Key Concepts in Agriculture and Agribusiness

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps in the food-processing industry.

Agriculture

The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock.

Aquaculture

(or aquafarming) The cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions.

Bid-rent curve

A model showing that the amount a farmer is willing to pay for land declines with increasing distance from the market.

Cash crop

A crop that is grown for sale rather than for the farmer's own use.

Cereal grain

A grass that yields grain for food.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants and animals, as well as people, culture, and technology, between the Western Hemisphere and Europe, as a result of European colonialization and trade.

Commercial agriculture

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

Commercial gardening

Agriculture focusing on the production of fruits, vegetables, and other horticulture.

Conservation tillage

A method of soil cultivation that reduces soil erosion and runoff.

Crop

A plant cultivated by people.

Crop rotation

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

Dairy farm

A form of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products.

Desertification

(also known as semiarid land degradation) Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions such as excessive crop planting, animal—grazing, and tree cutting.

Dietary energy consumption

The amount of food that an individual consumes, measured in kilocalories (Calories in the United States).

Double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field.

First agricultural revolution

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

Fishing

The capture of wild fish and other seafood living in the waters.

Food security

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

Genetically modified organism (GMO)

A living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.

Grain

Seed of a cereal grass.

Green revolution

(see third agricultural revolution).

Herbicide

A chemical used to control unwanted plants.

Horticulture

Growing of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and tree crops.

Intensive subsistence agriculture

A form of subsistence agriculture in Asia's major population concentrations in which farmers expend a large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land.

Milkshed

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

Mixed crop and livestock farming

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock; most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans.

Monocropping

The practice of growing the same, single crop year after year.

No tillage

A farming practice that leaves the soil undisturbed and the entire residue of the previous year's harvest left untouched on the fields.

Organic agriculture

Farming that depends on the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances, such as herbicides, pesticides, and growth hormones.

Overfishing

Capturing fish faster than they can reproduce.

Paddy

The Malay word for 'wet rice'; increasingly used to describe a flooded field.

Pastoral nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

Pesticide

A substance to control pests, including weeds.

Plantation

A large farm in a developing country that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale.

Ranching

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

Ridge tillage

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

Sawah

A flooded field for growing rice.

Second agricultural revolution

An increase in agricultural productivity through improvement of crop rotation and breeding of livestock.

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.

Subsistence agriculture

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

Third agricultural revolution (or green revolution)

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

Transhumance

Seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture area.

Truck farming

Commercial gardening, so named for the Middle English word truck, meaning 'barter' or '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.