Agriculture is the cultivation of plants and animals, especially on a large scale. It includes raising livestock for meat or dairy products, growing crops to provide food or raw materials for industry, and fishing. Agricultural sciences are natural sciences that study agricultural produce.
Agriculture has been practiced since prehistoric times. Its usefulness can’t be understated, it provides us with the necessary components to live healthy lives. Every aspect is important to understand if you want to learn about the basics of agriculture because once you get a grasp on one, it will help you get a better understanding of all the other components. Keep reading to understand the basics of Agriculture.
What is Agriculture?
Agriculture is the science, business, and art of cultivating land for farming to produce food and other products. You can also say it is the process of making use of land to provide products that benefit humans. Agriculture was the foundation on which humans built their civilizations. Throughout the world’s history, people who relied on hunting and gathering were eventually able to transition to agricultural societies because of agriculture’s ability to support more people in a smaller area than hunting does. Early farmers developed tools like pitchforks and plows that made it easier for them to work their fields. Different cultures around the world developed unique ways of doing agriculture.
How To Start Farming?
In order to start a farm, one must first decide what type of crops or animals they would like to grow. Some animals that may be raised on a farm include cows, pigs, and chickens. Whatever you decide to plant, ensure you get the right seeds and if it’s maize, get a seed corn treatment to keep the pests and birds away. Farming requires the use of land and equipment such as tractors and other farming tools to plow fields and plant seeds. One must decide how much land they wish to use to determine whether they will need more than one plot or if they plan to rent an existing farm.
Be sure to consider any legislation involving agriculture before beginning to ensure all laws are followed. Regulations vary greatly from country to country. You can always consult with experienced farmers or agriculturalists for information on successful crops to grow in your area.
Once all the land, equipment, and crops are obtained, one must plant according to their preferred farming methods. Farmers must be sure to protect their crops from natural predators such as bugs and animals who may eat the plants before they are harvested. Farmers also need to worry about diseases that can ruin crops overnight if proper security measures are not taken against them.
Branches of Agriculutre
There are many different branches of agriculture. Some of them include:
- Agricultural Climatology: The study of climate and interacting effects on agricultural practices, especially in relation to unique areas or regions.
- Agroforestry: Involves growing a tree in a field with crops. This provides shade for livestock and helps retain moisture in the soil while also producing fruit or nuts. It can be permanent or temporary depending on what you want out of it.
- Aquaculture: The farming of fish, shellfish, algae, plants, bacteria, snails, and aquatic plants in water environments such as ponds and tanks by means of cultivation by providing food and shelter to them when required In some cases, it can be used to raise other aquatic life.
- Arboretum: Arboretums are primarily used for the conservation, display, and study of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that cannot survive under adverse conditions or greater heights. It is a landscaped area with several different types of trees in an area where they can all thrive together.
- Crop Rotation: This is the practice of growing two or more types of crops in the same area in sequenced seasons so one type of crop has time to recover before being affected by another type.
- Dendrology: The study of woody plants including their taxonomy, structure, physiology, genetics, ecology, uses, and economic impact. Though it isn’t seen as often, trees are vital to agriculture. When woody plants are included during the process of farming it is important to understand them so they can be taken care of.
- Ecology: The study of the distribution and abundance of organism populations as well as their interactions with each other and with what’s around them including humans. It also focuses on how these organisms affect each other within an environment. Without the help of ecological principles, understanding what crops work best together would be challenging
Benefits of Agriculture
Agriculture is not only important for feeding the world, but also has many advantages. The first advantage of agriculture is that it provides food for all 7 billion people living on earth. Agriculture enables the human population to be fed and grow.
Another benefit of agriculture is its ability to provide jobs. Farming requires many workers, both directly and indirectly; those factory workers who make farming equipment. It also creates indirect jobs in areas supporting farming, such as transportation companies filled with employees who deliver goods to stores where consumers can buy groceries.
A third benefit provided by agriculture is that it helps keep the prices down at supermarkets, which keeps employers happy because they are able to offer competitive prices while paying their employees fair wages.
Challenges Farmers Face
Farming is not an easy job and comes with its own unique set of challenges. One challenge farmers face is climate change. With more extreme weather patterns cropping up, such as droughts and heatwaves, farmers must adjust their crops accordingly to be able to properly grow them in all seasons.
There is also the constant risk of disease outbreaks, which can ruin the crops and leave farmers in debt. Farmers may also struggle to find qualified labor, especially if they are located in an area where it is difficult to attract workers due to limited job opportunities.
Farmers may also lack the tools or funds needed to implement new technologies that will help them produce more crops without wasting resources (land, water). Some farmers may file for bankruptcy because farming is increasingly becoming corporate-run where small farmers aren’t able to compete with larger companies who have access to greater funding through banks or investors.
The basics of agriculture are fairly easy to understand once they are broken down into small steps that can be followed easily. By learning these basics about agriculture now, you will be prepared when it comes time for you to make your own farming decisions.
