Agriculture research has happened continuously from the moment humans started shifting food acquisition ways from the hunter-gatherer and agrarian. Early goal of the agricultural research was just better ways of producing food. Since humans & agriculture progressed, the agricultural research widened in diseases and pests control much better cultivars, better fields and animal rearing facilities, food crops improvement, as well as basic biological knowledge of plants & animals. Early studies were quite empirical, which was trial and error. Nonetheless, these were forerunners of the agricultural research & in a lot of ways forerunners of a lot of different types of the scientific investigation.
What’s the type of agriculture?
In basic term, agriculture can be described as an act of growing the crops as well as raising livestock for the human consumption & use. At present, agriculture gets divided in two different kinds, which includes industrialized agriculture & subsistence agriculture.
Kinds of Agriculture
Just imagine the family farm on small land plot and huge commercial farm, which spans acres & acres of land. So, what do you really think makes these kinds of farms very different? Even though both of the farms are made to produce food, but they vary in methods of the production, amount of food that they produce as well as who consumes this food produced.
Industrialized Agriculture
The industrialized agriculture is one kind of the agriculture where huge quantities of livestock and crops are produced through the industrialized methods for purpose of sale. Goal of the industrialized agriculture will be increasing the crop yield that is an amount of food produced for every land unit. Crops & livestock made through such kind of the agriculture are produced for feeding masses and products are sold all over the world.
Subsistence Agriculture
Even though industrialized agriculture is essential to feed growing human population, and there’s another kind of agriculture regularly practiced. Subsistence agriculture is actually when the farmer lives on the small land and makes enough food for feeding their household and has small cash crop. Goal of the subsistence agriculture is producing sufficient food to make sure survival of individual family. Suppose there’s excess food produced, sold locally to families and individuals.
Shifting agriculture:
It is yet another kind of the agriculture where piece of the forest land gets cleared mainly by the tribal people just by felling & burning of the crops and trees are grown. And after 2 to 3 years when fertility of soil in cleared land reduces, it’s abandoned and tribe shifts to other land piece.
Which kind of activity is in agriculture?
Whenever we produce any good by exploiting the natural resources, it’s the activity of the primary sector. It is because this forms base for other products, which we make subsequently. As most of natural products come from agriculture, fishing, dairy, forestry, the sector is called as agriculture & related sector.
Examples of the agricultural practices
Over past some years of science & practice, many key sustainable practices have actually emerged like:
- Planting cover crops.
- Rotating crops & embracing diversity.
- Integrated pest management.
- Reducing and eliminating tillage.
- Adopting agro-forestry practices.
- Integrating crops and livestock.
