In countries like Finland and Greece, there is a better literacy level.
Being well educated can mean lower birth rates because they learn about contraception and family planning. The low birth rate could also be due to a higher want for other expensive things like holiday homes, instead of children, this could be down to the better literacy levels. However in countries like Mali and Morocco, the lower literacy rate means a higher birth rate, because when the people are better educated, they may learn more about family planning or contraception and have less children.The lower literacy rates also illustrate that there are many labour based jobs so more children are needed to help with this. So, the higher the birth rate the lower the literacy level and vice versa.
One reason why Kerala, India has a lower birth rate than the national Indian average is because the state has a high literacy rate. Kerala’s literacy rate is higher than most other Indian states. This means birth rates will be much lower as more people are educated and see less need for more children.Another reason may be that Kerala has a high life expectancy and infant mortality rate. This will reduce the need for people to have many babies in order for a couple to survive. In addition, because Kerala has excellent healthcare so this lowers infant mortality and in the long term means the death rates will fall. This effects birth rates because, the less people dying the less need for a lot more people. High birth rates in LEDC countries could mean there is famine and disease spreading.
This is because as population rises because of the increased births, the amount of resources in an LEDC country is already low, so if there is a high increasing birth rate but not a high increasing amount of resources like food, then people will starve, die or catch disease more easily. Another problem is that the more people there are in an LEDC the less the standard of living. This is because when there are so many people, all of the well paid jobs are taken by more wealthy people and so many people in rural areas are unemployed or working as labourers on family land.
This will increase unemployment and decrease the standard of living. The last problem of high birth rates is that there will be a higher dependant population against the working population. Many children will die at birth in LEDCs. So a rapid rate of birth will increase infant mortality because parents are too poor and do not have sufficient time to look after all their children when they are dependant upon them. In 1997 there are significantly less grass fields, there is only one grass field in 1997 compared to 9 in 1949.
Also, in 1997, there is no longer a large variety of fields, only 1 hedgerow and a reduced woodland, in contrasted to 1949 where there were many hedgerows, a large woodland and many different fields. Farming landscape has changed since 1949 because, the removal of hedgerows has meant more space for growing crops. This is because farmers have a larger profit motive and because wire fencing is easier to maintain. In addition, there are less grass fields than in 1949 because farmers are finding it more profitable to have larger fields full of one crop and only one grass field for grazing.
Furthermore, farming landscape has changed to make space for larger areas for crops, this has been done by removing trees. Lastly, another reason that farming landscape has changed is so that farming vehicles can be used on larger, flatter and wider areas on the fields. A farmer’s decision-making is affected by EU policies.
The first is the Set-Aside policy. This will affect the amount of land a farmer is going to use. The farmer either can make money by using the land for crops, or be given money by the government to leave that piece of land empty.The next rule is the quotas. The farmer will have to decide whether or not to produce more than the quota allowed, but he has little choice because he will face a fine if he goes over the limit of crops stated by the quota. The next decision is the subsidies; a farmer will have to comply by many regulations to ensure he receives a subsidy from the EU. Lastly, the farmer may have to diversify to ‘make ends meet’ because of EU regulations, farmers will be yielding less crops and may lose money, so they can open farm houses, shops or attractions to gain some money.
Commercial farming involves farming for a profit. The farmer is growing crops or rearing animals to sell. More farms are becoming more mixed due to the farming subsidies and regulations. Most of the farming in MEDC’s is commercial farming, e.
g. the arable farms of East Anglia. In contrast to subsistence farming, which only produces enough food for the farmers and their family and no surplus. This is the most common form of farming in LEDC’s where poorer farmers can only farm for themselves and cannot afford to yield any surpluses.
India is an LEDC country in Asia. Farming in India has been predominantly subsistence for many years because of its poor population. Many farmers could not afford to grow extra crops and would only have a patch of land given down in their generations through family. Today, Indian farmers are receiving many new subsidies and grants from the government and other foreign aid agencies. One significant change is the way in which there has been a ‘green revolution’ in farming. This is the introduction of modern farming methods in LEDC countries.This involves the use HYV varieties of crops, fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation and mechanisation. The use of High Yielding Variety crops in India has meant that crop yields increase.
This has therefore meant either farmers can sell on their surplus, or poorer farmers are able to feed their family and store their surplus for time of need like monsoon season. Another change in the farming is that mechanisation has mean that farmers with a lot of land will be able to use all of it. Previously it would have been harder because they would have to walk themselves across acres of land.Another change is that there is more employment in farms.
As there is a larger surplus that can be sold, more profit will mean the farmer can employ more people to work. However farming will also be changed with a negative impact being, farmers will have to use fertilisers for HYVs, this could either go against a farmers ethics or farmers in India might not be able to afford them. In addition, some farmers got into debt borrowing money to buy seeds, fertilisers etc. fertilisers, pesticides etc.
and environmental damage can be caused by using fertilisers, pesticides etc.
