Introduction to Agricultural Regions

What is agriculture?

Let us begin with the most basic but essential question—What is agriculture?

“Agriculture is defined as the purposeful tending of crops & livestock.”
— M. Carty & Limberg

Now focus on the phrase “purposeful tending”—this is important.
Agriculture is not just about growing plants or raising animals randomly. It is an intentional, planned activity. Humans manage land and resources carefully to produce food, fibre, and other necessities.

📌 Real-world analogy:
Imagine a kitchen garden at your home. You don’t just throw seeds and hope for the best. You select the crop, water it, protect it from pests, and harvest it at the right time. This purposeful effort is what makes it agricultural activity.

What is a Region?

A region, in geographical terms, is not just any area. It is defined by homogeneity—which means internal uniformity in some key characteristics.

“An area having the homogeneity of physical and cultural phenomena.”

Here, physical phenomena could be things like climate, soil, or topography. Cultural phenomena might refer to language, religion, or farming practices.

📌 Simple example:
If an entire area has black soil and the people mainly grow cotton, that’s a region because of its uniform physical and cultural character.

What is an Agricultural Region?

“Agricultural Region is an uninterrupted area having some kind of homogeneity with specifically defined outer limit.”— Whittlesey (1936)

Let’s understand important terms here:

• Uninterrupted area: The landscape is continuous, not fragmented.
• Homogeneity: Same type of farming is practiced throughout.
• Defined boundary: There is a clear outer limit where this farming system changes.

Whittlesey’s Classification of Agricultural Systems

Now comes the heart of the topic.
In 1936, geographer Derwent Whittlesey studied farming patterns across the world and classified them into agricultural systems using five key criteria. Think of these like diagnostic tools that help you understand how farming works in different parts of the world.

🔑 Five Characteristics Used by Whittlesey:

1. Crop and livestock association
   → What crops and animals are raised together?
2. Labour and capital intensity
   → Does it use more human effort or more machinery/money?
3. Productivity
   → How much is produced per unit area?
4. Consumption pattern
   → Is it grown for the farmer’s own use (subsistence) or for sale in markets (commercial)?
5. Methods and techniques used
   → Traditional ploughs or modern tractors? Irrigation or rain-fed?

Using these indicators, Whittlesey identified 13 major agricultural systems. Each represents a unique combination of environment, technology, and culture.

✅ Whittlesey’s 13 Agricultural Systems:

Let’s just list them for now—we’ll explore each in detail later.

1. Nomadic herding
2. Livestock ranching
3. Shifting cultivation
4. Rudimentary sedentary tillage
5. Intensive subsistence tillage (with paddy dominance)
6. Intensive subsistence tillage (without paddy dominance)
7. Commercial plantation
8. Mediterranean agriculture
9. Commercial grain farming
10. Commercial livestock and crop farming (Mixed Farming)
11. Subsistence crop & livestock farming
12. Commercial dairy farming
13. Specialized horticulture

📌 Quick teaser:
Think of Nomadic Herding like pastoral communities moving with their animals across deserts or highlands (like the Maasai of East Africa), while Commercial Plantation is like large tea or rubber estates in India or Malaysia.

🧭 Conclusion:

• Agriculture is purposeful human interaction with land and animals.
• A region is an area with uniform traits.
• An agricultural region is a zone with specific, dominant farming patterns.
• Whittlesey’s classification gives us a global typology of farming systems based on clear, logical criteria.