APHG

What is Agribusiness?

The integration of various steps of production in the food-processing industry, often dominated by large corporations.

What is Agriculture?

The deliberate modification of Earth’s surface through the cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain.

What is Commercial Agriculture?

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

What is a Combine?

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

What is Crop Rotation?

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

What does Desertification refer to?

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

What is Double Cropping?

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

What was the Green Revolution?

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

What is Horticulture?

The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

What is a Milkshed?

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

What is Intensive Subsistence Agriculture?

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

What is a Paddy?

The Malay word for wet rice, commonly but incorrectly used to describe a flooded field.

What is Pastoral Nomadism?

A form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals.

What is a Plantation?

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.

What is Sawah?

A flooded field for growing rice.

What is Shifting Cultivation?

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.

What is Slash-and-Burn Agriculture?

A method of agriculture in which existing vegetation is cut down and burned off before new seeds are sown, typically used as part of shifting cultivation.

What is Sustainable Agriculture?

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.

What does Transhumance refer to?

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

When did the Agricultural Revolution occur?

The Agricultural Revolution began around 10,000 years ago (circa 8000 BCE).

Where did the Agricultural Revolution start?

It originated independently in several hearths, including the Fertile Crescent, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Mesoamerica.

What was life like before agriculture?

People were primarily hunter-gatherers, relying on wild plants and animals for sustenance.

How was agriculture discovered?

Likely through accidental observations, such as seeds sprouting from discarded food, leading to the intentional planting of crops.

What characterizes Commercial Agriculture?

Large-scale production for profit, typically in More Developed Countries (MDCs).

What does Subsistence Agriculture involve?

Small-scale farming to feed the farmer’s family, commonly found in Less Developed Countries (LDCs).

What is Mixed Crop and Livestock?

A form of agriculture in MDCs that involves growing crops and raising livestock together.

What are the three principles of Sustainable Agriculture?

Environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity.

What are the rings in Von Thünen’s Model for Land Use?

Central Market, Dairy/Perishables, Forest, Grains and Field Crops, Livestock Grazing.