Food production

Agriculture systems
 Agriculture systems
• Individual farms and general types of farming can be seen to operate
as a system.
 Types of agriculture systems
• Arable, pastoral and mixed farming
• Arable farms does not involve livestock. And may just concentrate on only one
crop(monoculture) or may grow a range of different crops like only cereal
crops.
• Subsistence and commercial farming
• Example of subsistence farming is shifting cultivation and nomadic
pastoralism
• Extensive and intensive
• Extensive farming is where a relatively small amount of agricultural produce is
obtained per hectare of land, so the farms tend to cover large areas of land.
Input per unit of land are low. Eg sheep farming
• Intensive farming is characterized by high inputs per unit of land to archive
high yields per hectare. Eg. Horticulture, dairy farming
• Organic and non-organic farming
Farming types and levels of development
The influence of natural and human inputs on
agricultural land use
• Physical factors like temperature, soil type and fertility and amount of
rainfall plays an important role in agriculture
• Economic factors include transport, markets, capital and technology.
The cost of growing different crops or keeping different livestock
varies.
• Agricultural technology is the application of techniques to control the growth
and harvesting of animal and vegetable products. The development and
application of agricultural technology requires investment and thus its and
economic factor.
• Social/cultural factors
• Political factors
 Causes and effects of food shortages
• Food shortages can occur because of both natural and human problems
• The natural problems that can lead to food shortages include;
• Soil exhaustion
• Drought
• Floods
• Tropical cyclones
• Pests
• Disease
• However, economic and political factors can also contribute to food shortages. Such
factors include:
• Low capital investment
• Rapidly rising population
• Poor distribution/transport difficulties
• Conflict situations
• In late 2012, the UN warned of an imminent worldwide food crisis,
highlighting three major problems:
• Global grain reserves at critically low levels
• Rising food prices creating unrest in many countries
• Extreme weather resulting in climate being ‘no longer reliable’.
• In the same year the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated
that around the world 870 million people were malnourished, with
the food crises growing in Africa and the Middle East.
 Short- term and long-term effects
• Malnutrition can affect a considerable number of people, particularly
children within a relatively short period when food supplies are
significantly reduced.
• With Malnutrition, people are less resistant to disease and more likely
to fall ill. Such diseases include beri-beri (vitamin B1 deficiency),
rickets (vitamin D deficiency) and kwashiorkor(protein deficiency).
• Malnutrition reduces people’s capacity to work so that land may not e
properly tended and other forms of income successfully pursued.
• This is threatening to lock parts of developing world into an endless
cycle of ill- health, low productivity and underdevelopment.
 Possible solutions

1. Food aid
• Relief food aid which is delivered
directly to people in times of crisis
• Programme food aid which is
provided directly to the government
of a country for sale in local markets
( this usually comes with conditions
from the donor country)
• Project food aid which is targeted at
specific groups of people as part of
longer- term development work.
 The Green Revolution
• The package of agricultural improvements generally known as the Green
Revolution. India was one of the first countries to benefit when the High
Yielding Variety (HYV) seed programme started in 1966-67.
• In terms of production it was a turning point for India, which had reached
stagnation.
• The program introduced new hybrid varieties of five cereals: wheat, rice,
maize, sorghum and millet. All were drought-resistant with the exception of
rice, were very responsive to application of rice, were very responsive to the
application of fertilizers, and had a shorter growing season than the
traditional varieties they replaced.
• In recent years, there has been concern that the HYV introduced during the
Green Revolution are usually low in minerals and vitamins.
Advantages and disadvantages
 UNEP’s option for improving food security
• Options with short-term effects are
a. Price regulation on commodities and larger cereal storks to decrease the risk of highly
volatile prices
b. Reduce/ remove subsidies on biofuels to cut the capture of cropland by biofuels to cut
the capture of cropland by biofuels.
• Options with mid-term effects are
a. Reduce the use of cereals and food fish in animal feed
b. Support farmers in developing diversified eco- agricultural systems that provide critical
ecosystem services(for example water supply and regulations) as well as adequate food
to meet local and consumer needs
c. Increased trade and improved market access y improving infrastructure and reducing
trade barriers.
• Options of long- term effects are
a. Limit global warming, including the promotion of climate friendly agricultural production
systems and land use policies at a scale of help mitigate climate change
b. Raise awareness of pressures of increasing population growth and consumption patterns
on sustainable ecosystem functioning.