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Unit 6 – Economic Geography I: Agriculture

38:180 Human Geography

Agriculture within Economic Geography• Sectoral division of economy:

– Primary– Secondary– Tertiary– Quaternary– Quinary

• Indicator of economic development– Share of employment– Share of GDP

• … and as precondition for civilization

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Figure 10.15 Percentage of labour force in agriculture by country, 2012

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Evolution of Agriculture

• Hunter – Gatherer– Improved by tools and fire

• First Agricultural Revolution (up to 14,000 years ago)– Plant domestication– Domestication of animals– More sedentary settlement pattern– Subsistence agriculture

• “Shifting cultivation”• “Slash and burn”

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The Fertile Crescent

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Subsistence Agriculture

Slash and Burn

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Evolution of Agriculture

• Second Agricultural Revolution (17th and 18th centuries)– New crops (colonial exchange)– Larger fields (consolidation of land-holding)– Crop rotation, soil preparation, etc.– New technologies: seed drill, tractor, combine

(eventually)– Advances in breeding (e.g. dairy vs beef cattle)– Banking (lending)– Railway

Evolution of Agriculture

• Third Agricultural Revolution (from 1930s)– Principally driven by more modern, scientific

approach to engineering seed hybrids• Maize/corn in Mexico• Rice in India and Philippines• Wheat in North America

– Debate over environmental impacts; who benefits

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Rice Research Station in Philippines

Locational Factors

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Locational Factors

• Physical– Climate– Soils– Topography

• Technological• Cultural (religion and ethnicity)• Institutional (state)• Economic

– Principally, competition for land

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Canada-US border in Prairies

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Canada-US border in Prairies

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Why is Agriculture Spatially Dispersed?Reasons are principally economic:• Productivity of land is not the same

everywhere (for the same type of produce).

• Agriculture competes with other land uses / users.

• Markets for agricultural products are geographically dispersed.

• Agriculture is inherently land extensive

Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

• Because agriculture is spatially dispersed, transportation costs are a significant factor in its location logic.

• Key element of competition is over proximity to the market.

• Resulting spatial regularities make this process amenable to modeling.

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• Why does proximity matter?– direct costs of transport– perishability– risk of damage

• Technology can alter the friction of distance.

• ‘Good’ agricultural land is good for many different uses.

Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

• Johann Heinrich von Thünen, The Isolated State.– The first model of spatial organization based

on economic principles.• Von Thünen was a land owner, with

different agricultural activities at different places on his estate.

• He wondered what would be the optimal arrangement of land use on his estate.

Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

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Rent:• Economic Rent: ER = p - c

where:– ‘p’ = price– ‘c’ = cost

Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

Assumptions of von Thünen’s model:1) Homogenous physical plane2) Uniform transportation surface3) Single market centre served 100% by its

agricultural hinterland4) Farmers are profit maximizersThe model von Thünen develops describes

the spatial structure of location rents.

Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

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Location Rent: economic rent specifically derived from location (e.g. due to proximity to the market).

LR = Q(p – c) – QfkQ = quantity produced per unit of landp = price per unit of outputc = cost per unit of outputf = freight rate per unit of outputk = distance to market

Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

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Von Thünen and the Bid Rent Model

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Figure 10.10 Agricultural Land Use in Uruguaya) as predicted by Von Thünen theory; b) actual

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The Real World and Modifications

What happens when we relax the assumptions?

• Introduce a transportation corridor• Introduce another (competing) market

centre

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The Real World and Modifications

To what extent is the model reflected in reality?

• developing countries• market gardens (local scale)• the national pattern in Canada, US (macro

scale)• predictive capacity of ‘distance’, likely to

be reinforced by rising fuel costs

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The Real World and Modifications

How was the ‘Crow Rate’ related to von Thünen’s principles?

• reduced transport costs to producers• distorted the pattern of agricultural

production in Canada’s Prairies

Bid Rent Functions with (LR1) and without (LR2) Crow Rate for Prairies (P) and Quebec (Q)

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The Real World and Modifications

Effects of the Crow Rate:• stalled industrialization in the Prairies• maintained an otherwise uneconomic

grain production pattern• deterioration of railways

The Real World and Modifications

Effects of Removing the Crow Rate:• diversification of agriculture in the Prairies• increased off-farm employment, dual

income farm families• changing profile of farm-related industry• sale of farms (and shift from ‘family

business’ to agribusiness / corporate farms)

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General Forms of Diversification

A response to several factors driving agricultural restructuring, especially in commercial agriculture systems (most notably the ‘cost-price squeeze’)

1) Shift to other crops2) Shift to other agricultural products3) Alternative methods (e.g. organic)4) Off-farm employment5) Shift to related industry (e.g. farm tourism)

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Agriculture and Cultural Landscapes

• Basic relation between humans and environment• Production system as culture

– extensive vs intensive• Land survey systems• Building materials / styles

– Barns, fences, etc.• Technology (e.g. irrigation)• Food as element of culture• …and the ‘character’ of a place

Subsistence Agriculture

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Tea Plantation, Kenya

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Tea Plantation, Zimbabwe

Sisal Plantation, Kenya

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Wine Country, near Capetown, South Africa

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Grid Survey - Iowa

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Wheat field, Saudi Arabia

Centre-pivot irrigation, Libya

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Donkey-powered noria, Morocco

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