Over 1,000 million farmers work the land: men and women, young and
old. Farming requires a wide variety of skills: farmers must
understand soil types, know when to plant and harvest and what types
of crops to rotate, when to apply organic or man-made fertilisers and
pesticides, and be able to harvest and market their produce. Around 50
million farmers live in developed countries where farms are very large
and highly mechanized. Most food in these countries is produced by
large-scale, commercial operations which often integrate food
production with processing, marketing and distribution in a complete
system. Large-scale farmers usually specialize in one or two crops and
nearly all of their produce is sold. They depend on external, often
costly products or services such as chemical fertiliser, high-yielding
seeds and mechanization.