Geographical Glossary Unit 6 and 7

-Plot: An area of land where crops are grown. It can vary in sixe, shape or borders -Soil: The subtance on the surface of the Earth in which plants grow, produced mainly by the weathering of rock. -Crop rotation: The practice of growing different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons. This method improves sil fertility and resistance to disease and pests -Intensive agriculture: is an agricultural production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labour, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area. -Extensive agriculture: An agricultural system that uses small inputs of labour, fertilisers, and capital, relative to the area of land that is being farmed. -Dryland farming: Farming in which the fields receive only rainwater. -Irrigated farming: Farming in which the water from groundwater, reservoirs or rivers is brought to fields. -Polyculture: is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes multi-cropping, intercropping, companion planting, beneficial weeds, and alley cropping. -Monoculture: is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop or plant species over a wide area and for a large number of consecutive years -Greenhouses: is a building in which plants are grown -Subsistence agriculture: A type of agriculture in which farmers only grow enough food to feed themselves and their families. -Shifting cultivation: is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot -Livestock farming: Farming bassed on rearing animals to obtain products. -Housed livestock: Livestock fed with fodder in farm buildings. This type of livestock must pass strict sanitary and quality controls -Cattle: are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. -Fodder: is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. -Rear: To care for, breed and grow animals until maturity. -Fishing grounds: An area of water that is used for fishing. -Aquaculture: is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. -Overfishing: is a form of overexploitation in which fish stocks are depleted to unacceptable levels, regardless of water body size. -Fleets: is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels -School of fish: many fishes together -Economic activity: the different processes involved in the production and consumption of goods and services -Economic agent: a person, group or institution involved in the economy -Goods: tangible economic products, such as food, that are usually consumed after production -Services: economic activities, such as banking or education, that are intangible -Production: an activity that provides goods and services for consumption. the production of goods combines natural resources, skills, financial investment and labour -Distribution: the marketing, delivery and sale of goods and services -Marketing: the act of researching, promoting and advertising a product or service in order to sell it -Consumption: the use of a product or service to satisfy needs or desires -Supply: availability of something of use or sale -Demand: the desire to own something in the market and the willingness to pay for it -Inflation: a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in the economy or a decrease in value of the purchasing power of money -Profit: the monetary gain of a business after all expenses have been met -Tax: a monetary contribution to the government requires of people, groups or business -Raw material: material on which a particular manufacturing process is carried out -Telecommuting: the use of home computers, telephones, etc, to enable a person to work from home while maintaining contact with colleagues, customers, or a central office -Employer: a person, business, firm, etc, that employs workers -Employee: a person who is hired to work for another or for a business, firm, etc, in return for payment -Self-employed: earning one's living in one's own business or through freelance work, rather than as the employee of another -Active population: people currently employed in the production of goods and services and the people who are unemployed or looking for their first job -Inactive population: people not in active service -Disabled: lacking one or more physical powers, such as the ability to walk or to coordinate one's movements, as from the effects of a disease or accident, or through mental impairment -Retired: to give up or to cause (a person) to give up his work, a post, etc, esp on reaching pensionable age -Full-time contracts: a person works a minimum number of hours defined as such by his/her employer. -Part-time contracts: a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job.