An Introduction to Agricultural Geography

237 Pages·1995·3.59 MB·English

by  David Grigg

An Introduction to Agricultural Geography
Employing nearly on half of the world’s workforce, agriculture is clearly of
great economic and social importance. An incredible variety of methods is
used globally; the Western world has the latest scientific and industrial
advancements at its disposal, yet in some parts of the Third World a living
is made using tools that have hardly changed in two thousand years.
David Grigg provides a comprehensive introduction to agriculture in
both the First and Third Worlds, describing both human and
environmental issues. Covering the physical environment, economic
behaviour and demands, institutional, social and cultural influences, and
the impact of farming upon the environment, the book explores the wide
range of factors which influence how agriculture and agricultural practice
differ from place to place.
For this new edition, the text, statistics, artwork and bibliography have
been entirely updated and revised. In addition, two new chapters have been
incorporated, on modernization and on the environment.
David Grigg is Professor in the Department of Geography, University of
Sheffield.
An Introduction to
Agricultural Geography
Second edition
David Grigg
London and New York
First published 1984
by Unwin Hyman
Fourth impression 1989
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Reprinted by Routledge 1993
Second edition first published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1984, 1995 David Grigg
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Grigg, David B.
An introduction to agricultural geography/David Grigg.—Ed. 2.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Agricultural geography. I. Title.
S495.G79 1994
338.1’09–dc20 94–12681
ISBN 0-203-41927-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-72751-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-08442-3 (hbk)
0-415-08443-1 (pbk)
For Jill, Susan, Catherine and Stephen, with much
love
Contents
List of figures x
List of tables xiii
Acknowledgements xv
1 Introduction 1
A definition of agriculture 2
Approaches to description 4
Approaches to explanation 5
Purpose and pattern 7
2 The biology of agriculture 10
Food chains 10
Crop productivity 12
Perennials and annuals 12
The biology of livestock 14
Pests and diseases 16
Conclusions 18
3 Climate and crops 20
Optimum growth 20
Optimum areas and competing crops 22
Net photosynthesis 24
Temperature 25
Moisture 29
Grass and cereals in England and Wales 32
Crop diversity in West Africa 36
vi
Conclusions 37
4 Soils and the farmer 41
The edaphic optimum 41
Criticisms of the edaphic optimum concept 42
Soil characteristics and agriculture 42
Plant nutrient and fertility 44
Farming systems and fertility 45
Soil type and the distribution of arable land 47
Conclusions 50
5 Slopes, altitude and agriculture 52
Altitude 52
Slopes and agriculture 55
Slopes and water 56
Slopes, water and wet-rice 58
Conclusions 58
6 The demand for agricultural products 60
Human food requirements 60
Income and food requirements 61
Low incomes and the starchy staple ratio 62
Higher incomes and changing demand 65
Tastes and preferences 66
Industrial demand for agricultural products 66
The implications of variations in demand 68
7 The economic behaviour of farmers 70
The economic distinctiveness of agriculture 70
The economic behaviour of commercial farmers 72
The economic behaviour of subsistence farmers 82
Conclusions 83
8 The modernization of agriculture 85
vii
The extent of subsistence farming 85
The purchase of inputs 86
Power and machinery 88
Commercial fertilisers 90
Modern crop varieties 91
Insecticides, fungicides and herbicides 95
Irrigation 95
Difference in land productivity 96
The processing of farm and food output 97
Economic development and agricultural productivity 1 00
Conclusion 1 01
9 The state and the farmer 1 02
Reasons for government intervention 1 02
Methods of intervention 1 04
Sugar-beet and sugar-cane 1 06
Cotton in the USA 1 07
The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Community 1 08
Land colonisation and land reform 1 11
Conclusions 1 12
10 Markets and transport 1 15
Von Thünen’s rings 1 15
The intensity theory 1 16
The crop theory 1 16
Changing technology and von Thünen’s model 1 19
Modern modifications of von Thünen 1 20
Testing von Thünen 1 21
Distance and farming today 1 22
Conclusion 1 26
viii
11 Agriculture in peri-urban regions 1 29
The loss of farmland 1 30
The anticipation of urban expansion 1 30
Land use and farm enterprises 1 32
Farm size and landownership 1 32
The disadvantages of peri-urban farming 1 34
Peri-urban farming in the USA 1 34
Conclusion 1 35
12 Population, labour supply and agriculture 1 38
Agriculture and economic development 1 38
Agriculture and population in developing countries 1 42
Subsistence communities in the tropics
1 46
Density and farming in West Africa 1 46
Multiple cropping 1 47
Characteristics of areas of high population densities 1 48
Agricultural characteristics of regions of high population and 1 49
growth
Agricultural change in regions of declining agricultural labour 1 52
force
Conclusions 1 58
13 Farm size and landownership 1 62
The size of farms 1 62
The layout of farms 1 67
Landownership and farming 1 70
The modernisation of agriculture and the organisation of 1 73
production
Conclusion 1 73
14 The diffusion of agricultural innovations 1 76
ix
Social diffusion 1 76
Spatial diffusion 1 78
The domestication of plants and their present distribution 1 78
The diffusion of hybrid corn in the USA 1 80
The diffusion of cattle: Herefords and the Aberdeen Angus 1 83
The Green Revolution in Asia 1 84
Conclusions 1 87
15 The cultural framework of farming 1 89
Ethnic factors and farming 1 89
Religion and crops 1 91
Religion and livestock 1 93
Conclusions 1 98
16 Agriculture and the environment 2 00
Deforestation 2 01
Land degradation: soil erosion 2 02
Land degradation: salinity and alkalinity 2 07
Desertification 2 08
Modern farming and the environment 2 09
Towards sustainable agriculture 2 12
17 Conclusions 2 15
Index 2 16