Agricultural productivity
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Agricultural productivity, for econmists, is often assessed by measuring the production of an agricultural good (e.g. the yield of a food crop) and by estimating its value on the market, thus knowing the potential for profits.
[edit] Productive farms
Nevertheless, for many farmers (especially in non-industrial countries) agricultural productivity' may mean much more.[citation needed] A productive farm is one that provides most of the resources necessary for the farmers family to live, such as food, fuel, fibre, healing plants, etc. It is a farm which ensures food security as well as a way to sustain the well-being of a community. This implies a productive farm is also one which is able to ensure proper management of natural resources, such as biodiversity, soil, water, etc. For most farmers, a productive farm would also produce more goods than required for the community in order to allow trade.
Diversity in agricultural production is one key to productivity, as it enables risk management and preserves potentials for adaptation and change. Monoculture is an example of such a nondiverse production system. In a monocultural system a farmer may produce only crops, but no livestock, or only livestock and no crop.
The benefits of raising livestock, among others, are that it provides multiple goods, such as food, wool, hides, and transportation. It also has an important value in term of social relationships (such as gifts in weddings). In case of famine, when crops are not sufficient to ensure food safety, livestock can be used as food. Livestock may also provide manure, which can be used to fertilize cultivated soils, which increases soil productivity. On the other hand, in an agricultural system based only on raising livestock, food has to be bought to other farmers, and wastes produced cannot be easily disposed of.
Production has many functions, and diversity is the foundation of such production. To ignore the complex functions provided by a farm is thought by many to turn agricultural production into a commodity.[citation needed]
