SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY:
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND LOCATION FACTORS:
Economic activity:
Economic activity is the activity of making, providing, purchasing, or selling goods or services. Any action that involves producing, distributing, or consuming products or services is an economic activity.
Economic activities exist at all levels within a society. Additionally, any activities involving money or the exchange of products or services are economic activities.
Employees working in a factory and receiving wages, for example, are performing economic activities. Their employers are also economically active because they pay the workers and make and sell goods.
1.primary activity
A primary economic activity refers to any kind of economic activity that involves collecting, extracting or harvesting natural resources. There are two types of products that can be produced from primary economic activities.
Products that are harvested or extracted and can be directly consumed without being processed or converted into another form. E.g., Fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural or animal produce.
Products that are harvested or extracted but cannot be directly consumed without being processed. These products are used in other industries as raw materials and are processed to produce finished goods that can be used by people. E.g., Cotton is a raw material that cannot be used directly but can be processed to produce clothes. Similarly, wood cannot be used directly but can be used to build furniture and housing, among others.
The primary sector of the economy makes direct use of natural resources.
This sector includes agriculture, Forestry, fishing, and mining. various forms of primary activities are as follows:
● Hunting and Gathering:
Hunting and gathering was humanity’s first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history. Following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers who did not change have been displaced or conquered by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world.
Many cultures have also combined foraging with agriculture or animal husbandry. In pre-Columbian North America, for instance, most Arctic, American Subarctic, Northwest Coast, and California Indians relied upon foraging alone, but nomadic Plains Indians supplemented their wild foods with corn (maize) obtained from Plains villagers who, like Northeast Indians, combined hunting, gathering, and agriculture. In contrast, the Southwest Indians and those of Mesoamerica were primarily agriculturists who supplemented their diet by foraging.
Hunting and gathering are practiced by primitive societies living in Harsh climatic condition :
▪︎ low latitude areas such as Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, and northern fringe of Australia, and interior part of Southeast Asia.
▪︎ high latitude zones, which include Northern Canada, Eurasia etc.
hunting and gathering involve low level of investment and Technology. it is undertaken for basic needs such as food and clothing.
🔸️ pastoralism.
Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry, historically by nomadic people who moved with their herds. The species involved include various herding livestock, including cattle, camels, goats, yaks, llamas, reindeer, horses and sheep.
Pastoralism remains a way of life in many geographies including Africa, the Tibetan plateau, the Eurasian steppes, the Andes, Patagonia, the Pampas, Australia, and other many other places. As of 2019, 200-500 million people practice pastoralism globally, and 75% of countries have pastoral communities.
Pastoralist herds interact with their environment, and mediate human relations with the environment as a way of turning uncultivated plants like wild grass into food. In many places, grazing herds on savannas and woodlands can help maintain the biodiversity of the savannas and prevent them from evolving into dense shrublands or forests. Grazing and browsing at the appropriate levels often can increase biodiversity in Mediterranean climate regions.[4][5] Pastoralists shape ecosystems in different ways: some communities use fire to make ecosystems more suitable for grazing and browsing animals.
It refers to the domestication of animals. Pastoralism can be normalic or commercial:
• Nomadic herding:
Nomadic pastoralism is a form of pastoralism when livestock are herded in order to find fresh pastures on which to graze. True nomads follow an irregular pattern of movement, in contrast with transhumance where seasonal pastures are fixed. it is maintained that some, such as overgrazing and overstocking, may be overstated while others, such as climate change, mining and agricultural reclamation, may be under reported. In this context, there is also uncertainty as to the long term effect of human behavior on the grassland as compared to non-biotic factors.
Different animals are kept in different regions. in tropical Africa cattle are the most important live stock .in Sahara and asiatic deserts, sheep, goats ,and camels are reared. in the mountainous region of the Tibet and andes, the yaks are reared.
There are certain primitive community such as faddis,bhotiyas,and gujjars who prefer High mountains during summer and come to Plains along with cattle during winters. this process of migration from plain areas to pastures on mountains during summer and again from mountain pastures to plain area during winter are known as transhumance.
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•Commercial livestock rearing:
it is an organised activity Run along scientific lines and its capital intensive. it is practised over large permanent branches. the ranches are divided in to parcels .when the grass of one parcel is grazed, animal are moved to another parcel .
important animals include cattle ,sheep, goats, and horses. the products extracted from these animals include meat, wool, Hides .etc
commercial livestock farming is practised in the USA ,Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, etc.
🔸️Daily farming :
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product.
It is rearing of animals for milk and milk based products .three main regions of commercial dairy farming are North Western Europe ,Canada ,and South Eastern Australia along with New Zealand. dairy farming is practised near urban and industrial centres, which serve as a market for diary production .dairy farming is both capital as well as labour intensive .it requires investment and transportation,refrigeration ,pasteurization and other processes. it also requires rigorous care in feeding and milking.
