Agriculture Unit Vocabulary

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture with integrated food-processing steps, often owned by large corporations

Agricultural Revolution

Time when humans first domesticated plants and animals, shifting from hunting and gathering

Aquaculture

Cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions (Aquafarming)

Cereal grain

Grass yielding grain for food

Commercial Agriculture

Agriculture primarily for products sold off the farm

Desertification

Land degradation, especially in semiarid areas, due to human actions like excessive crop planting and animal grazing

Double cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same field

Green Revolution

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

Intensive subsistence agriculture

Farmers exert large effort to produce maximum feasible yield from land

Milkshed

Area around a city from which milk is supplied

Pastoral Nomadism

Subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals

Shifting cultivation

Subsistence agriculture involving shifting activity between fields and leaving them fallow for long periods

Subsistence agriculture

Primarily provides food for direct consumption by the farmer's family

Sustainable agriculture

Farming methods preserving long-term land productivity and minimizing pollution through crop rotation and reduced inputs

Swidden

Land patch cleared for planting through slashing and burning

Truck farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

Organisms with modified genetic material for increased agricultural output

Livestock Ranching

Raising livestock over an expanse of land for food products

Mediterranean Agriculture

Specialized agriculture in warm, sunny climates

Organic Farming

Producing food naturally without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides

Monoculture

Production of a single crop for commercial markets

Plantation agriculture

Specialized agriculture with monocropping near former colonial markets

Sawah

Flooded field for growing rice

Transhumance

Seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture areas

Wet Rice

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