Agri-business
Also called: Agribusiness · Topic: Primary Activities: Gathering, Pastoralism, Agriculture and Mining · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 5 "Secondary Activities"
Meaning
Agri-business is commercial farming on an industrial scale. It is often paid for by firms whose main business lies outside farming, such as corporations that own tea estates. Its farms are large, mechanised (run with machines), highly organised and heavily dependent on chemicals. Because they work like factories that produce crops, they are called "agro-factories". NCERT teaches the term in Class 12, Secondary Activities, because such farming is run like an industry.
Example
Large business groups own tea estates in Assam and run them as big, managed companies, with their own processing and selling.
Don't confuse with
- Plantation agriculture: the term describes a farming system, defined by its estate, single crop and colonial origin. Agri-business describes who pays for and runs the farm: a company whose main business is outside farming. A plantation can be run as an agri-business, but the two terms are not the same.