Food Production » Farming as a System

A farm is a system

A farm is not just a field. It is a set of parts that work together, and geographers call this a system. Think of a kitchen: you put in ingredients, you cook them, and you get a meal. A farm works the same way. Things go in, things are done to them, and things come out.

Key terms:

• Farm system: a farm shown as inputs, processes and outputs linked together.
• Input: anything put into the farm to make it work.
• Process: a job or activity done on the farm that turns inputs into outputs.
• Output: anything that comes out of the farm.
• Feedback: when some outputs are put back in as inputs, so the farm changes over time.

Inputs: what goes in

Inputs come in two groups. Physical inputs come from nature and human inputs come from people.

Physical inputs come from nature, and the farmer has little control over them, such as rainfall and relief. Human inputs are chosen by the farmer, and they cost time or money. Relief matters because flat land is easy to plough, while steep slopes are hard to farm and the soil can wash away.

Processes: what happens on the farm

Processes are the jobs that turn inputs into outputs. Which ones happen depends on whether the farm grows crops, keeps animals, or does both.

• Crops: ploughing, sowing, fertilising, weeding and harvesting.
• Animals: rearing, feeding and milking.

Notice that processes are verbs: they are things people do. That is a quick way to tell a process from an input or output in an exam.

Outputs: what comes out

• Crops: grain, vegetables, fruit.
• Livestock products: milk, meat, eggs, wool.
• Waste: straw, animal manure and crop residues.
• Profit: the money left after the costs are paid (commercial farms), or food for the family (subsistence farms).

Feedback: outputs that become inputs

Many farms loop back on themselves. This is feedback, and it is what makes a farm a living system rather than a straight line.

• A farmer saves some of this year's grain to use as next year's seed.
• Manure from the animals is spread on the fields as fertiliser.
• Profit is used to buy a better tractor or more seed.

Feedback can help a farm grow: more profit buys better seed, which gives a bigger harvest and more profit. It can also work the other way: a poor harvest means less money to spend the next year.

Comparing two farm systems

Use the types you met in Types of Farming. The same system idea fits both, but the inputs, processes and outputs look very different.

	Subsistence farm system	Commercial farm system
Labour	Mostly family, working by hand	Few paid workers, mostly machines
Machinery and tools	Hoes, simple tools, animals pulling ploughs	Tractors, combine harvesters, milking machines
Fertiliser and seed	Manure, saved seed	Bought chemical fertiliser and improved seed
Money (capital)	Very little	A lot, often borrowed from banks
Farm size	Small	Often large
Main output	Food for the family, a small surplus at best	Crops or livestock products to sell
Feedback	Seed and manure re-used	Profit re-invested in the farm

Notice that physical inputs such as climate and soil matter to both kinds of farm. The difference is mostly in the human inputs and the outputs.

How to draw a farm systems diagram

You may be asked to draw one. Follow these steps in order.

1. Draw three boxes in a row, left to right, and label them Inputs, Processes and Outputs.
2. Split the Inputs box in two: physical inputs and human inputs. Write two or three real examples in each.
3. In the Processes box, list the farm jobs, such as ploughing, sowing and harvesting.
4. In the Outputs box, list the crops, livestock products, waste and profit or food for the family.
5. Add arrows from Inputs to Processes and from Processes to Outputs.
6. Draw a long arrow from Outputs back round to Inputs and label it feedback, with one example such as "saved seed".
7. Give the diagram a title that names the type of farm.

Exam-style question

Fig. 1.1 shows made-up data for two farms in one year.

	Farm A	Farm B
Size	2 hectares	400 hectares
Workers	4 family members	5 paid workers
Equipment	Hoes and hand tools	Tractors and a combine harvester
Fertiliser	None	Chemical fertiliser, 80 tonnes
Seed	Saved from last year	Bought from a seed company
Output	3 tonnes of maize, 90% eaten by the family	1,600 tonnes of wheat and 300 tonnes of straw, all sold

(a) Identify one human input and one physical input for a farm system. [2 marks]

(b) Using Fig. 1.1, state two outputs of Farm B. [2 marks]

(c) Describe one example of feedback on Farm A. [2 marks]

(d) Compare the farm systems of Farm A and Farm B. [6 marks]