Understanding the Primary and Secondary Sectors of Industry

Primary Sector Activities

The primary sector encompasses activities performed to take advantage of natural resources, including agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and mining.

Agricultural Area

• Biotechnology
• Machinery
• Individual or collective smallholdings, large estates

Direct: The owner's work. Indirect: Landholding changes, cash crops, or leases.

Structure

• Small, medium, and large farms
• Regular or irregular bocage
• Open fields or fenced fields

Agriculture

• Rainfed Crops: Utilizing rainwater
• Monoculture: Cultivating one or a few crops
• Polyculture: Growing multiple crops and orchards

Examples include Mediterranean crops such as olives, vines, wheat (rainfed), beets, and cotton (irrigation and monoculture).

Maximum yield is achieved when capital investment is spent on trade.

Extensive Farming

Resources are not fully utilized; they are spent on consumption or trade.

Fallow Land

Land is left to recover its natural fertility.

Livestock

• Intensive: Housed in concentrated stables
• Extensive: Stock rearing outdoors
• Nomadic: Continuous mobility
• Nomadic Shepherd: Displacement
• Sedentary: Not moving

Fishing

• Crustaceans: Inshore and coastal mollusks
• Almadraba: A fixed network preventing the passage of Cadiz tuna
• Aquaculture: Commercial fish farms

Forestry

Forestry involves the cultivation of mountains or the management of commercial forests.

Industry

The secondary sector is composed of various industries that transform raw materials into finished products.

Energy Sources

Natural resources are obtained to power the transformation of raw materials.

Types of Industry

• Heavy Industry: Requires heavy investment, is highly polluting, and involves large lots.
• Metallurgical: Involves copper, steel, iron, and steel production.
• Chemical Industry: Produces essential products.
• Capital Goods: Machinery required for other industries.
• Light Industry: Involves smaller quantities of raw materials and energy sources, with various pollutants.

Examples include food production, automotive, textiles, chemistry, and information technology.