Farming systems shape everything from local landscapes to global trade, and this deck of 20 flashcards covers the geography of agriculture and food security. You'll compare subsistence versus commercial farming and intensive versus extensive methods, then expl...
Farming systems shape everything from local landscapes to global trade, and this deck of 20 flashcards covers the geography of agriculture and food security. You'll compare subsistence versus commercial farming and intensive versus extensive methods, then explore historical and modern practices including shifting cultivation, monoculture, and the Green Revolution's benefits and drawbacks. The deck moves into food security concepts — its four pillars, food deserts, and desertification — before covering sustainable farming techniques like crop rotation, aquaculture and organic farming. It finishes with modern developments including vertical farming and precision agriculture, plus the environmental impact of livestock production. Suited to A-Level and AP Human Geography, this deck links traditional farming geography to the pressing modern questions around feeding a growing global population sustainably.
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Subsistence farming produces food primarily for the farmer's own family. Commercial farming produces crops/livestock primarily for sale in markets.
Intensive farming uses high inputs (labour, capital, technology) on a small area for high yield. Extensive farming uses low inputs over a large area, typically lower yield per unit area.
A farming method where land is cleared and burned to plant crops for a few years, then abandoned to regenerate while farmers move to a new plot.
Growing a single crop species over a wide area; it's efficient but increases vulnerability to pests, disease and soil nutrient depletion.
A mid-20th-century period of agricultural innovation involving high-yield crop varieties, synthetic fertilisers, and irrigation, dramatically increasing global food production.
Increased dependency on expensive inputs, groundwater depletion, soil degradation, and disproportionate benefits to wealthier farmers who could afford new technology.
Large-scale, commercially-oriented agricultural production, often vertically integrated from farming through processing and distribution.
Consistent access by all people to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs for an active, healthy life.
Availability, access, utilisation, and stability of food supply.
An area, often urban, with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, typically lacking full-service grocery stores.
The process by which fertile land becomes desert, often driven by deforestation, overgrazing, drought, and unsustainable farming practices.
Growing different crops sequentially on the same land across seasons to maintain soil fertility, reduce pest buildup, and prevent nutrient depletion.
The farming of fish, shellfish and aquatic plants under controlled conditions, an increasingly important source of global protein.
An agricultural method avoiding synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and GMOs, relying instead on natural processes like composting and crop rotation.
The seasonal movement of livestock and herders between fixed summer and winter pastures, often in mountainous regions.
Considered the birthplace of agriculture roughly 10,000 years ago, where early domestication of wheat, barley and livestock occurred.
Growing crops in vertically stacked layers, often indoors using controlled environments, aiming to maximise yield per unit of land area.
Large-scale commercial agriculture, often producing a single cash crop (sugar, cotton, coffee) for export, historically reliant on enslaved or indentured labour.
Livestock, especially cattle, produce significant methane through digestion, and the sector contributes substantially to global agricultural emissions and land/water use.
The use of GPS, sensors, and data analytics to optimise field-level farming decisions, improving efficiency and reducing waste of water, fertiliser and pesticides.
