Cambridge IGCSE Geography (0460): Theme 3.2 – Food production – Revision Notes

These notes condense the Food production study guide. Read that first if a point here is new to you.

These notes cover section 3.2 Food production of the Cambridge IGCSE Geography (0460) syllabus for examination in 2025 and 2026, Version 2 (published November 2022). The section is part of Theme 3: Economic development. It is assessed mainly in Paper 1 Geographical Themes, which mixes resource-based tasks with place-specific writing. Paper 2 Geographical Skills can also set knowledge questions on topics from the three themes. When you have revised, try the practice questions, and track progress on the Cambridge IGCSE Geography hub and checklist.

What the syllabus asks for

• Describe and explain the main features of an agricultural system: inputs, processes and outputs.
• Know the farming types: commercial and subsistence; arable, pastoral and mixed; intensive and extensive.
• Explain how natural inputs (relief, climate, soil) and human inputs (economic, social) influence land use, and how they combine to shape scale of production, methods of organisation and products.
• Recognise the causes and effects of food shortages and describe possible solutions. Natural causes include drought, floods, tropical storms and pests. Economic and political causes include low capital investment, poor distribution and transport difficulties, and wars.
• Know the negative effects of shortages, and how they encourage food aid and measures to increase output.
• Case studies: a farm or agricultural system, and a country or region suffering from food shortages.

Key terms

Term	Definition
Agricultural system	A farm seen as inputs, processes and outputs, linked by feedback
Inputs	Everything a farm needs: natural (relief, climate, soil) and human (economic, social)
Processes	Work that turns inputs into outputs, such as ploughing, transplanting, milking, harvesting
Outputs	Products such as crops, milk and meat, plus waste and by-products
Feedback	Outputs that return as inputs, such as saved seed, manure or reinvested profit
Commercial farming	Producing crops or animals to sell for profit
Subsistence farming	Producing food mainly to feed the farmer’s own household
Arable	Growing crops
Pastoral	Rearing animals
Mixed	Crops and animals on the same farm
Intensive	High inputs of labour or capital per hectare, giving high output per hectare
Extensive	Low inputs per hectare over a large area, giving low output per hectare
Land tenure	The way land is owned or rented
Food shortage	Not enough food produced, or people unable to obtain or afford it
Famine	A severe, widespread food shortage causing deaths from hunger
Malnutrition	Ill health from a diet lacking the right amount or balance of nutrients
Food aid	Food, or money for food, given by governments, the UN or charities
High-yielding varieties (HYV)	Crop strains bred to produce more grain, usually needing fertiliser and water
Appropriate technology	Simple, affordable tools that local people can build and repair

Case studies at a glance

Case study	What it shows	Key facts	One evaluation point
Wet rice farming, Bangladesh (farm or agricultural system)	Subsistence, arable, intensive system	Flat Ganges-Brahmaputra delta with alluvium and monsoon rain; rice on 76% of cropped area and over 13 million farms; three seasons: aus, aman (rain-fed, harvested Nov-Dec), boro (irrigated dry season, now the leading crop); about 39.1 million tonnes in 2022-23	Shows how natural and human inputs combine, but boro needs costly inputs, so poorer farmers gain less
Wheat farming, Canadian Prairies (contrast)	Commercial, arable, extensive system	Large, mechanised farms in provinces such as Saskatchewan; wheat, oats, barley, canola; early homesteads of 160 acres grew much larger; south-west prone to drought	Good contrast in capital and scale; use it as a contrast, not as your only farm case
Somalia 2010-2012 (country or region with food shortages)	Drought plus conflict turning shortage into famine	Worst drought in 60 years; April-June 2011 rain under 30% of the 1995-2010 average in many areas; famine declared 20 July 2011 in Lower Shabelle and Bakool; prices up to 240% higher; more than 920,000 refugees by mid-September 2011; death toll estimates about 50,000 to 260,000; famine declared over February 2012	Shows natural and political causes interacting; death toll estimates vary, so present a range
Green Revolution, India (measure to increase output)	HYV seeds, fertiliser and irrigation	From the 1960s; linked to Norman Borlaug’s wheat; raised wheat and rice output in states such as Punjab	Output rose, but groundwater use and input costs are criticised

Must-know distinctions

• Commercial vs subsistence: about who the food is for. Many farms do both, so describe the main purpose.
• Intensive vs extensive: about inputs and output per hectare, not farm wealth. A large, mechanised wheat farm is extensive.
• Natural vs human inputs: relief, climate and soil are natural. Capital, markets, transport, government policy, land tenure and tradition are human.
• Food shortage vs famine: famine is the extreme end, with widespread deaths.
• Emergency vs long-term aid: emergency food saves lives now; long-term free food can depress local prices.
• Causes vs effects: drought is a cause; malnutrition and migration are effects. Keep them in separate paragraphs.

Solutions in brief

Response	Strength	Weakness
Emergency food aid	Saves lives quickly in famine	Costly to move; can be blocked or stolen in war zones
Cash transfers (hawala, mobile phones in Somalia 2011)	People buy local food, which supports local traders	Only works if food is on sale and prices are not too high
Irrigation (tubewells, small dams)	Allows a dry-season crop, such as boro rice	Pumps cost money and can lower water tables
HYV seeds and fertiliser	Large rise in output per hectare	Richer farmers benefit most; needs water and money
Appropriate technology (hand pumps, storage silos)	Cheap, local, cuts losses after harvest	Raises output less than large schemes
Early warning and pest control	Action before crops are lost	Needs funding and working transport to respond

Mini essay plan

Question type: “To what extent were natural causes more important than economic and political causes of food shortage in a country or region you have studied?”

1. Introduction: name the place and dates (southern Somalia, 2010-2012). Define food shortage and famine in one sentence each.
2. Natural causes: drought described as the worst in 60 years; April-June 2011 rain under 30% of the 1995-2010 average in many areas; livestock losses of 40-60% in some areas. Explain the chain from failed rain to lost income and food.
3. Economic causes: food prices up to 240% higher in the south; poor households could not buy food. Low investment meant little irrigation or storage.
4. Political causes: conflict involving al-Shabaab; aid restricted and some operations suspended; famine declared in Lower Shabelle and Bakool on 20 July 2011.
5. Judgement: drought triggered the crisis, but conflict and blocked aid explain why it became famine in southern Somalia while the same drought did not bring a famine declaration elsewhere in the region. Answer “to what extent” directly.

Quick self-test

1. Name the three natural inputs listed in the syllabus.
2. Is “transplanting seedlings” an input, process or output?
3. Define extensive farming.
4. Give one example of feedback in a farming system.
5. Classify Bangladeshi wet rice farming using all three type pairs.
6. Which Bangladeshi rice season is grown in the dry season with irrigation?
7. Name the four natural causes of food shortage listed in the syllabus.
8. Name the three economic and political causes listed.
9. When and where did the UN declare famine in Somalia?
10. Give one disadvantage of long-term food aid.
11. What three things did the Green Revolution combine?

Answers

1. Relief, climate and soil.
2. A process.
3. Farming with low inputs of labour or capital per hectare over a large area, giving low output per hectare.
4. Saving seed for next year, spreading manure, or reinvesting profit in machinery.
5. Mainly subsistence, arable and intensive.
6. Boro.
7. Drought, floods, tropical storms and pests.
8. Low capital investment, poor distribution or transport difficulties, and wars.
9. 20 July 2011, in Lower Shabelle and Bakool in southern Somalia.
10. Free food can lower local prices, so local farmers earn less and may grow less (or: it can create dependence).
11. High-yielding seeds, fertiliser and irrigation.

Where marks are usually lost

• Describing inputs without linking them to land use, scale, organisation or products.
• Saying a farm is intensive because it is mechanised, rather than judging inputs per hectare.
• Putting labour or rainfall in the process box of a systems diagram.
• Giving only drought as a cause when the syllabus lists floods, tropical storms, pests, low capital investment, transport problems and wars.
• Case study answers with no place name, dates or figures.
• Writing about effects when the question asks for causes, or about causes when it asks for solutions.
• One-sided answers on food aid or the Green Revolution with no judgement.
• Quoting a single famine death toll as certain when estimates vary widely.

Links

• Full explanations and worked paragraphs: study guide.
• Test yourself: practice questions.
• Related revision: population and settlement revision notes and natural environment revision notes.
• Course overview: Cambridge IGCSE Geography hub and checklist.

Official syllabus

These notes follow the Cambridge IGCSE Geography (0460) syllabus for examination in 2025 and 2026, Version 2 (published November 2022), section 3.2 Food production.