Name the different types of agriculture and explain any two types of agriculture.

Answer: Types of agriculture

Agriculture is classified by purpose, inputs and scale into: (1) subsistence agriculture – primitive (shifting) and intensive subsistence; (2) commercial agriculture – extensive grain farming, plantation agriculture, mixed farming, dairy farming, market gardening/horticulture; and (3) Mediterranean agriculture.

1. Shifting (primitive subsistence) agriculture

• Practised in tropical forests of the Amazon basin, Congo basin, South-East Asia and north-east India by tribal people.
• A patch of forest is cleared by cutting and burning (slash-and-burn); crops are grown for two or three years till the soil loses fertility, then the farmers shift to a new patch.
• Simple tools like the hoe and digging stick; no fertilisers or machines; crops such as maize, millets, yam, cassava, dry paddy.
• Produce is only for the family's needs; yield is low. Local names: Jhum (north-east India), Milpa (Mexico), Roca (Brazil), Ladang (Malaysia).
• It causes deforestation and soil erosion.

2. Extensive (commercial grain) agriculture

• Practised in the temperate grasslands – Prairies, Pampas, Steppes, Veld and Downs – where population is sparse and land is plentiful.
• Farms are very large (hundreds to thousands of hectares) and highly mechanised with tractors, combine harvesters and aircraft for spraying.
• Mainly one crop, especially wheat, also maize and barley.
• Yield per hectare is low but production per worker is very high; produce is sold in national and world markets, so these regions are the 'granaries of the world'.
• Good storage (silos) and rail/sea transport are essential.

(Other types may be explained instead, e.g. intensive subsistence agriculture of monsoon Asia with small holdings and rice, or plantation agriculture of tea, coffee, rubber on large estates for export.)