1. Agriculture in Less Developed
Countries

2. LDC Agriculture
• Five types of agriculture typify the less
developed country
– Shifting cultivation
– Pastoral nomadism
– Intensive subsistence wet rice dominant
– Intensive subsistence non wet rice dominant
– Plantation farming

4. Shifting Cultivation
Slash and burn or swidden agriculture
Extensive subsistence
Slash and burn- vegetation is removed and burned, releasing nutrients
that fertilize
Land is cleared, followed by two or three years of cultivation until
abandoned because of declining soil fertility and weeds
Land is left fallow for up to 20 years
Today, practiced in tropical regions (low latitudes)
intertillage, human labor, crop rotation, staggered sowing
Low population densities; as populations grow…

5. Shifting Cultivation: Map

6. Shifting Cultivation
Intertillage

7. Shifting Cultivation
Slash and Burn Agriculture

8. Shifting Cultivation
South America
Maize
Manioc (cassava)
Africa
Millet
Sorghum
yams
sugarcane plantains

9. Cassava

10. Plantains

11. Maize

12. Pastoral Nomadism
Sedentary or nomadic, small plots of crops may be planted
and tended by women and children
Extensive subsistence
Practiced in arid or mountainous regions that lack of fertile
soil, deserts, steppes, savannahs
Reliance on animals
Mobile and small populations
Sheep, cattle, goats, camels, yaks, horses, reindeer
transhumance: movement between cooler mountains
(summer) and warmer lowlands (winter)

13. Pastoral Nomadism
Kyrgyz yurt made of felt; known as a ger by the
Mongolians

14. Intensive Subsistence
densely populated rural areas
small, fragmented plots
work done by hand or animals
no land is wasted (terracing)
crops for human consumption

15. Intensive Subsistence

16. Intensive Subsistence Wet Rice
refers to planting rice initially on dry land in a nursery and then moving
seedlings to a flooded field
occupies a small % of Asia’s land but is region’s most important source of food
Southeast China, East India and Southeast Asia
All family members contribute to the work load
Buffalo or oxen
Found near river valleys and deltas
Terraced hillsides, some use of irrigation
Double cropping = two crops a year per field
Common in areas with warm winters
Wet rice grown in summer and another crop (barley or wheat) grown in dry
winter season

17. Intensive Subsistence Wet Rice

18. Intensive Subsistence Wet Rice

19. Intensive Subsistence non-Wet Rice
Parts of Asia where summer
precip levels are too low and
Pearl winter months are too cool
Millet,
grown in Interior India and northeast
Africa China
Wheat is most important crop
followed by barley
Millet, oats, corn, sorghum,
soybeans also grown for
individual consumption
Millet is a type of grain grown in dry and cool climates where
wheat or barley can’t; can be stored for five years

20. Millet
•Millet is a collective term for a variety of grasses that produce
small, rounded seeds that are harvested for food
•in developing nations, millet is used for food, animal bedding,
construction materials, and forage fodder for animals
•hardy annual capable of growing in conditions that would kill other
crops
•thrives in intense heat and poor soil, which makes it a natural
choice for areas of the world that are turning into deserts
•high concentrations of numerous vitamins, as well as a high volume
of protein—a little over one tenth of the grain is protein
•millet is gluten free
•grows quickly and can be harvested as soon as three months after
planting, providing an opportunity to get two or even three crops in
a year

21. Millet

23. Sorghum
•used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or "sorghum
molasses"), fodder, and the production of alcoholic
beverages
•Most species are drought tolerant and heat tolerant and are
especially important in arid regions
•cereals that thrive in semi-arid regions and provide
important human food in tropical Africa, central and north
India, and China
•Sorghum produced in the USA and Australia is used for
animal feed

24. Sorghum

25. Rice

26. Intensive Subsistence

27. Intensive Subsistence non-Wet Rice
Cash crops may be grown in
this region: cotton, flax, hemp,
tobacco
Crop rotation will allow some
use of double cropping
Different varieties of
sorghum can be grown
for feed or for making Flax flower and seeds
molasses

28. Cotton

29. Plantation
A form of commercial
agriculture
Crops grown in LDC’s but
fields and plantations are
owned by MDC’s and sold in
MDC’s
Latin America: coffee,
sugarcane, bananas
Asia: rubber, palm oil
Work spread evenly throughout
the year; some double cropping

30. Plantation
Crops:
tea
lumber
coffee
banana
rubber
cacao
tobacco
sugarcane
cotton
pineapple

31. Plantation
Breadfruit
Native to East Indian ocean
and Western Pacific Islands

32. Plantation
Tea Plantation, Malaysia

33. Plantation
Cacao
•Introduced to the
South American
region by the Mayas
of the Yucatan
•Used for chocolate
and cocoa
•Beans once used as
Cacao tree with fruit pods currency
•Currently practiced
in tropical
environments

34. Plantation
Rubber
•Native to Central
and South
America
•Now practiced
primarily in Asia
Rubber tree

35. Plantation
Sugarcane
•Caribbean region
•Tropics and
subtropics
•Industry expected
to crash by 2009
•In Brazil, can be
used in production
of fuels
Sugarcane

36. Plantation
Pineapple
•Native to Brazil,
Bolivia and
Paraguay
•Symbol of
hospitality
•Major producers:
Thailand,
Philippines, Brazil
•Scales arranged in
spirals of eight and Pineapple field, Hawaii
thirteen, an
example of a
Fibonacci symbol
existing in nature