Soil in agriculture
This soil type provides a balanced mix of sand, silt, and clay for optimal plant growth.
What is loam soil?
This process involves the mixing of soil layers by organisms like earthworms.
What is biological mixing?
This type of farming involves livestock herding in response to water scarcity in semi-arid environments.
What is nomadic pastoralism?
The population of this type of country tends to get most of its calories from carbohydrates
LICs
This process occurs when excess salts accumulate in soil, making it infertile and toxic.
What is soil salinisation?
This agricultural practice involves leaving fields without crops to increase soil organic matter.
What is fallowing?
This type of soil has tiny particles less than 0.001 mm in size and with high water and nutrient retention capabilities.
What is clay?
This traditional farming method involves rotating fields by cutting and burning forest vegetation.
What is slash-and-burn agriculture?
This global transition involves shifts in dietary patterns from carbohydrate-based to more fat-heavy diets.
What is the nutrition transition?
These meadows in temperate climates consist of grasses, herbs, and legumes that improve soil structure.
What are herbal leys?
This sustainable agricultural practice involves combining agriculture and forestry.
What is agroforestry?
This process involves the breakdown of rocks in situ, influencing soil texture.
What is weathering?
This agricultural approach maximises productivity with high inputs per hectare.
What is intensive farming?
This global index considers food affordability, availability, and quality across 109 countries.
What is the Global Food Security Index?
These microscopic organisms break down dead organic matter, releasing nutrients back into the soil.
What are decomposers?
These naturally occurring fungi associated with plant roots improve mineral absorption.
What are mycorrhizal fungi?
This dark, resistant organic matter makes up 2-6% of soil and is crucial for soil organisms.
What is humus?
This agricultural change in the 1950s-1960s used genetic engineering to increase crop productivity.
What is the Green Revolution?
This is the single most important cause of death in the global north.
What is Ischaemic heart disease?
These two mechanical methods help prevent soil erosion on slopes by creating level steps or following contour lines.
What are terracing and contour ploughing?
This anthropogenic input can change soil pH and potentially harm beneficial microorganisms.
What are synthetic fertilisers?
This zone represents the permanently saturated underground water layer.
What is the water table?
IR8 is a variety of this product, and now grows all over the world
What is rice?
In LICs, most food waste occurs here
What is the farmer-producer end of the supply chain?
These types of labourers own their own combine harvesters and live in mobile homes
Who are suitcase farmers?