Differences between small and large farms
A small family farm is less than $350,000 in (GCFI) accounted for 88% of all US farms. USDA average is 231 acres.
A large farm $1 million or more (GCFI) accounted for about 3% of farms and nearly 52% of the value of production. USDA average 1421 acres.
What is agronomy in agriculture?
Agronomy: a branch of agriculture, focused on the science and technology of producing and using plans for food, fuel, fiber, and land reclamation. It includes soil, science plan, genetics, and crop management.
Agriculture : the broad picture of cultivating soil, growing crops and raising animals for food, fiber and other products.
What is the fertile crescent?
A historical region in the Middle East known as the birthplace of agriculture in early human civilization
Name the countries of the fertile Crescent
Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Israel, turkey, Eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea and Persian golf
What is center of origin?
The geographical area where particular crops species originated and developed its unique traits through natural and human selection
Monocropping
Growing a single crop in a field
Mixed cropping
Growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same land
Intercropping
The practice of growing two or more different crops in close proximity to maximize land in use and diversity production
Continuous cropping
Same crop is grown for 2+ years on same land. This has greater specialization but declines in soil health and crop quality (short-term use) 
Crop rotations
Sequence of different crops grown over years on the same land (long-term sustainability)
Ecosystem
A collection of organisms that interact or have the potential to interact with the environment in which they live
Agro system
Ecological systems modified by humans to produce food, fiber or other agricultural products replaced ecological systems
Crop system
An arrangement of crop populations that transform, solar, energy, nutrients, water, and other inputs into useful biomass: food, fuel, fiber, feed. “ the order in which crops are cultivated on a piece of land over a fixed.”
Strip cropping
Growing crops in monocultures in adjacent strips within a field
Cover crop
Introduce during/following harvest of cash crops, covers soil during winter, soil protection
Green Manure crops
Grown to flow under to improve soil quality
Alley cropping
Trees are grown and rose with other crops in between silvopasture
Silvopasture
Agroforestry system that combines trees with pastures for livestock utilization.
Differentiate between cereal and grain
Cereals: grass family crops, grown for edible seeds. (Examples are wheat, rice, and corn.)
Grains: seeds of cereals, legumes, and others (examples are a serial pulses, oil, seeds, etc.)
Types of Grain crops
Crops that produce small hard dry seeds harvested for food/feed.
Examples wheat, rice, maze, barley, oats, sorghum
Types of cereal crops
Green crops that belong to the grass family (Poaceae)
Example, examples, rice, maze, wheat, barley, sorghum, oats, and millet
Types of root crops
Crops harvested for their enlarged root structures
Examples are carrots, beetroot, radish, cassava
Types of Tuber crops
Crops harvested for their underground storage organs called tubber “modified stems”
Examples are potato yams, Taro, and sweet potato
Types of Pulses
Edible dry seeds of leguminous plants harvested for food.
Example, examples are lentils, chickpeas, dry beans, and dry peas
