Topic: Agriculture in France

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

6th‑grade student of elementary school

Core curriculum

VII. Geography of Europe: the location and boundaries of the continent, the main features of the natural environment in Europe. Agriculture, industry and services in selected European countries.

Student

12. presents the importance of modern industry and services in the economy on the example of France.

Purpose of the lesson

The student will present the characteristics of agriculture in France.

Criteria of success

• you will discuss the geographical location and natural environment of France;

• you will characterize the climate of France;

• you will explain what is characteristic of modern agriculture in France;

• you will show the example of French agriculture between the natural conditions and the directions and efficiency of agricultural production in this country.

Key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in foreign languages;

• IT competences;

• learning to learn.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

• work with educational and multimedia material on the epodreczniki.pl platform;

• discussion;

• poster;

• individual work, work in pairs, work in groups.

Teaching measures

• e‑manual for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• physical map of Europe;

• Google Earth;

• geographical atlases;

• projector;

• paper sheets and markers;

• tablets / computers.

Lesson plan

Introduction

1. The teacher informs students about the goals of the lesson.

2. Ask a willing student to search in the Google Earth France app.

3. The teacher displays on the interactive whiteboard a map from an e‑textbook, with an interactive loupe: France hypsometric map.

Realization

1. Pupils, working in pairs, use geographical atlases and determine the geographical location of France. Then a volunteer from the class indicates France on the wall map of Europe and determines its geographical location. The other students verify their answers.

2. The teacher divides the class into four groups. Each group receives a sheet of paper and markers. All groups are working on the same issues: the geographical regions of France, the climate, the land use structure in France, the soil, crops and the place of France in world agricultural production, animal husbandry and breeding. Students use geographical atlases and various source materials.

3. Each group distributes tasks among the team members. He creates a poster that he discusses at the end of the class forum. During the presentation, students use the internet, use the interactive whiteboard, a wall map of Europe and the map in the e‑manual: France – Agriculture.

4. The teacher explains what is characteristic of modern agriculture in France.

5. Work in pairs. Students use various source materials, search for information about the food industry in France: dairy, wine and champagne production, cheese production.

6. The indicated pairs discuss the task on the class forum.

Summary

1. To summarize the lesson, the students perform interactive exercises included in the abstract on the interactive whiteboard.

2. The teacher assesses students within the group, taking into account the contribution and their possibilities. A good way to objectively evaluate is to focus on the evaluation of one team and to pay attention to the self‑esteem of students – what I did well and what I could not do and what the reason is.

3. Homework. Using the knowledge gained from lessons and other sources, create a test regarding agriculture in France.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Agriculture in France

Farming is one of the oldest types of human activity. For thousand of years, people have used natural environment to cultivate and breed plants and animals to create food products and other goods. Agricultural production in France – similarly to other areas – depends on natural conditions to great extent. What are these conditions and what types of agricultural activity have developed in France?

France, the third largest country in our continent, lies in West Europe. In West and North‑West, France is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and in South, it is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Corsica, a large island in the Mediterranean Sea, also belongs to France. Land morphology in France – evaluation for agricultural purposes.

A hypsometric map of France and a map of natural regions prove huge variation of landforms in France.

A distinctive trait of its land morphology is existence of lowland basins, massifs of highlands and old mountains, located a bit higher, and high young mountains.

The most area is covered by brown soils, formed in marine climate under broadleaf forests. In the northern part of the country, at the Atlantic Ocean shoreline, podzol soils are present. In the area covered with Mediterranean climate, there is advantage of terra rossa (red soil) soils which were formed on limestone rocks. In the valleys of lowland rivers, fertile alluvial soils were formed. In the mountainous areas, there soils with under‑developed profile – mountain soils.
Soils in France – excluding the mountains – are typically very productive in agricultural terms.

Farms take up 52.7% of the area of France (as of 2011). It means more than half the country is used for farming. In some regions of France, agricultural landscapes prevail.

The largest area of crops is used for cereals – about 32% of the agricultural area. Cereals are sown mainly in western and north‑western lowland area, together with typical crops for temperate zone – potatoes and sugar beets.
Cultivation of vegetables and fruits in Brittany, in the valleys of Loire and Garonne and around large cities is also of great importance.
An important trait of French agriculture is very high yield values. They rank themselves among the highest in the world. It results from high farming culture and application of crop protection agents.
A traditional crop of France is grapevine. Vineyards are located almost in any place in the country. The highest reputation in wine manufacturing have been achieved by such regions as Provence, Languedoc and Aquitaine in the south or Champagne, Burgundy and Alsace in the north.
Animal breeding is employed mainly in the highlands of Brittany, Massif Central and in the piedmont areas. Highly‑processed milk products, such as cheese, belong to traditional products of French food industry. This country is one of the leading food exporters in the world. In 2011, food export reached 11.5% of total export revenue of France.

Varied natural conditions, extensive experience of farmers, tradition, and modern needs moulded specific type of agriculture, named intensive farming. This term means that farmers cultivate variety of plants and breed various species of animals, achieving high efficiency, and products, in their majority, are manufactured to be sold in the market.

Factors affecting high rank of French agriculture are:

• adjustment of direction of agricultural production to specific conditions of natural environment in each region;

• specialisation and concentration of agricultural production so that yield per hectare is as high as possible, and livestock generates the highest possible amount of goods;

• adjustment of agricultural production to the market;

• application of modern technology in plant cultivation and animal breeding (mechanisation, crop protection agents, agricultural irrigation);

• well‑developed food industry, manufacturing products of high quality, mostly with long‑lasting tradition (cheese, wine and other farming products);

• high employment, reaching 10‑12% of professionally active persons, in the fields of economy cooperating with agricultural business; farmers constitute about 3% of professionally active persons;

• adjustment of agriculture to any changes that occurred in global markets in the field of trading food and agricultural products.

Since 2005, France, as a Member State of the European Union, introduced a reform of agricultural policy. Its goals included supporting forms of production of healthy food and application of sustained development principles in agricultural economy.