Ag Notes Von Thum.Pdf

1. Dairyingand marketgardening 2. Specialtyfarming 3. Cash grainand livestock 4. Mixedfarming 5. Extensivegrain farming or stock raising re 8.14 (a) von Thiinen's model. Recognizing that as distance from the market increases,the value of land decreases,von Thiinen developeda ptive model of intensity of land use that holds up reasonablywell in practice. The most intensively produced crops are found on land close to the ; the less intensively produced commodities are located at more distant points. The numbered zones of the diagram representmodern equivalents the theoretical land use sequencevon Thiinen suggestedover 175 years ago. As the metropolitan area at the center increasesin size, the agricultural ialty areasare displaced outward, but the relative position of each is retained. Compare this diagram with Figure 8.l8. (r) A schematic view of the Thiinen zones in the sector south of Chicago. There, farmland quality decreasessouthward as the boundary of recent glaciation is passedand hill landsare encounteredin southern Illinois. On the margins of the city near the market, dairying competesfor spacewith livestock feeding and I suburbanization.Southward into flat, fertile central lllinois, cash grains dominate. In southern Illinois, livestock rearing and fattening, general farr4hg, andsome orchard crops are the rule. I Source:(b) Modifed with pemission from Bemd Andreae, Fming Development and Space: A World Agricultural Geography, tans. Howard F. Gregor qnd Co., 1981). distance;other items such as grain would have lower rates. Landrent for any farm commodity decreaseswith increasing dis- from the central market, and the rate of decline is determined the transport gradient for that commodity. Crops that have both highest market price and the highest transport costs will be nearestto the market. Less perishablecrops with lower pro- and transport costswill be grown at greaterdistances away igure8.15). Since in this model transportcosts are uniform in all ions away from the center, a concentric zonal pattern ofland calledthe vonThilnen rinss results. The von Thiinen model may be modihed by introducing ideas differentialtransport costs (Figure 8.16), variationsin topogra- or soil fertility, or changesin commodity demand and market ffi"i.ro Ringmodifications. Modifications of controlling conditions will alter the details but not change the underlying pattern of the von Thiinen rings. For example, a growth in demand and therefore market price of a commodity would merely expand its ring of production. An increasein transport costs would contract the prolpction area, while reductions in freight rates would extend it. (a) lf transport costs are reduced in one direction, the circularity-but not the sequence-of the rings will be affected. (b) If severalroads are constructedor improved, land use sequencesassume a star-shapedor digitate outline. (c) The addition of a smaller outlying market results in 8.15 ttansport gradientsand agricultural zones. the emergenceof a set of von Thtinen rings subordinateto it. Livelihood and Economy 2'tl in fall, harvestedin midsummer) belt focuses on Kansas and westernAustralia. Because wheat is an importantcrop in manyagri- includesadjacent sectionsof neighboring states (Figure 8.19). cultural systems today, wheat ranks first in total production Argentinais the only SouthAmerican country to havecomparable amongall the world's grainsand accounts for morethan 207o of the large-scalewheat farming. In the EastemHemisphere, the systemis total caloriesconsumed by humanscollectively-large-scale wheat fullydeveloped only eastof the Volga River in northern Kazakhstan farmsface competition from commercialand subsistenceproducers andthe southernDart of WesternSiberia. and in southeasternand throughoutthe world (Figure8.20). 8.17 Generalizedagricultural regions of North America. Livelihoodand Economy 213 Women farmers grow at least half of the ing cultural and economicfactors. First, most tion of chemicalfertilizers (a "man's task") world's food and up to 80o/oin someAfiican women farmers are involved in subsistence insteadof cow dung ("women'swork") has countries. They are responsible for an even farming and food production for the local reduced the f'emale role in agricultural larger share of fbod consumed by their own market, which yields little cash return. Sec- development programs. The loss of those families: 807oin sub-SaharanAfrica. 65Voin ond, they havefar lessaccess than men to credit traditional f'emale wage jobs means that Asia. and 457o in Latin America and the at bank or government-subsidizedrates that already poor rural women and their families Caribbean.Further, women comprise between would make it possiblefor them to acquirethe have insufllcient income to improve their one-thirdand one-half of all agriculturallabor- Green Revolutiontechnology, such as hybrid diets even in the light of substantial ers in developing countries. For example, seedsand t-ertilizers.Third, in some cultures increasesin food availability through Green African women perform about 907o of the women cannotown land and so are excluded Revolutionimprovements. work of processingfood crops and 807oof the from agriculturalimprovement programs and If women are to beneflt fiom the Green work of harvestingand marketing. projects aimed at landowners.For example, Revolution,new culturalnorms-or cultur- Women'sagricultural dominance in devel- many Afiican agricultural developmentpro- ally acceptableaccommodations within tra- oping states is increasing,in fact, as male gramsare based on the conversionof commu- ditional household,gender, and customary family memberscontinue to leavefor cities in nal land, to which women have access,to legal relations-will be required. These searchof paid urban work. In Mozambique, private holdings, fiom which they are must permit or recognize women's land- for example,for every 100 men working in excluded.In Asia. inheritancelaws favor male owning and other legal rights not now agriculture,there are 153 women. In nearly over femaleheirs, and f-emale-inheritedland is clearly theirs, accessto credit at favorable all other sub-Saharancountries the f'emale managedby husbands;in Latin America,dis- rates,and admissionon equal fboting with componentruns between 120 and 150per 100 criminationresults fiom the more limited sta- males to governmentasiistance programs. men.The departureof men fbr nearor distant tus held by women underthe law. Recognition of those realities fbstered the cities means.in addition. that women must At the sametime, the Green Revolution Food and Agriculture Organization of the assumeefl'ective management of their fami- and its greatercommercialization of crops United Nations' "FAO Plan of Action for lies' total farm operations. has generally required an increasein labor Women in Development( I 99G2001)" andits Despite their fundamentalrole, however, per hectare,particularly in tasks typically "Cender and DevelopmentPlan (20o2-2ffi11' women do not shareequally with men in the reservedfor women, such as weeding,har- Both aimed at stimulating and facilitating rewards from agriculture, nor are they always vesting,and postharvestwork. If women are effbrts to enhancethe role of women as con- beneficiariesof presumedimprovements in provided no relief from theilother daily tributorsand beneficiaries of economic.social. agriculturaltechnologies and practices.Ofien, tasks.the Green Revoluti\lotlFna" and political development.Objectives of the they cannotown or inherit the land on which be more burden than bk;srng. nur wnen plan includedpromoting gender-based equity they work, and they fiequently have difficulty mechanizationis added to the new farming in uccess to. control of. productive 4nd in obtaining improved seeds or fertilizers system, women tend to be losers. Fre- resources:enhtlcing women's participation availableto male f'armers. quently, such predominantly f'emaletasks as in decision- and policy-making processesat As a rule, women farmers work longer harvestingor dehusking and polishing of all levels,local and national;and encouraging hours and have lower incomes than do male grain-all traditionallydone by hand-are actions to reduce rural women's workload farmers.This is not becausethev are lesydu- given over to machinery,displacing rather while enhancingtheir opportunitiesfbr paid catedor competent.Rather. it is due to restrict- than employing women. Even the applica- employmentand income. UN's Food and Agriculture Organizationnow considersGreen Nevertheless,the productionof engineeredcrops is Revolutiontechnologies "almost exhausted"of any further pro- rapidly.In 1996,the first yeargenetically modified crops were com- ductivity gainsin Asian rice cultivation.Little prime land and even mercially available,about 1.7 million hectares(4.3 million acre$ less water remain to expand farming in many developingcoun- were placed in biotechnologycultivation. ln 2004, a reponed8l tries,and the adverseecological and socialconsequences of indus- million hectares(more than 200 million acres)were plantedwith trial farming techniquesarouse growing resistance.Nor does GM crops,an increaseof 2O7oover 2003.Ahost one-third(30%) biotechnology-which many have hailed as a promising new of the global GM crop area in that year was located in developing Green Revolution approach-seem likely to fill the gap. Con- countries; indeed, the percentagegrowth of GM acreagein the sumerresistance to the geneticmodification of food crops,fear of developingcountries-notably Argentina,Brazil, China,India, and the ecological

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