Industrial agricultureIndustrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of crops and animals and animal products like eggs or milk. The methods of industrial agriculture include innovation in agricultural machinery and farming methods, genetic technology, techniques for achieving economies of scale in production, the creation of new markets for consumption, the application of patent protection to genetic information, and global trade.
Crop yieldIn agriculture, the yield is a measurement of the amount of a crop grown, or product such as wool, meat or milk produced, per unit area of land. The seed ratio is another way of calculating yields. Innovations, such as the use of fertilizer, the creation of better farming tools, and new methods of farming and improved crop varieties have improved yields.
AgricultureCultivation of plants and animals to produce foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materialsModern agriculture: a center pivot irrigation system on a fieldAgriculture is the practice of cultivating the soil, planting, raising, and harvesting both food and non-food crops, as well as livestock production. Broader definitions also include forestry and aquaculture.
Extensive farmingExtensive farming or extensive agriculture (as opposed to intensive farming) is an agricultural production system that uses small inputs of labor, fertilizers, and capital, relative to the land area being farmed. SystemsExtensive farming most commonly means raising sheep and cattle in areas with low agricultural productivity, but includes large-scale growing of wheat, barley, cooking oils and other grain crops in areas like the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia.
Animal husbandryManagement of farm animalsCattle feedlot in Colorado, United StatesAnimal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with the human practices of raising captive or domesticatedanimals for harvesting valuable animal products or to train animals to provide labour or services.
AgrochemicalAn agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of agricultural chemical, is a chemical product used in conventional or industrial agriculture. Agrochemical typically refers to pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. The term agrochemical is sometimes used informally synonymously with pesticides, sometimes also informally to mean pesticides and fertilizers, and sometimes more correctly to include all chemicals used in agriculture.
Agricultural landAgricultural land is typically land devoted toagriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of life—particularly the rearing of livestock and production of crops—to produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with both farmland or cropland, as well as pasture or rangeland.
Industrial engineeringIndustrial engineering (IE) revolves around the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.
CultivarA cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, or carefully controlled seed production. Most cultivars arise from deliberate human manipulation, but some originate from wild plants that have distinctive characteristics.
FallowFallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycles and soil-borne pathogens by temporarily removing their hosts. Crop rotation systems typically called for some of a farmer's fields to be left fallow each year.
Capital (economics)In economics, capital goods or capital are "those durable produced goods that are in turn used as productive inputs for further production" of goods and services. A typical example is the machinery used in a factory. At the macroeconomic level, "the nation's capital stock includes buildings, equipment, software, and inventories during a given year." Capital is a broad economic concept representing produced assets used as inputs for further production or generating income.
CommerceCommerce is the organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange of goods, services, and other forms of value, predominantly through transactional processes.
Arable landArable land (from Latin'able to be ploughed or farmed') is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops. Alternatively, for the purposes of agricultural statistics, the term often has a more precise definition: Arable land is the land under temporary agricultural crops (multiple-cropped areas are counted only once), temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow (less than five years).*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.