Agricultural systems are diverse and reflect different environments, technologies, and cultural practices. Traditional approaches remain significant but face growing challenges under modern pressures and rising populations.

Types of Agricultural Systems

Arable and Pastoral Systems

• Arable farming focuses on cultivating crops, typically in fertile soils with suitable climates.

• Pastoral farming involves rearing livestock such as cattle, sheep, or goats, often in areas unsuitable for crops.

These systems may overlap in mixed farming, where crops and animals are integrated to optimise land use and nutrient cycling.

Subsistence and Commercial Systems

• Subsistence farming produces food mainly for local consumption by farmers and their families.

• Commercial farming is profit-oriented, producing crops or livestock for regional, national, or global markets.

Subsistence systems often rely on labour-intensive methods, while commercial systems typically employ mechanisation, advanced inputs, and large-scale management.

Intensive and Extensive Systems

• Intensive systems maximise productivity per unit area, often using high levels of labour, fertilisers, and technology.

• Extensive systems spread over larger areas with lower input per unit land, such as cattle ranching in dry grasslands.

Intensive systems often produce greater yields but may cause environmental stress, while extensive systems require more land and are vulnerable to degradation.

Irrigated and Rain-fed Systems

• Irrigated agriculture relies on artificial watering systems, crucial in arid and semi-arid regions.

• Rain-fed agriculture depends entirely on natural precipitation.

Reliance on irrigation can increase food security but often leads to salinisation and overuse of freshwater.

A labelled diagram of a drip-irrigation layout showing mainline, filters, valves, laterals, and emitters that deliver water directly to plant roots. This exemplifies irrigated agriculture discussed in the notes, contrasting with rain-fed systems. Component-level labels provide extra technical detail beyond the syllabus scope. Source.

Organic and Inorganic Systems

• Organic systems prohibit synthetic chemicals, relying on composts, manures, and biological pest control.

• Inorganic systems employ synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, and pesticides to maximise yields.

Organic farming prioritises soil health and biodiversity, while inorganic approaches can raise productivity but at environmental costs.

Traditional Agricultural Practices

Nomadism

Nomadic pastoralism involves herders moving livestock seasonally to find fresh grazing land.

Transhumant herder with a flock on summer pasture, illustrating seasonal livestock movement to match forage availability—closely related to nomadic pastoralism in the notes. This visual reinforces how pastoral systems depend on mobility across landscapes. The UNESCO heritage framing is extra contextual detail not required by the syllabus. Source.

Historically sustainable under low population densities, it now faces strain from land privatisation, political borders, and reduced grazing areas.

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

Also known as swidden cultivation, this practice clears small patches of forest by cutting and burning vegetation. Ash adds nutrients to the soil, allowing short-term cultivation.

A recently burned field with felled trunks in Chiang Mai, Thailand, typical of small-plot swidden cultivation where ash temporarily enriches soils. The image makes visible the clearing-and-burning stage referenced in the notes. Geographic context beyond the syllabus is included. Source.

• Effective in nutrient-poor tropical soils.

• Requires long fallow periods for soil recovery.

• Sustainable with small populations and ample forest land.

With rising populations, shorter fallow times degrade soils, reduce biodiversity, and increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Modernisation and Sustainability Challenges

Population Pressure

• Higher populations shorten fallow periods in slash-and-burn systems, leading to soil exhaustion.

• Nomadic practices become unsustainable as grazing land diminishes.

• Demand for food pushes traditional systems towards commercialisation.

Environmental Concerns

• Deforestation from slash-and-burn contributes to climate change.

• Overgrazing in nomadic systems can cause desertification.

• Intensive commercial systems lead to fertiliser runoff, pesticide pollution, and reduced biodiversity.

Transition to Modern Systems

Traditional systems are increasingly replaced or adapted:

• Agroforestry combines trees with crops for soil fertility and shade.

• Crop rotation maintains soil nutrients.

• Sustainable grazing management prevents overuse of pasture.

These hybrid approaches seek to balance traditional knowledge with scientific innovation.

Key Features of Agricultural System Variability

Agricultural systems are shaped by:

• Inputs: labour, fertilisers, technology, land area, water.

• Outputs: crop yields, livestock products, income.

• Purpose: subsistence versus commercial orientation.

Bullet-point overview:

• Arable: crops.

• Pastoral: livestock.

• Subsistence: local consumption.

• Commercial: profit-driven.

• Intensive: high input/output per unit area.

• Extensive: low input/output, large areas.

• Irrigated: artificial water supply.

• Rain-fed: reliant on precipitation.

• Organic: natural inputs, biodiversity-friendly.

• Inorganic: synthetic inputs, high productivity.

Cultural and Social Context

Traditional systems are deeply tied to cultural identities. Nomadism fosters community resilience, while slash-and-burn represents adaptation to tropical ecosystems. Yet modern pressures often marginalise these practices.

Shifts in diet, urbanisation, and global markets increasingly determine agricultural choices, challenging traditional methods but also creating opportunities for sustainable adaptation.