Big picture
Primary activities directly depend on the environment: they make use of the Earth's resources such as land, water, vegetation, building materials and minerals. They include hunting and gathering, pastoral activities, fishing, forestry, agriculture and mining.
People engaged in primary activities are called red-collar workers, because their work is outdoors. The type of primary activity in a region depends on its physical environment and level of technology. This chapter describes each type with its regions and features.
Learning goals
Explain hunting and gathering and where it is practised.
Distinguish nomadic herding, transhumance and commercial livestock rearing.
Describe the main types of agriculture, with their regions and features.
Explain mining: the factors that affect it and the methods used.
Core ideas
1. Hunting and gathering
The oldest economic activity, practised in areas with harsh climatic conditions: high latitudes (northern Canada, northern Eurasia, southern Chile) and low latitudes (the Amazon basin, tropical Africa, northern Australia and Southeast Asia).
Gatherers collect plants, roots, leaves, nuts, bark and medicinal plants. Some products are sold commercially: rubber, balata, gums and resins, cinchona bark and medicinal herbs.
It needs little capital and low technology, yields little surplus and supports few people. It is declining because of the loss of forests and availability of cheaper substitutes.
2. Pastoralism
Nomadic herding (pastoral nomadism):
A subsistence activity in which herders move with their animals in search of pasture and water.
Three main regions: the core region from the Atlantic shores of North Africa through the Arabian peninsula to Mongolia and Central China; the tundra region of Eurasia; and south-west Africa and Madagascar.
Animals vary by region: cattle in tropical Africa, sheep, goats and camels in the Sahara and Asian deserts, yaks and llamas in Tibet and the Andes, and reindeer in the Arctic.
Transhumance: the seasonal movement of people with their animals: to mountains in summer and plains (valleys) in winter. In India, the Gujjars, Bakarwals, Gaddis and Bhotiyas of the Himalayas practise it.
Commercial livestock rearing (ranching):
More organised and capital-intensive, practised on large permanent ranches; animals are kept for meat, wool, hides and skin, with scientific breeding, disease control and processing.
Practised in New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and the USA.
Specialised: often a single type of animal (sheep, cattle, goats or horses) is reared.
3. Types of agriculture
Type | Main features | Regions and examples |
|---|---|---|
Primitive subsistence (shifting cultivation, "slash and burn") | A patch of forest is cleared by felling and burning trees; crops are grown for a few years until soil fertility declines, then the farmer moves on. Low yields; small population | Tropical forests of Africa, South and Central America and Southeast Asia. Called jhuming in north-east India, milpa in Central America and Mexico, and ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia |
Intensive subsistence | Small landholdings, family labour, high use of manure and labour, high yields per unit area; wet paddy-dominated (monsoon Asia) or non-paddy-dominated (wheat, soyabean, barley, sorghum in drier parts) | Densely populated monsoon regions of South, Southeast and East Asia |
Plantation | Introduced by Europeans in their colonies; large estates, single crop, large capital investment, scientific methods, cheap labour, and good transport linking estates to factories and markets | Tea (British, India and Sri Lanka), cocoa and coffee (French, West Africa), rubber (British, Malaysia), sugarcane and banana (West Indies), coconut and sugarcane (Spanish and Americans, Philippines), sugarcane (Dutch, Indonesia), coffee fazendas (Brazil) |
Extensive commercial grain cultivation | Practised in the interior of semi-arid mid-latitude grasslands; very large farms, highly mechanised, low yield per acre but high yield per person; wheat is the main crop | Prairies (North America), Steppes (Eurasia), Pampas (Argentina), Velds (South Africa), Downs (Australia), Canterbury Plains (New Zealand) |
Mixed farming | Both crops and livestock; crop rotation and intercropping maintain soil fertility; fodder crops are important; high capital investment | North-western Europe, eastern North America, parts of Eurasia and temperate parts of southern continents |
Dairy farming | The most advanced and efficient type of rearing milch animals; capital-intensive (sheds, storage, machines) and labour-intensive (feeding and milking all year); located near urban markets | North-western Europe, Canada, south-eastern Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania |
Mediterranean agriculture | Highly specialised; citrus fruits and viticulture (grape cultivation, for wine); dry summers and rainy winters | Lands around the Mediterranean Sea, central California, central Chile, south-western South Africa and south-western Australia |
Market gardening and horticulture | Specialised cultivation of high-value crops such as vegetables, fruits and flowers for urban markets; small, intensive farms with good transport; truck farming is where farms are at a distance a truck can cover overnight; factory farming rears livestock (especially poultry and cattle) in stalls, fed on manufactured feed | Densely populated industrial districts of north-west Europe and north-eastern USA |
Cooperative farming | Farmers pool resources voluntarily for more efficient and profitable farming while keeping their individual land | Denmark (very successful), the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Italy |
Collective farming | Based on social ownership of the means of production and collective labour; farmers work together on collective land and share produce | The kolkhoz system of the former USSR |
4. Mining
Factors affecting the profitability of mining:
Physical factors: the size, grade and mode of occurrence of the deposits.
Economic factors: demand for the mineral, available technology, capital to develop infrastructure, and the cost of labour and transport.
Methods of mining:
Method | When used | Features |
|---|---|---|
Surface (open-cast) mining | Minerals occur close to the surface | The easiest and cheapest way; low safety risk; quick output |
Underground (shaft) mining | Ores lie deep below the surface | Vertical shafts are sunk, and horizontal tunnels reach the minerals; needs lifts, drills, haulage, ventilation; risky (poisonous gases, fires, floods, cave-ins) and expensive |
Mining in developed and developing countries: developed countries have reduced mining because of high labour costs and environmental concerns, though they keep reserves. Developing countries depend more on mining and export minerals, which earn them foreign exchange, but processing often happens elsewhere.
A reliable approach to questions
Classify activities as primary, and explain red-collar workers.
For pastoralism, distinguish nomadic herding, transhumance and commercial ranching, with regions.
For agriculture, give each type's features and regions, with local names for shifting cultivation.
For mining, explain factors and methods with their advantages and risks.
Connections that matter
Secondary activities process the raw materials produced here.
India: land resources and agriculture applies these ideas to India.
Economics: rural development discusses agriculture and diversification.
Common mistakes
Saying transhumance is the same as nomadic herding. Transhumance is a seasonal movement between mountains and plains.
Calling plantation agriculture a subsistence type. It is commercial, often with a single export crop.
Saying extensive commercial grain farming has high yield per acre. It has low yield per acre but high yield per person.
Calling underground mining cheaper than open-cast mining.
Revision checklist
I can explain hunting and gathering.
I can distinguish forms of pastoralism.
I can describe each type of agriculture with regions.
I can explain mining factors and methods.