Intensive Farming
Intensive farming means a method of farming in which land is intensively cultivated, employing a large number of people and huge capital. Generally, this type of farming is practised in regions with high population density and limited land supply.
Intensive Farming is so intensive that double-cropping or triple cropping is practised. Several crops are grown on the same piece of land for a year in this farming. Very smallholdings and fragmented lands are the characteristic features of this type of cultivation.
Read More: Extensive Farming
Intensive Farming Examples of Crops Grown
Here are some examples of crops that are commonly grown using intensive farming methods:
- Wheat
- Rice
- Corn
- Soyabeans
- Vegetables etc.
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Intensive Farming Areas of Practice
This type of farming is best developed and practically confined to the monsoon lands of Asia. It is practised in China, India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and parts of insular South-East Asia (Indonesia, Java, Sumatra, and Malaysia. These regions also have the highest concentration of population in the world.
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Intensive Farming Characteristics
Intensive farming is characterized by the following features:
- The very small landholding is one of the significant characteristics of this type of farming. It is because of the high population density and limited supply of labour.
- Intensive farming is labour-intensive agriculture and is practised in regions of dense population.
- It is found in developing countries of south-east Asia, where agriculture is the mainstay of the population.
- In this type of farming, the use of maximum labour, fertilisers, and high-yielding seeds are used to grow more and more crops and preserve the land’s fertility.
- Intensive farming brings about the highest yield per hectare.
- The per capita production of crops is low due to the heavy pressure of the population on the land.
- Cultivation is practised with the aid of irrigation where it is necessary.
- Intensive farming is well developed in areas where the physical environment for crop production is highly conducive.
- Due to heavy pressure on the land, emphasis is given to food crop production, such as rice, wheat, etc.
- Other crops of high cash value, such as jute, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, and oilseed, are also raised. They form an important part of this type of farming;
- Intensive farmings also show the characteristics of mixed farming as it raises livestock and animals together with crop production.
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Intensive Farming Advantages
- It presents the highest yield per hectarė.
- A wide variety of crops are raised.
- Both food crops and cash crops are grown. Hence, marginal profits increase.
Read More: Monsoon in India
Intensive Farming Disadvantages
- The cost of cultivation is high; because it requires irrigation, manure, fertilizers, and high-yielding seeds.
- Intensive farming may pose problems like soil erosion and soil exhaustion.
Read More: Natural Vegetation of India
Intensive Farming and Subsistence Farming
Intensive farming and subsistence farming are two very different types of agricultural practices that have different goals, inputs, and methods.
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Intensive Rice Farming in South-East Asia
Rice is the principal foodgrain of the Tropical Monsoon region. There are various reasons for the concentration-intensive rice (paddy) farming in South-East Asia. It is grown in the following geographical environment:
Physical Conditions
- Climatic Conditions: Rice thrives best under the tropical monsoon’s hot and moist climatic conditions.
- Rainfall: It requires plenty of rain. The region gets rainfall between 150 cm to 200 cm and is most favourable for rice cultivation. From the time of planting, rice needs rainfall; heavy rainfall is also required during its growing period.
- Temperature: Rice cultivation requires hot weather ranging between 16°C and 27°C. It needs an average temperature of 22°C.
- Other climatic conditions: Moist weather favours the growth of rice. A dry and sunny climate is necessary during the ripening period and harvesting season. Rainfall during this period is harmful to crops.
- Soil Condition: Rice grows best on fertile alluvial soil. The alluvial soil of river valleys and deltas is very much suitable for rice cultivation. It grows on a wide variety of soils, but alluvial loam with clayey subsoil is ideal because the clay-like impermeable sub-soil holds water in the field.
- Nature of the land: Fertile-level plains are ideal for rice cultivation. Water can easily stand on lowlands, and rice thrives best in the water-logged area,s, particularly during its growing season, and that is why rice is produced on low-lying plains, valleys, and deltaic plains. Rice is also grown on step-wise terraces on hilly slopes.
Read More: Tropical Climate
Socio-Economic Conditions
- Supply of Labour: Rice cultivation requires an abundant supply of cheap labour as it cannot be cultivated only with the aid of machines. Tractors can be used for tilling the land, but other works, such as transplanting, weeding, cutting, harvesting, boiling, drying, husking, etc., have to be carried out with hands. In these works, the machine is not useful. Therefore, rice is generally cultivated in densely populated areas.
- Supply of Capital: At present, agriculture has become a capital-intensive industry. Rice cultivation requires an abundant supply of chemical fertilizer, manure, high-yielding seed, irrigation facilities, insecticides, and pesticides.
- Demand & Market: Rice is produced in regions where it is the staple food of the people. It is more popular than other cereals, and hence it has heavy demand. Therefore, people prefer to cultivate rice.
Read More: Equatorial Climate Region
Intensive Farming UPSC
A sunny environment and fertile soil are necessary for intensive subsistence farming in order to cultivate more than one crop every year on the same plot. It is common in densely populated portions of Asia’s monsoon zones, particularly in the south, southeast, and east. Rice is the principal crop raised. Wheat, maize, lentils, and oilseeds are also farmed in addition to rice. There are two different types of intensive subsistence agriculture: wet paddy cultivation-dominated intensive subsistence agriculture and crop-dominated intensive subsistence agriculture.
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