Primary Activities: Gathering, Nomadic Herding, Intensive Farming

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. We have already studied the primary sector of India economy, this section focuses on some core concepts.

Red Collar workers

People engaged in primary activities are called red collar workers due to the outdoor nature of their work.

Gathering

Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known.  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. The main features of Gathering and Hunting activities are:

• Low Capital / Skill Investment
• Low Yield Per Person
• No Surplus in production

Gathering is practised in the following areas of the world:

• Northern Canada, northern Eurasia and southern Chile (High Altitude Areas)
• Low latitude zones such as the Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, Northern fringe of Australia and the interior parts of Southeast Asia.

Nomadic Herding Or Pastoral Nomadism

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, thus there is an irregular pattern of movement. It is different from Transhumance in which there is a fixed seasonal pattern of movement.

Nomadic pastoralism is commonly practised in regions with little arable land, typically in the developing world. Of the estimated 30–40 million nomadic pastoralists worldwide, most are found in central Asia and Northern and western region of Africa, some parts of southern Africa and Tundra regions.

Transhumance

Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (vertical transhumance) it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with the people necessary to tend them. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic or political change.

Transhumance in India & World

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. In Rajasthan also the herders from desert regions move towards central India during summer season.

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 imposition of political boundaries and new settlement plans by different countries.

Commercial Livestock Rearing

Commercial livestock rearing is more organised and capital intensive activity in comparison to the Nomadic pastoralism. It is generally practised in permanent ranches.

Ranches

Ranches refers to the large stock farms, usually fenced in, where animals are bred and reared on a commercial scale. They are found especially in the United States.

Products such as meat, wool, hides and skin are processed and packed scientifically and exported to different world markets 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.

Primary Subsistence Agriculture

Subsistence agriculture is one in which the farming areas consume all, or nearly so, of the products locally grown. It is of two types viz. Primitive Subsistence Agriculture and Intensive Subsistence Agriculture. Primitive subsistence agriculture is also known as Shifting Cultivation. It is widely practised by many tribes in the tropics, especially in Africa, south and Central America and south East Asia.

When the vegetation is cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil, it is called slash and burn agriculture.  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. Major problem 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
• Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia,
• Caingin in Philippines,
• Ray in Vietnam,
• Taungya In Myanmar
• Tamrai in Thailand,
• Chena in Sri Lanka,
• Conuco in Venezuela,
• Roca in Brazil,
• Masole in central Africa.

Intensive subsistence agriculture

Intensive subsistence agriculture is predominant in the densely populated regions of monsoon Asia. There are two types as follows:

Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by wet paddy cultivation

This is dominated by the paddy crop and is prevalent in the Eastern India. The 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
• Per labour productivity is low.

Intensive subsidence agriculture dominated by crops other than paddy:

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.

Plantation Agriculture

Plantation agriculture was introduced by Europeans in their tropical colonies. 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,
• Good system of transportation which links the estates to the factories and markets for the export of the products.

Europeans in Plantation Crops

• 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 coconut and sugarcane plantations in the Philippines.
• The Dutch once had monopoly over sugarcane plantation in Indonesia.
• Some coffee fazendas (large plantations) in Brazil are still managed by Europeans.

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, other crops being corn, barley, oats and rye . This is characterised by very large farms and entire operation mechanised. Predominant 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

Mixed Farming is a type of farming in which cultivation of crops and raising of livestock go hand in hand. Both these activities play an important part in the economy.

Mixed Farming is predominant in highly developed parts of the world, e.g. North-western Europe, Eastern North America, parts of Eurasia and the temperate latitudes of Southern continents. The important features of Mixed Farming are:

• Medium to large size farms
• Crop rotation and intercropping for maintaining soil fertility.
• Crop cultivation and equal importance on 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 is the most advanced and efficient type of rearing of milch animals. It is highly capital intensive.

Some Other terms

Rotation of Crops

A systematic succession of different crops on a given piece of land carried out in order to avoid exhaustion of the soil.

Sedentary Agriculture

Farming practised more or less permanently on the same piece of land, the same as settled agriculture.

Truck Farming

Growing of vegetables around the urban centres to meet the daily demand of the people is known as truck farming. It is governed by the distance a truck can cover overnight between the farm and the market.