10 Examples of Intensive and Extensive Agriculture

The farming faces in modern times with great challenges in terms of ecology, sustainability and production quantity, versus a population human that does not stop growing year after year. And from these considerations come the opposite concepts of intensive agriculture and extensive agriculture.

Normally, this type of agriculture depends on the environmental conditions and the climatic cycles, and in the Developing countries it may be associated with depressed and low-income productive sectors.

Differences between intensive and extensive agriculture

The main difference It has to do with production, which is much higher in the intensive than in the extensive, although the impacts on the environment and the nature of the products obtained are also so.

The intensive agriculture operates more to the rhythm of demand of food goods, taking advantage of small tracts of land (sometimes it does not even need soil) and making use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, bioengineered seeds and, normally, undertaking successive crops of the same variety vegetable

monocultures) that often lead to soil depletion.

The extensive agriculture uses the cycles of the territory where it operates, which is often combined with livestock-type activities (cattle raising, grazing), but it is always subject to climate and soil conditions, which can be unfavorable and impair its processes. However, products obtained in this way are usually considered healthier, since include a lower (or no) load of chemicals and pesticides, as well as more sustainable, since alternate the vegetable species and thus they do not deplete the soil.

Finally, intensive agriculture requires greater investments in the field of Energy (electricity), resources (water) and technology, while extensive depends on natural hydrological cycles.

Examples of intensive agriculture

1. Monocultures massive. Like wheat, corn and barley crops in the plains North American crops, or soybeans in Argentina, are highly profitable monocultures intended for both domestic consumption and export and that despite being highly mechanized, produce environmental damage and they impoverish the species by always preferring bioengineered seeds and using pesticides (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.).
2. Greenhouse agriculture. It is called greenhouse to closed places and controlled climatic conditions, usually transparent to allow the entry of sunlight but prevent the dispersion of the hot. They are widely used for the intensive cultivation of certain plant species, taking advantage of the simulated climate to enhance their productivity.
3. Hydroponic agriculture. In it mineral solutions are used to cultivate plants, instead of soil itself. Sometimes an inert matter is used to support the plants, other times water directly, into which the substances necessary for plant growth are poured.
4. Irrigated agriculture. Using automated irrigation systems, humidity levels conducive to the cultivation of a few plant variants are maintained, thus allowing them to be constantly supplied. food without the need to coordinate the rainy and drought seasons.
5. Commercial flower crops. The industry of flowers also has its intensive variant, through vast rose gardens, sunflower plantations or other highly coveted flowers, both for aesthetic arrangements and for perfumery work. This includes aromatic crops, such as lavender, which require constant soil preparation to hasten flowering and pests to prevent them from ruining it.

Examples of extensive agriculture

1. The farm. Grouping livestock activities (cattle, swine, poultry) with agriculture, this development model takes advantage of natural fertilizer from animals and the vegetable residues of the harvest as food, to point to a kind of artificial ecosystem where various processes provide feedback.
2. Rainfed agriculture. Given its scarce margin of rainfall or convenient hydrography, this type of crops tends to prefer the fruits of winter, which coincide with the time of highest humidity (wheat, barley, rye), since only this source of water is used natural.
3. Rice fields in Asia. The largest producers of this grain in the world are Asian countries, especially China and India, and carried out in long wetlands that require a lot of labor and relatively little intervention mechanized. Despite this, Chinese rice production reached almost 200 million tons in 2010.
4. Subsistence farming. An example perhaps a bit extreme, since the plantation, conuco or family garden provides just enough for a family to survive and exchange or sell the surplus with their neighbors. It is perhaps the agricultural point furthest from the needs of the world food market and therefore requires almost no technological intervention or inputs.
5. Ecological crops. These are variants of extensive agriculture whose purpose is to dispense with all types of pollutants and machinery, betting on products that are as natural as possible, which instead of volume offer the market quality food.

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