Food gathering as an economic activity:
Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It often involves primitive societies, who extract, both plants and animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing.
i. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low level of technology.
ii. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced.
iii. In modern times some gathering is market- oriented and has become commercial.
iv. Gatherers collect valuable plants such as leaves, barks of trees and medicinal plants and after simple processing sell the products in the market.
v. They use various parts of the plants, for example, the bark is used for quinine, tanin extract and cork— leaves supply materials for beverages, drugs, cosmetics, fibres, thatch and fabrics; nuts for food and oils and tree trunk yield rubber, balata, gums and resins.
Any three points of comparison.
Why food gathering has little chance of becoming important at the global level?
i. Gathering has little chance of becoming important at the global level. Products of such an activity cannot compete in the world market.
ii. Moreover, synthetic products often of better quality and at lower prices, have replaced many items supplied by the gatherers in tropical forests.