Agriculture - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# Agriculture

### From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Agriculture is the growing of crops or keeping of animals by people for food and raw materials. Agriculture is also called farming.

## [edit] Overview

Agriculture is growing food for people and animals, and also other things, like flowers, ornamental plants (plants people use to make their homes prettier) and nursery plants (plants people buy to grow food on their own farms and land), manure or dung, animal hides (skins or furs), leather, industrial chemicals (starch, ethanol, and plastics), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, and flax), fuels (methane, biodiesel, biomass), and drugs (biopharmaceuticals, marijuana, opium)

Agriculture may have started more than 10,000 years ago, but no one knows for sure how old it is. Agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent in East Asia. The area called Fertile Crescent is now in the countries of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. Wheat and barley are some of the first crops people grew. People probably started agriculture slowly by planting a few crops, but still gathered (got) many foods from the wild. People may have started farming because the weather and soil began to change. Farming can feed many more people than gathering on the same amount of land.

Many people live by doing what is called subsistence agriculture, on a small farm. Only the farmer's family lives on the farm. Subsistence agriculture is growing only enough food to feed the farmer, his family, and his animals. Extra food or animals are sold for money or other things the farmer cannot grow. The yield is the amount of food grown on a given amount of land, and the yield is often low, because subsistence farmers are less educated, and they have less money to buy equipment. When yields are low, forests are sometimes cut to provide new land to grow food. This is good in the short term, but can be bad for the country and the land in the long term.

In rich countries, farms are often much larger and the yield on farms has gotten bigger in the last one hundred years, because farmers grow better varieties of plants, use more fertilizer, use more water, and have less weeds and pests. Also, many farms use machines, so they need fewer farmers. So, there are fewer farmers in rich countries, but they produce more food. This kind of intensive agriculture also makes problems. Farmers use a lot of chemical fertilizers, pesticides (chemicals that kill bugs), and herbicides (chemicals that kill weeds). They sometimes pollute the soil or the water. They sometimes create stronger bugs and weeds. The soil is sometimes damaged by erosion (blowing or washing away), salt buildup, or loss of structure. Irrigation (adding water from rivers) can pollute water and lower the water table. Having fewer farmers also changes society and can make a country less able to feed itself in bad times.

### [edit] Agriculture techniques

There are many techniques to cultivate crops. Some of them are :

- Hydroponic
- Tillage by plough
- Irrigation
- Fertilizers
- Crop rotation
- Weed removal
- Breeding
- Fencing
- Ranching

Farmers selected plants with better yield, more resistance to disease, more tolerance to drought, easier to harvest, with better taste, and better nutritional value. Centuries of careful selection and breeding have had enormous effects on the characteristics of crop plants. The crops give better yield with other techniques (use of fertilizers, chemical pest control, irrigation). For example, the yields of wheat in France are over 90 qx/ha. In South America, the yields are 20 qx/ha. In Africa, the yields are less than 10 qx/ha.

Some companies have been searching for new plants in poor countries, and genetically modify these plants. They try to patent the seeds, and can sell them back in the poor countries.

New plants were created with genetic engineering. They are modified to resist to an herbicide for example.

## [edit] Food

It is important for there to be enough food for everyone. The food must also be safe and of good quality. Some people say the food is not always good. They say it is sometimes not safe, because it contains some chemicals. Other people say intensive agriculture is damaging the environment. For this reason, there are several types of agriculture.

Traditional agriculture is mostly done in poor countries.

Intensive agriculture is mostly done in western countries. It uses pesticides, machinery, chemical fertilizers. Organic farming is using only natural products. Integrated farming is using local resources, and trying to use the waste from one process as a resource in another process.

Agricultural policy focuses on the goals and methods of agricultural production. At the policy level, common goals of agriculture include:

- Food safety: to be sure that the food supply is safe.
- Food security: to be sure there is enough food for everyone.
- Food quality: to be sure the food is of good quality.

## [edit] Problems in agriculture

There are some serious problems that face people trying to grow food. These include

- Erosion
- Plant diseases
- Pests
- Weeds
- Drought
- Too much rainfall
- many non-arable lands

## [edit] Crops

The major crops produced in the world in 2002, are maize (corn), wheat, rice, and cotton.

  Maize 624 millions of metric tons
  Wheat 570 millions of metric tons
  Rice 381.1 millions of metric tons
  Cotton 96.5 millions of metric tons

See also: List of domesticated plants, List of vegetables, List of herbs, List of fruit, List of domesticated animals

## [edit] See also

- Agricultural science
- International agricultural research
- Timeline of agriculture and food technology.
- Agricultural sciences basic topics
- List of subsistence techniques
- List of sustainable agriculture topics
- Arid-zone agriculture
- Community Supported Agriculture

There are specialty producers who raise less common types of livestock or plants.

Aquaculture, the farming of fish, shrimp, and algae, is closely associated with agriculture.

Apiculture, the culture of bees, traditionally for honey, increasingly for crop pollination.

Animal husbandry means breeding and raising animals for meat or to harvest animal products (like milk, eggs, or wool) on a continual basis.

Retrieved from "http://simple.wikipedia.org../../../a/g/r/Agriculture.html"

Category: Agriculture

##### Views

- Article
- Talk
- Newest version

##### Search

##### In other languages

- العربية
- Aragonés
- Asturianu
- Bamanankan
- Беларуская
- Bosanski
- Brezhoneg
- Български
- Català
- Чăвашла
- Cebuano
- Česky
- Cymraeg
- Dansk
- Deutsch
- Eesti
- English
- Español
- Esperanto
- Euskara
- فارسی
- Français
- Frysk
- Furlan
- Gaeilge
- Gàidhlig
- Galego
- 한국어
- हिन्दी
- Ido
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Interlingua
- ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ
- Íslenska
- Italiano
- עברית
- ქართული
- Ladino
- Latina
- Lietuvių
- Limburgs
- Lojban
- Magyar
- Македонски
- Nahuatl
- Nederlands
- Nedersaksisch
- 日本語
- ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬
- ‪Norsk (nynorsk)‬
- Nouormand
- Oyghurque
- پښتو
- Plattdüütsch
- Polski
- Português
- Română
- Runa Simi
- Русский
- Shqip
- Sicilianu
- Slovenščina
- Српски / Srpski
- Srpskohrvatski / Српскохрватски
- Basa Sunda
- Suomi
- Svenska
- Tagalog
- தமிழ்
- Tiếng Việt
- ᏣᎳᎩ
- Türkçe
- Українська
- Vèneto
- Võro
- 中文
- 古文 / 文言文