Any farm can be viewed as a system, with inputs, throughputs (or processes), outputs and feedback.
Factors which affect the type of farming include: capital, choice, climate, labour, market, politics, relief and soils.
Commercial and Subsistence Farming
Commercial farming involves farming for a profit. These farms can be arable (just growing crops), pastoral (just rearing animals) or mixed (both arable and pastoral).
The arable farms of East Anglia are a good example of commercial farming, as are the cereal farms of the central United States and the Canadian Prairies.
Subsistence farmers only produce enough to feed themselves and their family. This is the most common form of farming in LEDC's.
Some of them are nomadic, meaning that they move around the country using a piece of land for a while and then moving on.
Intensive and Extensive Farming
Intensive farms generally take up a fairly small area of land, but aim to have a very high output, through massive inputs of capital and labour.
Extensive farming is the direct opposite of intensive farming. The farms are large in comparison to the money injected into it or the labour used on it.
Farming in the UK
The main types of farming that you would find in the UK are arable, dairying and hill farming. All of them are commercial.
The Common Agricultural Policy and other regulations have encouraged arable farming more than dairying or hill sheep farming, and this has led to many farms becoming mixed farms.
Most farming in Britain tends to be intensive although some of the hill farms of Wales and Scotland could be described as extensive.
Agricultural Policies
The Common Agricultural Policy was a policy brought in by the EU in 1962.
It aimed to increase agricultural production in member countries.
It aimed to improve the standard of living experienced by farmers.
It aimed to maintain prices and supplies of food at a reasonable cost to the consumers.
The Common Agricultural policy established minimum prices for agricultural produce, that the farmer was guaranteed to receive.
It led rapidly to the establishment of huge surpluses in many agricultural products, such as beef, butter, cereals, milk and wine.
In 1992 the policy was reformed with far fewer subsidies and more concern for the natural environment.
Agriculture in MEDC's
Between the end of the war in 1945 and 1995 over 60% of hedgerows in England and Wales had been removed.
The loss of hedgerows also increases the chance of soil erosion occurring as they shelter the land from wind, helping the soil to bind together.
The increased use of pesticides and fertilisers has led to air and water pollution.
Fertilisers in water can cause rapid algae growth, which can cause eutrophication to occur.
Agriculture in LEDC's
Food production is one of the most important industries in most LEDC's and agriculture is often still their main source of employment.
Strategies have been introduced, aimed at helping the farmers become firstly self-sufficient and then begin to allow them to make a profit.
The Green Revolution and irrigation schemes have both led to increased agricultural yields in developing world countries.