WORLD AGRICULTURAL TYPES

Agriculture is defined as the growing of crops and the tending of livestock whether for the subsistence of the
producers or for sale or exchange. It is spatially the most widespread, found in all world regions where
environmental circumstances permit. More than one-third of the world’s land area (excluding Greenland and
Antarctica) is in some form of agricultural use, including pastureland, and crop farming alone covers about 11%.

In many developing economies, at least two-thirds of the labour force is directly involved in farming and herding.
In some such as Bhutan in Asia or Burkina Faso and Burundi in Africa, the figure is more than 90%. Overall,
however, employment in agriculture is steadily declining in developing economies.

Comparable or greater relative reductions in the agricultural labour force have occurred in highly developed
commercial economies where farm work involves only a small fraction of the labour force: 8% in most of the
Western Europe, below 5% in Canada and less than 3% in the United States.

A declining number or proportion of farm workers along with farm consolidation and increasing output, are typical
in all present-day highly developed commercial agricultural systems. On the other hand, agriculture remains a major
component in the economies of many of the world’s developing countries, producing for domestic markets and
providing a major source of national income through exports.

I. SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE

A subsistence economic system involves nearly total self-sufficiency on the part of its members. Production for
exchange is minimal and each family or close-knit social group relies on itself for its food and other most essential
requirements.

Farming for the immediate needs of the family is, even today, the predominant occupation of humankind. In Africa,
South and Southeast Asia and much of Latin America, a large percentage of people are primarily concerned with
feeding themselves from their own land and livestock.

There are two chief types of subsistence agriculture: extensive and intensive. Extensive subsistence agriculture
involves large areas of land and minimal labour input per hectare. Both products per land unit and population
densities are low. Intensive subsistence agriculture involves cultivation of small landholdings through the
expenditure of great amounts of labour per acre. Yields per unit area and the population densities are both high.

NB- urban agriculture subsistence agriculture also falls under subsistence agriculture.

A) EXTENSIVE SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE

There are two main type of extensive subsistence agriculture: Nomadic herding and shifting cultivation.

1. NOMADIC HERDING

This is the wandering but controlled movement of livestock solely dependent on natural forage. It is the most
extensive form of land use, that is, it requires the greatest amount of land area per person sustained.

Nomadic herding is mainly practiced in areas of low and unreliable rainfall, which experience a marked dry season.
In such areas, the cultivation of crops is difficult unless irrigation is practiced.
Nomadic herding is practiced in many parts of Africa, especially by the Fulani of west African savannas, by many
different peoples including the Maasai in East Africa and the Nuba in Ethiopia and Sudan, and by the Bantu and
Hottentots of southern Africa in Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa. The Bedouin of Saudi Arabia and the
Tuareg of the Sahara also practice nomadic herding in the desert and semi-desert areas of North Africa and
Southwest Asia. Some herdsmen in parts of turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan still have a nomadic way of life.
The whole of central Asia from the Caspian Sea to Mongolia and Northern China was also traditionally an area of
nomadic herding. Many sub-arctic areas in Siberia and northern Europe were also dominated by this form of
livestock farming.

Since nomadic herding is practiced in so many different parts of the world, a wide variety of animals is kept, each
group keeping the type of animals best suited to the region in which they live. In tropical areas of Africa, cattle are
the most important livestock though in drier areas they may be replaced by goats. In many parts of Africa, the cattle
are regarded as the status symbol and although they yield milk or blood they are not killed to provide meat. In the
Sahara and Asiatic deserts sheep and goats are kept, and they provide wool, meat and milk. In desert areas, too, the
camel is very important source of wool and milk, but chiefly as a draught/draft animal. In the steppes of central Asia
sheep and horses are the most important animals. Horses are kept not only as draft animals but also for their meat
and milk by the Kirghiz and Mongols. In mountain areas such as Tibet the yak becomes more important. It is a
hardy form of mountain cattle and besides supplying meat, milk and hides, the yak is an excellent beast of burden. In
the Andes of South America, the ilamas and the related species, alpacas and vicunas, serve as draught animals or
provide high quality wool. In Arctic and Sub-arctic areas in Scandinavia and northern USSR, the reindeer is the
most important animal, providing food, hides, milk and transport.

Generally, the land used by nomadic herders is held and grazed communally, although livestock is usually owned on
an individual or family basis. Each owner usually aims at keeping as many livestock as possible, regardless of their
quality or availability of pasture. This urge to build up large flocks and herds can be attributed to several factors:

 Amongst the nomadic herders livestock are regarded as wealth, and a man’s position and prestige depends
upon the size of his flocks and herds, rather than upon money or other possessions.
 Many pastoral peoples use livestock for the payment of ‘bride price’, the bridegroom’s family being
required to make a present of animals to the family of the bride, before the ceremony of marriage can take
place.
 Large numbers of livestock are also kept a form of insurance policy against drought and famine, on the
mistaken assumption that the more animals a man has, the greater the number that are likely to survive a
bad year

Nomadic herders in tropical Africa are faced with a number of problems:

 Because of the seasonal nature of rainfall, drinking water for livestock is in short supply for part of the
year. During the dry season the pastures become parched and brown, and the condition of the livestock
deteriorates. The rainfall is very unreliable and during unusually dry years, the pastoralists often lose a
considerable number of livestock.
 The natural pastures are usually of poor quality. Many of these pastures are dominated by coarse grasses,
which are only nutritious when young.
 The livestock are affected by a large number of diseases. In the past, outbreaks of rinderpest often caused
heavy losses of livestock, but vaccination campaigns have largely brought this disease under control. The
most limiting of the animal diseases in tropical Africa is bovine trypanosomiasis or nagana.
 The native breeds of livestock are generally of poor quality. Although hardy, they are slow to mature. They
are also inefficient producers of meat and milk, compared with temperate breeds of livestock.
 The communal ownership and grazing of the land coupled with the lack of any restriction on the amount of
livestock an individual can own, often results in the pastoralists keeping far more animals than the available
 pasture can adequately support. The keeping of excessive numbers of livestock results in the destruction of
the grass cover and ultimately leads to soil erosion.

Characteristics of nomadic herding

 The nomadic herder rears livestock primarily for his own subsistence and is very often reluctant to dispose
of them
 The land is held and grazed communally
 Usually involves the movement of livestock over a much wider area
 Nomadic herder often rears several different types of livestock

NOTE

Transhumance is a special form of seasonal movement of livestock to exploit specific locally varying pasture
conditions. Employed by permanently or seasonally sedentary pastoralists and pastoral farmers, transhumance may
involve the regular vertical alteration from mountain to valley pastures between summer and winter months or
horizontal movement between established lowland grazing areas to reach pastures temporarily lush from seasonal
rains.

2. SHIFTING CULTIVATION/SLASH-AND-BURN AGRICULTURE/SIMPLE SUBSISTENCE

FARMING

In shifting cultivation, many people engage in a kind of nomadic farming. Through clearing and use, the soils of
those areas lose many of their nutrients, and farmers cultivating them need to move on after harvesting several
crops. In a sense, they rotate fields rather than crops to maintain productivity.

Farming is on a self-sufficient basis and farmers grow food only for themselves and their families. Very little ever
leaves the farm and every farmer produces practically the same range of crops as his neighbour. Some surpluses may
either be exchanged by barter or sold for cash. The resultant economy is thus static with little chance for
improvement.

Each region of its practice has its own name- for example, milpa in Middle East and South America, chitemene in
Africa and in Southeast Asia.

It is one of the oldest and widely spread agricultural systems of the world. It is found on the islands of Borneo, New
Guinea and Sumatra but is now retained only in small parts of the uplands of Southeast Asia in Vietnam, Thailand,
Myanmar and the Philippines. Nearly the whole of central and west Africa away from the coasts, Brazil’s Amazon
basin and large portions of central America were formerly all known for this type of extensive subsistence
agriculture.

Characteristics

 The sites are usually selected in virgin forest by the experienced elders and hill slopes are preferred because
of better drainage.
 The forests are usually cleared by fire and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil. Trees that are not burnt
are hacked out by the men or are left to decay naturally.
 The cultivated patches are usually very small, scattered in their distribution and separated from one another
by dense forests or bush.
 Cultivation is done with very primitive tools such sticks and hoes, without the aid of machines or even daft
animals. Much manual labour is needed in land clearance to produce food for a few people.
  Few crops are raised. The crops are starchy foods such as tapioca, cassava or manioc, yams, maize or corn,
millet, upland rice, beans and bananas. Crops are sown at calculated intervals, often between the other
plants, so that the harvest can be staggered to provide food all year round. Much the same types of crops
are grown in all the farms.
 Short periods of crop occupance alternate with long periods of fallowing. When the yields can no longer
support the community because of soil exhaustion, or the invasion of weeds and shrubs, the fields are
abandoned and fresh areas cleared. Field rotation rather than crop rotation is practiced. If the fallow period
is too short to allow a full forest cover to be restored so that its humus can enrich the soil, shifting
cultivation can give rise to serious soil erosion.
 Most ladangs do not provide adequate food for the entire community all the time. The diet is supplemented
by hunting wild animals in the forests, fishing in nearby streams or gathering fruits in the village vicinity.
Many people also keep fowls, ducks and goats. Their droppings, however, are not usually utilized to
fertilize the soil.
 It is a form of migratory agriculture. The exhaustion of soil nutrients, the deterioration of the lightly
constructed bamboo houses, attack by insect-pests, diseases or wild animals are some of the major reasons
that make migration a necessity.

NOTE: it may be argued that shifting cultivation is a highly efficient cultural adaptation where land is abundant in
relation to population and levels of technology and capital availability are low. As those conditions change, the
system becomes less viable.

B) INTENSIVE SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE/ORIENTAL AGRICULTURE

This form of agriculture is best developed in and practically confined to the monsoon lands of Asia. It is found in
Japan, India, China, Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the greater part of continental Southeast Asia and parts of insular
Southeast Asia. It is also practiced in some parts of Africa and Latin America.

Many of the regions of intensive subsistence farming have a highly developed form of society and government and
some such as China and India have a continuous history of civilization dating back more than 4000 years go. The
fast-growing population almost unchecked for centuries necessitates an ever greater intensity in the tillage of the
lands.

Basically, there are two types of oriental agriculture:

 Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by wet padi

 Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by other food crops such sorghum, soya beans, sugar-cane,
maize, kaoliang, tubers and vegetables

Characteristics of oriental agriculture

Very small holdings- Farms have been divided through many generations so that they have become extremely
small and often uneconomic to run. An average farm in Japan is approximately 0.6 ha but in India and elsewhere in
Asia farms may even be smaller. Individual peasants grow crops mainly to support their own families, though there
is some surplus for sale in some areas. In China, however, rapid agricultural changes took place after the agrarian
revolution in 1949 when the tiny farms were consolidated, under communist rule, into large collectives.

Farming is very intensive- Every bit of tillable land is utilized for agriculture. The fields are separated only by
narrow, hand-made ridges and footpaths by which the farmers move around their farms. These are made very
narrow to save on space. Additional land is made available by draining swampy areas, irrigating drier areas and
terracing hill slopes to produce flat areas that are suitable for padi cultivation. Only the steepest hills and the most
infertile areas are left uncultivated. Farming is so intensive that double or treble cropping is practiced (several crops
are grown on the same land during the course of a year).

Much hand labour is entailed- Ploughing is done with the aid of draught animals, the fields are raked by hand,
planting is done by hand and harvesting is done with sickles and threshing is done by hand. Farm implements are
still very simple and the basic tools are simple ploughs, the cangkul and the hoes.

Animal farming is little developed- Since oriental farms concentrate on the cultivation of food crops, especially
rice and vegetables, there is little pasture left for the animals. In some areas, animals are a wasted resource. For
instance, though India has the largest cattle population in the world, little use is made of them for beef production as
Hindus and Buddhists are forbidden by their religion to eat beef or even kill them. The large number of cattle in
India is vital for labour, as a source of milk and cheese and as producers of fertilizers and fuel. Comparatively, few
sheep, goats or horses are kept in monsoon Asia. Buffaloes are kept as draught animals in many areas. Poultry,
however, are very common and pigs are kept as scavenger animals on Chinese and Japanese farms. Many Asian
farmers resort to inland fish culture in ponds or flooded padi fields, to satisfy their needs for protein food.

Liberal use of animal and plant manure- to ensure high yields and the continued fertility of the land despite
multiple cropping, the farmers make use of every available type of manure, including farm wastes, rotten vegetables,
clippings, fish wastes, animal dung and human excreta. Increasing amounts of artificial fertilizers are now being
used in Japan, India and China, usually with government advice or assistance. The basic fertilizers applied include
phosphates, nitrates and potash, which help replenish vital plant nutrients in the soil.

Irrigation is often employed to make good the lack of moisture in some areas, though this has not yet been fully
developed in many areas.

C) URBAN SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE

Urban agriculture is a rapidly growing activity, with some 800 million city farmers worldwide providing, according
to the UN figures, one-seventh of the world’s total food production. It occurs in all regions of the world, developed
and underdeveloped, but it is most prevalent in Asia. Urban agriculture activities range from small garden plots, to
backyard livestock breeding, to raising fish in ponds and streams. Urban agriculture makes it possible for the
farming families to feed their families as well as supply the local markets with vegetables, fruits, fish and even meat.

In Africa where, for example, 2 of 3 Kenyan and Tanzanian urban families engage in farming, a reported 20% of
urban nutritional requirement is produced in towns and cities; in Accra, Ghana’s capital, urban farming provides the
city with 90% of its fresh vegetables. At the end of the 20 th century, city farming in Cuba produced 65% of the
country’s rice, 43% of its fruits and vegetables and 12% of roots and fibers. Chinese urban agriculture, by UN
estimates; provides 90% of the vegetable supply of cities.

Urban agriculture occupies city land as well as city residents: in Bangkok, Thailand, for example, some 60% of the
metropolitan area is cultivated. A similar inclusion of adjacent rural land within urban boundaries is characteristic of
China. In china, municipal boundaries were set to include large areas of rural land, now worked intensively to
supply the fruits, vegetables, fish and the like which are consumed in the city proper. In whatever form, urban
farming efforts are expressed, not all its area or yield is solely for local subsistence. An estimated 200 million global
urban dwellers also produce food for sale to others.

In all parts of the developing world, urban-origin foodstuffs have reduced the incidence of adult and child
malnutrition in cities rapidly expanding by their own birth rates and by the growing influx of displaced rural folk.
City farming is, as well, a significant outlet for underemployed residents. In some cities, as many as one-fifth to two-
thirds of all families are engaged in agriculture, a UNDP study reports, with as many as one-third f them having no
other source of income.
Merits of urban agriculture

 Urban agriculture helps convert waste from a problem to a resource. In Khartoum, Sudan, for example,
about 25% of the city’s garbage is consumed by farm animals. In CalCutta, India, a city’s sewage is used to
feed some 3000ha of the lagoons, which in turn produce some 6000 tons of fish annually. Additionally,
some 20,000 Calcutta residents diligently farm on the city’s garbage dumps, converting waste area and
rotting refuse to nutrition. Nearly everywhere, human and animal wastes, vegetable debris and table scraps
are composted or applied to garden areas.
 Nearly everywhere, vegetable gardens and interspersed fruit trees, ornamental plants and flowers enhance
the urban scene.

Demerits of urban agriculture

 The widespread use of untreated human waste as fertilizers exposes both consumers and producers to
infectious diseases such as cholera and hepatitis.
 When pesticides and chemical fertilizers are available and indiscriminately used by untrained gardeners,
local water supplies may become contaminated
 In some instances, limited supplies of drinking water may be severely depleted through diversion for illegal
irrigation or watering of subsistence gardens and livestock.

II. COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

Farmers in this system produce not for their own subsistence but primarily for a market off the farm. In those
economies, farming activities presumably mark production responses to market demand expressed through price and
are related to the consumption requirements of the larger society rather than to the immediate needs of farmers
themselves. It is classified as either intensive commercial agriculture or extensive commercial agriculture.

A) INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

Farmers who apply large amounts of capital (for machinery and fertilizers, for example) and/or labour per unit of
land engage in intensive commercial agriculture. The crops that justify such costly inputs are characterized by high
yields and high market value per unit of land. They include fruits, vegetables and dairy products, all of which are
highly perishable. Near most medium-sized and large cities, dairy farms and truck farms (horticultural or market
garden farms) produce a wide range of vegetables and fruits. Since the produce is perishable, transport costs increase
because of the required special handling, such as use refrigerated trucks and custom packaging. This is another
reason for locations close to the market.

B) EXTENSIVE MECHANIZED GRAIN CULTIVATION

This is a recent development in the continental lands of the mid-latitudes, which were once roamed by nomadic
herdsmen. It was the invention of farm machinery which enabled farmers to cultivate grain on a large scale. There is
a marked specialization in wheat monoculture in many areas. The bulk of the grain is exported. It is a type of
plantation agriculture in temperate latitudes. This form of large-scale grain cultivation is best developed in the
Eurasian Steppes in regions of chernozems soil; the Canadian and American Prairies; the Pampas of Argentina; the
Veld of South Africa; the Australian Downs, and the Canterbury Plain of New Zealand

Characteristic Features

Farms are very large: the wheat farms in the mid-latitudes are extremely large, ranging from 240-16,000ha, though
the average in the USA is about 400ha. Mechanization allows large areas to be easily farmed. Settlements are small
and often widely scattered. In the Russian Steppes, however, where land is farmed on a collective basis, settlements
are more compact and farmers who work on the state lands live together in quite large planned communities.

Cultivation is highly mechanized: cultivation from ploughing to harvesting is often entirely mechanized. Farmers
invest heavily in labour-saving devices such as tractors, ploughs, drills and combine harvesters which reap, thresh,
winnow and sack the grain, all in one operation. Farmers must also erect large barns and storage elevators in which
machinery can be kept, and grain stored, as well as other buildings. The overhead expenses in farm and machine
maintenance are thus great

Monoculture of wheat: wheat is traditionally the principal crop cultivated, though other crops are increasingly
important. Winter wheat (wheat sown in winter or late autumn) is grown in the warmer south where winters are
sufficiently mild to enable the seeds to survive the winter. Elsewhere, especially in the colder north, spring wheat is
cultivated. Within the extensive Prairie and Steppe lands, other cereals like barley, oats, rye, or corn may be grown.
In Argentina and the Russian Steppes, flax for oil-seed is often grown and other oil seeds such as soya beans are also
very important crops. Some farms also keep animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, or horses, and in favourable areas
vegetables and fruit trees are grown.

Low yield per acre but high yield per man: wheat grown on extensive mechanized farms gives comparatively low
yields. The average yield is rarely more than 1700kg per ha. But mechanization means that the labour-force is small
and the yield per man is high. With mechanization, a single machine can do the work of some 50 or 100 farm hands.
The cost of production is therefore low.

Other features: The extensive wheat farms of the Prairies or the Steppes are also characterized by:

Lack of irrigation: grain is raised on unirrigated lands since wheat or barley, for example, require as little as
325mm of annual precipitation. Only in very unfavourable locations is irrigation needed.

Farm ownership: farms are usually farmer-owned. The tenant system or absentee-farmer practice is not prevalent.
The farmer depends entirely on his machines and his few assistants for work round the year. During peak harvesting
periods, a few extra hands may be hired. On the other hand, in most parts of the Eurasian Steppes, wheat farms are
state-owned and worked by paid labour force.

Prone to climatic hazards: In such continental and even semi-arid regions, precipitation is not only low but can be
erratic at times. Droughts in the Prairies or the Ukraine may last for several years, making farming difficult or
impossible. Severe winter frosts or summer heat waves may reduce yields drastically.

Market fluctuations: there is an increasing trend towards the growing of crops other than wheat because in many
years markets cannot be found for the entire crop. More farmers are turning to amore mixed type of farming or are
growing oil-seed or animal fodder crops. In Canada, many farmers are being paid by the government to leave their
land fallow in order to reduce overproduction.

C) PLANTATION AGRICULTURE

The specialized commercial cultivation of cash crops on estates or plantations is a very distinctive type of tropical
agriculture. It is found in many parts of Asia, Africa and tropical and sub-tropical America. Some of the main
plantation crops are rubber, coffee, tea, oil palm, cotton and copra, fruits such as pineapples and bananas, as well as
sugarcane, hemp and jute.

Characteristic features

Estate farming: plantation crops are often raised on large estates, of more than 40ha. However, the success of such
crops has often encouraged other farmers to grow them so that small holdings exist side by side with the large
estates. In some parts of West Africa small holdings are, however, more important than estates. Small holding
rubber production now exceeds that from estates. Seedlings are first grown in nursery seed-beds and then
transplanted in neat rows, well spaced and regularly weeded, on the estates.

Foreign ownership and local labour: most of the largest estates are owned by Europeans. For example, most
Malaysian rubber estates were originally in the hands of British companies with their offices in London, and were
managed and supervised by Englishmen. The British also established large tea-gardens in India, Sri Lanka and
Kenya; and banana and sugarcane plantations in the West Indies. The French have established cocoa and coffee
plantations in West Africa (Cameroon and Ivory Coast). Since independence, however, there has been an increase in
local ownership. The harvesting and processing of the crops is done by the local people. The Dutch once
monopolized the sugar-cane plantations in Indonesia, especially in Java. Spanish and American capitalists invested
heavily in coconut, abaca and sugar plantations in the Philippines. Some coffee fazendas (plantations) in Brazil are
still in the hands of the Portuguese, though most of them belong to wealthy Brazilians.

Farming in estates is scientifically managed: work in estates is executed with specialized skill, and wherever
possible with the application of machinery and fertilizers. It aims at high yields, high quality production and a large
output, most of which is exported. The final products have to be carefully processed and standardized to meet world
demand and specification.

Heavy capital outlay: to initiate and to maintain a tropical plantation, large sums of money is required. As many
plantations are located in previously undeveloped or sparsely populated areas, far from urban centres, a minimum
network of communications by road or rail has first to be developed, either or without government assistance. This
is a very expensive undertaking especially under tropical conditions where maintenance costs are also high. Many
plantation crops take several years to mature (rubber takes 6 years, cocoa 5 years, tea 3 years) and during the long
gestation period these crops yield no income. In addition restocking and replanting at the end of the productive life
of the trees or shrubs is an expensive operation, involving the clearance of the old trees, the preparation of the land
and finally the planting of the new stock. As estates are manned more and more by local staff, however, less
administrative expenses are incurred, but the overall production cost is still high, especially where labour is highly
unionized as in India and Sri Lanka tea estates.

Problems facing plantation farming in the tropics

Climatic hazards: local winds like the harmattan, hurricanes and typhoons can cause great damage to plantation
crops, and in sub-tropical areas excessive rainfall or an extended drought can also reduce output or damage trees. In
marginal sub-tropical areas frosts are a major hazard. Coffee production in Brazil has frequently suffered from the
effects of unexpected frosts.

Prevalence of diseases and insect pests: plantations may suffer from uncontrollable outbreaks of plant diseases e.g.
coffee blights or the depredations of insect pests such as the boll-weevil of the cotton plantations. At the same time,
labour is also prone to viral diseases such as fevers which reduce productivity. In some areas malaria has not yet
been completely eradicated.

Difficulties of clearing and maintenance: the hot, wet, tropical climates encourage the growth of a wide variety of
vegetation. In rain forests, for instance, there is a multiplicity of species; tall trees, palms, undergrowth, ferns and
various kinds of herbaceous epiphytic and parasitic plants. A dense vegetative cover is difficult to clear to make way
for plantations and a sound communication network. It is even more expensive to prevent forest shrubs and trees
encroaching on such clearings. Large sums of money are needed annually for the repair of estate roads and railways.
Rapid deterioration of tropical soil: under tropical conditions of heavy rainfall, soluble mineral nutrients in the
soil are carried downwards by rainwater as it sinks into the ground. This leaching process proceeds very rapidly and
magnesium, potassium and calcium are removed. The red lateritic soils so formed are rather infertile. Large
quantities of manure or fertilizers have to be used to restore or maintain soil fertility. In some areas, careless
exploitation of tropical soils can lead to serious soil erosion because heavy rainfall washes away the top soil if it is
not protected.

D) LIVESTOCK RANCHING

Ranching is the practice of raising herds of animals on large tracts of land. Livestock ranching is the breeding and
raising of animals usually for meat production. Ranchers commonly raise grazing animals such as cattle, goats,
sheep and horses. Some ranchers also raise elk, bison, ostriches, emus, and alpacas. In Siberia, reindeer are also kept
on ranches in the sub-Arctic lands.

Ranching is common in temperate, dry areas, such as the Pampas region of South America, the western United
States, the Prairie Provinces of Canada, and the Australian Outback. In these regions, grazing animals are able to
roam over large areas. Some Australian ranches, known as stations, extend more than 10,000 square kilometers
(3,861 square miles). The largest, Anna Creek station, covers almost 24,000 square kilometers (9,266 square miles).

Characteristic features

The vegetative cover is continuous: the green pastures are either of the native grasses or resown with selected
grasses or legumes such as alfalfa, Lucerne and clovers. Even where the grass is poor as in western USA, there is
usually a continuous cover all round the year and the animals are still well-fed. Hay is often harvested for winter
feeding, or as in some parts of Argentina and Australia, the livestock diet is supplemented by man-made feedstuffs
with a balanced content of carbohydrates, proteins and mineral nutrients.

There is little or no migration: because food supplies are permanent or are supplemented by fodder crops there is
little need for continual movement from one area of pasture to another. Even though the range lands are large, and
the animals may wander over large areas, the cattle ranchers live in permanent farms or stations (or ranches or
estancias) from which they can reach all parts of their lands. There is no continual movement of the herd from place
to place. In some ranching areas, the herds may be moved occasionally, e.g. where there are rich upland pastures as
in Siberia or Western North America.

Ranches are scientifically managed: the best breeds are used to produce high quality beef, mutton or wool. Any
deficiency in pasture is made up for by cultivating feedstuffs, often on irrigated plots near the ranch, or by using
manufactured feeds. The livestock are vaccinated or dipped and are guarded against diseases. Diseased herds are
isolated and treated or slaughtered to prevent the spread of the infection. For example, the estancias in the Pampas of
Argentina are modern animal farms with automatic feeding towers, fenced ranges and veterinary surgeons who
attend to the animals regularly.

The animals are raised for sale: Ranches are purely commercial. The animal products such as meat and wool may
be produced for export, as is usually the case in New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Uruguay, or they may serve
basically the home market within the country as in the USA or the former USSR, but in either case the animals are
raised on commercial basis.
NOTE:

Livestock ranching is not confined to the temperate grasslands. It is also practised to some extent on the tropical
savannas e.g. on the campos and Illanos of South America, in Mexico, in central and southern Africa and in tropical
Australia. But commercial development often lags far behind that of the temperate regions.

Differences between Livestock Ranching and Nomadic Herding

 In livestock ranching, livestock is reared primarily for commercial purposes while in nomadic herding;
livestock is reared primarily for subsistence.
 In livestock ranching, land is held and grazed individually while in nomadic herding; land is held and
grazed communally
 In livestock ranching, movement of livestock is confined to the ranch while in nomadic herding; the
movement of livestock is over a much wider area
 In livestock ranching, the rancher concentrates on rearing one type of livestock, while in nomadic herding;
the herder often rears different types of livestock
 The ranches are scientifically managed in livestock ranching, while the animals are traditionally managed
in nomadic herding.
 In livestock ranching, the vegetation cover is continuous while in nomadic herding; vegetation is seasonal.

REFERENCES
Fellman, J.D, Getis , A , Getis, J and Malinowski, J (2005). Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities (8th
edition). New York: McGraw Hill.

Senior, M. (1979). Tropical Lands. A Human Geography. United Kingdom: Longman Group Ltd