Unit 5 APHG

Agriculture

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

Subsistence Agriculture

Self-sufficient farming that is small scale and low technology. emphasizing food production for local consumption, not trade

Commercial Agriculture

Large-scale farming and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology

Agribusiness

The set of economic and political relationships that organize food production for commercial purposes, including activities from seed production to retailing

Shifting Cultivation

Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

A form of shifting cultivation where vegetation is cut and burned to clear land for farming

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

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

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

A form of subsistence agriculture that involves large areas of land with minimal labor

Pastoral Nomadism

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

Transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures

Plantation Agriculture

A form of commercial agriculture, it is a large farm that specializes in one or two crops

Crop Rotation

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

Double Cropping

The growing of two crops per year to double agricultural output

Organic Farming

Approach to farming and ranching that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs

Green Revolution

The development of higher-yield and fast-growing crops through increased technology, pesticides, and fertilizers transferred from the developed to developing world to alleviate the problem of food supply in those regions

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods

Biotechnology

A form of technology that uses living organisms, usually genes, to modify products, to make or modify plants and animals, or to develop other microorganisms for specific purposes

Desertification

The extreme deterioration of land in arid/semiarid regions due to loss of vegetation and soil moisture

Erosion

The natural process by which material is worn away from the earth's surface; usually by wind, water, or ice

Sustainability

A method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged

Von Thunen Model

A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy. A process of spatial competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a central market city, with profit-earning capability the determining force in how far a crop locates from the market

Dispersed Rural Settlement Pattern

Areas of extensive agriculture practice whose individual farmhouses lay far apart

Nucleated Rural Settlement Pattern

Areas of intensive agriculture whose villages are located close together with small surrounding fields