Agriculture with a high level of capital and labour inputs, and high yields. ‘Intensive cropping systems, in which large areas of land [are] cultivated permanently (or with relatively short fallow periods) through the use of labor, irrigation water, and its dissolved nutrients, knowledge, and other inputs, develops synergistically with socially and culturally complex human societies’ (Vitousek and Chaplin (2013) Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene). Phillips (1998) Appl. Geog. 18, 3 provides a gloomy list of the effects of agricultural intensification in Italy: declining frequency of crop rotations; increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; more up- and downslope tillage; and enlarged fields. Mechanization has led to a decline in draught cattle numbers, causing loss of agricultural employment, and a fall in soil fertility. See Kasente et al. (2000) UNRISD Occ. Paper 12, on the intensification of non-traditional agricultural exports.