Do you know what are the Primary Activities in economics?

Any activity aimed at generating any product or service that meets any need in society, is called economic activity. Socially the populations have been organized in such a way that a distribution of economic tasks is achieved according to the production process, which goes from the birth of the product to its consumption.

Since ancient times, man has used natural resources to satisfy his needs and has developed different ways of taking advantage of them, currently various tasks or actions are grouped in the named economic activities and they are subdivided into primary, secondary and tertiary.

What are primary economic activities?

Primary activities in economics They cover all those economic tasks based on the extraction of resources or goods from nature. Their purpose is to meet certain human needs through the work carried out on the resources that has the planet, so that for decision making is considered not only an economic criterion but also a social and environmental.

These activities sometimes complement secondary activities that produce processed goods and tertiary activities that generate services, since many of the products obtained in the primary economic activities they are used in some industries as factors or production inputs. For example: cotton in the clothing maquila, wood in the manufacture of furniture, milk in other dairy products, among others.

Also obtained in this activity are other goods that do not merit any or very little transformation before consumption. For example: Vegetables, fruits, meats, among others.

What are the primary economic activities?

Primary activities are agriculture, livestock, forestry, beekeeping, fishing, hunting, mining.

Long ago this type of activity constituted the main economic task of any country. It should be noted that this type of activity has been technified and improved with the use of machinery that facilitates and improves the exploitation of natural resources. For example, previously in the United States, 18 out of 20 workers worked the land to feed the country's population and obtain a surplus for the export, today out of every 20 workers in the country the labor of 1 is needed to feed the millions of Americans and cover the export of food.

Worldwide the primary activities they employ around 35% of the population, although this varies depending on the country. In developing countries, primary activity is the sector of greatest economic importance and in developed countries it becomes less important than other sectors.

The products that are extracted from these activities are the following:

• Agriculture: Use of the land as a natural resource, where useful products are obtained through techniques and machinery to meet the needs of the population, such as fruits, grains, cereals, vegetables, oilseeds, cocoa, coffee, sugar cane, etc.
• Livestock: Breeding of animals, cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, to obtain food and skin from them.
• Fishing: Exploitation of the species that inhabit the seas, rivers and lakes. They are obtained from these foods and oils.
• Forestry activity: It includes the activities of the exploitation of forests and jungles, to obtain wood, paper pulp, etc.
• Mining: Activities developed for the exploitation of soil minerals. Where iron, lead, copper, gold, silver, stones, etc. are extracted.