1. Agriculture Flashcards
Agriculture
The ability to grow food, raise cattle, and provide biological products through FARMING
Arable
(Land used for) Growing crops
Pastoral/ livestock
(Land used for) Raising animals
Commercial farming
Farming as a business; crops are grown and sold for profit and the profits are re-invested back into the farm system
Subsistence farming
The produce from the farm is used by the farmer and their families to eat and survive. Small surpluses might be sold.
Intensive farming
Farming that is small scale
Capital investment farming
Money is invested to produce food, such as on pesticides, drip irrigation systems, etc. Few people employed but output per hectare is high
Labour intensive farming
Large numbers of farm workers growing food and crops. Often in developing countries - e.g. rice workers
Extensive farming
Farming on a large scale
Agricultural productivity
The amount of output from a field of farm
Yield
The amount of crop grown in a particular growing season
Total factor productivity
The ratio of inputs to outputs - the more efficient a farm (the smaller the inputs and the larger the outputs) the higher the factors of prodcution
Monocultures
A farm that only has one crop grown
Mechanisation
The increased use of machinery to improve outputs, often at the expense of the workers
High yield varieties
Types of rice seed that produce two harvests in one growing season (rather than one). Doubled food production in SE Asia
