1.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
2.
History of agriculture
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The history of agriculture records the domestication of plants and animals and the development and dissemination of techniques for raising them productively. Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a range of taxa. At least eleven separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 20,000 BC. From around 9,500 BC, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Rice was domesticated in China between 11,500 and 6,200 BC, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans, pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 13,000 BC, followed by sheep between 11,000 and 9,000 BC. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. Sugarcane and some vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 7,000 BC. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 5,000 BC, in the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 8,000 and 5,000 BC, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Bananas were cultivated and hybridized in the period in Papua New Guinea. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was domesticated to maize by 4,000 BC, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 3,600 BC. Camels were domesticated late, perhaps around 3,000 BC, irrigation, crop rotation, and fertilizers were introduced soon after the Neolithic Revolution and developed much further in the past 200 years, starting with the British Agricultural Revolution. The Haber-Bosch process allowed the synthesis of nitrate fertilizer on an industrial scale. Modern agriculture has raised social, political, and environmental issues including pollution, biofuels, genetically modified organisms, tariffs. In response, organic farming developed in the century as a consciously pesticide-free alternative. Scholars have developed a number of hypotheses to explain the origins of agriculture. Current models indicate that wild stands that had been harvested previously started to be planted, localised climate change is the favoured explanation for the origins of agriculture in the Levant. When major climate change took place after the last ice age and these conditions favoured annual plants which die off in the long dry season, leaving a dormant seed or tuber. An abundance of readily storable wild grains and pulses enabled hunter-gatherers in some areas to form the first settled villages at this time, early people began altering communities of flora and fauna for their own benefit through means such as fire-stick farming and forest gardening very early
3.
Arab Agricultural Revolution thesis
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He listed eighteen crops that were widely diffused during the Islamic period, including four staple crops, namely durum wheat, Asiatic rice, sorghum, and cotton. He also argued that such as irrigation were spread across the region at that time. Watsons proposal was an extension of the Spanish historian Antonia Garcia Maceiras 1876 hypothesis of a revolution in Al-Andalus. It also recalled the Belgian economic historian Henri Pirennes 1939 view of the way that a seventh century Islamic maritime power in the Mediterranean had isolated Europe from trading there, Watsons work was met with some early scepticism, for example from the historian Jeremy Johns in 1984. Johns however concluded that The hypothesis of an Abbasid agricultural revolution is challenging, the historian Eliyahu Ashtor wrote in 1976 that agricultural production declined in areas of Iraq and Egypt, on the basis of records of taxes collected on cultivated areas. In the case of cotton, which the Romans grew mainly in Egypt, cultivation remained minor in the classical Islamic period, squatriti noted that Watson had originally trained in economics, and applied this interest to his historical studies. Squatriti described Watsons paper as concise and elegant, and popular for its usefulness in supporting many different historians agendas
4.
Farm
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A farm is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops, it is the basic facility in food production. It includes ranches, feedlots, orchards, plantations and estates, smallholdings and hobby farms, in modern times the term has been extended so as to include such industrial operations as wind farms and fish farms, both of which can operate on land or sea. Farming originated independently in different parts of the world, as hunter gatherer societies transitioned to food production rather than, food capture. It may have started about 12,000 years ago with the domestication of livestock in the Fertile Crescent in western Asia, modern farms in developed countries are highly mechanized. In Europe, traditional farms are giving way to larger production units. In Australia, some farms are large because the land is unable to support a high stocking density of livestock because of climatic conditions. In less developed countries, small farms are the norm, the word is from the medieval Latin noun firma, also the source of the French word ferme, meaning a fixed agreement, contract, from the classical Latin adjective firmus meaning strong, stout, firm. Farming has been innovated at multiple different points and places in human history and it was the worlds first historically verifiable revolution in agriculture. Subsequent step-changes in human farming practices were provoked by the British Agricultural Revolution in the 18th century, farming spread from the Middle East to Europe and by 4,000 BC people that lived in the central part of Europe were using oxen to pull plows and wagons. A farm may operate under a system or with a variety of cereal or arable crops. Specialist farms are often denoted as such, thus a dairy farm, fish farm, some farms may not use the word at all, hence vineyard, orchard, market garden or truck farm. Some farms may be denoted by their location, such as a hill farm. Many other terms are used to describe farms to denote their methods of production, as in collective, corporate, intensive, organic or vertical. There are many breeds of cattle that can be milked some of the best producing ones include Holstein, Norwegian Red, Kostroma, Brown Swiss, in most Western countries, a centralized dairy facility processes milk and dairy products, such as cream, butter, and cheese. In the United States, these dairies are usually local companies, dairy farms generally sell male calves for veal meat, as dairy breeds are not normally satisfactory for commercial beef production. Many dairy farms also grow their own feed, typically including corn, alfalfa and this is fed directly to the cows, or stored as silage for use during the winter season. Additional dietary supplements are added to the feed to milk production. Poultry farms are devoted to raising chickens, turkeys, ducks, a pig farm is one that specializes in raising pigs or hogs for bacon, ham and other pork products and may be free range, intensive, or both
5.
Animal husbandry
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Animal husbandry is the management and care of farm animals by human beings, in which genetic qualities and behavior, considered to be advantageous to humans, are further developed. The term can refer to the practice of breeding and raising livestock to promote desirable traits in animals for utility, sport, pleasure. Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years since the first domestication of animals, selective breeding for desired traits was first established as a scientific practice by Robert Bakewell during the British Agricultural Revolution in the 18th century. One of his most important breeding programs was with sheep, using native stock, he was able to quickly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep, with long, lustrous wool. The Lincoln Longwool was improved by Bakewell and in turn the Lincoln was used to develop the subsequent breed, named the New Leicester and it was hornless and had a square, meaty body with straight top lines. These sheep were exported widely and have contributed to modern breeds. Under his influence, English farmers began to breed cattle for use primarily as beef for consumption -, long-horned heifers were crossed with the Westmoreland bull to eventually create the Dishley Longhorn. Over the following decades, farm animals increased dramatically in size, in 1700, the average weight of a bull sold for slaughter was 370 pounds. By 1786, that weight had more than doubled to 840 pounds, in more modern times herds are tended on horses, all-terrain vehicles, motorbikes, four-wheel drive vehicles, and helicopters, depending on the terrain and livestock concerned. Today, herd managers often oversee thousands of animals and many staff, farms, stations and ranches may employ breeders, herd health specialists, feeders, and milkers to help care for the animals. Techniques such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer are used today, not only as methods to guarantee that females breed regularly. This may be done by transplanting embryos from high-quality females into lower-quality surrogate mothers - freeing up the higher-quality mother to be reimpregnated and this practice vastly increases the number of offspring which may be produced by a small selection of the best quality parent animals. On one hand, this improves the ability of the animals to feed to meat, milk, or fiber more efficiently. On the other, it decreases genetic diversity, increasing the severity of disease outbreaks among other risks. The semi-natural, unfertilized pastures formed by traditional methods in Europe, were managed and maintained by the grazing and mowing of livestock. Animal agriculture is responsible for 20%-33% of all fresh water consumption in the world today, livestock or livestock feed occupies 1/3 of the earth’s ice-free land. Animal agriculture is the cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution. Animal agriculture contributes to species extinction in many ways, the widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers used in the production of feed crops often interferes with the reproductive systems of animals and poison waterways
6.
Cattle
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Cattle—colloquially cows—are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, cattle are raised as livestock for meat, as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products, and as draft animals. Other products include leather and dung for manure or fuel, in some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious meaning. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey about 10,500 years ago, according to an estimate from 2011, in 2009, cattle became one of the first livestock animals to have a fully mapped genome. Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle raiding consequently one of the earliest forms of theft. Cattle were originally identified as three species, Bos taurus, the European or taurine cattle, Bos indicus, the zebu, and the extinct Bos primigenius. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle and these have been reclassified as one species, Bos taurus, with three subspecies, Bos taurus primigenius, Bos taurus indicus, and Bos taurus taurus. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu, but also one or both of these and some other members of the genus Bos – yaks, banteng. Hybrids such as the breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison, leading some authors to consider them part of the genus Bos. However, cattle cannot successfully be hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo or African buffalo, the aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle breed. Cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animals and it was borrowed from Anglo-Norman catel, itself from medieval Latin capitale principal sum of money, capital, itself derived in turn from Latin caput head. Cattle originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, the word is a variant of chattel and closely related to capital in the economic sense. The term replaced earlier Old English feoh cattle, property, which today as fee. The word cow came via Anglo-Saxon cū, from Common Indo-European gʷōus = a bovine animal, compare Persian gâv, Sanskrit go-, Welsh buwch. The plural cȳ became ki or kie in Middle English, and a plural ending was often added, giving kine, kien. This is the origin of the now archaic English plural, kine, the Scots language singular is coo or cou, and the plural is kye
7.
Pig farming
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Pig farming is the raising and breeding of domestic pigs. It is a branch of animal husbandry, pigs are raised principally as food and sometimes for their skin. Pigs are amenable to many different styles of farming, historically pigs were kept in small numbers and were closely associated with the residence of the owner, or in the same village or town. They were valued as a source of meat, fat and for the ability to turn inedible food into meat, pigs have been farmed to dispose of municipal garbage on a large scale. All these forms of pig farm are in use today, in developed nations, commercial farms house thousands of pigs in climate-controlled buildings. Pigs are a form of livestock, with more than one billion pigs killed each year worldwide,100 million of them in the USA. The majority of pigs are used for food but also supply skin, fat and other materials for use as clothing, ingredients for processed foods, cosmetics and other. Each pig farm will tend to adapt to the conditions and food supplies. Almost all of the pig can be used as food and this is also, technically, the case for all other mammals. Although the demand isnt really there, pigs are farmed in many countries, though the main consuming countries are in Asia, meaning there is a significant international and even intercontinental trade in live and slaughtered pigs. Despite having the worlds largest herd, China is a net importer of pigs, the largest exporters of pigs are the United States, European Union, and Canada. As an example, more than half of Canadian production in 2008 was exported, many routine interactions can cause fear, which can result in stress and decreased production. There are various methods of handling pigs which can be separated into those which lead to positive or negative reactions by the animals and these reactions are based on how the pigs interpret a handler’s behavior. Many negative interactions with pigs arise from stockpeople dealing with numbers of pigs. Because of this, many handlers can become complacent about animal welfare, negative interactions include overly-heavy tactile interactions, the use of electric goads and fast movements. It can also include killing them, however, it is not a communly held view that death is a negative interaction. These interactions can result in fear in the animals, which can develop into stress, overly-heavy tactile interactions can cause increased basal cortisol levels. Negative interactions that cause fear mean the escape reactions of the pigs can be extremely vigorous, although the stock is not at risk by his own fault
8.
Poultry farming
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Poultry farming is the process of raising domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese for the purpose of farming meat or eggs for food. Poultry are farmed in great numbers with chickens being the most numerous, more than 50 billion chickens are raised annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs. Chickens raised for eggs are called layers while chickens raised for meat are often called broilers. In the US, the organization overseeing poultry production is the Food. In the UK, the organisation is the Department for Environment, Food. According to the researchers and scientists, 74% of the poultry meat. One alternative to intensive poultry farming is free-range farming using lower stocking densities, Poultry producers routinely use nationally approved medications, such as antibiotics, in feed or drinking water, to treat disease or to prevent disease outbreaks. Some FDA-approved medications are also approved for improved feed utilization, commercial hens usually begin laying eggs at 16–20 weeks of age, although production gradually declines soon after from approximately 25 weeks of age. In some countries, hens are force moulted to re-invigorate egg-laying, Environmental conditions are often automatically controlled in egg-laying systems. Some commercial breeds of hen can produce over 300 eggs a year, in the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs states that a free-range chicken must have day-time access to open-air runs during at least half of its life. Unlike in the United States, this also applies to free-range egg laying hens. Free-range farming of egg-laying hens is increasing its share of the market, defra figures indicate that 45% of eggs produced in the UK throughout 2010 were free-range, 5% were produced in barn systems and 50% from cages. This compares with 41% being free-range in 2009, suitable land requires adequate drainage to minimise worms and coccidial oocysts, suitable protection from prevailing winds, good ventilation, access and protection from predators. Excess heat, cold or damp can have an effect on the animals. Free-range farmers have less control than farmers using cages in what food their chickens eat, in some farms, the manure from free-range poultry can be used to benefit crops. The benefits of free-range poultry farming for laying hens include opportunities for natural behaviours such as pecking, scratching, foraging, both intensive and free-range farming have animal welfare concerns. Cannibalism, feather pecking and vent pecking can be common, prompting farmers to use beak trimming as a preventative measure. Diseases can be common and the animals are vulnerable to predators, barn systems have been found to have the worst bird welfare
9.
Sheep farming
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Sheep farming is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry, Sheep are raised principally for their meat, milk, and fiber. They also yield sheepskin and parchment, Sheep can be raised in range of temperate climates, including arid zones. Farmers build fences, housing, shearing sheds and other facilities on their property, such as for water, feed, transport, most farms are managed so sheep can graze pastures, sometimes under the control of a shepherd or sheep dog. The major sources of income for a farm will come from the sale of lambs, farmers can select from various breeds suitable for their region and market conditions. When the farmer sees that a ewe is showing signs of heat or estrus, New born lambs are typically subject to tail docking and males may be castrated. In 2013, the five countries with the largest number of heads of sheep were mainland China, Australia, India, the former Sudan, and Iran. In 2013, the number of heads of sheep were distributed as follows, the top producers of sheep meat were as follows, mainland China, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. The top five producers of meat in 2013 were mainland China, Australia, New Zealand, the former Sudan. In the United States, inventory data on sheep began in 1867, the numbers of sheep peaked in 1884 at 51 million head, and then declined over time to almost 6 million head. Since the 1960s, per capita consumption of lamb and mutton declined from nearly 5 pounds to just about 1 pound, due to competition from poultry, pork, beef, and other meats. Since the 1990s, U. S. sheep operations declined from around 105,000 to around 80,000 due to shrinking revenues and low rates of return. According to the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, New Mexicos Sheep Industry, 1850–1900, Its Role in the History of the Territory. Vanguards of the Frontier, A Social History of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Fur Traders to the Sod Busters pp 497-508, 1880s-1920s Fraser, Economic aspects of the Scottish sheep industry. Transactions of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland 51, online Jones, Keithly G. Trends in the US sheep industry. The Pioneer Era of Domestic Sheep Husbandry, the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, 219-247. Up the Trail From Dixie, Animosity Toward Sheep in the Culture of the US West, australasian Journal of American Studies, 1-18. A comparison of the determinants of wool production in the six leading producing countries, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 51.1, 138-158
10.
Dryland farming
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Dryland farming and dry farming are agricultural techniques for non-irrigated cultivation of crops. Dryland farming is associated with drylands - dry areas characterized by a wet season followed by a warm dry season. Dryland farming was introduced to southern Russia and Ukraine by Ukrainian Mennonites under the influence of Johann Cornies, in Australia, it is widely practiced in all states but the Northern Territory. Dry farming may be practiced in areas that have significant annual rainfall during a wet season, Crops are cultivated during the subsequent dry season, using practices that make use of the stored moisture in the soil. California, Colorado and Oregon, in the United States, are three states where dry farming is practiced for a variety of crops, Dryland farmed crops may include winter wheat, corn, beans, Sunflowers or even watermelon. Successful dryland farming is possible with as little as 9 inches of precipitation a year, native American tribes in the arid Southwest survived for hundreds of years on dryland farming in areas with less than 10 inches of rain. The choice of crop is influenced by the timing of the predominant rainfall in relation to the seasons. For example, winter wheat is more suited to regions with higher winter rainfall areas with summer wet seasons may be more suited to summer growing crops such as sorghum. Dry farmed crops may include grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans and these crops grow using the winter water stored in the soil, rather than depending on rainfall during the growing season. Dryland farming has evolved as a set of techniques and management practices used by farmers to adapt to the presence or lack of moisture in a given crop cycle. In marginal regions, a farmer should be able to survive occasional crop failures. Survival as a dryland farmer requires careful husbandry of the moisture available for the crop, Dryland farming involves the constant assessing of the amount of moisture present or lacking for any given crop cycle and planning accordingly. Dryland farmers know that to be successful they have to be aggressive during the good years in order to offset the dry years. The fact that a period must be included in the crop rotation means that fields cannot always be protected by a cover crop. Some of the theories of dryland farming developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries claimed to be scientific but were in reality pseudoscientific, Dry farming depends on making the best use of the bank of soil moisture that was created by winter rainfall. Some dry farming practices include, Wider than normal spacing, to provide a bank of moisture for each plant. Strict weed control, to ensure that weeds do not consume soil moisture needed by the cultivated plants, cultivation of soil to produce a dust mulch, thought to prevent the loss of water through capillary action. This practice is controversial, and is not universally advocated, selection of crops and cultivars suited for dry farming practices
11.
Grazing
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Grazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on plants such as grasses, or other multicellular organisms such as algae. In agriculture, grazing is one method used whereby domestic livestock are used to convert grass and other forage into meat, milk, many small selective herbivores follow larger grazers, who skim off the highest, tough growth of plants, exposing tender shoots. For terrestrial animals, grazing is normally distinguished from browsing in that grazing is eating grass or forbs, Grazing differs from true predation because the organism being grazed upon is not generally killed. Grazing differs from parasitism as the two live together in a constant state of physical externality. Water animals that feed for example on algae found on stones are called grazers-scrapers, grazers-scrapers feed also on microorganisms and dead organic matter on various substrates. Grazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on such as grasses. In zoology, graminivory is a form of grazing, a graminivore is an herbivorous animal that feeds primarily on grass. The word is derived from Latin graminis, meaning grass, and vorare, horses, cattle, capybara, hippopotamuses, grasshoppers, geese, and giant pandas are examples of graminivores. Some carnivores, such as dogs and cats, are known to eat grass occasionally, giant pandas have evolved to be obligate bamboo grazers, and 99% of their diet consists of sub-alpine bamboo species. Rabbits are herbivores that feed by grazing on grass, forbs and they graze heavily and rapidly for about the first half-hour of a grazing period, followed by about half an hour of more selective feeding. If the environment is relatively non-threatening, the rabbit will remain outdoors for many hours and their diet contains large amounts of cellulose, which is hard to digest. Rabbits solve this problem by using a form of hindgut fermentation and they pass two distinct types of feces, hard droppings and soft black viscous pellets, the latter of which are known as caecotrophs and are immediately eaten. Rabbits reingest their own droppings to digest their food further and extract sufficient nutrients, capybara are herbivores that graze mainly on grasses and aquatic plants, as well as fruit and tree bark. As with other grazers, they can be selective and will feed on the leaves of one species. They eat a variety of plants during the dry season. While they eat grass during the wet season, they have to switch to more abundant reeds during the dry season, the capybaras jaw hinge is not perpendicular and therefore they chew food by grinding back-and-forth rather than side-to-side. Capybara are coprophagous, as a source of gut flora, to help digest the cellulose in the grass that forms their normal diet. They may also regurgitate food to masticate again, similar to cud-chewing by a cow, as with other rodents, the front teeth of capybara grow continually to compensate for the constant wear from eating grasses, their cheek teeth also grow continuously
12.
Natural farming
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Natural farming is an ecological farming approach established by Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and philosopher, introduced in his 1975 book The One-Straw Revolution. Fukuoka described his way of farming as 自然農法 in Japanese and it is also referred to as the Fukuoka Method, the natural way of farming or do-nothing farming. The title refers not to lack of effort, but to the avoidance of manufactured inputs, natural farming is related to fertility farming, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, ecoagriculture and permaculture but should be distinguished from biodynamic agriculture. The system exploits the complexity of living organisms that shape each particular ecosystem, Fukuoka saw farming both as a means of producing food and as an aesthetic or spiritual approach to life, the ultimate goal of which was, the cultivation and perfection of human beings. He suggested that farmers could benefit from closely observing local conditions, natural farming is a closed system, one that demands no human-supplied inputs and mimics nature. Fukuokas ideas challenged conventions that are core to modern agro-industries, instead promoting an approach takes advantage of the local environment. Natural farming differs from conventional farming, which Fukuoka considered to be another modern technique that disturbs nature. Fukuoka claimed that his approach prevents water pollution, biodiversity loss and soil erosion, in India, natural farming is often referred to as Rishi Kheti. In India natural farming or rishi kheti includes ancient vedic principles of farming including use of waste and herbs for controlling pests. The rishi or Indian sages use cow products like buttermilk, milk, curd, the Rishi or Vedic farming is regarded as non -violent farming without any usage of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. Principally, natural farming minimises human labour and adopts, as closely as practical, natures production of such as rice, barley. Without plowing, seeds germinate well on the surface if site conditions meet the needs of the seeds placed there. Fukuoka used the presence of spiders in his fields as a key indicator of sustainability. }Fukuoka specifies that the ground remain covered by weeds, white clover, alfalfa, herbaceous legumes. Ground cover is present along with grain, vegetable crops and orchards, chickens run free in orchards and ducks and carp populate rice fields. Periodically ground layer plants including weeds may be cut and left on the surface, returning their nutrients to the soil and this also facilitates the sowing of seeds in the same area because the dense ground layer hides the seeds from animals such as birds. For summer rice and winter barley grain crops, ground cover enhances nitrogen fixation, straw from the previous crop mulches the topsoil. Each grain crop is sown before the one is harvested by broadcasting the seed among the standing crop. Later, this method was reduced to a single direct seeding of clover, barley, the result is a denser crop of smaller, but highly productive and stronger plants
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