HGAP Unit 5 p2

Green Revolution

The U.S.-supported development of high-yield seed varieties that increased the productivity of cereal crops and accompanying agricultural technologies for transfer to less developed countries

Crossbreeding

The act of mixing different species or varieties of plants or animals to produce hybrids

Hybrid

The offspring of two plants or animals of different species or varieties

Double-cropping

Planting another crop on the same plot of land as soon as the first crop has been harvested

Multicropping

Planting two or three crops per year on the same land

Hierarchical Diffusion

Occurs when ideas leapfrog from one important person, community, or city to another, bypassing other persons, communities, or rural areas

Cassava

A root vegetable native to South America

Sorghum

A grain plant native to northeast Africa

Endemic

Native to or characteristic of a certain environment

Environmental contamination

Chemical residue that builds up with each application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides

Soil sanitation

The concentration of dissolved salts in the soil

Soil salinity

A measure of the concentration of dissolved salts in the soil; high soil salinity results from poor irrigation practices

Capital expenditures

Assets that cost money, such as land, machinery, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, seeds, and livestock feed.

Bid-rent theory

Explains how the demand for and price of land decrease as its distance from the central business district increases

Central Business District (CBD)

A dense cluster of offices and shops located at a city's most accessible point, usually its center

Large-scale commercial operation

A large-scale farm oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market

Monocropping (monoculture)

The cultivation of a single commercial crop on extensive tracts of land

Agricultural cooperative

An organization where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity such as services or production; services or production resources are provided to individual farm members

Family farm

A farming operation wholly owned by a family or family corporation that sells its products to some defined market, either directly or through a cooperative

Commodity

In agriculture, a primary product that can be bought and sold, such as coffee, rice, or milk

Commodity chain

A series of links connecting a commodity's many places of production, distribution, and consumption

Agribusiness

Large corporation that provides a vast array of goods and services to support the agricultural industry

Concentrated animal feeding system (CAFO)

Animal rearing system that confines livestock (such as cattle, sheep, turkeys, chickens, and hogs) in high-density cages only large enough to allow the animal's body to grow and to accommodate equipment for feeding and waste removal.

Cool chain

The system that uses refrigeration and food-freezing technologies to keep farm produce fresh in climate-controlled environments at every stage of transport from field to retail grocers and restaurants

Hinterland

The area surrounding a city

Global Supply Chain

Agribusinesses, organized at the global scale; encompasses all elements of growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food for people

Contract farming

Arrangement between an independent farmer and an agribusiness company to produce a crop; the agribusiness provides the farmer with all the supplies needed to produce a crop in exchange for a guaranteed price and buyer

Proprietary seeds

Seeds that are developed and entirely owned by a company

Export commodity

A cash crop that is produced for export to wealthier countries at the expense of crop production for local consumption

Subsidies

Guaranteed prices for staple food crops

Famine

Extreme scarcity of food