What are primary activities?
Primary activities use the Earth's resources directly: land, water, plants, animals and minerals. They include hunting and gathering, herding, fishing, forestry, farming and mining. People doing outdoor primary work are called red-collar workers.
Hunting and gathering
This is the oldest economic activity. People collect fruits, berries, nuts, leaves, roots, bark and medicinal plants, and hunt animals. It needs little capital and simple tools.
Where: high-latitude cold areas (northern Canada, northern Eurasia), and hot wet lowlands (Amazon, tropical Africa, parts of South-east Asia). Today some gathering is also commercial, for example rubber, gums, resins and medicinal herbs sold in markets.
It cannot feed many people, and synthetic products have replaced many forest products.
Pastoralism: nomadic herding and livestock ranching
Nomadic herding (pastoral nomadism)
Herders move from place to place with their animals, depending on grass and water. Each group has a traditional area. Animals differ by region: cattle in tropical Africa, sheep, goats and camels in the Sahara and Asian deserts, yak in Tibet, reindeer in the Arctic. Seasonal movement between plains in winter and mountains in summer is called transhumance. Main areas: the Sahara to Mongolia belt, south-west Africa, and the Arctic tundra. Their number is falling as governments set boundaries and settle them.
Commercial livestock rearing (ranching)
Animals are kept on large ranches, fenced and divided into parcels. It is scientific: breeding, disease control and health care. Only one type of animal is usually kept. Meat, wool and hides are sold. Found in New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and the USA.
Subsistence agriculture
Farmers grow mostly for their own family.
Primitive subsistence (shifting) agriculture
Farmers clear a forest patch by burning (slash and burn), grow crops for a few years until the soil loses fertility, then move to a new patch. The ash adds nutrients. Local names: jhuming in north-east India, milpa in Central America, ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Intensive subsistence agriculture
Found in thickly populated monsoon Asia. Small plots, lots of family labour, simple tools. Rice-dominated: where rain is heavy, rice is the main crop and land is very intensely used. Non-rice: in drier areas, wheat, maize, soybean and millets grow, with irrigation.
Commercial agriculture types
- Plantation agriculture: introduced by Europeans in tropical colonies. One crop (tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, sugarcane, bananas) on a huge estate, big capital, scientific methods, many workers and good transport to factories and ports.
- Extensive commercial grain farming: in mid-latitude grasslands (Prairies, Steppes, Pampas, Downs, Canterbury). Wheat on very large farms using machines. Yield per acre is low but per person is high.
- Mixed farming: in developed parts of the world like north-west Europe, eastern North America. Crops and animals together: fodder crops, crop rotation, intercropping. Needs high capital for machines and buildings.
- Dairy farming: the most advanced way of rearing milch animals. Needs much capital and labour all year. Found near cities in north-west Europe, Canada, the north-east USA, New Zealand and south-east Australia.
- Mediterranean agriculture: around the Mediterranean Sea and similar climates (central Chile, California, south-west Australia, south-west South Africa). Known for citrus fruits, grapes and wine. Winter rain, dry summer.
- Market gardening and horticulture: high-value crops like vegetables, fruits and flowers for city markets. Small farms, good transport. Truck farming: when the distance is what a truck can cover overnight. Factory farming of poultry and cattle is also found near cities.
Cooperative and collective farming
Cooperative farming: farmers keep their own land but form a society to buy seeds, tools and fertiliser, and to sell their crops together at better prices. It is strong in Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Italy.
Collective farming: land, animals and tools are owned together by the group (social ownership). Farmers work together and share the output; they may keep a small plot for their own use. It was started in the former Soviet Union as the kolkhoz.
Mining: factors and methods
Factors that affect mining
Physical: the size of the deposit, the grade (how rich the ore is) and how it occurs (shallow or deep, flat or tilted). Economic: demand for the mineral, available technology, capital to set up, labour, and transport to carry the ore.
Methods of mining
Surface (open-cast) mining: when ore is near the surface. It is the easiest and cheapest method, safe, and gives quick output.
Underground (shaft) mining: when ore is deep. Vertical shafts are sunk, and tunnels lead to the ore. It needs lifts, drills, fresh-air pipes and safety systems. It is costly and risky (fire, floods, collapse, poisonous gas).
Developed countries are moving away from mining because of high labour cost; developing countries often mine and export minerals.
Key formulas and definitions
- Primary activities = direct use of nature (gathering, herding, farming, fishing, forestry, mining)
- Nomadic herding = moving with animals; transhumance = seasonal plain ↔ mountain movement
- Ranching = fenced, scientific, commercial livestock
- Shifting farming = slash and burn, move on (jhuming, milpa, ladang)
- Commercial types: plantation, extensive grain, mixed, dairy, Mediterranean, market gardening/truck farming
- Cooperative = own land, shared buying/selling; collective = shared land (kolkhoz)
- Mining factors: physical (size, grade, occurrence) + economic (demand, technology, capital, labour, transport)
- Mining methods: surface/open-cast (shallow, cheap) vs underground/shaft (deep, costly, risky)
Worked examples
1. A group in the Sahara moves camels and goats from one oasis to another. Which activity?
Nomadic herding (pastoral nomadism).
2. An estate in Assam grows only tea, has hundreds of workers and its own factory. Which type?
Plantation agriculture.
3. A farm in the Netherlands grows fodder crops and keeps cattle and pigs. Which type?
Mixed farming (crops + animals).
4. Coal lies 400 m below the ground. Which method and why?
Underground (shaft) mining, because the coal is too deep for an open pit.
5. Farmers in a village keep their own fields but sell milk together through a society. Which type?
Cooperative farming.
Common mistakes
- Calling ranching 'nomadic'. Ranching animals stay on fixed fenced land; nomads move.
- Thinking cooperative and collective farming are the same. In cooperative farming land stays private; in collective farming it is shared.
- Saying extensive grain farming has high yield per acre. Yield per acre is low; yield per person is high.
- Forgetting economic factors in mining. A rich ore is not mined if there is no demand, capital or transport.