Meaning

Agriculture refers to the cultivation of fields and land in addition to the breeding of plants and animals to provide fiber, food, medicinal products, etc.

The objective is to enhance and sustain the quality of life. Agriculture can definitely get called as a significant development in the sedentary human civilization.

History of Agriculture

Agriculture was an idea that saw the light of the day in the middle stone age when the Early Man first started forming settlements and communities. The primitive stone implements were the tools for cultivating the land. Till a few decades back, modern versions of the similar instruments came to existence. That went on until the introduction of mechanized farming. Tilling of the land with the help of Oxen, irrigation by wells and using scythes to cut the crop.

The more the number of laborers on the farm, the better it was for the harvest. Dairies too were dependant on the number of hands that could milk the cows and tend to the other animals. Shifting agriculture allowed the crops to draw in the required minerals from the land.

Modern Agriculture

Modern agriculture is almost entirely mechanized. Right from the tractors used for tilling the land, sprinklers watering the farm and large combine harvester machines that cut thresh and bind the crop and high-quality storage facilities to increase the life of the yield.

The dairy industry is highly mechanized with robotic milking systems to have multiple cows milked at the same time and the milk collected and stored hygienically.

A lot of research has gone into agriculture to raise the quality of crops by genetically modifying them or by providing better conditions and nutrients.

Benefits of Agriculture

Agriculture and farming have a lot of benefits for the human civilization. Some of them are:

• Agriculture provides food for human beings including meats, fruits, and vegetables.
• It also provides food to the animal kind.
• It is the only source of livelihood for farmers, transporters, agronomists, etc. whose entire life depends on agriculture.
• Agriculture also provides raw materials including bamboo, cotton, sisal, etc.
• Good agricultural practices also assist in reducing pollution and conserving the natural sanctity of the environment.
• Most of all, agriculture contributes to achieving a greener environment by creating vegetation that is natural rather than rocks and bare soil.
• You can also count on a significant amount of water conservation when indulging in good agricultural practices as drip irrigation assists in saving water to a great extent.

Conclusion

Even though it’s changing, agriculture is also now one of the most critical activities and industries because it provides food and means of subsistence to everyone across the world.