Comprehensive Study Notes: Agriculture Types (0680)

Welcome to Section 3.3: Understanding How We Farm!

Hello future Environmental Managers! This section might seem simple, but understanding the different ways humans farm the land is crucial. Why? Because the *type* of agriculture used directly impacts the environment—how much water is used, how fertile the soil remains, and how much land is cleared.

Don't worry, we're going to break down the five main types of agriculture required by your syllabus into two easy-to-digest groups. Let's start!

Part 1: Classification by Output (What is produced?)

Agriculture can first be categorised based on the main product or resource harvested. This tells us what the farmer is growing or raising.

1. Arable Agriculture

Definition: Arable farming involves growing crops.
(Think: Arable = 'A' for Apple or Any Crop!)

  • Focus: Producing plant-based food or raw materials (e.g., grains, vegetables, fruits, cotton).
  • Land Use: Often involves ploughing, sowing, weeding, and harvesting large fields.
  • Technology: Tends to rely heavily on machinery (tractors, combine harvesters) and artificial inputs (fertilisers, pesticides).
  • Example: A massive farm growing fields of wheat, rice, or corn.

Quick Review: If you eat grains or vegetables, they came from an arable farm.

2. Pastoral Agriculture

Definition: Pastoral farming involves raising animals (livestock).
(Think: Pastoral = Pastor is a shepherd, shepherds look after animals!)

  • Focus: Producing animal products like meat, milk, wool, hides, and eggs.
  • Types of Animals: Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens.
  • Land Use: Can be highly extensive (large ranches where animals roam freely) or intensive (small feedlots or barns).
  • Example: A dairy farm keeping cows for milk, or a ranch raising beef cattle.

Did you know? In some arid (dry) parts of the world, pastoralists practice nomadic grazing, constantly moving their herds to find new grass, which can sometimes be a sustainable practice!

3. Mixed Agriculture

Definition: Mixed farming is when a single farm or farmer produces both crops (arable) and raises animals (pastoral).

This type of farming is very efficient and is often considered environmentally sound if managed correctly.

  • Benefit 1: Waste Recycling: Animals produce manure, which is a natural, organic fertiliser for the crops.
  • Benefit 2: Risk Management: If the crop harvest fails one year (due to drought or pests), the farmer can still make money from selling their livestock or milk, reducing the risk of financial ruin.
  • Example: A farm growing maize to feed its pigs, then using the pig manure to fertilise the maize fields next season.
Key Takeaway (Part 1)

Arable is plants. Pastoral is animals. Mixed is both. Simple!

Part 2: Classification by Purpose and Scale (Why and How much?)

These two types define *why* the farming is being done and *how big* the operation is. This is often linked to the wealth of the farmer and the local economy.

4. Subsistence Agriculture

Definition: Subsistence farming means producing just enough food to feed the farmer’s own family, with little or no surplus left over to sell.

Subsistence farming means just scraping by, or "substituting" market food for your own grown food.

  • Scale: Typically very small plots of land.
  • Purpose: Survival and feeding the family (food security).
  • Labour: Uses manual labour (humans or simple animals) rather than large, expensive machinery.
  • Inputs: Very few external inputs (like artificial fertiliser or pesticides) are used because the farmers cannot afford them.
  • Common Location: Predominantly found in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs).

Accessibility Check: Why is subsistence farming risky?

Since there is no surplus, if there is a drought, flood, or pest invasion, the family has nothing to fall back on. This can quickly lead to malnutrition and famine (a severe shortage of food).

5. Commercial Agriculture

Definition: Commercial farming is agriculture carried out on a large scale purely for profit. The goal is to sell the maximum amount of produce.

  • Scale: Very large farms, often focusing on a single crop or animal (monoculture or monopasture).
  • Purpose: Maximising sales and profit in national or international markets.
  • Labour: Highly mechanised (using machines for almost every process).
  • Inputs: High use of capital (money) and chemical inputs (fertilisers, pesticides) to ensure maximum yields.
  • Common Location: Predominantly found in More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs), but increasingly in LEDCs to grow cash crops (crops grown for export rather than local consumption).
  • Example: A huge farm in Brazil growing thousands of hectares of soya beans for animal feed export.

Analogy: Commercial vs. Subsistence

Imagine you bake cookies. If you bake just two cookies to eat for lunch, that’s subsistence. If you own a factory that bakes a million cookies every day to sell in supermarkets across the world, that’s commercial!

Part 3: Bringing It All Together: Important Distinctions

It is crucial to remember that these classifications overlap! You can have a commercial farm that is arable, or a subsistence farm that is mixed.

Farming Type Main Focus Key Characteristics
Arable Crops (Plants) Ploughing, cultivating, harvesting grains/vegetables.
Pastoral Animals (Livestock) Grazing, milking, raising animals for meat/wool.
Mixed Both Crops and Animals Recycles waste (manure), balances risk.
Subsistence Survival (Feeding the family) Small scale, manual labour, low inputs, no surplus.
Commercial Profit (Selling goods) Large scale, mechanisation, high inputs, monoculture.

Common Exam Mistake to Avoid!

Do not mix up Subsistence and Pastoral. While many subsistence farmers raise animals (making them subsistence/pastoral), the term 'pastoral' refers only to the *product* (animals), and 'subsistence' refers only to the *purpose* (feeding family).

For example:

  • A farmer growing one field of rice to feed his family is Subsistence Arable.
  • A company running a massive sheep ranch to sell wool overseas is Commercial Pastoral.
Final Key Takeaway

The type of agriculture determines the environmental strategies needed. Commercial farms require careful management of high inputs (fertilisers) and waste, while subsistence farms need strategies focused on drought resistance and improving soil fertility without expensive chemicals. Understanding the *type* helps us manage the *impact*. Great job completing this section!