Thursday, November 9, 2023

General questions.

How do you distinguish between commercial farming and subsistence farming on a 1:50 000 topographic map?

Commercial farming

Subsistence farming

·        The farm will usually have a name.

·        Farm road to farm buildings connecting with formal roads (e.g. secondary road)

·        Many farm buildings

·        Advance farming features such as dams, canals, windpumps, silos.

·        Large cultivated lands (use of tractors)

·        Cultivated lands have geometric shapes (tractors can plow in straight lines)

·        No names

·        No or few “other roads” not connected to formal roads.

·        No farm buildings, only huts

·        No advanced farming features such as dams, canals, windpumps (don’t have the capital or technology to build these).

·        Small cultivated lands and fragmented.

·        Irregular shaped cultivated lands due to the use of basic ploughing methods.