I) Characterise of agriculture contrasting production method

A) System Intensive Production or Conventional Agriculture

Intensive agriculture is one that provides high yields, regardless of the area farmed.

It is characterized by :

 The mehanization (who is the use of machines and engines as the tractor,the sowing
machine, the threshing machine, rolling machines)
The monoculture which is to grow a single product during several harvests of year by degrading the
soil, to be able to produce constantly and export this product. As an example producing only
soybean, or only cotton
 The polyculture (by producing several products is one harvest on the the same soil either by
adding soilless or sub-deer)
 The use of phytosanitary products and chemical or natural fertilizers as pesticides, fungicides,
inputs, etc.)
 Selection of high-yielding plants (fruits and vegetables that produce quickly)
  The abundance of capital required for all stages, is to say production as marketing (it is
profitable in production and alows exportation to other continents. It is also called cash or
marketing or export agriculture)
 The exploitation of a qualified and diversified workforce (employment plus engineers,
pedagogues, accountants etc.)

Some types of intensive crops in Africa :

 Vegetable production under deer and soilless, cash crops (rice cultivation, coffee, cereal
farming, etc)
Irrigations and Digging
This agriculture system is more used in developed in countries in general. Also it is the most used
production systems.

B) The extensive system

Extensive system as opposed to the intensive system. It is that which is applied in large areas and
whose yields are generally low. That is to say, agriculture removes from the ground only a small
production per unit area. It is characterized by :

 Rudimentary or archaic tools (it used the hoe, the machette, the hand, animals and etc.)
 The mainly family workforce
 Very low or absent of chemical and natural fertilizers
 The predominance of polyculture with rotations culture (is to say if they collect one harvest in the
same time they sow a new poduct in the same place)
The production techniques of extensive agriculture :

In fact the extensive agriculture was revealed and detailed in :

 Family farming also called subsistence agriculture where crops such as zai, stony stones, mulching, the
ancestral pracyice of hay loops
  Slash and burn shifting agriculture and fallow land
 Sustainable and reasoned agriculture
 Agroecological for the preservation of biodiversity and development of peasant production and in
example : according to baban gona an agricultural revolution in Nigeria : the peasants have say that
planting, sowing with only 5 cm of space had revolution the harvests of african peasant farmers
 Organic farming that is free or fertilizers and pesticides
 Integrated production from where Songhai in Benin created the ZERI CONCEPT which means zero
waste to say that : nothing is lost, nothing is created but everything is transformed

Extensive agriculture is the privilege of tropical and underdeveloped countries.