GEOGRAPHY FORM TWO NOTES

[Pages:178]GEOGRAPHY FORM TWO

NOTES

1

HUMAN ACTIVITES

Human activity refers to something that people do or cause to happen in order to achieve certain goals . Human activities contribute to climate change by causing changes in Earth's atmosphere in the amounts of greenhouse gases, aerosols (small particles), and cloudiness. The largest known contribution comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere.

Concept of Human Activities Meaning of Human Activities

Give the meaning of human activities Human activities refer to what people do or cause to happen in order to achieve certain goals in life.

Also human activities can be defined as acts or processes of production as intended by

people in a certain place. Which can be a country, region, district or a village.

Human activities are also referred to as functions or tasks or work carried out or done by

human beings over time for achieving certain purposes or goals.

Therefore human activities are carried out with certain goals or purposes; these purposes can either be:

Production of food crops.

Production of cash crops.

Construction of infrastructure that facilitate movement of goods, services and people;

cleaning the area to avoid pollution and outbreak of diseases like cholera, amoebic dysentery,

etc.

Human activities use up resources to produce products and services.

These activities combine to form business processes.

2

Major Types of Human Activities

Identify major types of human activities Human activities may be classified into four types namely: 1. Primary activities 2. Secondary activities 3. Tertiary activities 4. Quaternary activities

Primary activities

Primary activities involve exploitation of nature in the production of materials. Production in this kind of activities largely depends on the earths natural resources. Examples of primary activities include:

Farming (Agriculture)

Mining and Quarrying

Fishing

Forestry (Lumbering)

Hunting, gathering and livestock keeping

Most products from primary activities are raw materials for industrial activities. For example cotton from agriculture is used in textile industries, timber for paper industries and leather for shoe-making industries.

Agricultural activities involve growing and harvesting of crops from farms. It is an

important activity since it contributes to the provision of food and other raw materials. Some of

the crops are used as sources of food, examples: maize, millet, sorghum, soya, bean and peas.

Mining leads to the extraction of minerals like gold, copper, diamond, platinum and

uranium. These materials act as raw materials for the industries. Some minerals such as coal and

3

uranium are the sources of power, uranium leads to the production of nuclear energy that is highly demanded all over the world due to its importance.

These materials act as raw materials for the industries.

Some minerals such as coal and uranium are the sources of power, uranium leads to the

production of nuclear energy that is highly demanded all over the world due to its importance.

Fishing leads to the supply of food. (Some fish remains are used in preparation of animal

food).

Lumbering leads to the production of timber that is very important in construction and

furniture making.

Hunting leads to provision of food, decorations and tourism.

Livestock farming leads to supply of meat, milk for food and commercial purposes.

Quarrying leads to the supply of stones used for construction of roads, bridges and

foundation of buildings and houses.

Secondary activities

These are human activities that involve a process of manufacturing raw materials into useful products.

Secondary activities involves processing of raw materials such as ginning cotton from

raw cotton and heating crude rocks to get precious stones.

Other secondary activities include cloth-making, construction of houses, car assembling,

making dyes and making glue.

Secondary activities are of great importance as they lead to fast economic development since they produce products that have immediate demands in the society.

They also accelerate development of primary activities by providing a market for raw materials produced through lumbering, agriculture and mining.

Tertiary activities

These are the activities that involve the provision of services that are needed in the society. 4

Examples of tertiary activities include: 1. Trade (restaurants, hotels, lodges, supermarkets) 2. Schools (Teachers) 3. Hospitals (Doctors) 4. Transportation (Driving) Others include plumbing, mechanics, entertainment, water supply, waste management, advertising, legal services, in court clerical services or religious services.

Quaternary activities

These are activities that involve provision of intellectual services and information

These activities were formally included in the tertiary activities.

Quaternary activities include high-tech industries with information technology, scientific

research, consultancies and library services. Computer based activities like making software are

part and parcel of quaternary activities.

In general quaternary activities are considered to be new and started in the last decade.

Quinary activities

These are activities that are done by top executives or officials in fields such as governments.

They involve the highest level of planning and decision making in the society or

economy.

Quaternary and quinary activities e.g. research and information are important in the development of farming, mining, tourism and trade.

Importance of human activities

Below is the importance of human activities:

5

1. They facilitate the development of manufacturing industries by producing raw materials such as cotton for textile industries.

2. Helps in creating employment in the country. People are employed in industries and become managers, technicians, drivers and engineers.

3. Human activities such as agriculture and fishing lead to production of food.

4. Activities like construction of roads contribute to the development of transport and communication networks.

5. Recreation/ activities attract tourists who in turn bring about foreign currency in the country and facilitate development of the country.

Environmental problems caused by human activities

1. Air pollution: This can be caused by Industrial emission, burning of agricultural wastes and grains when cleaning the land for cultivation and mining. 2. Water pollution:Caused by dumping of untreated materials into the water bodies. Waste materials may come from industries, farmyards and tourist centres. 3. Soil pollution: Can be caused by dumping of radioactive materials on the ground, applying chemicals in the farms, irrigation using saline (salt) water and acid iron fall in heavily industrialised areas. 4. Deforestation: This can take place when trees excessively cleared during preparation of large farms lumbering. Overgrazing and development of settlements. 5. Soil erosion: This takes place easily because of cutting of trees for lumbering, construction and establishing extensive farms.

Measures for controlling environmental problems caused by human activities

1. Undertaking agricultural activities using modern methods such as crop rotation, inter cropping, fallowing strips, contour ridging.

2. Planting trees where the land is bare and restricting people from cutting down trees unnecessarily and excessively.

6

3. Excessive use of chemicals in the control of pests should also be discouraged. Accumulation of chemicals in the soil can lead to soil pollution, which can disrupt the soil structure. 4. Improper dumping of waste in the soil or water should be discouraged. 5. Population control should be encouraged so that people can not excessively clear vegetation for establishing settlement and farms.

7

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture refers to a fundamental human activity involving cultivation of crops and domestication of animals (livestock husbandry). It is categorised as a primary activity since it involves the production of raw materials that can be used by other industries.

Agriculture is the practice of cultivating land, growing crops and rearing animals. Originally, agriculture was considered to involve cultivation of crops only. In modern times, it has expanded to include rearing of animals, poultry keeping andfish farming . Even activities like storage, processing and marketing of agricultural produce are also regarded as part of agriculture. There are two types of agriculture: small-scale agriculture and large-scale agriculture.

Small Scale Agriculture

Small-scale agriculture is the type of agriculture that is practiced on relatively small plots of land that usually does not exceed four hectors. Small-scale agriculture is practiced for both subsistence and commercial purposes.

Characteristics of Small Scale Agriculture at Subsistence Level:

Explain the characteristics of small-scale agriculture at subsistence level There are two levels in which small scale farmers can operate, commercial and subsistence level. When farmers produce with a basic focus on selling, this is typical commercial level but when they operate farms to feed their families and provide their needs, it is farming for subsistence level. The following are specific features of small scale agriculture at subsistence level;

1. Labor force. Mostly agriculture at subsistence level involves the use of members of the families; they do not hire extra labor force outside.

2. Mainly traditional. This has the implication on the use of simple tools like hoes, animals, pangas to cultivate and few cases they use animals. It goes further to the use of seeds from the previous harvest.

3. Ways to improve fertility. There are varieties of ways to improve the fertility such as the use of organic manure from animals such as goats, cows and sheep, mulching (covering the top

8

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download