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The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach
Abstract
This book is about the prevalent characteristics and distribution of the major agricultural systems of the world - shifting cultivation, wet rice cultivation, pastoral nomadism, Mediterranean agriculture, mixed farming, dairying, plantations, ranching and large-scale grain production. In Part One some major periods and processes that have affected agriculture are discussed. Chapter 2 deals with the origins and early diffusion of agriculture and its significance. Chapter 3 deals with the subsequent diffusion of crops and livestock, particularly since the discovery of the New World, and Chapter 4 with the effect upon agriculture of industrialisation and urbanisation since 1850. In Part Two of the book some description of each type of agriculture is given. It is the author's belief that there can be no adequate account of the prevailing character of world agriculture without recourse to the evolution of agricultural systems. Thus each chapter in Part Two is an essay on the historical development of each of the major systems.
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“By this model, hunter-gatherer’s use of fire to enhance foraging success is a form of land-use intensification, as is land clearing for shifting cultivation, wet rice cultivation, the moldboard plow, and contemporary use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and mechanization (44, 45).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“Similarly, as rice agriculture gradually spread southward and westward, reaching Thailand and northern India by 2000 B.C., less intensive rainfed and naturally inundated systems were first used (72), followed much later by more intensive systems (44).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“By the 1500s and even earlier in some regions of Asia and Europe, agricultural productivity had reached remarkable levels through intensive use of a wide variety of highly developed technologies, including irrigation, multiple cropping, crop rotations incorporating legumes, and a wide range of fertilizers, including manures, ashes, and even commercially traded oil seed cakes (44, 92).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“Nevertheless, the evidence is clear that agricultural human populations had spread across most continents by the mid-Holocene, leading to the clearing of native vegetation and herbivores, their replacement with domesticates, and the increasingly intensive application of techniques and inputs to enhance the productivity of land as populations became denser (44, 61).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“In less densely populated regions, agricultural productivity was generally much lower, as in the pre- and postcolonial Americas, Australia, and New Zealand (44, 45, 74).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“Although similar processes have operated since the emergence of urban populations, recent rapid urban growth has been supported by the rise of high-yielding industrial land-use systems sustained by large energy subsidies from fossil fuels and other industrial inputs, accelerating through the “green revolution” of the 1950s and continuing today (44).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“The massive food and resource demands of large, wealthy, and growing urban populations require high levels of agricultural surplus production and trade, which tend to be met by increasingly intensive and productive agricultural systems concentrated in Earth’s most productive agricultural lands, supported by ever larger scales of farming operations, trading systems, and technological institutions (”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“Agricultural yields within the most densely populated and productive preindustrial land-use systems compared well with modern yields and were sustained in some regions for centuries to millennia, even though they also tended to require extreme inputs of labor and other socially unsustainable hardships (43–45, 92).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [44]
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Locational geographies and histories
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Metadata
- Authors
- Grigg, D. B.
- Corresponding author
- Grigg, D. B.
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 1974-11-07
- OpenAlex
- W4250935780
- Cited by
- 248
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 12.70
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Development › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Agricultural and Food Production Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Agricultural economics and policies
- Keywords
- agricultural systems, shifting cultivation, wet rice cultivation, nomadic pastoralism, Mediterranean agriculture, mixed farming, dairy production, plantations, ranching, origins of agriculture, agricultural history
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