AP Human Geography - Agricultural Patterns and Processes

Market Gardening

A small-scale farming system in which a farmer plants one to a few acres that produce a diverse mixture of vegetable and fruits, mostly for sale in local and regional markets.

Truck farm

A scaled-up version of market gardening, with more acreage, less crop diversity, and a stronger orientation toward more distant markets.

Mixed crop/livestock agriculture

A diversified system of agriculture based in the cultivation of cereal gains and root crops(such as potatoes and yams) and the rearing of herd livestock.

Rice paddy farming(wet rice cultivation)

A system of wet rice cultivation on small level fields bordered by impermeable dikes; the fields (paddies) are flooded with 4-6 inches (10-15 cm.) of water for about three quarters of the growing season.

Grain Farming

A highly mechanized commercial farming system that specializes in the production of cereal grains; requires large farms and widespread use of machinery, synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, and genetically engineered seeds.

Dairying

A farming system that specializes in the breeding, rearing, and utilization of livestock (primarily cows) to produce milk and its various by-products, such as yogurt, butter and cheese.

Livestock fattening

An intensive system of animal feeding utilizing fenced in closures to fatten livestock, mostly cattle and hoges for slaughter and processing for the market.

Mediterranean agriculture

Agriculture practiced in areas with a Mediterranean climate

Shifting cultivation/Slash and burn/ Swedden

The moving of farm fields after several years in search of more productive soil after depleting the previous one.

Livestock ranching

The practice of raising herds of animals on large tracts of land.

Nomadic herding (Pastoralism)

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals

Suitcase Farm

A farm in which no one lives; planting and harvesting is done by hired migratory crews.

Green Revolution

The rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially high-yield seeds and fertilizers; also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution

Biodiversity

The variety and variability among species and ecosystems.

Monocropping

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

Agribusiness

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

Commodity Chain

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

Cool Chain

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

Hinterland

The area surrounding a city

Global supply chain

Agribusiness, organized at the global scale, encompasses all elements of growing, harvesting, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing food of people.

Subsidies

A financial incentive or payment that is given by the government to support a specific industry, company, or individual.

Deforestation

Clearing and destruction of forests to clear land for agricultural land.

Desertification

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

Export commodity

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

Irrigated agriculture

Farming that relies on the controlled application of water to cultivated fields.

Genetically modified organism

A living organism, including crops and livestock, that is produced through genetic engineering.

Aquaculture

The cultivation and harvesting of aquatic organisms under controlled conditions

Organic farming

Plants grown without green technology

Division of labor

How a group divides the range of tasks within a social system, in subsistence systems, tasks are generally divided based on age and gender.

Economies of scale

the reduction in the per unit cost of production as the volume of production increases.