What is the exact meaning of commercial agriculture and what are its different parts?

Question

My project says that you have to describe the types of agriculture. i have enough idea that there are two types- subsitence and commercial. i have a page of information on subsistence but i need information on commercial agriculture in detail.

Answer 1

In a nut shell-commerical=for sale.

Answer 2

The Rise of Commercial Agriculture
As the Middle Ages waned, increasing communications, the commercial revolution, and the rise of cities in Western Europe tended to turn agriculture away from subsistence farming toward the growing of crops for sale outside the community (commercial agriculture). In Britain the practice of inclosure allowed landlords to set aside plots of land, formerly subject to common rights, for intensive cropping or fenced pasturage, leading to efficient production of single crops.

In the 16th and 17th cent. horticulture was greatly developed and contributed to the so-called agricultural revolution. Exploration and intercontinental trade, as well as scientific investigation, led to the development of horticultural knowledge of various crops and the exchange of farming methods and products, such as the potato, which was introduced from America along with beans and corn (maize) and became almost as common in N Europe as rice is in SE Asia.

The appearance of mechanical devices such as the sugar mill and Eli Whitney's cotton gin helped to support the system of large plantations based on a single crop. The Industrial Revolution after the late 18th cent. swelled the population of towns and cities and increasingly forced agriculture into greater integration with general economic and financial patterns. In the American colonies the independent, more or less self-sufficient family farm became the norm in the North, while the plantation, using slave labor, was dominant (although not universal) in the South. The free farm pushed westward with the frontier.

Answer 3

commercial agriculture means farming of trading crops.
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Answer 4

its nothing but farming commericially

Answer 5

GOOD QUESTION!!!

Answer 6

You can develop your project on following lines.


• . Subsistence agric vs Commercial Agriculture
Subsistence:
Around half of world’s population relies on subsistence agriculture
Typically small-scale, culturally adapted to local environment, primarily for own use
Commercial – Industrial Agriculture:
Specialized crops – usually large operations, heavily mechanized w/special seeds and high input
(chemicals- fertilizers, pesticides, etc)
Low labor, highly productive, almost all sold
Technological innovations in the 20th century (early to mid 1900’s) led to industrial-type agriculture:
Allowed for increased specialization and larger size farms
Began to see more regionalization of crop types : corn belt, wheat belt, citrus crops,
even vegs for specialized markets (like the Chino’s)
Increased factory farming of animals
Refrigeration - produce could travel greater distances to markets
Green Revolution:
• 1944, Rockefeller Foundation sent agricultural scientists to Mexico
purpose: to improve traditional crops to increase productivity - focused on wheat first
• What did scientists do? Modified plant and agricultural system together to maximize yields
Plant traits:
(1) increased edible (marketable) portion of plant (e.g. seed)
at the expense of survival mechanisms such as stronger roots, pest resistance, etc.
(2) optimized plant to respond to artificial inputs such as fertilizers
System traits:
(1) increased need for fertilizer to ag. system
(2) increased need for water (irrigation)
(3) increased reliance on pesticides and herbicides
(4) increased need for mechanization (and fossil fuel use)
(5) larger equipment requires bigger land area for greater efficiency
(6) decreased labor needs
• Research continued to develop other strains of high-yielding wheat and rice for other developing countries
World population in mid to late 1960’s was growing at over 2% year – highest ever
But, with this new technological advances food production yields increased 4% or more a year.
• These grains are now cultivated through-out the world and are basis of food production in:
China
Latin America
Near East or SW Asia
Geog. 600 fall 2002
Southern Asia
Africa – hybrid varieties of sorghum and millet
And all developed nations
One problem: Approx 20 species provide 90% of world’s food supply.
Most of world dependent on 3 types of food staples – wheat, rice, corn
(from: Marsh & Grossa, 2000)
Agricultural Impacts
• Arrogance of developed countries towards developing countries’ knowledge –
or within USA – Native Americans, Hispanic, Asian, others ethnic groups’ traditional knowledge and
experience ignored as backward and non-scientific
• Green revolution touted as answer for gap between production and people – technological fix
But, food scarcity not just a problem of a growing human population, currently a lack of distribution,
access to resources, and poverty (people can’t afford food)
Green Revolution research was politically motivated by Mexican government, in part to defeat a popular
political movement of Agrarian reform which had been taking place in the 1920-30’s).
Instead, “agriculture would play a new role, not as a base for rural change, but rather as the foundation
of “industrial greatness” from Avila Camacho’s 1940 inaugural speech (Hewitt de Alcantara 1976).
Emphasis would be placed on production gains, not on social change or equity. And, emphasis was on
science of increased production, without consideration of social impacts and even without consideration of
ecological/environmental impacts.
e.g. Latin America
• Current agrarian structure:
Approximately 80% of people are peasants mostly involved in basic food crops for domestic use
Today, peasants only use (access to) about 20% of ag.land – generally marginal
80% of agric land is for commercial ag.- much for export commodities
• Most technology by-passes the peasants – used for commercial export (large scale)
• Some small farmers begin to grow export crops instead of traditional crops –
melons, strawberries, various veg. for international market
• Traditional/basic crops for food self-sufficiency decreases
Agriculture was based on 100’s – 1000’s years of local knowledge
Emphasized diversity of crops and genetic diversity among these crops
Corn, beans and squash complex
Ecologically sustainable and provides everything necessary for an adequately healthy diet
Social impacts (consequences) of Green Revolution technology:
(1) less jobs available - because less labor intensive
(2) increased large land holdings – small farmers become dependent on larger farmers for jobs
(3) loss of land (and jobs) – migration to urban areas
(4) cost of production increases – package deal: plants and system
Geog. 600 fall 2002
(5) increased health risks from chemicals - huge increase in use of pesticides:
(6) loss of cultural traditions
(7) Traditional/basic crops for food self-sufficiency decreases (if used for export or reliance on single crops)
(a) Losing food security (b) increases dependence on world markets
Environmental/ecological impacts (consequences) of Green Revolution technology:
(1) use of mono-cultures
leading to loss of biodiversity (and genetic diversity)
and loss of indigenous crop types
(2) increased plant vulnerability to stress because of lack of genetic diversity
(3) clearing large areas of land for cultivation – eliminating species
disrupting ecosystem function, altering ecoystem structure
(4) increase deforestation
(5) increase soil erosion and land degradation
(6) sedimentation of waterways
(7) irrigation effects: dams & reservoirs, diversion of water
(a)increase in salinization
increase in salt concentrations in soil – 30% of irrigated land is salinized
(1/5 (approx 20%) completely degraded)
(b)impact on water levels of aquifers
e.g. Ogallala aquifer – 150,000 wells to 140 million acres
recharges at 3 million acre feet per year (acre foot = 1 ft of water over 1 acre)
pumped out at 25 million acre feet/year
land sinking – subsiding from ground water extraction; saltwater intrusion
(c) health issues : e.g. reservoir, slow moving water & increase in waterborne diseases - unintended result
e.g. Aswan Dam on Nile in Eygpt – Schistosomiasis carried by snails
(parasitic worm, absorbs nutrients)
(d) Run-off /drainage of irrigation water
e.g. Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge – 42,000 acre preserve in San Joaquin Valley
82 miles of irrigation drainage ended in refuge
Selenium (naturally found in soil, but increased in irrigation run-off)
Caused birth defects in water birds born in refuge
(8) increased water pollution from fertilizers/pesticides run-off into streams, lakes, and groundwater
(aquifers)
(a) huge increase in nitrogen and phosphorus – soluble in water
e.g. Nitrates – most common ground-water pollutant in USA and Europe
25% of all wells in USA have elevated levels of nitrates
many are main source of drinking water for an area
Blue Babies – nitrates potentially impact red blood cells ability to carry oxygen
(b) increased eutrophication of waterbodies due to increase in nutrients (fertilizers)
algae bloom – changes levels of O2 and changes trophic structure and disrupts system
(c) 95% of all US streams have at least 1 pesticide detected, 50% of ground water has detectable pesticide
(d) levels have almost never exceeded safe levels, but 2/3 exceed aquatic health criteria