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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Agriculture
General
Agribusiness · Agriculture
Agricultural science · Agronomy
Animal husbandry
Extensive farming
Factory farming · Free range
Industrial agriculture
Intensive farming
Organic farming · Permaculture
Sustainable agriculture
Urban agriculture
History
History of agriculture
Neolithic Revolution
Muslim Agricultural Revolution
British Agricultural Revolution
Green Revolution
Particular
Aquaculture · Christmas trees · Dairy farming
Grazing · Hydroponics · IMTA
Intensive pig farming · Lumber
Maize · Orchard
Poultry farming · Ranching · Rice
Sheep husbandry · Soybean
System of Rice Intensification
Wheat
Categories
Agriculture by country
Agriculture companies
Agriculture companies, U.S.
Biotechnology
Farming history
Livestock
Meat processing
Poultry farming
Agropedia portal
Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants, animals and other life forms. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science.
Agriculture encompasses many subjects, including aquaculture, agronomy, animal husbandry, and horticulture. Each of these subjects can be further partitioned: for example, agronomy includes both sustainable agriculture and intensive farming, and animal husbandry includes ranching, herding, and intensive pig farming. Agricultural products include food (vegetables, fruits, and cereals), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine), and other useful materials such as resins. Recently, crops have been designed to produce plastic[1] as well as pharmaceuticals.[2]
The history of agriculture is a central element of human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Wealth-building and militaristic specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures are commonplace in agricultural and agro-industrial societieswhen farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in the tribe/village/City-state/nation/empire were freed to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Jared Diamond, among others, has argued that the development of civilization required agriculture.
In 2007, an estimated 35 percent of the world's workers were employed in agriculture (from 42% in 1996). However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2003 for the first time in history the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.[3] Despite the fact that agriculture employs over one-third of the world's population, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products).[4]
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