Farming systems classified by intensity, purpose, and inputs, ranging from low-input subsistence agriculture for the farmer's own use to high-input commercial agriculture for the market.
- Subsistence farming is grown mainly for the family; primitive (shifting) subsistence such as jhum (slash and burn, called jhum in the northeast, podu in Andhra) and intensive subsistence (small plots, heavy labour, high yields) as in the Ganga plain rice belt.
- Commercial farming is for sale and uses high inputs; it includes commercial grain farming, plantation agriculture (single cash crop on a large estate, like tea, coffee, rubber, planted by Europeans in the colonial era), and mixed farming (crops with livestock together).
- Other recognised types: dry farming (in low-rainfall areas with drought-resistant crops), wet farming (high rainfall, rice), and extensive (large area, low input per hectare) versus intensive (small area, high input).
- Plantation farming is capital intensive, market oriented, and usually mono-crop with processing on or near the estate.
- Modern variants include organic farming (no synthetic chemicals), terrace farming on hill slopes, and contract farming.
The subsistence versus commercial divide, shifting cultivation and its Indian names (jhum, podu), plantation features, and intensive versus extensive contrasts are recurring agriculture facts.
Intensive (high input on small land) versus extensive (low input on large land); subsistence (own use) versus commercial (for sale); plantation (single cash crop estate) versus mixed farming (crops plus livestock).
Subsistence (shifting, intensive) versus commercial (grain, plantation, mixed), set apart by purpose and input intensity.