Intensive agriculture

Modern intensive agriculture is characterized above all by the use of the most sophisticated technological methods of farming. It involves high levels of capital expenditure or inputs in order to achieve as high an output per unit ofland area and/ or of livestock with the maximum efficiency possible. As well as fixed capital, and investment in land, buildings, livestock and machinery, intensive farming incurs large annual production costs. These include, on the one hand, those of supplying direct energy– in the form of human and/or animal labour, fossil fuels and electricity-necessary to undertake farm work; and, on the other, those of supplying indirect energy, represented by fertilizers, water, herbicides, pesticides, seeds and a wide range of other chemical products necessary to obtain high levels of crop and/or livestock production. Slesser (1975) has used energy density or the input of total energy (direct and indirect) equivalents ‘at the farm gate’ per hectare of farmland as a means of expressing relative intensity of agriculture (see Table 14.1). The expenditure on the individual inputs varies with the type of farming (Fig. 14.1). Temperate soft fruits (raspberries, strawberries etc.) are still very labour-intensive and these costs together with those for pesticides dominate the inputs in this case. In contrast, dairy farming is characterized by a higher use of electricity than are other types oflivestock or arable farming, while arable cropping involves a proportionately higher expenditure on fuel oil, fertilizers and herbicides than do other types of farming. Table 14.1 Agricultural taxonomy based on energy (Gija-joules) density and protein yields

	Energy density (GJ ha-1)	Protein yield (kg ha-1)
Hunter-gatherer	0.0
Andean village (Peru)	0.2	0.5
Hill sheep farming (Scotland)	0.6	1–1.5
Marginal farming	4.0	9
Open-range beef farming	5.0	130
Mixed farming in a developed country	12–15	500
Intensive crop production	15–20	2000
Fed-lot animal production	40	300

(from Slesser, 1975)