IGCSE Geography / Rural environments

Farming systems revision notes

Edexcel International GCSE Geography (4GE1), chapter 5: Rural environments, specification point 5.1c, 5.S2. Free lesson.

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A farm is a system of inputs, processes and outputs. Farms can also be classified by what they produce, who they produce for and how much is put into each hectare. These ideas help explain how farming affects ecosystems.

How to draw a farm as a system

A system shows what goes in, what happens and what comes out. Farms have natural and human inputs, work that takes place on the farm, and outputs. Some outputs can feed back into the system for the next year. Physical inputs come from nature: climate, soil and relief, which means the shape of the land. Human inputs are added by the farmer: labour, machinery, seed, fertiliser and money. Processes are the work done on the farm, such as ploughing, sowing, harvesting and milking. Outputs include crops, animals, milk, wool and profit. Feedback happens when profit and manure…

How farming changes an ecosystem

When land is changed into a farm, the natural ecosystem is altered. Clearing vegetation and replacing many species with one crop or animal type removes habitats, so biodiversity, the variety of living things, falls. Farming inputs can support crops, but the harvest also takes nutrients away from the field. Forest is cut down or grassland is ploughed to make fields. One crop or one kind of animal replaces many species, so habitats are lost. Farmers may add fertiliser, pesticides and irrigation. Irrigation means watering the land. The harvest removes nutrients, which are minerals plants…

The three questions used to classify farms

Classify each farm using three separate questions. Each gives one label, so a farm has three labels, not just one. What does it produce? Arable farms grow crops. Pastoral farms rear animals. Mixed farms do both. Who is it for? Commercial farming produces food for sale. Subsistence farming feeds the farmer's own family, with little or nothing left to sell. How much goes into each hectare? Intensive farming uses high inputs of labour or money and gets a high yield, meaning output per hectare. Extensive farming uses low inputs per hectare and gets a low yield. A…

Applying the labels to three farms

The labels depend on the answer to each question, not on one overall type of farm. For example, a farm can be both subsistence and intensive because those labels describe different things. A cereal farm in the East of England is arable, commercial and intensive because it grows crops for sale and uses machinery and fertiliser. A cattle ranch in the Brazilian Amazon is pastoral, commercial and extensive because it rears animals for sale, with about one animal per hectare. A smallholding in Kenya is arable because it grows maize, subsistence because it feeds the family, and intensive because…

Classifying a hill farm

For a three-mark classification, give one label for each question and a reason. Use the farm's products, purpose and inputs per hectare.