PRIMARY ACTIVITIES 

Human Activities

• Human activities which generate income are called economic activities. Economic activities are broadly grouped into primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary activities.
• Primary activities are directly dependent on the environment as these refer to utilisation of earth‘s resources such as land, water, vegetation, building materials and minerals.
• It thus includes, hunting and gathering, pastoral activities, fishing, forestry, agriculture and mining & quarrying.
• People engaged in primary activities are called red- collar workers due to the outdoor nature of their work.

Hunting and Gathering

• The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on animals which they hunted and the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity.
• Primitive societies depended on wild animals. People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The early hunters used primitive tools, so the number of animals killed was limited. But now modern equipment led to the widespread poaching of animals due to which hunting is declared illegal.
• Gathering is practised in high latitude zones of North Canada, Northern Eurasia and Southern Chile, low latitude zones of Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, interiors of South-East Asia. This activity requires small capital investment and low level of technology.
• Valuable plants, leaves, bark, etc are collected and after simple processing they are sold in local markets. These products cannot compete the world market as synthetic products are lower in price and of better quality.

Pastoralism

This means domestication and rearing of animals on pastures.

This is carried either at subsistence level known as nomadic herding or at commercial level known as commercial livestock rearing. 

Nomadic Herding

• Nomadic herding or pastoral nomadism is a primitive subsistence activity, in which the herders rely on animals for food, clothing, shelter, tools and transport.
• They move from one place to another along with their livestock, depending on the amount and quality of pastures and water.
• In tropical Africa, cattle are the most important livestock, while in Sahara and Asiatic deserts, sheep, goats and camel are reared. In the mountainous areas of Tibet and Andes, yak and llamas and in the Arctic and sub Arctic areas, reindeer are the most important animals.
• Pastoral nomadism is associated with three important regions:
• The core region extends from the Atlantic shores of North Africa eastwards across the Arabian peninsula into Mongolia and Central China.
• The second region extends over the tundra region of Eurasia.
• In the southern hemisphere there are small areas in South-west Africa and on the island of Madagascar.
• The process of migration from plain areas to pastures on mountains during summers and again from mountain pastures to plain areas during winters is known as transhumance.
• The number of pastoral nomads has been decreasing and the areas operated by them shrinking. This is due to imposition of political boundaries and new settlement plans by different countries.

Commercial Livestock Rearing

• This practise is associated with western culture, it is more organised and capital intensive. This is a specialised activity in which only one type of animal is reared ( rearing of animals is ranching is organised on a scientific basis). This activity is done on vast ranches that are permanent.
• Modem scientific technology with emphasis on breeding, genetic improvement, disease control and health care is done. Production of meat, wool, hides is done and exported to different world markets.
• Sheep, cattle, goats and horses are reared in the ranches.
• Australia, New- Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay, South-West Africa, Western United States and Central Asia are major centres of commercial livestock rearing. 

Agriculture

Agriculture is practised under multiple combinations of physical and socio-economic conditions, which gives rise to different types of agricultural systems.

Based on methods of farming, different types of crops are grown and livestock raised.

1. Subsistence Agriculture

• Subsistence agriculture is one in which the farming areas consume all, or nearly so, of the products locally grown. It can be grouped in two categories - Primitive Subsistence Agriculture and Intensive Subsistence Agriculture.

(a) Primitive Subsistence Agriculture

• Primitive subsistence agriculture or shifting cultivation is widely practised by many tribes in the tropics, especially in Africa, south and central America and south east Asia.
• The vegetation is cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil.
• Shifting cultivation is also called slash and burn agriculture. The cultivation is done with primitive tools.
• When the soil fertility losses the farmer shifts to other parts and clear other patches of the forest for cultivation. The farmer may return to the earlier patch after sometime.
• Shifting cultivation is that the cycle of jhum becomes less and less due to loss of fertility in different parcels. It is prevalent in tropical regions in different names, E.g. Jhuming in North eastern states of India, Milpa in central America and Mexico and Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia.

(b). Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

• This type of agriculture is practised in densely populated regions of monsoon Asia. This type of cultivation is either dominated by:
• Wet paddy cultivation: The per unit area is high but productivity is low as land holdings are small due to high density of population, less use of machines, family labour involved and farmyard manures are used. 
• Crops other than paddy: Crops other than paddy are wheat, soybean, barley, sorghum grown in Northern China, Manchuria, North Korea and Japan. In India, it is practised in Indo-Gangetic plains, dry parts of Western and Southern India.

2. Plantation Agriculture

• It is introduced by the Europeans in colonies situated in the tropics.
• Some of the important plantation crops are tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, sugarcane, bananas and pineapples.
• The characteristic features of this type of farming are large estates or plantations, large capital investment, managerial and technical support, scientific methods of cultivation, single crop specialisation, cheap labour, and a good system of transportation which links the estates to the factories and markets for the export of the products.
• The French established cocoa and coffee plantations in west Africa.
• The British set up large tea gardens in India and Sri Lanka, rubber plantations in Malaysia and sugarcane and banana plantations in the West Indies. Some coffee fazendas in Brazil are still managed by Europeans.

3. Extensive Commercial Grain Cultivation

• Commercial grain cultivation is practised in the interior parts of semi-arid lands of the mid- latitudes.
• Wheat is the principal crop, though other crops like corn, barley, oats and rye are also grown.
• Agriculture is mechanised as farms are very large. There is low yield per acre but high yield per person.
• This is practised in the interiors of semi-arid parts of mid latitudes like Eurasian steppes, Canadian and American Prairies, Pampas of Argentina, veldts of South Africa, Australian Downs and Canterbury plains of New Zealand.

4. Mixed Farming

• This form of agriculture is found in the highly developed parts of the world, e.g. North-western Europe, Eastern North America, parts of Eurasia and the temperate latitudes of Southern continents. 
• Mixed farms are moderate in size and the crops like wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, fodder and root crops. 
• Fodder crops are an important component of mixed farming.
• Crop rotation and intercropping play an important role in maintaining soil fertility.
• Equal emphasis is laid on crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Animals like cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry provide the main income along with crops.
• Mixed farming is characterised by high capital expenditure on farm machinery and other. 

5. Dairy Farming

• It is the most advanced and efficient type of rearing of milch animals.
• It is highly capital intensive and labour intensive.
• Animal sheds, storage facilities for fodder, feeding and milching machines add to the cost of dairy farming.
• Special emphasis is laid on cattle breeding, health care and veterinary services.
• There are three main regions of commercial dairy farming. The largest is North Western Europe the second is Canada and the third belt includes South Eastern Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.

6. Mediterranean Agriculture

• It is highly specialized commercial agriculture.
• It is practiced in the countries on either side of the Mediterranean sea in Europe and in north Africa from Tunisia to the Atlantic coast, southern California, central Chile, south western parts of South Africa and south and south western parts of Australia.
• Viticulture or grape cultivation is a speciality of the Mediterranean region. Best quality wines in the world with distinctive flavours are produced from high quality grapes in various countries of this region. The inferior grapes are dried into raisins and currants.
• This region also produces olives and figs.
• The advantage of Mediterranean agriculture is that more valuable crops such as fruits and vegetables are grown in winters when there is great demand in European and North American markets. 

7. Market Gardening and Horticulture

• It specialise in the cultivation of high value crops such as vegetables, fruits and flowers, solely for the urban markets.
• Farms are small and are located where there are good transportation links with the urban centre where a high income group of consumers are located.
• It is both labour and capital intensive and lays emphasis on the use of irrigation, HYV seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, greenhouses and artificial heating in colder regions.
• This type of agriculture is well developed in densely populated industrial districts of north west Europe, north eastern USA and the Mediterranean regions.
• Truck farming : This refers to the specialisation in the cultivation of vegetables only. The distance between the farms and urban markets can be covered through trucks overnight, hence its name is known as ‘truck farming.’
• Factory Farming : This refers to livestock rearing mainly poultry and cattle. This is capital intensive, requires maintenance, supervision and scientific breeding. It is practised in industrial regions of Europe and North America.

8. Cooperative Farming

• A group of farmers form a co-operative society by pooling in their resources voluntarily for more efficient and profitable farming.
• Individual farms remain intact and farming is a matter of cooperative initiative.
• Co-operative movement originated over a century ago and has been successful in many western European Countries like Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Italy etc.
• In Denmark, the movement has been so successful that practically every farmer is a member of a co-operative. 

9. Collective Farming

• Types of farming is based on social ownership of the means of production and collective labour.
• Collective farming or the model of Kolkhoz was introduced in the erstwhile Soviet Union to improve upon the inefficiency of the previous methods of agriculture and to boost agricultural production for self-sufficiency.
• The farmers used to pool in all their resources like land, livestock and labour. However, they were allowed to retain very small plots to grow crops in order to meet their daily requirements.
• Yearly targets were set by the government and the produce was also sold to the state at fixed prices.
• Produce in excess of the fixed amount was distributed among the members or sold in the market.
• The farmers had to pay taxes on the farm produce, hired machinery etc. Members were paid according to the nature of the work allotted to them by the farm management.

Mining

It refers to the extraction of mineral resources from the Earth.

Its development began with the industrial revolution.

1. Factors affecting Mining Activity

There are two factors that affect the mining activity. These are:

• (a) Physical factors related to size, grade and mode of occurrence of the deposits.
• (b) Economic factors related to demand for mineral, technology, capital to develop infrastructure, labour and transport cost.

2. Methods of Mining

Depending on the mode of occurrence and the nature of the ore, mining is of two types i.e. surface and underground mining.

• Surface of open cast mining occurs close to the surface, it is easiest and cheapest.
• Underground mining or shaft mining: Used When the ore lies deep below the surface. In this method, vertical shafts have to be sunk, from where underground galleries radiate to reach the minerals. Minerals are extracted and transported to the surface through these passages. It requires specially designed lifts, drills, haulage vehicles, ventilation system for safety and efficient movement of people and material. This method is risky. Poisonous gases, fires, floods and caving in lead to fatal accidents.

The developed economies are retreating from mining due to high labour cost while developing economies are becoming major exporters of minerals due to their large labour force and striving for better standard of living. 

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