Meaning & use
agricultural input
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
Something bought and used in farming to produce crops or raise animals, such as seed, fertilizer, feed or fuel.
Grammar: Countable: one agricultural input, several agricultural inputs.
Patterns
- agricultural inputs such as something
- the cost of agricultural inputs
- buy/supply agricultural inputs
The price of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer rose sharply last year.
Small farms often struggle to afford basic agricultural inputs.
The report compares spending on agricultural inputs across three regions.
noununcountabletechnical
The money, materials or services that go into farming, considered as a group.
Grammar: Used as a mass idea with no plural: spending on agricultural input.
Patterns
- investment in agricultural input
- spending on agricultural input
Government spending on agricultural input has fallen since 2019.
They studied how investment in agricultural input affects harvests.
Word forms
| plural | agricultural inputs |
|---|
Common combinations
- agricultural input costs
- Agricultural input costs have risen faster than crop prices.
- supply agricultural inputs
- Local shops supply agricultural inputs to nearby villages.
- subsidize agricultural inputs
- The scheme subsidizes agricultural inputs for smallholders.
- demand for agricultural inputs
- Demand for agricultural inputs grows as the planting season begins.
- agricultural input subsidy
- An agricultural input subsidy can lower the price of seed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- farm supplies
- More everyday and concrete; it names the goods themselves rather than the economic category.
- inputs
- Shorter and used when the farming context is already clear.
Opposites
Word family
- agriculture noun
- The practice or science of farming.
- agricultural adjective
- Relating to farming.
- agriculturalist noun
- A person who studies or works in farming.
Commonly confused: agricultural input or agricultural output?
agricultural input vs agricultural output
Output is what a farm produces, while input is what is put in to produce it; the two are often compared.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'agricultural input' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Agricultural inputs' are things bought to farm with, like seed and fertilizer, so rising costs fit. Option 2 confuses input with output (the harvest), option 3 uses it for an unrelated purchase, and option 4 describes a condition, not a purchased input.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “agricultural input”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.