Agribusiness
Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations
Agriculture
The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic grain
Cereal Grain
A grass yielding grain for food
Chaff
Husks of grain separated from the seed by threshing
Combine
A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field
Commercial agriculture
Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm
Crop
grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season
Crop rotation
the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil
Desertification
Degradation of land especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting
Double cropping
Harvesting twice a year from the same field
Grain
Seed of a cereal grass
Green revolution
Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers
Horticulture
The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers
Hull
The outer covering of a seed
Intensive subsistence agriculture
A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land
Milkshed
The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied
Paddy
Malay word used for wet rice, commonly but incorrectly used to describe a sawah
Pastoral nomadism
A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals
Pasture
Grass or other plants grown for feeding grazing animals, as well as land used for grazing
Plantation
A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country
Prime agricultural land
The most productive farmland
Ranching
A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area
Reaper
A machine that cuts grain standing in the field
Ridge tillage
System of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation
Sawah
A flooded field for growing rice
Seed agriculture
Reproduction of plants through annual introduction of seeds, which result from sexual fertilization
Slash-and-burn agriculture
Another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris
Shifting cultivation
A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period
Spring wheat
Wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer
Subsistence agriculture
Agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer's family
Sustainable agriculture
Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides
Swidden
A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning
Thresh
To beat out grain from stalks by trampling it
Transhumance
The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures
Truck farming
Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities
Vegetative planting
Reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants
Wet rice
Rice planted on dryland in a nursery, then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth
Winnow
To remove chaff by allowing it to be blown away by the wind
Winter wheat
Wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the early summer