Types of farming
- Subsistence: only enough crops and animals are produced to feed a small group of people (not for sale)
- Commercial: crops and livestock are produced for profit (for sale only)
- Intensive: high inputs (money, labor, chemicals) are used in order to maximise yield per hectare.
- Extensive: low yields (relative to the size of the farmland) because of limited inputs.
- Arable/Pastoral: growing of crops/raising of animals.
- Mixed: arable and pastoral farming together.
Undernourishment
Undernourishment is the insufficient caloric intake to meet an individual's minimum energy requirements. About 10% of the global population is undernourished. Risks of undernourishment include:
- Stunted growth: low size/age (25% of kids under 5)
- Wasted growth: low weight for height
- Dehydration, vitamin and mineral deficencies
- Lower hormone levels
Food waste
The question of stopping world hunger does not need to be solved through higher production:
- Current production is high enough to feed everyone.
- According to the UN, half of all fruits and veg produced globally are wasted each year, due to inefficient managment and rejection of food.
Solutions are more about making food to everyone and reducing waste.
First Green Revolution
The first Green Revolution was a period between the 19th and 20th centuries when the productivity of global agriculture increased drastically thanks to new advances, such as chemical fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, and high yield crops. It also made it possible to grow more crops on roughly the same amount of land and effort. This reduced the production costs and consequently the price of food.
A second Green Revolution?
The second Green revolution is a change in global agriculture that is thought to be necessary to feed and sustain the growing population. The signature technology of this revolution are GM crops.
GMOs
GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are organisms who's DNA has been artificially modified through gene technology, allowing certain genes to be transferred between organisms.
- Pros: Produce more crops in shorter time, plants are more resistant which increases global yields, made it possible to grow crops in otherwise unsuitable regions
- Cons: little is know about long term effect on health and environment, could contain harmful toxins if cells mutate, could harm the natural ecosystem by out-competing or preying on native non-pest organisms.
Factors affecting farming
Farmers have to select the time of farming which best suits the local physical environment and their human resources:
- Physical: climate, relief, soil fertility & type, drainage
- Human: distance to the market, political stability, machinery and technology, labour market, market price
Intensive vs Extensive farming
- Intensive agri. requires the considerable use of inputs, and seeks to produce as much as possible per hectare. The high output is an advantage, but the high input presents an economic challenge, while the use of chemicals has a negative impact on environment.
- Extensive agri. is generally practiced over large areas, and is characterised by low yields per hectare due to low level of inputs. It is more respectable towards the environment, requires low investments and has a high employment rate. Disadvantages include high space requirements, and low yields, income, and profit.
Food security
Food security refers to and individual's or a region's ability to access enough safe and nutritious food.
- Food availability is the amount of food present in a region, through local production or imports.
- Food access refers to an individual's ability to purchase or otherwise acquire the food available.
Brazil's agriculture in the Amazonian rainforest - a viable solution to world hunger?
- Since 1970, the Amazonian rainforest has lost almost 20% of its total surface area.
- More than 60% of deforestation is due to pastoral farming. Meat production is problematic, as it requires more calories than it produces + large amounts of water.
- Results in loss of biodiversity, pollution, contribution to global warming, and a drier and warmer region.
- Agri. exports amount to 25% of Brazil's exports: might be environmentally damaging, but economically beneficial.
- High agricultural productivity does not mean local food security. In 2020, due to the pandemic, 54% of the Brazilian population faced some level of food insecurity.