Agriculture Vocabulary Quiz
12 multiple-choice questions on agriculture and farming vocabulary: crops, livestock, irrigation, harvesting, fertilisers, soil, pesticides and farm machinery. B1–B2 level.
Keep building your agriculture vocabulary.
Agriculture Vocabulary — FAQ
'Crops' are plants that farmers grow on a large scale for food or other uses — such as wheat, maize (corn), rice, potatoes and barley. 'Livestock' are the animals that farmers raise for food, milk, wool or labour — such as cattle (cows), sheep, pigs, goats and poultry (chickens). A farm that grows crops is doing 'arable farming', while a farm that raises animals is doing 'livestock' or 'pastoral farming'. Many farms do both — this is called 'mixed farming'.
To 'harvest' is to gather a crop when it is ripe and ready, usually at the end of the growing season. 'The harvest' can also refer to the crops gathered, or to the time of year when this happens (often late summer or autumn). A 'good harvest' means a large, successful crop, while a 'poor harvest' means a small one, perhaps caused by bad weather or pests. The word is also used figuratively, as in 'to harvest the rewards of hard work'.
Irrigation is the artificial supply of water to crops and soil, used in places or seasons where there is not enough natural rainfall. Methods include channels and ditches, sprinklers, and 'drip irrigation', which delivers water slowly and directly to the roots to save water. Irrigation allows farming in dry regions and helps produce reliable harvests, but using too much water can damage soil through 'waterlogging' or a build-up of salt.
A fertiliser is a substance added to soil to provide nutrients (such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) that help plants grow faster and stronger. A pesticide is a chemical used to kill or control pests — organisms that damage crops, such as insects, weeds or fungi. ('Herbicides' kill weeds, 'insecticides' kill insects and 'fungicides' kill fungi.) In short, fertilisers feed the plants, while pesticides protect them from harm.
Soil is the upper layer of earth in which plants grow, made up of minerals, organic matter, water and air. Its quality is vital in farming: 'fertile' soil is rich in nutrients and good for growing crops, while 'poor' or 'barren' soil is not. Farmers protect soil health through practices such as 'crop rotation' (changing the crop grown in a field each season) and adding organic matter, in order to prevent the soil from becoming exhausted or eroded.
'Yield' is the amount of a crop or product that is produced from a given area of land, usually measured per hectare or per acre. A 'high yield' means a large amount of produce from the land, while a 'low yield' means a small amount. Farmers try to increase yields through better seeds, fertilisers, irrigation and machinery. 'Yield' is used both as a noun ('a good yield') and as a verb ('this field yields ten tonnes of wheat').
Crop rotation is the practice of growing different types of crops in the same field across a sequence of seasons, rather than the same crop year after year. Different crops use and return different nutrients, so rotating them keeps the soil fertile, reduces pests and diseases that build up under one crop, and can improve yields. For example, a farmer might grow a cereal one year, then a legume (such as beans or clover) the next, because legumes add nitrogen back to the soil.
To plough (spelled 'plow' in American English) a field is to turn over the top layer of soil using a tool called a plough, usually pulled by a tractor. This breaks up and loosens the earth, buries weeds and old plant material, and prepares the ground for sowing seeds. Other land-preparation tasks include 'tilling' (cultivating the soil), 'sowing' (planting seeds) and 'weeding' (removing unwanted plants).
'Arable farming' is the growing of crops on ploughed land — such as wheat, barley, vegetables and oilseed rape. 'Pastoral farming' is the raising of animals on grassland (pasture) for meat, milk or wool — such as cattle and sheep. A farm that combines both crops and animals is called a 'mixed farm'. The type of farming in an area often depends on the climate, soil and landscape: flat, fertile lowlands suit arable farming, while hilly, wetter areas often suit pastoral farming.
To 'graze' means for animals such as cattle, sheep or horses to eat grass and other plants growing in a field or on open land. The land they feed on is called 'pasture' or 'grazing land', and the animals themselves are described as 'grazing'. A farmer may 'put the cows out to graze' in spring and 'bring them in' for the winter. 'Overgrazing' — when too many animals eat the grass faster than it can regrow — can damage the land and lead to soil erosion.