Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital, labour, agrochemicals and water, and higher crop yields per unit land area.
Most commercial agriculture is intensive in one or more ways. Forms that rely heavily on industrial methods are often called industrial agriculture, which is characterized by technologies designed to increase yield. Techniques include planting multiple crops per year, reducing the frequency of fallow years, improving cultivars, mechanised agriculture, controlled by increased and more detailed analysis of growing conditions, including weather, soil, water, weeds, and pests. Modern methods frequently involve increased use of non-biotic inputs, such as fertilizers, plant growth regulators, pesticides, and antibiotics for livestock. Intensive farms are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of the meat, dairy products, eggs, fruits, and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced by such farms.
Some intensive farms can use sustainable methods, although this typically necessitates higher inputs of labor or lower yields. Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, especially on smallholdings, is an important way to decrease the amount of land needed for farming and slow and reverse environmental degradation caused by processes such as deforestation.
Intensive animal farming involves large numbers of animals raised on a relatively small area of land, for example by rotational grazing, or sometimes as concentrated animal feeding operations. These methods increase the yields of food and fiber per unit land area compared to those of extensive animal husbandry; concentrated feed is brought to seldom-moved animals, or, with rotational grazing, the animals are repeatedly moved to fresh forage.
History
Agricultural development in Britain between the 16th century and the mid-19th century saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn contributed to unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, and thereby helped enable the Industrial Revolution. Historians cited enclosure, mechanization, four-field crop rotation, and selective breeding as the most important innovations.* Overton, Mark. Agricultural Revolution in England 1500–1850 (September 19, 2002), BBC. Valenze, Deborah. The First Industrial Woman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 183. Kagan, Donald. The Western Heritage (London: Prentice Hall, 2004), pp. 535–539.
Industrial agriculture arose in the Industrial Revolution. By the early 19th century, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks, and cultivars had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages.
The first phase involved a continuing process of mechanization. Horse-drawn machinery such as the McCormick reaper revolutionized harvesting, while inventions such as the cotton gin reduced the cost of processing. During this same period, farmers began to use steam-powered threshers and tractors. In 1892, the first gasoline-powered tractor was successfully developed, and in 1923, the International Harvester Farmall tractor became the first all-purpose tractor, marking an inflection point in the replacement of draft animals with machines. Mechanical harvesters (combines), planters, transplanters, and other equipment were then developed, further revolutionizing agriculture. These inventions increased yields and allowed individual farmers to manage increasingly large farms.
The identification of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers, further increasing crop yields. In 1909, the Haber-Bosch method to synthesize ammonium nitrate was first demonstrated. NPK fertilizers stimulated the first concerns about industrial agriculture, due to concerns that they came with side effects such as soil compaction, soil erosion, and declines in overall soil fertility, along with health concerns about toxic chemicals entering the food supply. (ebook )
The discovery of vitamins and their role in nutrition, in the first two decades of the 20th century, led to vitamin supplements, which in the 1920s allowed some livestock to be raised indoors, reducing their exposure to adverse natural elements.
Following World War II synthetic fertilizer use increased rapidly.
The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines facilitated raising livestock by reducing diseases. Developments in logistics and refrigeration as well as processing technology made long-distance distribution feasible. Integrated pest management is the modern method to minimize pesticide use to more sustainable levels.
There are concerns over the sustainability of industrial agriculture, and the environmental effects of fertilizers and pesticides, which has given rise to the organic movement and has built a market for sustainable intensive farming, as well as funding for the development of appropriate technology.
Techniques and technologies
Livestock
Pasture intensification
Pasture intensification is the improvement of pasture soils and grasses to increase the food production potential of livestock systems. It is commonly used to reverse pasture degradation, a process characterized by loss of forage and decreased animal carrying capacity which results from overgrazing, poor nutrient management, and lack of soil conservation. This degradation leads to poor pasture soils with decreased fertility and water availability and increased rates of erosion, compaction, and acidification. Degraded pastures have significantly lower productivity and higher carbon footprints compared to intensified pastures.
Management practices which improve soil health and consequently grass productivity include irrigation, soil scarification, and the application of lime, fertilizers, and pesticides. Depending on the productivity goals of the target agricultural system, more involved restoration projects can be undertaken to replace invasive and under-productive grasses with grass species that are better suited to the soil and climate conditions of the region. These intensified grass systems allow higher stocking rates with faster animal weight gain and reduced time to slaughter, resulting in more productive, carbon-efficient livestock systems.
Another technique to optimize yield while maintaining the carbon balance is the use of integrated crop-livestock (ICL) and crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF) systems, which combine several ecosystems into one optimized agricultural framework. Correctly performed, such production systems are able to create synergies potentially providing benefits to pastures through optimal plant usage, improved feed and fattening rates, increased soil fertility and quality, intensified nutrient cycling, integrated pest control, and improved biodiversity. The introduction of certain legume crops to pastures can increase carbon accumulation and nitrogen fixation in soils, while their digestibility helps animal fattening and reduces methane emissions from enteric fermentation. ICLF systems yield beef cattle productivity up to ten times that of degraded pastures; additional crop production from maize, sorghum, and soybean harvests; and greatly reduced greenhouse gas balances due to forest carbon sequestration.
In the Twelve Aprils grazing program for dairy production, developed by the USDA-SARE, forage crops for dairy herds are planted into a perennial pasture.
Rotational grazing
Rotational grazing is a variety of foraging in which herds or flocks are regularly and systematically moved to fresh, rested grazing areas (sometimes called paddocks) to maximize the quality and quantity of forage growth. It can be used with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other animals. The herds graze one portion of pasture, or a paddock, while allowing the others to recover. Resting grazed lands allows the vegetation to renew energy reserves, rebuild shoot systems, and deepen root systems, resulting in long-term maximum biomass production. Pasture systems alone can allow grazers to meet their energy requirements, but rotational grazing is especially effective because grazers thrive on the more tender younger plant stems. Parasites are also left behind to die off, minimizing or eliminating the need for de-wormers. With the increased productivity of rotational systems, the animals may need less supplemental feed than in continuous grazing systems. Farmers can therefore increase stocking rates.
Concentrated animal feeding operations
Intensive livestock farming or "factory farming", is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density.Sources discussing "intensive farming", "intensive agriculture" or "factory farming": Fraser, David. Animal welfare and the intensification of animal production: An alternative interpretation , Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005. Turner, Jacky. "History of factory farming" , United Nations: "Fifty years ago in Europe, intensification of animal production was seen as the road to national food security and a better diet ... The intensive systems—called 'factory farms'—were characterised by confinement of the animals at high stocking density, often in barren and unnatural conditions." Humphrys, John. Why the organic revolution had to happen, The Observer, April 21, 2001: "Nor is a return to 'primitive' farming practices the only alternative to factory farming and highly intensive agriculture." Baker, Stanley. "Factory farms – the only answer to our growing appetite?, The Guardian, December 29, 1964: "Factory farming, whether we like it or not, has come to stay ... In a year which has been as uneventful on the husbandry side as it has been significant in economic and political developments touching the future of food procurement, the more far-seeing would name the growth of intensive farming as the major development." (Note: Stanley Baker was the Guardian's agriculture correspondent.) "Head to head: Intensive farming", BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."Sources discussing "industrial farming", "industrial agriculture" and "factory farming": "Annex 2. Permitted substances for the production of organic foods" , Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: "Factory farming" refers to industrial management systems that are heavily reliant on veterinary and feed inputs not permitted in organic agriculture. "Head to head: Intensive farming", BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."Kaufmann, Mark. "Largest Pork Processor to Phase Out Crates" , The Washington Post, January 26, 2007."EU tackles BSE crisis", BBC News, November 29, 2000."Is factory farming really cheaper?" in New Scientist, Institution of