What is an example of large scale agriculture?
The worldwide increase in very large agricultural enterprises is setting new standards in farming and leading to a range of debates. For instance, the 100 largest companies in the agricultural sector in Russia, often called agroholdings, farm in total more than 12 million hectares, with four of these companies managing over 600,000 hectares each. The entrepreneurial challenges, opportunities and social effects that accompany the emergence of such enterprises were discussed at the IAMO Forum 2018, entitled "Large-scale agriculture - for profit and society?". From 27 to 29 of June 2018, more than 160 participants from 19 countries exchanged on scientific findings and agricultural practices at IAMO in Halle (Germany). Recognized speakers from the fields of research, the agricultural sector and international institutions participated in three plenary sessions, 15 parallel meetings and two moderated panel discussions. The geographical focus was laid on the transition economies of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and East Asia, as well as on emerging and developed market economies in Europe, America and Australasia. Show This year's IAMO Forum was opened by IAMO Director Alfons Balmann. He pointed out that large-scale corporate farming structures, often organised as business groups, manage significant areas of agricultural land in many parts of the world, particularly in Eastern Europe and South America. However, these companies face considerable challenges with regard to their ecological, social and economic sustainability. For example, high profit margins cannot be achieved continuously in agriculture. This is not at least a consequence of the so called "agricultural treadmill", which implies fierce competition and progressing structural change. Balmann added that fluctuating yields and prices place high demands on risk management, especially for large-scale agricultural enterprises with a high share of external production factors because hired workers, leased land and loans require regular remuneration. At the same time, large agricultural enterprises are particularly visible to the public and, therefore, have to encounter actively the often-critical attention by society. On the subject of the forces driving the (re)emergence of large-scale agriculture in Eastern Europe, Eugenia Serova, Director of the FAO Liaison Office
(Russia), provided an overview on the development and prospects of large agroholdings. She characterised these businesses in comparison to the corporate groups in the upstream and downstream stages of the agricultural value chain as small, although they often farm several hundred thousands of hectares in Russia and other parts of the world. Investments in agriculture as risk diversification strategy, the shortage of skilled labour, the institutional environment, the political networks and the
Soviet legacy of the large enterprises were named as reasons for the increasing significance of agroholdings in the post-Soviet sphere. Competitive advantages on the world market, effective administrative structures and strong negotiation power over market partners were pointed out as strengths. However, Serova also mentioned sustainability risks of an agricultural sector based on a comparatively small number of large enterprises. She called for a balanced relationship between different farm
sizes to reduce risks and stimulate market competition. The plenary presentations of the second day of the conference were concerned with the ability of large-scale agriculture to serve the requirements of its stakeholders. Philipp Schreck, Professor at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), discussed the potential and requirements of voluntary sustainability reporting of companies. He highlighted the conflicting interests of companies
and society with regard to transparency and the use of sustainability reporting as a modern accounting instrument that serves the interests of profit-orientated companies in particular. In this regard, he pointed out that good sustainability reporting depends on quality assurance. A debate moderated by Professor Ingo Pies of Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) was titled "Moral challenges of modern agriculture". In the debate it was firstly unanimously agreed that all discussion participants pursue the same goal of ensuring long-term food security. Silvia Bender, Team Leader Biodiversity at BUND - Friends of the Earth Germany, saw the best means of achieving this in helping the many millions of small farmers worldwide to increase their productivity. Carl-Albrecht Bartmer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DLG e.V. (Germany), countered that size and sustainable farming do not correlate. The idea of primarily looking to support smallholders in developing and emerging countries by enabling small gains in productivity would contradict the development successes in economically developed regions, in which the migration of the rural population was primarily the result of economic developments, whilst remaining enterprises were able to subsequently benefit from growth and access to innovations. Referring to international trade, Bartmer spoke strongly in favour of free trade. Trade would be a prerequisite of a collaborative international agriculture and multilateral international trade agreements are indispensable. Despite being essentially in favour of free trade, Bender assessed the current process of developing trade agreements as too undemocratic. Regarding biodiversity protection and conservation, Bender pointed out that it would not be sufficient to secure biodiversity in one part of the world in order to increase the intensity of monocultures in another area. Instead, it would be important to promote biodiversity worldwide. Bartmer highlighted that state programmes to promote biodiversity should utilise the existing creativity and local knowledge of individual farmers to a greater extent. Biological diversity would be of decisive importance for agricultural production and farmers would therefore have strong incentives to help securing biological diversity. On the final conference day, CEOs of large agricultural enterprises from Eastern Europe and South America presented their view on the subject
"Fit for the future: prospects and challenges facing large-scale agriculture". Alex Lissitsa, CEO of IMC SA (Luxemburg/Ukraine), which farms 126,000 hectares of arable land in Ukraine, provided an insight into the past and present of Ukrainian agriculture and presented the milestones in the development of the agroholding IMC since it was founded in 2007. He expects the future of agriculture and of IMC as closely tied to digitisation. As a consequence, for years now IMC has invested
increasingly in digital tools such as E-portals, Mobile Agronomist, geoportals and GPS monitoring. Addressing the corporate social responsibility activities of IMC, a large portion of expenditure would be directed towards the support of individual landowners, including personal financial assistance and medical care, as well as improving living conditions in the villages. Key challenges facing Ukrainian agriculture would include increasing weather volatility, land market regulation, corruption as
well as the increasing difficulty of finding qualified young employees willing to live and work in rural areas. In the concluding panel discussion on the subject of "Large-scale agriculture - for profit
and society?" Anna Catharina Voges, General Partner at Saat-Gut Plaußig Voges KG (Germany) farming 2,500 hectares of arable land nearby Leipzig, pointed to the challenges of advancing urbanisation. To keep pace with societal requirements her company would focus on precision agriculture as well as the establishment of niche and regional produce, including partially organic farming. As German society now would often regard food and nutrition as a lifestyle rather than a necessity,
agriculture should be prepared to serve these lifestyle requirements. The IAMO Forum 2018 was
jointly organized by the Department of Structural Development of Farms and Rural Areas of IAMO, DLG e.V. and the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB). The conference was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal German State Saxony-Anhalt, the Rentenbank, the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Eastern Europe - Global Area" (EEGA) and the city of Halle (Saale). Please find further conference information at:
www.iamo.de/forum/2018. What is the name for large scale farming?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.
What is the largest type of agriculture?The largest type of agriculture practiced around the world is intensive subsistence agriculture, which is highly dependent on animal power, and is commonly practiced in the humid, tropical regions of the world.
What is small scale and large scale farming?Small scale farmers usually grow things that are trickier to work with, require more intensive management, and more actual hands on work. ... Large scale farmers seldom produce more than two or three different crops, and do virtually everything using heavy machinery.
Which crop is produced on a large scale?1 Answer. Jowar is grown on a large scale in central India.
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