What are the type of farming? …

• Farming involves rearing of animals and crop cultivation; it is an important part of agriculture.
• Farmers aim at providing enough, healthy food to feed the ever-increasing population worldwide.
• Different types of farming practices are practised in different regions across the world based on various factors.
• Factors such as climate and soil fertility affect the type of farming practices a farmer can adopt.
• Types of farming include subsistence farming, mixed farming, nomadic herding, commercial plantation, livestock rearing, etc.

Farming involves rearing animals and growing crops for raw materials and food. It is an important part of agriculture, which began thousands of years ago. However, neither the exact time the practice began nor its age is known. Farming led to the rise of the Neolithic Revolution. It was an era when people abandoned nomadic hunting for city settlements.

The Fertile Crescent, traversing the Levant, the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, is believed to be where agriculture and domestication of plants and animals was first practiced. Countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Syria and Jordan make up the area that was once known as the Fertile Crescent.

People first grew crops such as barley and wheat. Although they engaged in agriculture, they still collected most foods from the wild. Changes in soil fertility and the weather could have led people to begin farming. Unlike hunting and gathering food from the wild, farming can feed more people on the same size of land.

Various factors determine the type of farming a farmer can adopt. Human resources such as distance to the market and labor, and physical factors such as soil and climate determine the best type of farming for any given area. Farmers have to choose farming types suitable for their unique local physical environment. They must also ensure that their produce would sell in the local market.

• Subsistence Farming: Subsistence farming is practices to meet the needs of the farmer’s family and needs less technology and labour.
• Intensive Subsistence Agriculture: In this farming, the farmer cultivates a small plot of land using simple tools and more labour. Rice is the main crop. Other crops include wheat, maize, pulses and oil seeds. This type of cultivation produce little to be left over and mainly farmers fullfil only personal needs.
• Primitive Subsistence Agriculture: Primitive subsistence agriculture includes shifting cultivation and nomadic herding.
• Shifiting Cultivation: In shifting cultivation, after cultivation the soil is abandoned and the cultivator moves to a new plot. Shifting cultivation is also known as ‘slash and burn’ agriculture. In most of the part of country it has been banned as proved to be futile.
• Nomadic Herding: In nomadic herding, herdsmen move from place to place with their animals for fodder and water along defined routes. Sheep, yak and goats are the herding animals. They sell their milk and flesh in market and get things for survival.
• Commercial Farming: In commercial farming crops are grown and animals are reared and grown  for sale in market. it involves high mechanisation and less labour. Developed nation mostly perform this farming extensively.
• Commercial Grain Farming: In commercial grain farming crops like wheat and maize are grown for commercial purpose. This farming practiced in temperate grasslands of North America, Europe and Asia.
• Mixed Farming: In mixed farming, the land is used for growing food and fodder crops and rearing livestock. it protects against crop loss.
• Plantation: Plantations are a type of commercial farming where single crop of tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana or cotton are grown. These crops are labour intensive and needs specific climatic conditions.