Farming Flashcards
capital
- Money is vitally important when setting up a farm or trying to run one
- Subsidies and government
policies have helped but farming is having to become technological to survive. - As prices fall for farm products, there’s less investment inputs.
Market
The market is very important for a farmer. He must know that he is going to be able to sell his
produce at a good price, in order to make a profit.
politics
Government and International farming policies have had a huge impact on many farms around the
world.
Choice
- Farmer may have a number of choices over which type of farming he is going to do
- Determined by the climate, soils and the relief
- farmers are having to turn to
farming crops or animals that will bring them the most money,
Labor
- Every farm need workers
- In the old days there would
have been many people doing very labor-intensive jobs around the farm. - Farming becoming
mechanized the n.o. of people working on farms has diminished and many of those people
tend to be farm managers than doing the dirty work
Relif
- Relief of the land is a very important in determining the type of agricultural activity that can take place
- Flat, sheltered areas are usually best for crops as it’s easy to use machinery & there’ll be
the best climatic conditions for crop growth. Steep slopes are more likely to be used for sheep and cattle farming eg: valley of South Wales. - Countries such as Indonesia the steep slopes have
been terraced to allow rice to grow.
Soil
- Thick, well-irrigated, often alluvial soil is usually the best for crop farming.
In Britain the best soil for arable farming can be found in Norfolk - In hilly areas the soil tends to be thinner and less fertile, so it’s more suitable for pasture farming.
Physical Inputs
Naturally occurring things such as water, raw materials and the land
Human Inputs
Things like money, labour, and skills.
Processes
the actions within the farm that allow the inputs to turn into outputs eg: milking, harvesting and shearing.
Outputs
Negative outputs include waste
products and soil erosion. The positive outputs are the finished products, such as meat, milk and eggs, & money gained from the sale of those products.
Feedback
What is put back into the system eg: money, from the sale of the
outputs, and knowledge
Case study of water intensive subsistence farming: rice production lower Ganges (Bangladesh)
- Ganges river flows eastwards from the Himalayas through northern India and into Bangladesh.
- Much of Bangladesh very poor and a lot of the farming that
takes place is subsistence farming
2.The area around the Ganges is moist (especially during the monsoon sea), warm (over 20 degrees) and fairly fertile. - Because of the natural inputs growing can take place most of the year & intensively. 4. Growing rice is very labor intensive, rice paddies need
to be constructed to hold water, irrigation channels need to be dug, seedlings planted, weeds removed, and rice
harvested. Because most of paddies and plots of land are small, very little equipment is used. As well as
humans, animals like water buffalo are used. 5. Traditions means that plots of land are divided up after death
which makes the farms less productive as they get smaller - To try and improve yields in areas like the Ganges River the so-called green revolution started in the late 1960’s.
The green revolution was an idea to introduce western plant varieties and farming techniques, introduction of HYV crops which aimed to increase yields. Other changes: tractors, irrigation channels and chemical fertilizers
Advantages of HYV crops
- Yields increased three times
- Multiple cropping
- Other crops grown which varied the diet
- Surplus to sell in cities creating profit
- Improving standard of living
- Allows purchase of fertilisers, machinery
Disadvantages of HYV crops
- Poor farmers could not afford HYVs, fertilisers & machinery
- Some borrowed and ended up with large debts
- HYVs need more water and fertiliser, which is expensive
- Eutrophication caused by the increasing use of fertilisers
