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Environmental Science Unit Two Module 1

This document defines and describes agricultural systems. It defines agriculture as the science and practice of farming, including growing crops and raising livestock. An agricultural system involves all the interconnected components involved in farming operations, including labor, marketing, finances, resources, equipment, and risks. Treating the farm as a holistic system allows for more flexible, environmentally sound, and economically viable management compared to focusing on individual components alone. The document also distinguishes between commercial agriculture, which produces crops at large scale for widespread distribution and sale, and subsistence farming, which produces just enough food to support the farmer's family.

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Miguel Thaxter
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1K views

Environmental Science Unit Two Module 1

This document defines and describes agricultural systems. It defines agriculture as the science and practice of farming, including growing crops and raising livestock. An agricultural system involves all the interconnected components involved in farming operations, including labor, marketing, finances, resources, equipment, and risks. Treating the farm as a holistic system allows for more flexible, environmentally sound, and economically viable management compared to focusing on individual components alone. The document also distinguishes between commercial agriculture, which produces crops at large scale for widespread distribution and sale, and subsistence farming, which produces just enough food to support the farmer's family.

Uploaded by

Miguel Thaxter
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE UNIT TWO MODULE 1

Definition agriculture/agriklCHr/ Noun:The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide. Agriculture:- this is the growing of crops and or rearing of animal with the application of scientific principles. Agriculture, may be defined as: the art and science of growing plants and the raising of animals for food, other human needs, or economic gain. A system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole. System A set of detailed methods, procedures, and routines established or formulated to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem. System An organized, purposeful structure regarded as a whole and consisting of interrelated and interdependent elements (components, entities, factors, members, parts etc.). These elements continually influence one another (directly or indirectly) to maintain their activity and the existence of the system, in order to achieve the goal of the system.

All systems have (a) inputs, outputs, and feedback mechanisms, (b) maintain an internal steady-state (called homeostasis) despite a changing external environment, (c) display properties that are peculiar to the whole (called emergent properties) but are not possessed by any of the individual elements, and (d) have boundaries that are usually defined by the system observer. Agricultural Systems Agricultural enterprises-crop or livestock-deal with such concepts as labor supply, marketing, finances, natural resources, genetic stock, nutrition, equipment, and hazards. While it is possible to effectively manipulate each mechanism of successful farming individually, better results can often be obtained by treating the farming operation as a system. The interactions, then, among system components may become more important than how each component functions by itself. Treating production operations holistically offers greater management flexibility, provides for more environmentally and economically sound practices, and creates safer and healthier conditions for workers and for farm animals.

Commercial agriculture is large-scale production of crops for sale, intended for widespread distribution to wholesalers or retail outlets. In commercial farming crops such as wheat, maize, tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana, cotton are harvested and sold into world markets. Commercial agriculture includes livestock production and livestock grazing. Due to the expensive nature of capital formation and implementation of technological processes, the landowners of such farms are often large agricultural corporations (especially in developing countries). Large-scale commercial farming, in terms of some of its processes, may be conceptually not very different from large industrial enterprises. Commercial agriculture differs significantly from subsistence agriculture, as the main objective of commercial agriculture is achieving higher profits through economies of scale, specialization, introduction of capitalintensive farming techniques, labor-saving technologies, and maximization of crop yields per hectare through synthetic and natural resources (fertilizers, hybrid seeds, irrigation, etc.). Whereas subsistence agriculture is an economic model in which most members of a population work in agriculture to feed themselves, with limited need for trade, commercial agriculture is a type of agriculture suited to industrial or postindustrial economic models, in which most members of a population do not work in agriculture, are fed by others (the few who do work in agriculture), and purchase their food and fiber as consumers, with currency.
Subsistence Farming - where there is just sufficient food produced to provide for the farmer's own family

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/system.html#ixzz28E1MX07M

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