Rubenstein-Chapter 10: Agriculture

Question 1

Agribusiness

Answer 1

Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations.

Question 2

Agriculture

Answer 2

The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.

Question 3

Cereal Grain

Answer 3

A grass yielding grain for food.

Question 4

Chaff

Answer 4

Husks of grain separated from the seed by threshing.

Question 5

Combine

Answer 5

A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field.

Question 6

Commercial Agriculture

Answer 6

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.

Question 7

Crop

Answer 7

Grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season.

Question 8

Crop Rotation

Answer 8

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.

Question 9

Desertification

Answer 9

Degradation (degrading) of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Question 10

Double Cropping

Answer 10

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

Question 11

Grain

Answer 11

Seed of cereal grass.

Question 12

Green Revolution

Answer 12

Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.

Question 13

Horticulture

Answer 13

the growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Question 14

Hull

Answer 14

The outer covering of a seed.

Question 15

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Answer 15

A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must spend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.

Question 16

Milkshed

Answer 16

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

Question 17

Paddy

Answer 17

Malay word for wet rice, commonly but incorrectly used to describe a sawah.

Question 18

Pastoral Nomadism

Answer 18

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

Question 19

Pasture

Answer 19

Grass or other plants grown for feeding grazing animals, as well as land used for grazing.

Question 20

Plantation

Answer 20

A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country.

Question 21

Prime Agricultural Land

Answer 21

The most productive farmland.

Question 22

Ranching

Answer 22

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area.

Question 23

Reaper

Answer 23

A machine that cuts cereal grain standing in the field.

Question 24

Ridge Tillage

Answer 24

System of planting crops on ridge tops in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation.

Question 25

Sawah

Answer 25

A flooded field for growing rice.

Question 26

Shifting Cultivation

Answer 26

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

Question 27

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

Answer 27

Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris.

Question 28

Spring Wheat

Answer 28

Wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer.

Question 29

Subsistence Agriculture

Answer 29

Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer’s family.

Question 30

Sustainable Agriculture

Answer 30

Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides.

Question 31

Swidden

Answer 31

A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning.

Question 32

Thresh

Answer 32

To beat out grain from stalks by trampling it.

Question 33

Transhumance

Answer 33

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

Question 34

Truck Farming

Answer 34

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities.

Question 35

Wet Rice

Answer 35

Rice planted on dryland in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth.

Question 36

Winnow

Answer 36

To remove chaff by allowing it to be blown away by the wind.

Question 37

Winter Wheat

Answer 37

Wheat planted in the autumn and harvested in the early summer.