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Agriculture- Types of Agriculture


Types of crop production system


The main focus of agricultural industry lies on challenges faced by crop producers in the area of marketing support, sustainable cultural practices, integrated pest management, environmental and human health risks, regulations and profitability.

Crop production

There are different types of agricultural production system depending on the type of crop and use. The types of feed or row crop grown by farmers depends on the traditional, organic or conventional management systems available. Crop Production and management of corn, cotton,wheat, soybean and tobacco crops generates profit to the farmers. Crop production also includes feed sources and resource inputs used to produce crops required to maintain the dairy herd and contribute to the meat industry.Feeds grown include corn grain or silage; alfalfa hay and silage; soybean and soybean meal; oats; wheat; distiller’s grains solids. Animals maintained by farmers are provided with dietary supplements or minerals and grass or hay for forage. Resource inputs in crop production include equipments or machinery, fuel for tractors, pesticides, fertilizers and packaging materials.

Types of system

There are several hybrid crop production systems arising due to availability of certain natural resources and other factors.

Some of food crop production practices include mixed, subsistence, plantation farming and others. Mixed farming is an agricultural system practiced on the same piece of land by farmers to cultivate crops and raise animals simultaneously. Different crops with different maturity periods are grown continuously throughout the season at same time using best practices with good rainfall or irrigation facilities. Subsistence farming allows farmer to produce food with simple farm tools on small land holding. The farmers in this system are perceived poor that do not use electricity and irrigation system, fertilisers, pesticides or improved seeds;reducing the productivity.

Plantation farming or tree crop farming is an agricultural farming system for farmers of single crop like cocoa, tea, coffee, rubber, spices or fruits like apples, avocado, grapes, oranges, mangoes, etc grown on commercial basis on a large piece of land. The system requires good management and technical skills with a substantial amount of capital investment for machines, fertilizers and other facilities. In shifting cultivation system, farmers clear a piece of forest land by cutting and burning the residues of vegetation to grow crops for three to five years. The farmer abandons the land for a fallow period on loss of fertility and moves to a new fertile land to cultivate. The process is repeated and former lands are cultivated after years on regaining fertility. Arable system of farming is practiced in a small scale or commercial scale to grow only annual crops like cassava, plantain, vegetables, grains and legumes without mixed or pastoral farming.

The most common types of feed production involve nomadic and pastoral farming. Pastoral or Livestock farming avoid crops and aim at producing only livestock for dairy farming, raising beef cattle or sheep for wool. Farmers use available feed resources on established pasture lands to feed the livestock without moving around like in nomadic farming. This system is expensive and not sustainable when excessive grazing destroys the natural fields forcing farmers to buy feed for the herd. Agricultural farming system of nomadic farming is similar to pastoral farming but herdsmen move animals like cattle, goats, sheep, horses, camel or donkeys in search of water and suitable grazing fields.

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