsistence agriculture uses more human labor, less land, and may involve capital investment like wet rice and terrace farming.
• 😀 Extensive commercial agriculture, like cattle ranching, requires large amounts of land but minimal capital and labor.
• 😀 Intensive commercial agriculture, such as dairy farming, uses more capital, machines, and human labor to maximize production.
• 😀 Agricultural practices are often located near cities (intensive) or farther away (extensive), based on land availability and transport costs, according to the bid rent theory.
• 😀 Mono cropping involves planting the same crop repeatedly, which can deplete soil but may be profitable due to specialization.
• 😀 Monoculture refers to growing a single crop at a time, but farmers may rotate crops after harvest to maintain soil health.

Q & A

What is the difference between subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture?

Subsistence agriculture is aimed at producing food primarily for the farmer’s family or local community, without the goal of making a profit. In contrast, commercial agriculture focuses on producing food for profit, where the produce is sold rather than consumed by the farmer.

How does the scale of farming differ between subsistence and commercial agriculture?

Subsistence agriculture typically involves smaller farm sizes, relies more on human labor, and uses fewer machines. Commercial agriculture, on the other hand, generally has larger farm sizes, uses advanced machinery, and employs less human labor.

How are economically developed and developing countries related to commercial and subsistence agriculture?

Economically developed countries (core countries) tend to have more commercial agriculture, with a higher use of machines and technology. Less economically developed countries (periphery) usually have higher participation in subsistence agriculture due to limited access to resources and machinery.

What are intensive and extensive agricultural practices?

Intensive agricultural practices use smaller land areas but require more human labor and sometimes more capital, such as in wet rice farming and terrace farming. Extensive agricultural practices use larger land areas but less human labor and capital, like pastoral farming.

Can you explain the concept of extensive commercial agriculture?

Extensive commercial agriculture involves the use of large amounts of land with fewer machines and less labor, often to produce goods like cattle. It focuses on profit generation through large-scale production with minimal technological involvement.

What is intensive commercial agriculture and what does it require?

Intensive commercial agriculture uses less land but requires significant capital investment, advanced machines, and human labor. An example is dairy farming, which requires significant human effort for milking and substantial investment in machines for large-scale production.

How does the location of intensive versus extensive agriculture relate to urban areas?

Intensive agriculture is typically located closer to urban areas or markets due to its need for proximity to consumers and the high costs of land closer to cities. Extensive agriculture, needing more land, is located farther from cities to take advantage of lower land prices.

What is the Bid Rent Theory?

The Bid Rent Theory explains the relationship between land price and proximity to urban areas. As you move further away from a city, land prices decrease because demand for land is lower. However, closer to the city, land prices rise due to the higher population density and greater demand.

What are the risks of monocropping?

Monocropping involves growing the same crop year after year, which can lead to soil depletion because of the lack of crop rotation. This practice increases the risk of diminishing soil quality and reduces the variety of nutrients in the soil.

How does monoculture differ from monocropping?

Monoculture refers to the practice of growing a single crop type at a time but potentially rotating crops after harvest, unlike monocropping, where the same crop is planted continuously over multiple seasons. Monoculture does not inherently risk soil depletion like monocropping does.