NCERT Fundamentals of Human Geography chapter 5 key points

Human activities which generate income are known as economic
activities.

Economic activities are broadly grouped into primary, secondary,
tertiary and quaternary activities.

Primary activities are directly dependent on environment as these
refer to utilisation of earth’s resources such as land, water,
vegetation, building materials and minerals.

It, thus includes, hunting and gathering, pastoral activities, fishing,
forestry, agriculture, and mining and quarrying.

HUNTING AND GATHERING
The earliest human beings depended on their immediate
environment for their sustenance.
They subsisted on:
(a) animals which they hunted; and
(b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the
vicinity.
Primitive societies depended on wild animals.
People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived
on hunting.

The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has
experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many
species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal
hunting (poaching).

The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or
arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.

Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known.

These are carried out at different levels with different orientations.
Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It
often involves primitive societies, who extract, both plants and
animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing. This
type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and
operates at very low level of technology. The yield per person is
very low and little or no surplus is produced.

Gathering is practised in:
(i) high latitude zones which include northern Canada, northern
Eurasia and southern Chile;
(ii) Low latitude zones such as the Amazon Basin, tropical Africa,
Northern fringe of Australia and the interior parts of Southeast Asia.

PASTORALISM
At some stage in history, with the realisation that hunting is an
unsustainable activity, human beings might have thought of
domestication of animals.
People living in different climatic conditions selected and
domesticated animals found in those regions.
Depending on the geographical factors, and technological
development, animal rearing today is practised either at the
subsistence or at the commercial level.

Nomadic Herding
Nomadic herding or pastoral nomadism is a primitive subsistence
activity, in which the herders rely on animals for food, clothing,
shelter, tools and transport.
They move from one place to another along with their livestock,
depending on the amount and quality of pastures and
water.

Each nomadic community occupies a well-identified territory as a
matter of tradition A wide variety of animals is kept in different
regions.
In tropical Africa, cattle are the most important livestock, while in
Sahara and Asiatic deserts, sheep, goats and camel are reared. In
the mountainous areas of Tibet and Andes, yak and llamas and in
the Arctic and sub Arctic areas, reindeer are the most important
animals.
Pastoral nomadism is associated with three important regions.
- The core region extends from the Atlantic shores of North
Africa eastwards across the Arabian peninsula into Mongolia
and Central China.
- The second region extends over the tundra region of Eurasia.
- In the southern hemisphere there are small areas in Southwest Africa and on the island of Madagascar
Movement in search of pastures is undertaken either over vast
horizontal distances or vertically from one elevation to
another in the mountainous regions.
The process of migration from plain areas to pastures on
mountains during summers and again from mountain pastures to
plain areas during winters is known as transhumance.
In mountain regions, such as Himalayas, Gujjars, Bakarwals, Gaddis
and Bhotiyas migrate from plains to the mountains in summers and
to the plains from the high altitude pastures in winters. Similarly, in
the tundra regions, the nomadic herders move from south to north
in summers and from north to south in winters.
The number of pastoral nomads has been decreasing and the
areas operated by them shrinking.
This is due to (a) imposition of political boundaries; (b) new
settlement plans by different countries.

Commercial Livestock Rearing

Unlike nomadic herding, commercial livestock rearing is more
organised and capital intensive.
Commercial livestock ranching is essentially associated with
western cultures and is practised on permanent ranches. These
ranches cover large areas and are divided into a number of
parcels, which are fenced to regulate the grazing.
When the grass of one parcel is grazed, animals are moved to
another parcel. The number of animals in a pasture is kept
according to the carrying capacity of the pasture.
This is a specialised activity in which only one type of animal is
reared.

Important animals include sheep, cattle, goats and horses.
Products such as meat, wool, hides and skin are processed and
packed scientifically and exported to different world markets.
Rearing of animals in ranching is organised on a scientific basis.
The main emphasis is on breeding, genetic improvement, disease
control and health care of the animals.

New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and United States of
America are important countries where commercial livestock
rearing is practised

AGRICULTURE
Agriculture is practised under multiple combinations of physical
and socio-economic conditions, which gives rise to different types
of agricultural systems.
Based on methods of farming, different types of crops are grown
and livestock raised.

The following are the main agricultural systems.

Subsistence Agriculture
Subsistence agriculture is one in which the farming areas consume
all, or nearly so, of the products locally grown.
It can be grouped in two categories — Primitive Subsistence
Agriculture and Intensive Subsistence Agriculture.

Primitive Subsistence Agriculture
Primitive subsistence agriculture or shifting cultivation is widely
practised by many tribes in the tropics, especially in Africa, south
and central America and south east Asia.
The vegetation is usually cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the
fertility of the soil.
Shifting cultivation is thus, also called slash and burn agriculture.
The cultivated patches are very small and cultivation is done with
very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes.
After sometime (3 to 5 years) the soil looses its fertility and the
farmer shifts to another parts and clears other patch of the forest
for cultivation.
The farmer may return to the earlier patch after sometime.
One of the major problems of shifting cultivation is that the cycle
of jhum becomes less and less due to loss of fertility in different
parcels.
It is prevalent in tropical region in different names, e.g. Jhuming in
North eastern states of India, Milpa in central America and Mexico
and Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
This type of agriculture is largely found in densely populated
regions of monsoon Asia.
Basically, there are two types of intensive subsistence agriculture.
(i) Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by wet paddy
cultivation:
§ This type of agriculture is characterised by dominance of the
rice crop.
§ Land holdings are very small due to the high density of
population.
§ Farmers work with the help of family labour leading to
intensive use of land.
§ Use of machinery is limited and most of the agricultural
operations are done by manual labour.
§ Farm yard manure is used to maintain the fertility of the soil.
In this type of agriculture, the yield per unit area is high but
per labour productivity is low.
(ii) Intensive subsidence agriculture dominated by crops other
than paddy:
§ Due to the difference in relief, climate, soil and some of the
other geographical factors, it is not practical to grow paddy
in many parts of monsoon Asia.
§ Wheat, soyabean, barley and sorghum are grown in
northern China, Manchuria, North Korea and North Japan.
§ In India wheat is grown in western parts of the Indo-Gangetic
plains and millets are grown in dry parts of western and
southern India.
§ Most of the characteristics of this type of agriculture are
similar to those dominated by wet paddy except that
irrigation is often used.

The Europeans colonised many parts in the world and they
introduced some other forms of agriculture such as plantations
which were mainly profit-oriented large scale production
systems.

Plantation Agriculture
It was introduced by the Europeans in colonies situated in the
tropics. Some of the important plantation crops are tea, coffee,
cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, sugarcane, bananas and
pineapples.
The characteristic features of this type of farming are large estates
or plantations, large capital investment, managerial and
technical support, scientific methods of cultivation, single crop
specialisation, cheap labour, and a good system of transportation
which links the estates to the factories and markets for the
export of the products.
The French established cocoa and coffee plantations in west
Africa.
The British set up large tea gardens in India and Sri Lanka,
rubber plantations in Malaysia and sugarcane and banana
plantations in West Indies.
Spanish and Americans invested heavily in Extensive Commercial
Grain Cultivation
Commercial grain cultivation is practised in the interior parts of
semi-arid lands of the midlatitudes.
Wheat is the principal crop, though other crops like corn, barley,
oats and rye are also grown. The size of the farm is very large,
therefore entire operations of cultivation from ploughing to
harvesting are mechanised.
There is low yield per acre but high yield per person.
This type of agriculture is best developed in Eurasian steppes, the
Canadian and American Prairies, the Pampas of Argentina, the
Velds of South Africa, the Australian Downs and the Canterbury
Plains of New Zealand.

Mixed Farming

This form of agriculture is found in the highly developed parts of
the world, e.g. North-western Europe, Eastern North America, parts
of Eurasia and the temperate latitudes of Southern continents.
Mixed farms are moderate in size and usually the crops associated
with it are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, fodder and root crops.
Fodder crops are an important component of mixed farming.
Crop rotation and intercropping play an important role in
maintaining soil fertility. Equal emphasis is laid on crop cultivation
and animal husbandry.
Animals like cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry provide the main
income along with crops.
Mixed farming is characterised by high capital expenditure on
farm machinery and building, extensive use of chemical fertilisers
and green manures and also by the skill and expertise of the
farmers.

Dairy Farming
Dairy is the most advanced and efficient type of rearing of milch
animals.
The development of transportation, refrigeration, pasteurisation
and other preservation processes have increased the duration of
storage of various dairy products.
There are three main regions of commercial dairy farming.
1. The largest is North Western Europe
2. Canada and
3. South Eastern Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.

Mediterranean Agriculture
Mediterranean agriculture is highly specialised commercial
agriculture.
It is practised in the countries on either side of the Mediterranean
sea in Europe and in north Africa from Tunisia to Atlantic coast,
southern California, central Chile, south western parts of South
Africa and south and south western parts of Australia.
This region is an important supplier of citrus fruits.
Viticulture or grape cultivation is a speciality of the Mediterranean
region. Best quality wines in the world with distinctive flavours are
produced from high quality grapes in various countries of this
region.
The inferior grapes are dried into raisins and currants. This
region also produces olives and figs.
The advantage of Mediterranean agriculture is that more
valuable crops such as fruits and vegetables are grown in winters
when there is great demand in European and North American
markets.

Market Gardening and Horticulture

Market gardening and horticulture specialise in the cultivation of
high value crops such as vegetables, fruits and flowers, solely for
the urban markets.
Farms are small and are located where there are good
transportation links with the urban centre where high income
group of consumers is located.
It is both labour and capital intensive and lays emphasis on the
use of irrigation, HYV seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, greenhouses
and artificial heating in colder regions.

This type of agriculture is well developed in densely populated
industrial districts of north west Europe, north eastern United States
of America and the Mediterranean regions.
The Netherlands specialises in growing flowers and horticultural
crops especially tulips, which are flown to all major cities of
Europe.
The regions where farmers specialise in vegetables only, the
farming is know as truck farming. The distance of truck farms from
the market is governed by the distance that a truck can cover
overnight, hence the name truck farming.
In addition to market gardening, a modern development in the
industrial regions of Western Europe and North America is factory
farming.
Livestock, particularly poultry and cattle rearing, is done in stalls
and pens, fed on manufactured feedstuff and carefully
supervised against diseases.
.
Co-operative Farming

A group of farmers form a co-operative society by pooling in their
resources voluntarily for more efficient and profitable farming.
Individual farms remain intact and farming is a matter of
cooperative initiative.
Co-operative societies help farmers, to procure all important
inputs of farming, sell the products at the most favourable terms
and help in processing of quality products at cheaper rates.
Co-operative movement originated over a century ago and has
been successful in many western European countries like
Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Italy etc.
In Denmark, the movement has been so successful that practically
every farmer is a member of a co-operative.

Collective Farming
The basic principal behind this types of farming is based on social
ownership of the means of production and collective labour.
Collective farming or the model of Kolkhoz was introduced in
erstwhile Soviet Union to improve upon the inefficiency of the
previous methods of agriculture and to boost agricultural
production for self-sufficiency.
The farmers pool in all their resources like land, livestock and
labour. However, they are allowed to retain very small plots to
grow crops in order to meet their daily requirements.
Yearly targets are set by the government and the produce is also
sold to the state at fixed prices. Produce in excess of the fixed
amount is distributed among the members or sold in the market.
The farmers have to pay taxes on the farm produces, hired
machinery etc.
Members are paid according to the nature of the work allotted to
them by the farm management. Exceptional work is rewarded in
cash or kind.
This type of farming was introduced in former Soviet Union under
the socialist regime which was adopted by the socialist countries.
After its collapse, these have already been modified.

MINING
The discovery of minerals in the history of human development, is
reflected in many stages in terms of copper age, bronze age and
iron age.
The use of minerals in ancient times was largely confined to the
making of tools, utensils and weapons.

The actual development of mining began with the industrial
revolution and its importance is continuously increasing.
Factors Affecting Mining Activity
The profitability of mining operations thus, depends on two main
factors:
(i) Physical factors include the size, grade and the mode of
occurrence of the deposits.
(ii) Economic factors such as the demand for the mineral,
technology available and used, capital to develop infrastructure
and the labour and transport costs.

Methods of Mining
Depending on the mode of occurrence and the nature of the
ore, mining is of two types: surface and underground mining.
The surface mining also known as open-cast mining is the easiest
and the cheapest way of mining minerals that occur close to the
surface.

Overhead costs such as safety precautions and equipment is
relatively low in this method. The output is both large and rapid.
When the ore lies deep below the surface, underground mining
method (shaft method) has to be used. In this method, vertical
shafts have to be sunk, from where underground galleries radiate
to reach the minerals.

Minerals are extracted and transported to the surface through
these passages. It requires specially designed lifts, drills, haulage
vehicles, ventilation system for safety and efficient movement of
people and material.

This method is risky. Poisonous gases, fires, floods and caving in
lead to fatal accidents.

The developed economies are retreating from mining, processing
and refining stages of production due to high labour costs, while
the developing countries with large labour force and striving for
higher standard of living are becoming more important.
Several countries of Africa and few of south America and Asia
have over fifty per cent of the earnings from minerals alone.