The Nature:

Different leading authorities in the field of the agricultural geography have defined the
nature and scope of this subject in the different terms. There is no unanimity of the
opinion in the matter. However, the students of an introductory course in the subject need
not be bogged down by this multiplicity of the views. Following discussion is enough to
understand the basic nature and scope of this discipline.

Agricultural geography personified has a nature, just as any human being has a peculiar
nature or the psychological tendency. As says H.J. Mackinder, the geography is a science,
arts and philosophy by nature. So, it follows that the agricultural geography is a science,
arts and philosophy, too.

It is a science because it follows the scientific methods of the observation, the collection
of the data, the hypothesis, the theory and the model building ever open to the scientific
scrutiny in terms of the relationship among variables under the study and the validity of
such a relationship.

It is an art, since it involves quite a subjective approach, too in terms of the skilful
organization of the field studies, the collection of the data, the map drawing and the
interpretation of the results.

It's a philosophy, too, in terms of ever trying to philosophize the questions of the human
beings and the environment relationship in the agricultural terms. It tries to frame the
postulations as to what, why, how and where an agricultural activity takes place in a
particular corner or the spatial point of the globe or the universe?

Finally, it of course inter alia is interdisciplinary, flexible, dynamic, friendly and far-
reaching, too.

The Scope:

The scope, the ambit or the area of the agricultural geography is quite vast both in the
temporal and the spatial terms, besides the applicability. The Universal Integrated
Cubical Temporal - Spatial - Applicability Scope model of the scope illustrates it aptly.
The given cube can easily be sliced into 90 pieces (3 Temporal faces x 6 Spatial faces x 5
Applicability faces).

Each slice represents one face each of the Temporal - Spatial - Applicability Scope. Thus,
we may elaborate the scope of the subject in the 90 different ways. For example, let us
cut the slice with the 3 following faces: the Future, the Philosophical and the
Asthenospheric. This slice means that the agricultural geography can be studied from the
point of view of the philosophical questions related to the use of the asthenospheric
resources at any given point of the time in the future.
Although Hartshorne and Alexander opine that "the geographer is concerned primarily
with variations from place to place rather than from time to time" yet a geographer can't
escape studying the temporal aspects, too in terms of studying the varied geographical
patterns of the phenomena prevailing at any given point of the time on the Earth.

A complete and detailed exposition of all the above mentioned 90 integrated slices is
beyond the scope of this article. So, I have attempted the following brief description of
the various facets of the scope of this challenging dynamic subject:

(1) The Temporal Aspect/Scope:

With the emphasis on the current contemporary situation, it includes in its ambit the
scope of going back into the times, since the ills of many countries today have their roots
in the past geographical economic spatial patterns like during the great age of discovery,
30 million young people aged 15-35 years were removed from the Africa during the
Slave Trade Era which depleted human resources of that continent.

It caused a lack of the agricultural development in the Africa whereas the slave trading
nations like the U.K., Spain, etc., flourished and built up the enormous monetary and
capital assets which helped them later to kick tart and sustain the economic/political
development in their own countries.

This led to the spatial variation in the agricultural and other economic/political
development in that bygone era. But, its repercussions are still felt in the Africa, where
agricultural and other economic/political development has quite been low due to the
bequeathing of no significant agricultural and other economic/political development by
their preceding generations.

Thus, one may divide the temporal aspect into the following broad categories:

1. Ancient

2. Medieval

3. Great Age of discovery

4. 19th century

5. 20th century

6. Contemporary

7. Recent

8. Present
(ii) The Spatial Aspect/Scope:

The agricultural geography has the enormous spatial scope which includes the following
aspects/points:

1. The Vertical:

It means the spatial locations right from the ocean bed to the mountain top and the related
agricultural phenomena. It includes the aspects like the asthenospheric, the lithospheric,
the atmospheric and the galactic. For example, there is a lot of the extra-terrestrial scope.
With the opening up of the extra-terrestrial scope, the agricultural geography shall have
to take into consideration the availability of the agricultural activities/possibilities in the
outer space like the Moon, the Mars, etc.

2. The Horizontal:

It includes a study of the agro-geographic aspects in the horizontal direction in terms of

(a) The Continental Scope:

It includes the studies of all the continents/islands in the agricultural terms and their
interactions.

(b) The Hemispheric Scope:

The agricultural geography may be studied in terms of the eastern, the western, the
northern and the southern hemispheres.

(iii) The Political-Activities Scope:

a. The Production:

It includes the studies of the production of all kinds of the agricultural activities like the
crops and the livestock at all levels from the local to the international.

b. The Exchange:

It includes the value addition to the agricultural products, the goods and the services
created by the specialized services provided at each level of the handling, including the
packaging, the promotion, the financing and the merchandizing of the agricultural
products.

c. The Consumption:
It includes both the pattern of the agricultural consumption and the spatial aspects of the
agricultural consumer behaviour.

d. The Developmental Scope:

It includes the study of the spatial variation in terms of the agricultural development, i.e.,
the different categories of the countries like the more developed and the less developed
countries.

(iv) The Other Aspect/Scope:

(a) The Integrative Scope:

It includes the study of the spatial variation in the agricultural activities in terms of an
integrated approach to all the spheres, i.e., the Lithosphere, the Atmosphere, the
Hydrosphere and the Biosphere. It includes the studies of the underground spatial aspects
like the asthenosphere, the sial, the sima, the mantle and the core so as to determine their
influence on the agricultural activities of the human beings.

(b) The Global Scope:

It has the global scope because of the variations in the level and the interdependencies
that exist in the international agricultural development. The whole Earth has become a
global system with shrinking agricultural/economic/political distance. So much that even
a person in the most remote geographical/agricultural/economic/political areas of the
world now participates in an agricultural system that is less the local and the regional and
more the national and the international in scope.

(c) The Theoretical Scope:

It has enormous theoretical scope. Theories are used in so far as possible to explain as to
why the agricultural activities happen spatially as they are, i.e., Whittlesay's and Baker's
theories are the excellent examples.

It includes the concepts in the analytical work.

(d) The Interdisciplinary Scope:

It takes help of the other subjects like the economics, the climate, the math, etc., to gauge
the effects on the spatial variation in the agricultural activities, of the factors like the
climate and the economy of a nation, the macro forces associated with the transition of
the world agriculture from the subsistence to the modern commercial base, the
international agricultural system and the multinational corporations.

(e) The Methodological/Approaches Scope:

1. The Descriptive, Analytical, Prescriptive.

2. The Empirical (inductive)/Normative (deductive)/Optimiser/Satisficer.

3. The Deterministic (environmental/natural, human, nature-human)

4. The Subjective/Artistic, Objective/Scientific.

5. The Holistic/Whole/Homogeneitic, Isolationist/Parts/Heterogeneitic/Choreal,

6. The Systems, Systematic.

7. The Political: The Socialist, Capitalist, Communist, Democratic, Fascist, Liberal, Neo-
liberal, Neo-conservative.

8. The Activity, Principle.

9. The Quantitative/Mathematical , Qualitative/Behavioural/Humanistic.

10. The Temporal, Spatial, Spatio-Temporal.

11. The Philosophical, Theoretical, Practical/Applicability.

12. The Ecological/Environmental/Consequential, Interdisciplinary.

13. The Gender, Racial.

14. The Civilian, Military.

15. The Economics, Geographical, Econo-Geographical.