Agriculture

In class, Ms J told us that we could compare the different cultivations we learnt and post them on our blogs. There are 4 types of cultivativations and they are:

1. Wet rice cultivation - the growing of rice crops in flooded fields
2. Plantation agriculture - commercial farming involving one ot two types of crops for sale
3. Shifting cultivation - making temporary clearings of sites within forests to grow food
4. High-tech farming - the growing of crops or animal produce using modern technology

We can compare these 4 cultivation by three main components, the purpose, the inputs and the outputs. Let us first compare them by the purpose of growing these cultivations.

Wet rice cultivation - For substinence and also commercial farming.
Plantation agriculture - For commercial farming
Shifting cultivation - For substinence
High-tech farming - Commercial farming

( Commercial farming is mass produce and the purpose of it is to cater to thr public and not grown for survival while substinence farming is for survival. ) As you can see from above, high-tech farming, wet rice cultivation and the plantation agriculture come under commercial farming so the amount of crops yielded must be higher than the rest. Shifting cultivation and once again wet rice cultivation are also classified under substinence farming so the amount of crops yielded should be lesser. If ou have noticed, wet rice cultivation comes under both categories. This is because this type of farming was used to be grown for survival but over the years, the demand for rice has grown and thus some wet rice cultivations have been turned to commercial farming to meet the needs of the people.

Inputs
Inputs are what has been invested to grow the crops in the different types of cultivations, or also what is needed to grow these cultivations. These inputs can be furhur broken down into 4 components,
Land size - the size of land needed
Level of technology - how modern the technology is
Capital inputs - the amount of money required
labour inputs - the amount of labour required

Wet rice cultivation
Land size: Smaller land area needed compared to the rest.
Level of technology: Low amount of technology and simple tools used.
Capital inputs: The capital input for commercial farming is higher than for substinence farming
Labour inputs: High amount of labour input.

Plantation agriculture
Land size: Large land size
Level of technology: High level of technology due to use of pesticides and fertilizers
Capital inputs: High amount of capital input because of the need for supporting infrastructure.
Labour inputs: High amout of labour.

Shifting cultivation
Land size : Large amount needed as the people need to move from one plot to another.
Level of technology: Low level of technology, only simple tools are used.
Capital input: Low level as it is only for substinence
Labour input: High for clearing of land, but low for the harvesting and planting.

High-tech farming
Land size: Small land area needed.
Level of technology: High level of technology used.
Capital input: High capital input for buying machinery and fertilizers.
Labour input: Small amount of labour needed but the workers need to be skilled in the job.

As you can see, the most modern type of farming would be high-tech farming while the lowest would be the shifting cultivation. This can also tell you about the countries which have these types of farming. For example, countries with high-tech farming would most probably be developed countries while those with shifting cultivations might be less developed countries.

Outputs
The outputs are what is the amount of result from all the farming.

Wet rice cultivation - high output as it is a type of commercial farming
Plantation agriculture - high oput, but usually of only one crop
Shifting cultivation - low output as it is only for substinence
High-tech farming - high level of output.

As you can see, all the types of farming vary in all aspects of their outputs, inpunts and the purpose of their agriculture. They are important as they cater for mans needs interms of food or for raw materials so we should place them of high importance.