Which term describes farming that seeks to maximize yield per unit of land by using high labor and capital inputs?

• A. Intensive Agriculture
• B. Plantation Agriculture
• C. Market Gardening
• D. Mixed Crop and Livestock Systems

Answer: (A)

Intensive agriculture focuses on getting the most yield from a small area by using lots of labor and capital inputs. Farmers push production per hectare through practices like high-yield varieties, careful irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, timely planting, frequent harvesting, and often multiple cropping in a year. This contrasts with extensive agriculture, where large tracts are cultivated with relatively low inputs and the goal is to cover more land rather than maximize yield on each unit of land. The other terms describe farming patterns that are not defined primarily by the pressure to maximize yield per area through heavy inputs: plantation agriculture involves large-scale monocultures for export and doesn't inherently specify the input intensity per unit area, market gardening is intensive vegetable production usually on small plots but focused on market vegetables rather than a general definition of yield per area with high inputs, and mixed crop and livestock systems combine crops and animals and can be done at various intensities. Therefore, the term that best fits the description is intensive agriculture.