Types of farming

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food (produce, grains, or livestock), fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production.

Types of farming:

Capital investment and labour

Collective farming: and communal farming are types of agricultural production in which the holdings of several farmers are run as a joint enterprise. This type of collective is essentially an agricultural production cooperative in which member-owners engage jointly in farming activities.

Factory farming: is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a business a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. However, there have been issues regarding whether factory farming is sustainable and ethical.

Intensive farming: is an agricultural production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labour, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area.

Extensive farming: or extensive agriculture (as opposed to intensive farming) is an agricultural production system that uses small inputs of labour, fertilizers, and capital, relative to the land area being farmed.

Organic farming: is a form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation,green manure, compost and biological pest control. Organic farming uses fertilizers and pesticides but excludes or strictly limits the use of manufactured fertilizes, pesticides plant growth regulators such as hormones, livestock antibiotics, food additives, genetically modified organisms, human sewage sludge, and nanomaterials.

Food and feeding methods

Grazing livestock:animals feed or grass.This is an example of extensive farming.

Confined livestock:animals are kept in sheds and eat food.This is an example of intensive farming.

Mobility of livestock

Nomadic herding:herders and their families are constantly movingwith their animals in search of good pasture.

Transhumance:herders move their animals several times a year between winter and summer pastures.

Sedentary livestock farming:animals don´t have to move around to obtain food because farmers give them feed.