Unit 5 - Agriculture Vocab Quiz

Agribusiness

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

Agriculture (ag.)

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

Agricultural Revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering.

Crop Rotation

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

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions such as excessive crop planting.

Double Cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field

Food Security

Physical, social, and economic access at tall times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life

Green Revolution

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

Horticulture

The growing of fruits, vegetables and flowers

Intensive subsistence ag.

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.

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

Sawah

A flooded field for growing rice.

Slash-and-burn ag.

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

Subsistence agriculture

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

Sustainable Agriculture

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

Swidden

A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures

Truck Farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning “exchange of commodities”

Undernourishment

Dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity

Wet Rice

Rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth