Where is commercial farming practiced

Geographers are concerned with understanding why things happen in geographical spaces. Because he was a keen observer of the landscape around him, he noticed that similar plots of land in different locations were often used for very different purposes.

He concluded that these differences in land use between plots with similar physical characteristics might be the result of differences in location relative to the market. Thus, he went about trying to determine the role that distance from markets plays in creating rural land-use patterns. He was interested in finding laws that govern the interactions between agricultural prices, distance, and land use as farmers sought to make the greatest profit possible.

The dot represents a city, and the first ring white is dedicated to market gardening and fresh milk production. That is because of milk products and garden crops, such as lettuce, spoil quickly.

Because of this, producers of perishable crops were willing to outbid producers of less perishable crops to gain access to the land closest to the market. This means that land close to the community created a higher level of economic rent.

This was because, in the early 19th century, people used wood for building, cooking, and heating. Wood is bulky and heavy and therefore difficult to transport. Still, it is not nearly as perishable as milk or fresh vegetables. In his time, rye was the most important cash grain crop.

Because the cost of gaining access to the land rent drops with distance from the city, those farming at the other edges of the ring would find that lower rents would offset increased transportation costs. Therefore, they would not farm as intensely as those working land closer to the urban center. The fourth ring would be dedicated to livestock ranching. Additionally, products such as wool, hide, horn, and so on could be transported easily without concern about spoilage.

These lands, he argued, would eventually develop rent value, as the population of the state increased. Thus, in this fundamental theory, the only variable was the distance from the market. He developed it as an analytical tool that could be manipulated to explain rural land-use patterns in a world of multiple variables.

He knew that this did not represent reality because already in his time, some roads were better than others, railways existed, and navigable water routes significantly reduced the friction of distance between the places they served. Therefore, he introduced a navigable waterway into his model, and found that because produce would be hauled to docks on the stream for transport, each zone of production would elongate along the stream. Eventually, as he worked with his model, he began to consider the effects of differences in climates, topography, soils, and labor.

Each of these could serve to benefit or restrict production in a given place. For example, lower wages might offset the advantages realized by being near a market. The difference in the soil might also offset the advances of being close to the market. Thus, a farmer located some distance from the market with access to well-drained, well-watered land with excellent soil, and low-cost labor nearby, might be willing to pay higher rent for the property in question even if it were a bit further from the market than another piece of land that did not have such amenities.

Once real-world influences are allowed to invade the model, the concentric land-use pattern does not remain in place. Modern technology, such as advances in transportation systems, increasingly complicates the basic concentric circle model.

Recent changes, like the demand for agricultural products, also influence land-use patterns. Changes in demand for farm products often have dramatic impacts on land uses. For example, when fuel production companies demanded dramatically increased quantities of corn to produce ethanol, and the price of corn rose accordingly, farmers responded by shifting from other food crops to ethanol-producing corn. Currently, there is little extra farmland available upon which an expansion might take place.

Therefore, changes in demand typically result in farmers shifting to crops that will bring the highest return. The mid-Willamette Valley of Oregon provides another example of how changes in demand affect agricultural land uses. For years, the mid-Willamette Valley was the site of many medium-sized grain farms.

The primary grain crops included wheat, barley, oats, Austrian peas, and clover. Also, farmers in the region produced row crops, orchard crops, hay, and grass seed. During the s, in response to increasing demand, the price of grass seed increased dramatically. As a result, Willamette Valley farmers quickly changed their focus from the production of grain to grass seed.

Soon after, several grain processing facilities closed, and grass seed cleaning, storage, and market facilities opened. There were other unexpected impacts, as well. For example, Willamette Valley grain farms once provided excellent habitat for Chinese pheasants.

Pheasants eat grain, but they do not eat grass seed. When the grain fields disappeared, so, too, did the pheasants. On the contrary, in commercial agriculture, huge capital investments are needed, which is why it is a capitalistic technique. Subsistence agriculture is practiced in a small area only. On the other hand, a large area is necessary to practice commercial agriculture.

To increase productivity, manure is added to the soil in subsistence agriculture. On the other hand, in commercial agriculture, crop yields can be increased by high doses of modern inputs, ie seeds of high yielding varieties, fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, etc.

In subsistence agriculture, mainly food grains such as wheat and rice, fruits and vegetables are grown. With the global population projected to increase to 9. As the population numbers rise, food production as it stands today could struggle to keep up with demand. The answer could lie in new agriculture technology advances and methods of modern farming that focus on efficiency and increased output. Common goals of sustainable farming :. One of the biggest problems that commercial farmers face is water conservation.

Traditionally, crops have been watered using agriculture sprinklers that distribute water across a wide area of land. A significant portion of the water is unused by the crops due to evaporation.

Water problems also arise for livestock producers, especially those who experience drought and live in consistently warm environments. Because water is an essential component of survival for their animals, it becomes increasingly important for farmers to practice water management and conservation tactics.

Sustainability in commercial farming addresses the ability of agriculture to maintain a rate of production that can support the growing demand for food.