Rural Landscapes is a Unit taught in National 5 in Scotland and it focuses on rural affairs, including changes in agricultural techniques within different countries; agriculture as a system comprising inputs,outputs and processes; types of agriculture (arable, organic, mixed, pastoral etc.) and factors affecting agricultural productivity (namely physical + human factors). In Higher , we look at rural land degradation and the pressures faced by farmers in Mali, for example, dealing with the drying up of the soil caused by warming temperatures and impacts on food security brought about by famine, desertificaiton and prolonged drought.
So many more geographical topics are connected to the study of agriculture, for example- fair trade, global development, weather & climate, demography and industrial geography.
Not only do farmers produce most of the food we eat, but , increasingly, face huge economic and social pressures caused by the Pandemic and Brexit. It is important as Geography Teachers that we shed light on the plight faced by farmers, especially to youngsters living in cities who may not have the knowledge of where their food comes from and the circumstances farmers face.
Farmers from around the world are facing incredible pressures to cultivate their land and meeting increase demand brought about by growing population numbers. The global population is expected to grow by more than a third (around 2.3 billion people) between 2009 and 2050. This will, inevitably, have consequences on global food demand. Climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, unemployment brought about my increased automation and the socio-economic effects of brain-drain, an ageing rural population and rural isolation, are some of the challenges facing modern agriculture. Farming needs to be dynamic and adapt to market changes, resilient against global economic factors and , ideally, needs to recruit younger, skilled workers or inspire young farmers to stay on in their communities.
Rural-urban migration, also, does not come without consequences. Over 75% of the world’s population living below the poverty line and , thus, are food insecure live in rural areas, mostly depending on subsistence farming. Land degradation impacts approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide. Food price volatility has led to increased hunger and small-scale, smallholder family farmers in low-income countries are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly erratic weather patterns such as flooding. In Tanzania and Mali, within peri-urban areas, farmers’ access to land is limited. Even in areas under customary tenure, outright purchase rather than allocation is increasingly frequent, according to a UCL analysis.
In the Tari Basin in Papua New Guinea Highlands, over-cultivation has had detrimental effects on productivity shortening the fallow duration. Cuba’s agriculture system is under pressure to export tropical products and feed tourists, at the expense of local markets. In the Maule Region of central Chile, droughts are common and precipitations will continue to drop by 40%. Increasing food prices has meant local Andean people of Bolivia can no longer afford to eat the superfood quinoa. In order to sustain themselves, the cocoa farmers of Ghana need to diversify away from cocoa production. In November, 2021, Indian farmers staged a mass protect in reaction to PM Narendra Modi's announcing of the repeal of three contentious farm laws. In Turkmenistan, during the cotton harvest, farmers work under tremendous pressure to meet quotas in unsanitary conditions in a situation whereby the state determines what crops can be grown.
We must teach about the pressures faced by farmers in different countries. The more examples pupils know, the more informed they are.
Line graph below demonstrates urbanisation trends by region
Comments