Commercial farming is the kind of agriculture in which the people at a large scale cultivate crops and livestock with the aim of earning profits. It has a business approach where it utilizes the scientific methods, technology, and related machinery by the farming sector to increase the yield at very lower cost.
Characteristics of Commercial farming
- High volume: Commercial farms are highly extensive in size, typically hundreds or thousands of acres under tilled land.
- Monoculture: Commercial farms primarily engage themselves in monoculture or grow one crop, or a few crops in mass quantities to meet the market.
- usage of high-tech equipment: Commercial farmers utilize advanced machinery, irrigation systems among others, for the betterment of efficiency and a reduction of labor.
- Market oriented: Crop and livestock production undertaken especially for a market are commercial farms unlike crop and livestock rearing for subsistence or for local consumption.
- Highly capital-intensive operation: Commercial farming involves a rather big capital input in terms of land, equipment, and labor.
Types:
- Plantation farming: The largest plantation crop grows in extensive areas of coffee, tea, rubber, and sugarcane.
- Mixed farming : A combination of both crop and livestock production in one farm.
- Contract farming: Farmer enters into a contract with companies to produce specified crops or livestock.
Benefits of Commercial Farming
- Higher efficiency: Commercial farming can adopt highly mechanized systems, including extensive applications of technology to ensure high levels of efficiency and productivity.
- Higher yields: This is through advanced practices in farming and technology that enable commercial farms to achieve optimal yields.
- Employments: Commercial farms create employment to the various farm workers, managers, and other supporting staffs.
- Economic contribution: The contribution of commercial farming to the economy is hugely felt because of the production of food and various other agricultural products.
Disadvantages of Commercial Farming:
- Environmental destruction: The use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers can be destructive to the environment.
- Soil degradation: Intensive use of land and resources leads to soil degradation and erosion.
- Exploitation of labor: Commercial farms have been criticized for exploitation of labor, especially in developing countries.
Example of Commercial Farming:
Let’s take for instance a commercial farm of corn in United States.
Farm Profile:
| Farm name | Golden Harvest Farms |
| Location | Iowa, USA |
| Farm size | 1,500 acres |
| Crop | Corn |
| Production | 12,000 tons per year |
| Market | Sell to food processing firms and animal feed companies |
| Technology | Irrigation system, precision farming equipment, genetically modified seeds |
| Labour | 15 permanent employees, and 30 seasonal workers |
| Annual revenue | $3 million |
For instance, Golden Harvest Farms is a big commercial farm in which major production is corn through the use of advanced machinery and technology.It would be market-oriented since the major goal is to make profits by selling corn to firms involved with food processing or animal feed.
Conclusion:
Commercial farming is, in fact a very profitable and productive method of harvesting large quantities of crops and livestock with the aid of modern technology and machineries that increase production yield in such a manner that the cost incurred is reduced to its lowest possible value with a point in mind where profits may be drawn from the sales of products in other markets.