extensive agriculture

extensive agriculture, in agricultural economics, system of crop cultivation using small amounts of labour and capital in relation to area of land being farmed. The crop yield in extensive agriculture depends primarily on the natural fertility of the soil, the terrain, the climate, and the availability of water.

Extensive agriculture is distinguished from intensive agriculture in that the latter, employing large amounts of labour and capital, enables one to apply fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides and to plant, cultivate, and often harvest mechanically. Because extensive agriculture produces a lower yield per unit of land, its use commercially requires large quantities of land in order to be profitable. This demand for land means that extensive agriculture must be carried on where land values are low in relation to labour and capital, which in turn means that extensive agriculture is practiced where population densities are low and thus usually at some distance from primary markets. Compare intensive agriculture.