Primary Activities
Class 12 GeographyHuman 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.
Hunting and Gathering
The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on: (a) animals which they hunted; and (b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity.
Primitive societies depended on wild animals. People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting (poaching). The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.
Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known. These are carried out at different levels with different orientations.
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. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low level of technology. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced.
Gathering is practised in: (i) high latitude zones which include northern Canada, northern Eurasia and southern Chile; (ii) Low latitude zones such as the Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, Northern fringe of Australia and the interior parts of Southeast Asia.
Pastoralism
At some stage in history, with the realisation that hunting is an unsustainable activity, human beings might have thought of domestication of animals. People living in different climatic conditions selected and domesticated animals found in those regions. Depending on the geographical factors, and technological development, animal rearing today is practised either at the subsistence or at the commercial level.
Nomadic Herding
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.
Pastoral nomadism is associated with three important regions. The core region extends from the Atlantic shores of North Africa eastwards across the Arabian peninsula into Mongolia and Central China. The second region extends over the tundra region of Eurasia. In the southern hemisphere there are small areas in South-west Africa and on the island of Madagascar.
Commercial Livestock Rearing
Unlike nomadic herding, commercial livestock rearing is more organised and capital intensive. Commercial livestock ranching is essentially associated with western cultures and is practised on permanent ranches. These ranches cover large areas and are divided into a number of parcels, which are fenced to regulate the grazing. When the grass of one parcel is grazed, animals are moved to another parcel. The number of animals in a pasture is kept according to the carrying capacity of the pasture.
New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and United States of America are important countries where commercial livestock rearing is practised.
Agriculture
Agriculture is practised under multiple combinations of physical and socio-economic conditions, which gives rise to different types of agricultural systems.
Based on methods of farming, different types of crops are grown and livestock raised.
Subsistence Agriculture
Subsistence agriculture is one in which the farming areas consume all, or nearly so, of the products locally grown. It can be grouped in two categories — Primitive Subsistence Agriculture and Intensive Subsistence Agriculture.
Primitive Subsistence Agriculture
Primitive subsistence agriculture or shifting cultivation is widely practised by many tribes in the tropics, especially in Africa, south and central America and south east Asia.
The vegetation is usually cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil. Shifting cultivation is thus, also called slash and burn agriculture. The cultivated patches are very small and cultivation is done with very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes.
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
This type of agriculture is largely found in densely populated regions of monsoon Asia.
- Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by wet paddy cultivation
- Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by crops other than paddy
Plantation Agriculture
Plantation agriculture was introduced by the Europeans in colonies situated in the tropics. 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, and a good system of transportation which links the estates to the factories and markets for the export of the products.
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 mid-latitudes. Wheat is the principal crop, though other crops like corn, barley, oats and rye are also grown.
This type of agriculture is best developed 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
This form of agriculture is found in the highly developed parts of the world, e.g. North-western Europe, Eastern North America, parts of Eurasia and the temperate latitudes of Southern continents.
Mixed farms are moderate in size and usually the crops associated with it are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, fodder and root crops. Fodder crops are an important component of mixed farming. Crop rotation and intercropping play an important role in maintaining soil fertility. Equal emphasis is laid on crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Animals like cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry provide the main income along with crops.
Mining
The discovery of minerals in the history of human development, is reflected in many stages in terms of copper age, bronze age and iron age. The use of minerals in ancient times was largely confined to the making of tools, utensils and weapons. The actual development of mining began with the industrial revolution and its importance is continuously increasing.