Lesson summary

SIV: case study of land use on mixed farm at Hoddomtown, Dumfrieshire. main issues we explored were

• relationship between land use and physical and human factors
• diversification, ie what additional ways of earning money can farmers introduce
• EU Policies: Set Aside and milk quotas
• Gathering and processing techniques for farm studies

What is Set Aside?

Set-aside is a scheme by which the EU pays cereal farmers a subsidy to leave land uncultivated to reduce overall production of crops. In the past the surplus harvests that no one wanted built up into food mountains. In order to continue receiving EU subsidies all farms with over 20 hectares of land must now leave 15 % of it as set-aside. UK farmers have a choice between moving their set aside area around the farm each year or setting the same piece of land aside for a number of years. Set Aside helps in the protection of the countryside as it means farmers have no incentive to remove hedgerows and single trees which support valuable wildlife, in order to increase the payment area.

Set aside is different from Fallow, which is when land is left uncultivated to allow the nutrients to recuperate, often as part of a crop rotation.

"late Evidence" CreditTest-Tuesday 3rd April, 9-10.10 am

(45 marks; 20KU and 25 ES)

This will sample the following areas:

glacial depostion

land use conflicts in Scottish uplands

Urban and Industrial geography (inc OS map work)

Farming and Rural land use (inc OS mapwork)

Environmental issues

Self Help Schemes

Population and Development issues

Combating malaria

SIV Lesson notes:

Farming-Classification of farming; farm system; application of systems model to industry; introduction to dairy farming; Case study of Hoddomtown Farm (part 1)

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Malaria is one of the most deadly and persistent of parasitic diseases to affect people. It is endemic in many tropical countries, notably in Africa and much of Asia and is responsible for at least one million deaths worldwide a year. 90% of cases are in Sub Saharan Africa. Children under 5 are particularly vulnerable. BBC Word Service reports that a " genetically-modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects. It gives new impetus to one strategy for controlling the disease: introduce the GM insects into wild populations in the hope that they will take over.
The insect carries a gene that prevents infection by the single celled malaria parasite (plasmodium) that attacks the blood cells.


As well as genetic modification, other means of control include:

drugs to combat the disease
destroying the breeding grounds (eg swamps, stagnant waters)
vaccine

For full details, click here.

To think about: Do mosquitoes get malaria? What happens to them?


"gathering techniques"-Use the web??

The difficulty of getting accurate data from the web is shown by the following quotes below:


"Malaria kills up to three million in the world each year, mostly in Africa.
More than a million children in Africa die from malaria each year" (BBC March 2007)

The burden is huge, with an estimated 2 million people dying each year, most of them children under five years old. (University of Aberdeen, December 2006)

"The latest official study puts the (number of people affected) at between 350 million and 500 million a year. Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. It kills more than a million people a year - mostly young children in sub-Saharan Africa - and is a factor in many other deaths." (BBC no date; 2006?)

Climate Change Challenged

While climate change continues to be one of the main stories this week, there has been a shift of emphasis, with two British scientists cautioning against the scientific community overplaying the risks, the BBC reports. Professors Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier, both Royal Meteorological Society figures, are voicing their concern at a conference in Oxford. They say some researchers make claims about possible future impacts that cannot be justified by the science and that catastrophism and the "Hollywoodisation" of weather and climate only work to create confusion in the public mind.
They argue for a more sober and reasoned explanation of the uncertainties about possible future changes in the Earth's climate.

Read more here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6460635.stm

Climate Change Links:

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange

http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalwarming/graphic/0,,397352,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/greenhouse.stm

Revision material

Please note that a large amount of revision material for Geography has been placed on the GeoWiki pages and on the School's Learning Resources network.

Geowiki a collaborative website that allows pupils to add/edit content on specific pages, as well as providing up to date revision notes. These notes cover the S Grade and SII syllabus., but will be extended over the folloiwng year to cover other areas of the syllabus.

Power point presentations and other classroom notes have been filed in Learning Resources, which you can access at https://folders.st-columbas.org Notes for Standard Grade are organised under Standard Grade Geography and comprise subfolders for each unit in SIII and SIV.

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