Oil: for and against

For oil:

• Without oil advances in science would not exist.
• It is natural that we find in our soils and should be used to improve life, that if with due care not to spill.
• If we have an opportunity to make money selling this product to other countries, we should do this and that will improve our quality of life. 

Against oil:

• The bet for the fossil fuels and, in this case, for the exploitation of oil in Canary waters, instead of promoting the renewable energies is a mistake and deepens more the serious problem of the climate change.
• The extraction of crude oil is an activity that carries irreparable risks in all his phases for the marine biodiversity  
• The explorations in deep waters provoke evident risks of spillages 
• It is an activity that, far from stirring the economy into action, puts it in serious danger. 
• The company REPSOL, it does not offer safety guarantees and environmental respect and has a historic black in many zones of the planet. 
• The increase of the tensions with Morocco can create a situation of insecurity in our territory

Importance of water

Every living organism needs water to survive. Plants need water to make food. All animals depend on plants for food either directly or indirectly. Therefore without water, all life forms will cease to exist. With the ever increasing population, water is becoming a scarce commodity. To worsen this situation, the few available sources of water for consumption by living organisms are being depleted at an alarming rate. Careless release of wastes into water bodies is also a major problem today. If nothing is done to reverse the situation, then it is predicted that it will be extremely hard to find clean water in future.
It is obvious that direct consumption by plants and animals is top among uses of water. Water has many other important functions such as washing, transportation, recreation, industrial applications, chemical uses, fire extinguishing among other uses. There is no other solvent that can be used to serve all these functions of water. This further stresses the importance of water in life. Without it life will be extremely difficult. Therefore everyone is charged with the responsibility of taking care of water because survival depends on it.

Agriculture as a system

Agricultural enterprises-crop or livestock-deal with such concepts as labor supply, marketing, finances, natural resources, genetic stock, nutrition, equipment, and hazards. While it is possible to effectively manipulate each mechanism of successful farming individually, better results can often be obtained by treating the farming operation as a system. The interactions, then, among system components may become more important than how each component functions by itself. Treating production operations holistically offers greater management flexibility, provides for more environmentally and economically sound practices, and creates safer and healthier conditions for workers and for farm animals. NIFA staff provides leadership to land-grant university partners and other grantees as they conduct research, education, and extension activities in programs related directly and indirectly to agricultural systems.

Crop farming

A crop is the harvest of the produce of some plant. Crops cover any natural food substance which is not an animal product.
Crop farming is the way of life of people who farm in this manner as their source of income.

physical factors affecting farming

Farmers make decisions about what to grow, what animals to keep, the level and type of inputs and the methods they will use. Their decisions are based upon a range of social, economic and environmental factors. The farmers’ attitudes and level of knowledge are also important.

Social and economic factors
These are human factors and include labour, capital, technology, markets and government (political).

Labour

• In LEDCs, such as India and Java, farmers use abundant cheap labour instead of machines. In Japan and the UK, where labour is expensive, they use machines.• People working on farms may be unskilled labourers or skilled and able to use machinery, e.g. tractors, harvesters and milking machines.

Capital (finance)

• Capital, the money the farmer has to invest in the farm, can be used to increase the amount of inputs into the farm, e.g. machinery, fences, seeds, fertiliser and renewing buildings.
• If a farmer can afford to invest capital, yields will rise and can create greater profits which can be used for more investment.

Technology

• Machines and irrigation are two types of technology that can increase yields.
• Greenhouses, with computer-controlled technology, provide ideal conditions for high quality crops. The computer controls the temperature, moisture level and amount of feed for the plants.
• Genetic engineering has allowed new plants to be bred that resist drought and disease and give higher yields.

Markets

• Farmers grow crops which are in demand and change to meet new demands, e.g. rubber plantation farmers in Malaysia have switched to oil palm as the demand for rubber has fallen.
• Markets vary throughout the year and farmers change their production to suit them.

Government

• Governments influence the crops farmers grow through regulations, subsidies and quotas.
• Governments offer advice, training and finance to farmers and, in new farming areas, may build the infrastructure of roads and drainage, e.g. Amazonia.
• In some countries, e.g. Kenya and Malaysia, the government is trying to help nomadic farmers to settle in one place.
• Some governments plan and fund land reclamation and improvement schemes.

Environmental factors

• These are physical factors and include climate, relief and soil.

Climate

• Temperature (minimum 6°C for crops to grow) and rainfall (at least 250mm to 500mm) influence the types of crops that can be grown, e.g. hot, wet tropical areas favour rice, while cooler, drier areas favour wheat.
• The length of the growing season also influences the crops grown, e.g. wheat needs 90 days. Some rice-growing areas have two or three crops per year.

Relief

• Lowlands, such as flood plains, are good for crops.
• Steep slopes hinder machinery and have thinner soils; lower, more gentle slopes are less prone to soil erosion.
• Tea and coffee crops prefer the well-drained soil on hill slopes.
• Temperature decreases by 6.5°C for every 1000 metres gained in height.
• South-facing slopes receive more sunlight.

Soil

• Fertility is important; poor soil means lower outputs or larger inputs of fertilisers.
• Floodplains are good for rice because of the alluvial soils.
• Good drainage reduces the dangers of waterlogging.

Competition from the global market

This video looks at Wheat farming in East Anglia is influenced by local conditions and global markets. Adverse weather conditions mean the harvest can be delayed and the crops may be ruined. Wheat prices fluctuate in response to supply and demand and prices are set according to global markets. Other parts of the world can produce wheat more cheaply than Britain and so farmers must remain competitive. Science, technology and plant breeding have increased output considerably and British wheat production has trebled.

The farming system

A farming system is defined as a population of individual farm systems that have broadly similar resource bases, enterprise patterns, household livelihoods and constraints, and for which similar development strategies and interventions would be appropriate. Depending on the scale of the analysis, a farming system can encompass a few dozen or many millions of households.
The classification of the farming systems of developing regions has been based on the following criteria:

• available natural resource base, including water, land, grazing areas and forest; climate, of which altitude is one important determinant; landscape, including slope; farm size, tenure and organization; and
• dominant pattern of farm activities and household livelihoods, including field crops, livestock, trees, aquaculture, hunting and gathering, processing and off-farm activities; and taking into account the main technologies used, which determine the intensity of production and integration of crops, livestock and other activities.

Political map of America

Physical map of America

Types of farming

In the Standard Grade Geography exam there are three types of farming you need to know about - arable, livestock and mixed.

• Arable farms are ones where the main way of making money is by growing crop.
• Livestock farms are where animals are the important part of the far.
• Mixed farms are where animals and crops are both important to the farme.

Primary economic activity world map

Gross domestic product of countries in the world

Countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product to values of purchasing power parity, the sum of all goods and services produced by a country in a year, in relation to purchasing power parity.

bar chart of income per capita of the countries E.U.

political map of asia

physical map of asia