Dark, thick smoke rises from the engine of a huge tractor that is plowing the plains of Dumas, Texas with enough power and technology to plow fifteen rows at one time.  While just overseas in Pakistan a farmer works to plow one row in his field with the help of his oxen.  Both farmers  come home late at night, one just the same as the other, but the work they have accomplished for the day will be drastically different.  The farmer in Pakistan farms 2.5 acres of land hoping to use what he harvests for feeding his family and his village.  The farmer in Dumas farms 500 acres of land, which is 200 times the size of the farmer's land in Pakistan, and he uses what he harvests to make a living and to sell to grocery stores in the United States.  Agriculture is practiced all over the world but agriculture in one country can be far different than in another country.  The world can be divided into the less developed countries, where the output of the farm is used on or near the farm where it is produced, and the more developed countries, where the farmer sells the crops and livestock.  There are some major differences between what we do in the United States and what others do in other countries concerning agriculture.  As one can see, agriculture is a very important way of life for many different people all over the world.  The uses of agriculture are very different throughout the world considering whether the country is more or less developed.

First, we must define agriculture and determine how agriculture began.  Agriculture is the deliberate modification of Earth's surface by cultivating or caring for plants and rearing animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain (1).  So how did agriculture begin in the United States? Before agriculture, all humans probably obtained the food they needed for survival through hunting for animals, fishing or gathering plants.  People from northern Asia are thought to have migrated to this continent about 20,000 years ago.  By hunting and following heards of animals, they crossed the Bering land bridge that once connected Asia to Alaska.  Bison were critical to the life of the early inhabitants of the Great Plains.  Bison provided people with food, skins for clothing and shelter, containers, tools weapons, and fuel (2).  Early hunters had many ways of hunting bison.  Some would ambush them at water holes or hunters would surround them. Others found that they could stampede them off cliffs.  Soon came horses and rifles which brought a different and much easier way of hunting the bison.  "For more than 11,000 years, Indians lived and thrived in Saskatchewan, hunting buffalo and other animals, and gathering wild plants for food (2)."  Many tribes of Indians were agricultural tribes that lived on the Great Plains.  They seemed to shy away from agriculture when they found out about the advantages of bison hunting with horses.  Some even abandoned their agricultural lives for hunting nomadism.  Many were lured onto the Great Plains for the ease and excitement of bison hunting.  The excitement over the bison brought fur traders, and with fur traders came hide hunters.  "In just twelve years, their (hide hunters) greed had ruthlessly wiped out the bison herds (2)."  This forced the Plains Indians to give up their nomadic life.  This opened up the door for the stockmen and wheat farmers who were soon to take over the grassland with plow and fence.  The railways strongly influenced the agriculture of the Plains.  They provided access to unsettled land where farms could begin.  Intense railway building took place from 1890 to about 1910 which brought about tremendous growth and spread of population and farms.

Where did all of the plants and animals that we raise today here in the U.S. originate?  Although European settlers adopted some native North American crops such as corn, sunflowers, squash and beans, they also introduced almost all the crops and animals now produced on the prairie farms.  The Europeans brought wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas, flax, cattle, hogs, chickens and sheep.  They also introduced alfalfa, clover and Brome grass.  Even some of the pests that farmers deal with today were brought into the U.S. from Europe.  Kochia and Baby's Breath are examples of introduced plants that became weeds.  Through the influence of the Europeans the United States grew in its agricultural knowledge to what it is today.

After defining agriculture and where it originated from we can now discuss what agriculture is like in less developed countries and how it is different from more developed countries. Agriculture is a major part of the lives of those that live in less developed countries.  "Nearly one out of every two working Indonesians is employed directly or indirectly in an agricultural job (3)." Agriculture in LDC's is descibed as subsistence agriculture which primarily provides food for consumption by the farmer's family.  One reason this type of agriculture is practiced is because of the lack of money and technology in these LDC's.  "Although, agriculture is the backbone of our (Pakistan) national economy, majority of our farmers are unable to apply modern technology in farming due to their meager resources (4)."  Another reason subsistence agriculture is practiced is because of the environment that many LDC's live in.  Shifting cultivation is the first type of practice that subsistence farmers use in much of the world's humid, low latitude climate regions which have relatively high temperatures and abundant rainfall.  It is practiced the most in the Amazon area of South America, Central and West Africa, and Southeast Asia including Indochina, Indonesia, and New Guinea.  Shifting cultivation has two distinguishing areas.  The first is slash-and-burn agriculture where farmers clear land for planting by cutting down all vegetation and burning the debris.  The second is where this land is cleared farmers will plant on it for only a few years then they will move to another field to cut all the vegetation down there to start planting.  The reason they move is to allow the vegetation to grow back on the field so the soil can be replenished.  The black soil of these regions is very productive (2).  The way shifting cultivation works is that each year villagers take large axes and clear out all plants and trees on a selected field.  All of the vegetation that is short is then cut out with sharp long knives called machetes.  The soil is then worked by hand with the help of a hoe.  The only fertilizer that they use is what the burning debris provides.  The predominant crops of shifting cultivation are rice, maize and manioc.  Yams, sugar cane, plantain and vegetables also are grown in some regions.  Another practice of subsistence farmers in less developed countries is pastoral nomadism.  This is a form of subsistance agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals.   Animals provide milk and their skins and hair are used for clothing and tents.  For nomads, the size of the herd is both an important measure of power and prestige.  The types of animals depends on the local cultural and physical characteristics.  The camel is the most desired in North Africa and the Middle East, followed by sheep and goats.  In Central Asia, the horse is particularly important.  Pastoral Nomadism is simply a way of surviving on land that receives too little rain for cultivation of crops.  A third type of subsistence agricuture is intensive subsistence agriculture.  Intensive means that farmers must work more intensly to subsist on a parcel of land.  In densely populated areas, the ratio of farmers to arable land is very high therefore farmers must plant on every bit of land that they have in order to survive.  Roads and walkways are kept narrow as possible so that every piece of arable land may be used.  Wet rice is the most dominant crop grown in the wet region of Asia.  "Rice production is the greatest single employer of manpower in Indonesia - much of it on small, family-owned plots (3)."  Wet rice is the process of planting rice on dry land in a nursery and then moving the seedlings to a flooded field to promote growth.  In parts of Asia were wet rice can not grow, crop rotation is practiced.  This is the process where a different crop is planted each time in the same field.  In doing this the farmer keeps from exhausting the soil.  Subsistence agriculture is how families survive in less developed countries.  The agriculture that they know in less developed countries is for survival,and for the well being of their own families.

Agriculture in more developed countries is quite different than in less developed countries.  The best way to describe agriculture in more developed countries is the term commercial agriculture. Commercial agriculture is agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale from the farm.  "Commercial agriculture consists of those farms where a substantial part of the family income is from farming, and the agricultural business that support such farms.  The commercial agricultural sector is a vital part of the state's economy.  Each year farmers produce $4 billion in raw materials.  These goods fuel transportation, processing, and production business across the state.  Farm families buy goods and services which inject billions of dollars into the economy (5)."  The first distinctive characteristic of commercial farming is the small percentage of farmers. Fewer than 2 percent in the United States and Canada farm compared to more than 60 percent in less developed countries (1).  Yet the small percentage produces enough food, not only for themselves and the rest of the country but a surplus to feed everyone else as well.  "In 1997, Mexico bought more than 2.4 millon metric tons of U.S. corn, 1.9 mmt of grain sorghum, and 380,000 tons of barley (6)."  The second distinctive characteristic of commercial agriculture is reliance on technological and scientific improvements.  In 1701 the seed drill was invented by Jethro Tull, it was the first agricultural machine (2).  "The seed drill showed how farming could be made more productive through the use of farm machinery to replace hand labour (2)."  A small number of farmers in a well developed society can feed many people because they rely on machinery rather than people or animals to perform work.  The third distinctive characteristic of commercial agriculture is the large, average farm size.  U.S. farms average about 473 acres. They are able to farm this land with the help of large machinery.  The fourth characteristic of commercial farming is that farmers grow crops and raise animals for sale from the farm rather than for their own families.  They sign big contracts with big food companies in order to sell their crops and livestock in bulk for big prices.  The fifth and final characteristic is commercial farmings integration with other businesses.  This is agribusiness, because the farm is not an isolated activity but is integrated into a large food production industry.

From Dumas to Pakistan agriculture plays such an important role in so many different people's lives.  No matter whether someone lives in a less or more developed country we all rely on agriculture for survival.  The characteristics and differences between countries all over the world are all united in the need for food and survival.  The technology of this world is amazing and it has brought much needed help to lesser developed countries, so maybe someday they can be more fortunate in their living conditions.  Through agriculture, we as humans are surviving together as we provide for each other.

Book Resource
1.  Rubenstein, James M. An Introduction To Human Geography. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Sources of Information

2. "History of Agriculture." 199?.      http://www.ag.usask.ca/cofa/displays/college/plains/history.html (16 April 1998)
 
3.  "The Nation and the People." 1996. http://www.prica.org/indonesia/nation_people/econ2.html#Agri (16 April 1998)

4.  "Pakistan Goverment - Agriculture." 199?.  http://www.pak.gov.pk/govt/agri7.htm(16 April 1998)

5.  http://www.ext.missouri.-edu/agebb/commag/index.htm (16 April 1998)

6.  Deterling, Del.  "Grain Growers Look South for Markets" 1998.  http://www.progressivefarmer.com/markets/0498/south/index.html (16 April 1998)