• It is a source of employment
• It contributes to the gross national product
• It is a good source of protein food to the population
• It has led to the emergence of food processing industries e.g. creameries

1. Extensive agriculture

1. Extensive subsistence

1. Shifting cultivation

It is a primitive system of subsistence farming, where farmers cultivate on a piece of land and moves to a new piece of land carrying cultivation along with his belongings.

Characteristics

• The farmer cultivate the land and later abandon it
• This is a low production level but it has a high sustainability because it doesn’t require only input of fertilizers and manure
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• It is practice in area with low population density
• Labour is provided mainly by the farmers and his family
• The use of simple equipment
• The farmer depends on fertile nature

Factors affecting shifting cultivation

• Small farming sizes
• Poor farming techniques
• Rapid exhaustion of soil fertility
• Reluctance to accept changed

2. Bush fallowing

This is an improved system of shifting cultivation where population density is higher. This type of farming is common Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Characteristics

• It is more modernized than shifting cultivation
• The farmer moves or leaves the farm land before coming back
• Manure is not important to the farmer so output is low
• Plant wither in recognition
• Population density is usually low

Factors affecting bush fallowing

• Rapid exhaustion of soils
• Low population density

2. Extensive commercial (livestock ranching)

Ranching is the commercial rearing of animal in an enclosed area or fence for meat, skin and wool.

Characteristics

• Ranches are between 10-100Km²
• The ranches have between 10000 to 25000 animals
• Animals are fed both with natural and cultivated pasture
• Ranches are scientifically managed, that is they have automatic feeding towers and a veterinary surgeon who constantly attend to the animals