Definition and types of Agriculture.

Definition:

Agriculture is defined as the purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber. According to another definition, agriculture includes all productive efforts which are undertaken by man to expedite the growth of vegetable and animal products for the benefit of man.

Types of Agriculture:

Agricultural practices can be classified on the basis of land, supply of water, cropping system, volume of production and region as under:

A. On the basis of supply of land:

1. Intensive Method of Agriculture: Intensive farming is an agricultural intensification and mechanization system that aims to maximize yields from available land through various means, such as heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. … Learn more about the effects of soil erosion from intensive farming practices.
2. Extensive Method of Agriculture: Extensive farming or extensive agriculture is an agricultural production system that uses small … and soil are not damaged by overuse of chemicals. The use of machinery and scientific methods of farming produce a large quantity of crops.

B. On the basis of Supply of water:

1. Humid Farming: Where there is plenty of water. All through the season crops remains in humid farm.
2. Irrigation Farming: Irrigation is the process of applying controlled amounts of water to plants at needed intervals. Irrigation helps to grow agricultural crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of less than average rainfall.
3. Dry Farming: Dry farming, also called Dryland Farming, the cultivation of crops without irrigation in regions of limited moisture, typically less than 20 inches (50 centimetres) of precipitation annually.

C. On the basis volume of production:

1. Migratory Primitive Agriculture: It is carried out in tropical rainy forest regions. It is on small family level scale without any surplus. Thus, it is termed subsistence agriculture.
2. Sedentary Primitive Agriculture: It is in practice in tropics and hot humid low lands, in wet-dry low latitudes or in low latitude high lands.

D. On the basis of cropping system:

1. One Crop Agriculture: It is also called Monocrop Agriculture. Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop, plant, or livestock species, variety, or breed in a field or farming system at a time.
2. Double Crop Agriculture: In agriculture, multiple cropping or multicropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in the same piece of land during one growing season instead of just one crop. Threshing is difficult in multiple cropping as numerous crops are harvested together.
3. Multiple Crop Agriculture: In agriculture, multiple cropping or multicropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in the same piece of land during one growing season instead of just one crop. Threshing is difficult in multiple cropping as numerous crops are harvested together.

E. On the basis of region:

1. Mediterranean Agriculture: The term ‘Mediterranean agriculture’ applies to the agriculture done in those regions which are having Mediterranean type of climate. Mediterranean agriculture is unique because it is a mixture of diverse bio-cultural activities (both animal husbandry and crop farming) that has developed in five major world regions. This type of agriculture is determined by climatic conditions, which exert such an influence that both traditional and commercial agriculture flourish with a dominance of the agriculture of citrus fruits along with horticulture and floriculture.
2. Monsoonal Agriculture (Asian): This types of agriculture is common in Asian countries. Farmers in monsoon regions rely on the wet summer months to grow crops. However the summer monsoon does not always bring the same amount of rainfall, and variations in rain have implications for agriculture and the economy.
3. Mixed Farming: Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock. This type of farming is practiced across Asia and in countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Central Europe, Canada, and Russia.