Commercial agriculture

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Commercial agriculture: The production of crops for sale, crops intended for widespread distribution (e.g. supermarkets), and any non-food crops such as cotton and tobacco. Commercial agriculture includes livestock production and livestock grazing. Commercial agriculture does not include crops grown for household consumption (e.g backyard garden or from a vegetable garden or fruit tree's)

Commercial farming is a progression from Diversified (sometimes called Mixed) farming, when the landowner acquires a sufficiently large amount of arable land and sufficiently advanced technology (such as hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.). At this point, it becomes more profitable for the landowner to specialize and focus on one particular crop due to economies of scale. This is further augmented by high levels of technology, which significantly reduces the risk of poor harvests. Another important difference between commercial farming and less-developed forms of agriculture is the new emphasis on capital formation, scientific progress and technological development, as opposed to an emphasis on natural resource utilization that is common to subsistence and diversified agriculture

Due to the expensive nature of capital formation and implementation of technological processes, the landowners of such farms are often large agricultural corporations (especially in developing countries). Commercial farming, in terms of some of its processes, is conceptually not very different from large industrial enterprises.

[edit] Opposite

Subsistence agriculture