Commercial farming is the cultivation of crops and/or the rearing of animals for raw materials, food, or export, primarily for profit.
To achieve economies of scale, commercial farming must be highly efficient and practiced on a large scale, as the farmer's goal is to maximize profit margins.
As a result, modern commercial farming concentrates exclusively on the production of products and farm animals for sale, employing the most advanced, efficient, and recent technologies.
The practice, also known as agribusiness, is becoming more popular as more and more people see it as a profitable business endeavor.
As a result, significant money, personnel, and territory are invested, making commercial farming the primary driver and influencer of the global agribusiness industry.
Commercial Farming Characteristics
Commercial farming produces crops and livestock on a large scale and in large farms, using machinery, irrigation methods, chemical fertilizers, and other technologies.
1. Mass Manufacturing
Large quantities of livestock and crops are produced in commercial farming. As a result, meeting the anticipated output targets or goals necessitates a large amount of territory, sophisticated technology, and expertise.
2. It requires a significant amount of capital.
Because the practice necessitates significant investment before it can be launched, it necessitates significant capital to get it up and running.
The capital is used to buy farm materials such as seedlings or seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, machinery, and the farm itself, as well as to cover expenses such as rent, water and electricity bills, and in paying for labor, and expertise.
3. Using High Yielding Varieties (HYV)
Commercial farming employs high doses of modern inputs and high yielding seed varieties, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, and insecticides. This is done to increase output, but it has a negative impact on global viability.
4. It is made for sale
Unlike other forms of agriculture where people farm for their own consumption, commercial farming is done solely for profit.
Thousands of acres of millet, cocoa, bananas, rice, sugarcane, tea, and other products are harvested and sold as exports to other countries under commercial agriculture.
5. Heavy Equipment and People Work
Commercial agriculture necessitates a large supply of both expert and casual workers. Whereas skilled labor in commercial labor is sourced from comes from professionals, unskilled labor tends to exploit immigrants and persons who live in absolute poverty.
Commercial Farming Varieties
1. Farming Creamery
It is, as the term implies, the industrial cultivation of milk and milk products. As a result, the farms are only used to raise cattle, which produce the milk used to make other dairy products.
2. Grain Production
Grains such as maize, barley, and wheat are produced for human consumption and exportation in this form of industrial farming.
Grain cultivation is heavily mechanized and necessitates a large quantity of acreage, tools, equipment, and farmers. Farmers are extremely active during the sowing and reaping seasons because farming is done outside and is seasonal.
3. Plantation Agriculture As it was practiced during the colonial and slave periods, it is a highly sensitive type of farming.Huge fields, particularly in America and its colonies used enforced slave labor to grow and harvest rice, sugar, tobacco, cotton and other farm products, for trade and export.
4. Ranching of livestock This is the rearing of livestock creatures for the purpose of producing meat. Cattle and sheep are the most commonly reared animals, but pigs and chickens are also raised in large numbers.
5. Agriculture in the Mediterranean
It is a type of commercial farming practiced primarily in Mediterranean countries.
6. Livestock and mixed crop farming
In the preceding types, a single crop or livestock is farmed. In this type of commercial farming, however, both crops and livestock are grown on the same plot of land.
As such, the crops can be grown to feed the animals, and the animals sold for profit. Additionally, animal waste can be used to grow crops. The two live and are farmed side-by-side all year round. A great modern example is Aquaponics.
7. Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming (truck farming)
In truck farming, crops that are high in demand are grown. They include apples, lettuce, cherries and asparagus.
5. Provision of Raw Materials for Agribusiness Manufacturing Companies
Commercial farming avails more raw materials to feed the local and international industries that engage in the production or manufacture of agricultural by-products.
Industrial Firms
Commercial farming provides more raw materials to local and foreign businesses that produce or make agrarian byproducts.
Commercial gardening provides employment for residents of the region. The employees will make some money, allowing them to feed their families. As a result, industrial farming supports the local economy.