What
is the farming system?
Farming
is an example of a primary industry. Like a factory, a farm can
be seen as a system with a series of inputs, processes and outputs.
Inputs
can be divided into human and physical factors. Human inputs include
labour, capital (money), machinery, seeds, fertiliser and young
stock. Physical inputs include climate and weather, soil, relief
(shape of the land) and slope.
Processes
are the things that go on within the farm. This includes harvesting,
ploughing, rearing animals and milking.
How
can farms be classified?
Farming
systems are determined by the type of farm. Farms can
be classified as being arable, pastoral, mixed and market gardening.
Arable
farms grow crops. Pastoral farms specialise in rearing
animals. Mixed farms are both pastoral and arable.
Farms that
have a high level of inputs are intensive. These achieve
a high yield per hectare. An example would be arable farming in
East Anglia or rice farming in South East Asia.
Those farms
that have low input and output per hectare are extensive.
An example would be a sheep farm in North Wales or a cattle ranch
in Brazil.
Farms can
also be classified by what happens to their outputs. On subsistence
farms the produce is consumed by the farmer. Any surplus is usually
sold to buy other goods. Farms that sell the majority of their
produce are known as commercial farms.
Examples of farm types:
|
Extensive
|
Intensive
|
Commercial
|
Hill
sheep farming in Snowdonia. The poor soils and harsh climate
make this area ideal for hill sheep farming. |
Market
gardening in the Netherlands. |
Subsistence |
Shifting
cultivation in the Amazon rainforest Nomadic pasturalism
in central Africa |
Rice
farming in the Punjab region of India. The system requires
a large amount of inputs e.g. labour, seeds and fertilisers.
Usually the produce is consumed by the farmers. Any food left
over is traded for other food, machinery or other resources. |
|