Typically involves the cultivation of crops like grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes
Requires good soil quality, adequate water supply, and favourable climate conditions
PASTORAL
Relates to livestock farming, particularly raising animals like cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs
PASTORAL
Often practised in areas with grasslands or meadows suitable for grazing
Requires management of animal health, nutrition, and breeding
MIXED farming
Involves a combination of arable and pastoral activities on the same farm
MIXED farming
Farmers cultivate crops and raise livestock simultaneously
Provides diversification of income sources and risk management
Agriculture as a system
Encompasses the production process of food, fibre, and other products by cultivating plants and raising animals
Agriculture as a system
Includes interconnected components such as inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides), production practices, processing, distribution, and marketing
Influenced by environmental, social, economic, and technological factors
Subsistence farming
Primarily focused on producing enough food to meet the needs of the farmer and their family
Subsistence farming
Often practised in developing countries or rural areas with limited access to markets and resources
Relies on traditional methods and may have low productivity
Commercial farming
Aimed at producing goods for sale in markets to generate profit
Commercial farming
Involves large-scale operations, modern technologies, and specialised equipment
Typically found in developed countries or regions with access to advanced infrastructure and markets
Sustainability
Using resources in such a way that future generations can still use it
Conserve
To protect/take care of
Causes of soil erosion
Water running down hills
Wind
Reasons for soil erosion
Lack of vegetation (exposed soil)
Soil becoming loose/damaged by poor agricultural practices
Components of soil
Minerals
Organic matter
Minerals
Come from rocks, weathering releases nutrients
Organic matter
Decaying plant matter
Ways minerals are lost from soil
Used by plants
Washed away by heavy/regular rainfall
Terracing
Retaining walls are built on a slope with the soil piled up and flattened, flat ground
Contour ploughing
Ploughing takes place across a slope. This means that water doesn't run down the furrows and wash soil away
Crop rotation
Different crops are grown each year for three or four years. The different crops take different nutrients from the soil
Fallow periods
The land is 'rested' every few years, it allows it to regain lost nutrients meaning it won't become exhausted, lose its structure, and become loose and easily eroded
Strip cultivation + inter-cropping
Different crops are grown in narrow bands in a single field, and they are harvested at different times, so the field is never left completely bare
Reducing stock density
A piece of land doesn't become overgrazed because they have fewer livestock, and there is a cover of vegetation to protect the soil
Afforestation
Planting large areas of trees reduces soil erosion in various ways
Irrigation
Careful irrigation keeps the soil moist and prevents it from being picked up, especially by the wind
Shifting cultivation
A plot of land that is cleared and the ash from burning the vegetation and used as a fertilizer
Poverty cycle
When people are born into poverty, and poverty continues from one generation to the next
Under-nutrition responsible for one-third of child deaths (under 5 years)
Diseases linked to protein deficiency
Marasmus (thin babies)
Kwashiorkor (swollen bellies and rounded faces)
Effects of food shortages
Increase death rate, especially infant mortality
Diseases linked to protein deficiency
Increased expenditure on health services
Slower economic growth and output because the weaker workforce results in a drain on the economy
Food aid
1. Emergency aid to deal with natural disasters such as drought. 2. Longer-term aid to deal with more general poverty and poor nutrition
Previously they supplied food aid directly during emergencies, and via governments during non-emergency times
This led to farmers thinking that they would always be supplied with food even when there were no emergencies
Farmers must
Contribute and have a sense of ownership, rather than just relieving something for nothing
When drought crippled Swaziland's agriculture, farmers didn't know anything other than food aid because their parent had given up on farming. They never got to acquire much-needed agricultural skills
Farmer decisions
Grow food crops to feed their families directly
Grow cash crops that they can sell for money to buy food and other goods
Over the last 30 years many small-scale farmers have been persuaded to abandon food crops such as maize and join co-operative growing sugar can instead