4+Agricultural+Systems

= **Intensive Systems** = **Intensive farming** or **intensive agriculture** is an [|agricultural] production system characterized by the high inputs of [|capital], [|labour] , or heavy usage of technologies such as [|pesticides] and chemical [|fertilizers] relative to land area. This is in contrast to many sorts of [|sustainable agriculture] such as [|organic farming] or [|extensive agriculture], which involve higher inputs of labor, and energy relative to the area of land farmed, but focus on maintaining the long-term ecological health of the farmland, also the product which is being produced is generally produced with fewer synthetic chemicals. Modern day forms of intensive crop based agriculture involve the use of mechanical ploughing, chemical [|fertilizers], plant growth regulators and/or [|pesticides]. It is associated with the increasing use of [|agricultural mechanization], which have enabled a substantial increase in production, yet have also dramatically increased environmental pollution by increasing erosion and poisoning water with agricultural chemicals. Intensive animal farming practices can involve very large numbers of animals raised on limited land which require large amounts of food, water and medical inputs (required to keep the animals healthy in cramped conditions). Very large or confined indoor intensive livestock operations (particularly descriptive of common US farming practices) are often referred to as [|factory farming] and are criticised by opponents for the low level of animal welfare standardsand associated pollution and health issues Advantages Intensive agriculture has a number of benefits Disadvantages Intensive farming alters the environment in many ways. =Extensive Systems = **Extensive farming** or **Extensive agriculture** (as opposed to [|Intensive farming] ) is an agricultural production system that uses small inputs of [|labour], fertilizers, and [|capital] , relative to the land area being farmed. Extensive farming most commonly refers to sheep and cattle farming in areas with low agricultural productivity, but can also refer to large-scale growing of [|wheat], [|barley] and other grain crops in areas like the [|Murray-Darling Basin]. Here, owing to the extreme age and poverty of the soils, yields per hectare are very low, but the flat terrain and very large farm sizes mean yields per unit of labour are high. [|Nomadic herding] is an extreme example of extensive farming, where herders move their animals to use feed from occasional rainfalls. Advantages Extensive farming has a number of advantages over [|intensive farming] : Disadvantages Extensive farming can have the following problems
 * § Significantly increased yield per acre, per person, and per GBP relative to extensive farming and therefore,
 * § Food becomes more affordable to the consumer as it costs less to produce.
 * § The same area of land is able to supply food and fibre for a larger population reducing the risk of starvation.
 * § The preservation of existing areas of woodland and rainforest habitats (and the ecosystems and other sustainable economies that these may harbour), which would need to be felled for extensive farming methods in the same geographical location. This also leads to a reduction in anthropomorphic CO2 generation (resulting from removal of the sequestration afforded by woodlands and rainforests).
 * § In the case of intensive livestock farming: an opportunity to capture methane emissions which would otherwise contribute to global warming. Once captured, these emissions can be used to generate heat and/or electrical energy, thereby reducing local demand for fossil fuels.
 * § Limits or destroys the natural habitat of most wild creatures, and leads to soil erosion.
 * § Use of [|fertilizers] can alter the biology of [|rivers] and [|lakes] . Some environmentalists attribute the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico as being encouraged by nitrogen fertilization of the algae bloom.
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pesticides generally kill useful insects as well as those that destroy crops.
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Is often not [|sustainable] if not properly managed—may result in [|desertification], or land that is so poisonous and eroded that nothing else will grow there.
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Requires large amounts of energy input to produce, transport, and apply chemical fertilizers/pesticides
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The chemicals used may leave the field as runoff eventually ending up in rivers and lakes or may drain into groundwater aquifers.
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Use of pesticides have numerous negative health effects in workers who apply them, people that live nearby the area of application or downstream/downwind from it, and consumers who eat the pesticides which remain on their food.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1. Less labour per unit areas is required to farm large areas, especially since expensive alterations to land (like terracing) are completely absent.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. Mechanisation can be used more effectively over large, flat areas.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">3. Greater efficiency of labour means generally lower product prices.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">4. [|Animal welfare] is generally improved because animals are not kept in stifling conditions.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5. Lower requirements of inputs such as [|fertilizers].
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">6. If animals are grazed on pastures native to the locality, there is less likely to be problems with exotic species.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">7. Local environment and soil are not damaged by overuse of chemicals.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1. Yields tend to be much lower than with [|intensive farming] in the short term.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. Large land requirements limit the habitat of wild species (in some cases, even very low stocking rates can be dangerous), as is the case with [|intensive farming]