Human Geography: Farming and Urbanization

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on Human Geography: Farming and Urbanization. This article explores the intricate relationship between economic activities, population distribution, and the changing landscape of our world, providing a clear overview for students.

Understanding Economic Activities and Employment Structure in Human Geography

The economy encompasses all economic activity within a specific area. To understand how societies function and develop, human geography classifies these activities into four main sectors:

• Primary Economy: Involves collecting raw materials through activities like growing, catching, or extraction. Key examples include fishing, forestry, mining, and farming.
• Secondary Economy: Processes raw materials and assembles finished products. This sector includes various industries (metal making, assembling machines and vehicles, food processing) and construction.
• Tertiary Economy: Provides goods and services to the public. Typical activities are retailing, education, healthcare, administration, transport, and catering.
• Quaternary Economy: Focuses on research, development of new products, or providing new services. This includes advertising, telecommunications, research, information technology, and design engineering.

Employment Structure Over Time and Across Countries

Employment refers to a person's job or occupation. The employment structure represents the percentage of workers in each economic sector within a particular area. This structure evolves over time and varies significantly between different countries.

Historically, global employment has transitioned through three economic periods:

1. Pre-industrialization (until 1820): Characterized by a dominant primary sector.
2. Industrialization (1820-1970): Saw a rise in the secondary sector.
3. De-industrialization (after 1970): Marked by the growth of the tertiary and quaternary sectors.

For instance, in the USA (a More Economically Developed Country or MEDC), the dominant sector is tertiary (45%), with secondary at 23% and primary at 2%. In contrast, Nepal (a Less Economically Developed Country or LEDC) has a dominant primary sector (81%), followed by tertiary (16%) and secondary (3%). Slovakia in 2019 had 2.49% in agriculture (primary), 36.10% in industry (secondary), and 61.11% in services.

Farming in Human Geography: Types and Influencing Factors

Agriculture (or farming) involves growing crops and rearing animals, making it a crucial part of the primary economic sector. Like any system, agriculture has inputs, processes, and outputs.

• Inputs: Seeds, animals, buildings, labor, soil, subsidies (e.g., EU aid).
• Processes:
• Crop/Plant: Ploughing, planting, watering (irrigation), fertilizing, weeding, harvesting.
• Animal: Feeding, milking, sheep shearing, grazing, vaccinating, slaughtering.
• Outputs: Crops, animals, and other related products.

Globally, about 37% of economically active people worked in agriculture in 2012. However, this percentage is much lower in MEDCs (around 5-10%) and significantly higher in LEDCs (around 60-70%).

Classifying Types of Farming

Farms are classified based on several criteria:

1. By Purpose of Production:

• Subsistence farming: Farmers grow crops and rear animals primarily for their own use, with any surplus sold locally.
• Commercial farming: Farmers produce crops and rear animals mainly for sale in markets.

2. By What They Produce:

• Arable farms: Primarily grow crops.
• Pastoral farms: Primarily rear animals.
• Mixed farms: Combine both growing crops and rearing animals.

3. By Level of Input:

• Extensive farms: Large in size with low inputs of labor or technology. Yields per hectare are low, but the overall farm size is significant.
• Intensive farms: Smaller in size with high inputs of labor or technology. Yields per hectare are high.

4. By Permanence:

• Nomadic farming: Farmers move to find good grazing land for animals.
• Sedentary farming: Farmers stay in one place to grow their crops.

Examples of predominant farming types around the world include nomadic hunters (Canada, Northern Siberia), intensive subsistence (India), commercial pastoral (France, Argentina), Mediterranean agriculture (Italy), extensive subsistence (Congo), and nomadic herding (Saudi Arabia). Greenland is unsuitable for agriculture.

Key Factors Affecting Agricultural Practices

Farming is influenced by a combination of physical and human factors:

• Physical Factors:
• Relief: Mountainous areas tend to be colder, impacting crop choices.
• Climate: Rainfall, temperature, and solar activity are crucial for growth.
• Soils: Soil type and fertility directly affect agricultural productivity.
• Human Factors:
• Type of market: Local, national, or global demand and market distance.
• Transport network: Efficiency of getting products to market.
• Technology: Level of technological intensity used in farming practices.
• Labor: Availability and cost of labor.
• Government/Political help: Subsidies and agricultural policies.

Urbanization: The Global Shift in Human Settlements

Urbanization is the increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas, measured as a percentage of the total population. World urbanization was 54% in 2016, and a country is considered urbanized when over 50% of its population lives in urban areas.

We are currently witnessing a historic transition: human civilization is increasingly coalescing into large urban centers. Cities are hubs of cultural, economic, and social acceleration.

Global Urbanization Trends and Statistics

• In 1950, about two-thirds of the world's population lived in rural areas, and one-third in urban settlements.
• By 2050, this is expected to reverse, with two-thirds of the global population in crowded urbanized areas and only one-third in rural settlements.
• Nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be absorbed by cities, with an expected 1.1 billion new urbanites.

Key urbanization milestones:

• 1900: 13% of the world's population lived in urban areas.
• 1950: 30% urban.
• 2000: 46% urban.
• 2011: 50% urban.
• 2030: 60% urban (projected).
• 2050: 70% urban (projected).

Today, the most urbanized regions include Australia (89%), Northern America (82%), Latin America (80%), and Europe (73%). Africa (40%) and Asia (48%) remain mostly rural.

Processes Driving Urbanization

Urbanization involves several interconnected processes:

1. Rural-to-urban migration: The movement of people from the countryside to towns and cities.
2. Natural increase in urban areas: Higher birth rates and lower death rates within cities, particularly in LEDCs.
3. Urban sprawl: The outward spreading of a city or its suburbs into surrounding rural areas.
4. Transformation of rural settlements: Villages evolving into towns as they grow and develop urban characteristics.

Urbanization in MEDCs vs. LEDCs

MEDCs generally exhibit higher levels of urbanization (averaging 76.1% in 2000). In contrast, LEDCs have lower levels of urbanization (averaging 40.5% in 2000), but their urbanization growth rate is significantly higher (from 17.8% in 1950 to 40.5% in 2000).

This rapid urbanization, coupled with poverty in LEDCs, often leads to the occurrence of slums, also known as favelas or shanty towns. These are heavily populated urban informal settlements characterized by substandard housing and squalor. In 2015, the highest proportion of urban population living in slums was in Sub-Saharan Africa (61.7%), followed by South Asia (35%) and Southeast Asia (31%).

Special Types of Urban Settlements and Processes

• Urban agglomeration: A city comprising its built-up area and any rural suburbs linked by a continuous urban area (e.g., Bratislava; Košice).
• Conurbation: A large urban region where the built-up zones of distinct towns or cities are connected by continuous development (e.g., Greater London; The Rhine-Ruhr conurbation).
• Deurbanization/Counter-urbanization: The movement of people from urban to rural settlements.
• Suburbanization: The movement of people from the city center to the suburbs of urban settlements.

FAQ: Human Geography, Farming, and Urbanization

What are the main economic sectors in human geography?

There are four main sectors: Primary (raw materials), Secondary (manufacturing), Tertiary (services), and Quaternary (research and development). These classifications help analyze a region's economic activities and development stage.

How does urbanization impact global population distribution?

Urbanization is causing a significant shift, with a projected two-thirds of the global population living in urban areas by 2050. This means a move from historically rural dominance to a future centered around large urban centers, absorbing most of the global population growth.

What factors primarily influence farming practices worldwide?

Farming is affected by both physical and human factors. Physical factors include relief, climate, and soil type. Human factors encompass the type and distance of markets, transport networks, technology, labor availability, and government policies like subsidies.

What is the difference between subsistence and commercial farming?

Subsistence farming is when farmers grow crops and rear animals mainly for their own consumption, with any surplus sold locally. Commercial farming, on the other hand, involves producing crops and rearing animals primarily for sale in larger markets to generate income.