Topic 5.2: Agriculture and Food Questions

Land is often described as a finite resource. Explain why land is described as a finite resource.

Reports on food systems separate food loss from food waste. Distinguish between food loss and food waste.

Cattle and sheep release methane as they digest grass. Outline two ways to reduce methane released by ruminants.

Figure 1 shows the area of new cropland created each year in Highveld County, a made-up region, by what the land was used for before. Identify where most of the additional land for growing crops came from between 2000 and 2019.

In the 1960s, farmers in Punjab, India, changed the way they grew wheat. Outline two of the inputs the Green Revolution used to increase crop yields.

The groups most at risk in land-use decisions often have a low socio-economic status. Identify two groups that may be marginalized in land-use decisions.

Energy passes along a food chain from crops to cattle to people. State the approximate percentage of energy passed from one trophic level to the next.

A farmer in Tuscany changes from ploughing up and down a slope to ploughing along the contour lines. State the name of this method.

Figure 1 shows the area of new cropland created each year in Coastmark, a made-up region, by what the land was used for before. Identify where most of the additional land for growing crops came from between 2000 and 2019.

Farming and forestry together cover most of the world's land that is not ice. State the approximate percentage of the world's ice-free land used for agriculture and forestry.

In a grassland, the grass fixes 20,000 kJ per square metre per year, and the cattle grazing it gain 1,800 kJ per square metre per year. Calculate the efficiency of energy transfer from the grass to the cattle.

Using the data, calculate the percentage of lamb's total carbon footprint that comes from the farm stage. Give your answer to the nearest whole number.

Livestock farming releases several greenhouse gases. State two greenhouse gases released by livestock farming.

Humans are described as omnivorous. Outline what this means for human diets.

In Mexico, farmers grow beans among their maize. Outline how growing legumes such as beans reduces the need for synthetic fertilizer.

Rice farmers in Bali cut step-like flat fields into the hillsides. Identify this soil conservation method.

Pineapples in Costa Rica are grown in large fields that are ploughed and left bare between plantings. State how soil degradation from growing pineapples could be reduced.

After heavy rain, a sloping maize field in Bavaria shows rills (small channels) and muddy runoff entering a stream. Identify the soil degradation process and state one technique to reduce it.

A wheat farm uses seeds, tractors, fertilizer and irrigation. Identify two inputs to this food production system.

Figure 1 shows the area of new cropland created each year in Delta Province, a made-up region, by what the land was used for before. Identify where most of the additional land for growing crops came from between 2000 and 2019.