Agricultural Systems

Question 1

What type of system are farms ?

Answer 1

Open system

Inputs
Process
Outputs

Losses

Question 2

Commercial farming

Answer 2

Majority of produce is sold.

Income generated can provide livelihoods for the farm workers or invested back into farm

Question 3

Subsistence farmers

Answer 3

Majority of produce is consumed by land owner and farm workers

Small surplus may be sold to buy other living requirements or invested into farm

Question 4

Intensive farming

Answer 4

Small scale.
•capital intensive - money invested into soil improvement/ machinery/ pest controls. Few people employed so output is high per ha and per worker

•labour intensive - high farm workers high output per ha but low output per worker

Question 5

Extensive farming

Answer 5

Large scale over large area
Varies.
Areas can be low labour force and high capital input eg quality seeds / animals / pesticides
Or
Low labour force but reply on sheet amount of land they are farming to provide sufficient output for their needs eg sheep ranchinr in Australia

Question 6

Inputs into farming system

Answer 6

• physical - temp/ precipitation/ wind/ soils/ slope.
• cultural - land ownership/ inheritance/ local diet/
• economic - storage/ machinery/ fertiliser
• the farmer - age / experience / knowledge/ skills

Question 7

Processes in farming system

Answer 7

Activities carried out to convert inputs to outputs

• ploughing
• sowing
• feeding
• milking

Question 8

Outputs in farm system

Answer 8

Cereal crops - wheat/ barley/ maize

Vegetable crops - carrots

Market garden crops - lettuce/ tomato

Animals produce - milk / eggs

Fruit

Question 9

Losses / hazard from farming system

Answer 9

Occur during the processes

• losses - soil erosion, leaching of soil nutrients / poor storage
• drought/ fires / disease