Key:farming_system

Currently this tag is use in Nepal to discriminate between two traditional farming systems with different characteristics in terms of irrigation=*, crops grown and numbers of harvests in the year. These are bari and khet (see below)

Values

Descriptions are based on a  FAO document[1].

• khet: irrigated=* farmland. Below 900 m this produces three crops a year, usually based upon two crops of rice and one of winter wheat. Above this altitude two crops per year are grown, one being of rice and the second again a winter crop of wheat or vegetables.
• bari: Rainfed farmland. Cropping patterns involve a maize and finger millet relay system as the basis, and the degree to which these two are intercropped again depends upon altitude

Potential Usage

There is considerable scope for extending the use of this tag to farming across the world. For instance in Britain one might want to discriminate between (inter alia): hill farms. mixed farms, intensive animal husbandry (eg chickens, pigs), livery farms (mainly grazing horses used for leisure purposes), arable farms, etc. Elsewhere extensive lifestock farms (ranches, estancias) are a feature in many places in the Americas and Australia.

At the time of writing there is considerable interest in idenfitying the intensive feedlot farm locations in the US.

Some thought perhaps needs to be made as to suitable more generic tags: particularly to capture nuances of traditional farming systems.