Global trade and commercialization impact agricultural yields through increased production. In Australia, farmers produce 93% of domestic food but export 60% of total production, feeding 40 million overseas. As countries rely on imports, global trade drives higher yields. Commercialization also increased yields as farms intensified production for market sales rather than subsistence. Livestock export exemplifies these factors, with Australia exporting $5 billion in beef annually to meet foreign demand.

1. Economic Factors
Affecting Agricultural
Yields
Sustainable Biomes – Topic 1

2. Economic Factors in Agriculture
Learning Goals
◻To understand how global trade effects agricultural yields.
◻To understand how commercialisation effects agricultural yields
Success Criteria
1. I can explain the impact of global trade on agricultural yields .
2. I can explain the impact of commercialisation on agricultural yields .

3. Economic Factors in Agriculture
1. Finish the first activity
■ Using your own research, in your google docs define the following terms:
Term Research Definition Own Definition
International trade
Commercialisation
Commodity

4. Economic Factors in Agriculture
o What are some (any) factors that will impact how much a farm
yields?
o Explain how these factors impact farm yields.
Factors that
affect farming
yields
Soil Quality.
Soil quality determines how
well a crop will grow and
impacts the quality of the
crop. Therefore affecting
yields.
Economic
Technology
Environment

5. Write this down.
As well as environmental and technological factors that affect
how farms produces crops…
Economics can also be a factor.
Environment Technology Economic Agricultural
Yields

6. Economic Factors that Impact Agriculture.
o Global Trade:
o The world is highly interconnected, and many of the products we consume have been
grown/built/developed overseas.
o In 2012 Australian farmers produced around 93% of the food consumed in Australia, as well as being
able to export around 60% of the total produce grown in Australia, feeding around 40 million people
outside Australia each day.
o As countries struggle to produce enough food to feed their people, more countries became
dependent on global trade to provide the necessary crops/animals to sustain their population.
Create a diagram which illustrates the percentages of food produced in Australia and food sent overseas

7. Write this down:
Economic Factors that Impact Agriculture.
o Commercialisation:
o For most of history, people have traditionally grown enough food to feed
their family / some extra for taxes or to trade. This called Subsistence
Farming.
o Since the 1700s, innovations in technology have meant that farms can
produce far more food with less workers, meaning that people can work
in different jobs and buy their food with the money they earn.
o Most developed nations use Intensive Farming – crops produced to sell.

8. Case Study – Live Export from Australia
◻Watch http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s3236813.htm and
answer the following questions in your book:
o What is live export?
o What is the issue with live export?
o What has the government done to deal with live export?

9. Write this down:
Case Study – Live Export from Australia
◻Live export is an example of how Global trade drives
agricultural yields in Australia.
◻ Around 60% of Australian beef is exported, worth around $5
Billion (Beef export) and $600 million (Live export).
◻Live export is a product of demand in several countries in the
Middle-East and South-East Asia for live meat, specifically a
desire for freshness and/or Social-Cultural practice.

10. Case Study – Live Export from Australia
◻Read the “Live export cattle price hits record $4 per kilo, but
Indonesian feedlots warn market unsustainable” news article
and answer the following questions:
o Write a summary of the article
o What is the economic impact stated in the article?
o Who is affected?