Food production

Extensive farming is NOT defined by a large area -- its defining feature is a LOW level of inputs RELATIVE to the area. Related trap: to raise an INTENSIVE farm's yield, candidates answer "buy more land" -- but adding land with the same inputs makes it MORE extensive, not more productive. Raise intensive yield by adding inputs per hectare (fertiliser, HYV seeds).

Asked to read soil erosion from a photograph, avoid vague phrases like "the land is destroyed". Name the SPECIFIC visible features: gullying (channels cut by running water), exposed pale subsoil where darker fertile topsoil has washed away, and sediment/silt built up at the foot of a slope. Describe what is actually SEEN, not a general judgement.

First, pastoral farming means REARING LIVESTOCK (cattle, sheep, goats) for meat/milk/wool -- not growing crops, which is arable. Second, a large area does NOT automatically make a farm extensive: a big commercial ranch may still use high inputs per hectare. Always check both WHAT is produced (arable/pastoral) AND inputs relative to area (intensive/extensive), separately.

Subsistence and commercial farming differ by PURPOSE, not size. Subsistence farming grows food mainly to feed the farmer's own family, with little or no surplus sold. Commercial farming produces specifically to SELL for profit, usually with a large surplus. A small farm can be commercial and a large one subsistence, so judge by who the output is for, not by area.

Asked how to REDUCE soil erosion, candidates often name fertiliser or crop rotation. Neither stops erosion -- they maintain soil FERTILITY, a different problem. Credited methods physically slow or block water and soil moving down a slope: contour ploughing (rows ACROSS the slope), terracing (flat steps cut into the slope), and planting trees or a windbreak to bind the soil.

In the farm system, sort each item into the right stage. Inputs go IN (climate, soil, labour, seeds). Processes are ACTIVITIES done to them (ploughing, planting, harvesting). Outputs come OUT (the crop or livestock product, by-products, waste). Common slips: calling "harvesting" an input, or "profit" a process. Profit results from the output, fed back as a new input.

A common wrong belief: irrigation's benefit is that it makes farming "quicker" or "easier" -- too vague for credit. The credited point is that irrigation ENABLES INCREASED OR MORE RELIABLE FOOD PRODUCTION: it waters crops through dry spells, can allow a second or third crop a year (multiple cropping), and cuts the risk of total crop failure in a drought.