Farming: Subsistence: Rice Growing in India and Commercial: Rubber Plantation in Cambodia

Farming

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domestic animals. The practice of agriculture is also known as "farming".

There are many types of farming. They can be classified into many groups. The groups are Economic status, Specialization, Intensity of land use and land tenure. Economic Status includes subsistence farming and commercial farming. Subsistence is when the food produced is just enough to meet the farmers needs i.e. enough to feed his whole family. Commercial Farming, or factory farming, is the growing of crops or rearing of animals for sale. It is very common in MEDCs and is rapidly increasing every where else.

The specialization criteria includes Arable, pastoral and mixed (arable and pastoral) farming. Extensive and intensive farming fall under the intensity of land use. Shifting and nomadic cultivation and sedentary farming fall under land tenure.

Farming produces goods such as cut flowers, decorative and nursery plants, timber, fertilizers, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, ethanol, alcohols and plastics), fibers, fuels and both legal and illegal drugs. Genetically engineered plants and animals produce specialty drugs.

Commercial Farming:

Commercial Farming is farming for a profit, where food is produced by advanced technological means for sale in the market. In other words Commercial farmers sell their crops and animals in order to make a profit. It often employs very few workers. There are many types of commercial farming. For E.g. Ranching, Plantation, Fish farming, flower growing etc.

It uses large amounts of capital for equipment and fertilizer, pesticides, improved varieties and other advance technology

It includes tropical & sub-tropical plantations, mid-latitude grain farming, vegetable & fruit cultivation, mixed crop & livestock farming, and livestock ranching

A Plantation is a large farm in the tropics where one main cash crop is grown. It is often run by a transnational corporation.

A crop sold in the market for cash is a cash crop. The term cash crop is often applied to crops grown in LEDCs which are exported to the MEDCs.

Cash crops like rice, citrus fruits, palms, coffee, coca, opium, tea, soybeans, cacao, rubber, and bananas are cultivated on large areas of land. Some of these crops are better adapted to such conditions and last longer on cleared forest lands. However there are several problems with plantations in the tropics, besides the loss of forest.

* First, such planting of a single crop makes the crop highly open to disease and pests.

* Second, the planting of monocultures can be economically risky with the instability in price being so common in international merchandise markets.

* Additionally, a single cold spell or drought can devastate the tremendous part of the agricultural economy.

Extensive commercial farming

The main farming activities here are monocultures of cereal cash crops in very large open fields (plantations). And very high reliance on machinery and technology.

Physical factors leading to these farming activities are huge areas of land being available. And the climate is insignificant and not suited to more intensive types of farming.

Human factors leading to those farming activities include:

* The land is fairly cheap, so large areas can be purchased.

* Population density is low so there is little pressure on the land to be used for other purposes.

* Large farms generating large profits require large subsidies by large corporations for expensive machinery and technology.

* An increase in the use of contract labour, especially at harvest times, reflects the small labour force employed full-time on farms.

Plantation Crops in Cambodia

Cambodia has been promoting the therapy of rubber plantations as well as the development of new ones. As long as rubber plantations involve using large areas of land, many people have been expelled from their traditional lands and many more have lost their livelihoods, to make way for the plantations. The only plantation crop of importance to the Cambodian economy has until recently been rubber. However, they believed that oil palm is likely to develop into a major export commodity in the future.

Physical factors affecting rubber plantation:

Light: the most critical factor for the growth of the plant. The amount of light reaching the undergrowth varies with age, height, spacing and canopy characteristics of the tree crops.

Moisture/Rainfall: Generally there is little competition for moisture between the tree crops and the native cultivation.

Lower air temperature under the tree crops than in the open. Lower Soil temperature in the shade also showed at 5 cm depth compared with open pastures. In general, the decrease in air and soil temperature is too small to have any influence on native pasture growth under tropical environment.

Impacts:

* Chemicals labeled as 'highly and moderately hazardous' are used on plantations.

* Farm workers are not provided with the required protection devices or information on safe use of chemicals.

* Some of the plantations use pesticides that are toxic and are banned in other countries for their poisonous effects on farm workers.

* Child Labour:

* Children (if child labour used) are even more at risk when exposed to chemicals than adults, since their bodies are not full grown.

* The chemicals used are acids which are added in order to process the fluids from the rubber tree into rubber. Children here come into direct contact with chemicals. The acid irritates their skin and can cause serious injuries when it comes in contact with their eyes.

* Since rubber plantations are often owned and operated by families, chemicals are stored at home. It is bought from big barrels in the local store and kept in bottles. The bottles are not labeled and no safety warnings

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