Agriculture encompasses the knowledge and abilities that allow us to work the earth to cultivate it and obtain assets from it. In this ecology article, we will talk about the extensive agriculture, what is its characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.
Extensive agriculture is one that focuses on taking advantage of the natural resources that the area offers and can be defined as opposite to intensive agriculture. While the latter focuses on maximizing land production with all means available (labor, chemicals, technology), extensive agriculture opts to, as we have said above, take advantage of the resources of which the area has.
Characteristics of extensive agriculture
Since the extensive agriculture achieves a much smaller hectare production than is achieved with intensive agriculture, it develops in Land of great amplitude and extension, in order to obtain an acceptable total productivity.
This type of agriculture is own, either from countries or poor areas that do not have human or technological resources to carry out other types of farms, or in areas where the soil is poor or arid. It is also possible to find extensive agricultural farms in areas that have large land, either because of their low need for labor or as Ecological option or environmental, since extensive agriculture can be much more sustainable in the long term, thus assuming a lower impact on the environment. In some areas extensive agriculture is used to fight against Eutrophicizationwhich consists of excessive accumulation of nutrients in the waters and ends up assuming the death of much of the ecosystem at the end of its process, which is a serious environmental problem. Here you can read more about what eutrophication is.
It is very common, due to Characteristics of extensive agricultureto be related to the Drying agriculturethus creating farms that depend on local rainfall and organic fertilizers, instead of cementing large amounts of workers or the need for a lot of industrial machinery.
Most common crops of extensive agriculture
Some of the most common crops that can be found of this type are legumes, cereals, vegetables and fruit trees:
- Among the cereals are wheat, millet, barley, rye and oats.
- The most common legumes are peanuts, beans, chickpeas and peas.
- The most typical vegetables of extensive dry land agriculture are onions, and the most common horticultural fruits are tomato and melon.
- On the other hand, the fruit trees that are common to cultivate so are olive tree, the apricot and almond tree.
- In addition, the VID is also cultivated in a general way in farms of extensive agriculture in the Mediterranean area, thus completing, together with the olive tree and wheat, the three most important crops in the area.
Advantages of extensive agriculture
The main one advantage of extensive agriculture It is its least demand for technical and human resources, which allows a few people to carry large farms, thus being able to obtain sufficient benefits despite their low relative productivity.
It is also a type of agriculture that can be ecological and low environmental impact, although not always. Many modern countries with large resources carry out more technified extensive agriculture that focuses on obtaining agricultural products with maximum environmental sustainability, fighting effects such as eutrophication.
Some crops, such as the olive tree, produce greater performance in the extensive drying agriculturesince having a lower water content, they can get a greater amount of oil.
Disadvantages of extensive agriculture
As is evident, the most important disadvantage of extensive agriculture is that, unlike intensive agriculture, its farms take More time to provide economic benefits.
Besides, Extensive agriculture requires large extensions of land to work, in order to compensate for its low productivity per hectare.
Another disadvantage of extensive agriculture is that it is much more affected by unforeseen events with the local climate. Droughts or frost unexpected can cause huge losses And, for this reason, it is more limited when developing in certain areas, the tropical climates and the Mediterranean temperate climate of the most common and appropriate for its application.
Basic differences between extensive and intensive agriculture
Thus, as we have been able to see throughout the article and as a summary, the main differences between intensive and extensive agriculture are:
- The need for land, the extensive being broader.
- The amount of labor, needing more people in intensive agriculture.
- Water dependence and other cultivation products that reach them artificially (intensive) or natural (extensive).
- Intensive produces more products and, therefore, higher benefits.
- Intensive agriculture is more harmful to the soil and the environment in general and the extensive is more respectful, being able to be completely an organic farming.
If you want to read more articles similar to Extensive agriculture: What is, characteristics, advantages and disadvantageswe recommend that you enter our category of other environment.
