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.
Intensive farming
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Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is any of various types of agriculture that involve higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterised by a low ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital and labour. This is in contrast to agriculture in which the inputs per unit land are lower. The term intensive has various senses, some of which refer to organic farming methods and others of which refer to nonorganic, both increase the yields of food and fiber per acre as compared to traditional animal husbandry. In CAFO, feed is brought to the animals, while in MIRG the animals are repeatedly moved to fresh forage. Most commercial agriculture is intensive in one or more ways, forms that rely especially heavily on industrial methods are often called industrial agriculture, which is characterised by innovations designed to increase yield. Techniques include planting multiple crops per year, reducing the frequency of fallow years, intensive farms are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of the meat, dairy, eggs, fruits and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced by such farms, smaller intensive farms usually include higher inputs of labor and more often use sustainable intensive methods. The farming practices commonly found on farms are referred to as appropriate technology. These farms are widespread in both developed countries and worldwide, but are growing more rapidly. Most of the food available in specialty markets such as farmers markets is produced by these smallholder farms, agricultural development in Britain between the 16th century and the mid-19th century saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn supported unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, historians cited enclosure, mechanization, four-field crop rotation, and selective breeding as the most important innovations. Industrial agriculture arose along with the Industrial Revolution, by the early 19th century, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks and cultivars had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages. The industrialization phase involved a process of mechanization. Horse-drawn machinery such as the McCormick reaper revolutionized harvesting, while inventions such as the cotton gin reduced the cost of processing, during this same period, farmers began to use steam-powered threshers and tractors, although they were expensive and dangerous. Mechanical harvesters, planters, transplanters and other equipment were then developed and these inventions increased yields and allowed individual farmers to manage increasingly large farms. The identification of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers, in 1909 the Haber-Bosch method to synthesize ammonium nitrate was first demonstrated. Farmers adopting this approach were initially referred to as humus farmers, chemicals developed for use in World War II gave rise to synthetic pesticides
3.
Organic farming
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Organic farming is an alternative agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Organic agriculture continues to be developed by various organic agriculture organizations today and it relies on fertilizers of organic origin such as compost, manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged, in general, organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. For instance, naturally occurring pesticides such as pyrethrin and rotenone are permitted, while synthetic fertilizers, synthetic substances that are allowed include, for example, copper sulfate, elemental sulfur and Ivermectin. Genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, since 1990 the market for organic food and other products has grown rapidly, reaching $63 billion worldwide in 2012. This demand has driven a similar increase in organically managed farmland that grew from 2001 to 2011 at a rate of 8. 9% per annum. As of 2011, approximately 37,000,000 hectares worldwide were farmed organically, Agriculture was practiced for thousands of years without the use of artificial chemicals. Artificial fertilizers were first created during the mid-19th century and these early fertilizers were cheap, powerful, and easy to transport in bulk. Similar advances occurred in chemical pesticides in the 1940s, leading to the decade being referred to as the pesticide era, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, soil biology scientists began to seek ways to remedy these side effects while still maintaining higher production. Biodynamic agriculture was the first modern system of agriculture to focus exclusively on organic methods and its development began in 1924 with a series of eight lectures on agriculture given by Rudolf Steiner. The one hundred eleven attendees, less than half of whom were farmers, came from six countries, primarily Germany, the lectures were published in November 1924, the first English translation appeared in 1928 as The Agriculture Course. In 1921, Albert Howard and his wife Gabrielle Howard, accomplished botanists, stimulated by these experiences of traditional farming, when Albert Howard returned to Britain in the early 1930s he began to promulgate a system of natural agriculture. One of the purposes of the conference was to bring together the proponents of various approaches to organic agriculture in order that they might cooperate within a larger movement. Howard attended the conference, where he met Pfeiffer, in the following year, Northbourne published his manifesto of organic farming, Look to the Land, in which he coined the term organic farming. The Betteshanger conference has been described as the link between biodynamic agriculture and other forms of organic farming. In 1940 Howard published his An Agricultural Testament, in this book he adopted Northbournes terminology of organic farming. Howards work spread widely, and he became known as the father of organic farming for his work in applying scientific knowledge and these became important influences on the spread of organic agriculture. Further work was done by Lady Eve Balfour in the United Kingdom, increasing environmental awareness in the general population in modern times has transformed the originally supply-driven organic movement to a demand-driven one
4.
Pest (organism)
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A pest is a plant or animal detrimental to humans or human concerns, alternative meanings include organisms that cause nuisance and epidemic disease associated with high mortality. In its broadest sense, a pest is a competitor of humanity, a pest is any living organism, whether animal, plant or fungus, which is invasive or troublesome to plants or animals, human or human concerns, livestock, or human structures. It is a concept, as an organism can be a pest in one setting but beneficial. Animals are called pests when they cause damage to agriculture by feeding on crops or parasitising livestock, such as codling moth on apples, an animal could also be a pest when it causes damage to a wild ecosystem or carries germs within human habitats. Examples of these include those organisms which vector human disease, such as rats and fleas which carry the disease, mosquitoes which vector malaria. A species can be a pest in one setting but beneficial or domesticated in another, Many weeds are also seen as useful under certain conditions, for instance Pattersons curse is often valued as food for honeybees and as a wildflower, even though it can poison livestock. The animal groups of greatest importance as pests are insects, mites, nematodes, the term plant pest has a specific definition in terms of the International Plant Protection Convention and phytosanitary measures worldwide. A pest is any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal, plants may be considered pests themselves if an invasive species. Pigeons and seagulls eat human food and carry disease Many birds, such as crows, eat crops Canada goose, widely regarded as pests in the United States, woodpeckers peck at rooftops and also nest in them. They cause structural damage to houses, in particular, the species poses a serious threat to the ecosystems of Australia where it was named The Most Important Pest/Problem. Cowbirds are brood parasites, which cause declines in local songbird populations, bullfrogs cause problems to the ecosystems. Cane toads have had negative effects on many ecosystems to which they have been introduced. The toads skin is toxic, killing many wild and domestic animals that attempt to eat it. Mice, rats, and other small rodents damage crops and stored produce Big cats, such as lions and cougars Rabbits decimate native plant populations in Australia, Deroceras reticulatum is a worldwide slug pest. Local importance slug pests include, Deroceras spp, arion spp. and some species of Veronicellidae, Veronicella sloanei. Helix aspersa damages citrus fruits in California, Cernuella virgata, Theba pisana, achatina fulica damages vegetables and ornamental plants in the Pacific region. Succinea costaricana damages ornamental plants in Costa Rica, ovachlamys fulgens damages ornamental plants and orchids in Costa Rica. Other pest species include Amphibulima patula dominicensis, Zachrysia provisoria and Bradybaena similaris, some snails and slugs of quarantine significance to the United States
5.
Food security
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Food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals access to it. Concerns over food security have existed throughout history, at the 1974 World Food Conference the term food security was defined with an emphasis on supply. Later definitions added demand and access issues to the definition, household food security exists when all members, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation, in the years 2011-2013, an estimated 842 million people were suffering from chronic hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO, identified the four pillars of food security as availability, access, utilization, and stability. The United Nations recognized the Right to Food in the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the 1996 World Summit on Food Security declared that food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure. Food security indicators and measures are derived from country level household income, in general the objective of food security indicators and measures is to capture some or all of the main components of food security in terms of food availability, access and utilization or adequacy. While availability and utilization/adequacy seemed much easier to estimate, thus more popular, the factors influencing household food access are often context specific. Household Hunger Scale - measures the experience of household food deprivation based on a set of reactions, captured through a survey. Coping Strategies Index - assesses household behaviours and rates them based on a set of varied established behaviours on how households cope with food shortages. The methodology for research is based on collecting data on a single question, What do you do when you do not have enough food. Food insecurity is measured in the United States by questions in the Census Bureaus Current Population Survey, the FAO, World Food Programme, and International Fund for Agricultural Development collaborate to produce The State of Food Insecurity in the World. The 2012 edition described improvements made by the FAO to the prevalence of undernourishment indicator that is used to measure rates of food insecurity. New features include revised minimum dietary energy requirements for individual countries, updates to the population data. Measurements that factor into the indicator include dietary energy supply, food production, food prices, food expenditures, the stages of food insecurity range from food secure situations to full-scale famine. A new peer-reviewed journal of Food Security, The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production, with its prevalence of undernourishment indicator, the FAO reported that almost 870 million people were chronically undernourished in the years 2010-2012. This represents 12. 5% of the population, or 1 in 8 people. Higher rates occur in developing countries, where 852 million people are chronically undernourished, the UN noted that about 2 billion people do not consume a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals
6.
Cultivar
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The term cultivar most commonly refers to an assemblage of plants selected for desirable characteristics that are maintained during propagation. More generally, cultivar refers to the most basic classification category of cultivated plants governed by the ICNCP, most cultivars have arisen in cultivation, but a few are special selections from the wild. Popular ornamental garden plants like roses, camellias, daffodils, rhododendrons, trees used in forestry are also special selections grown for their enhanced quality and yield of timber. Cultivars form a part of Liberty Hyde Baileys broader grouping. Cultivar was coined by Bailey and it is regarded as a portmanteau of cultivated and variety. A cultivar is not the same as a variety, a taxonomic rank below subspecies. In recent times, the naming of cultivars has been complicated by the use of statutory plant patents, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants offers legal protection of plant cultivars to people or organisations who introduce new cultivars to commerce. UPOV requires that a cultivar be distinct, uniform and stable, to be distinct, it must have characteristics that easily distinguish it from any other known cultivar. To be uniform and stable, the cultivar must retain these characteristics under repeated propagation, a cultivar is given a cultivar name, which consists of the scientific Latin botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet. The cultivar epithet is usually in a vernacular language, for example, the full cultivar name of the King Edward potato is Solanum tuberosum King Edward. The King Edward part of the name is the cultivar epithet, the origin of the term cultivar arises from the need to distinguish between wild plants and those with characteristics that have arisen in cultivation. This distinction dates back to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, the Father of Botany, botanical historian Alan Morton notes that Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants had an inkling of the limits of culturally induced changes and of the importance of genetic constitution. In Species Plantarum, Linnaeus listed all the known to him. Most of the listed by Linnaeus were of garden origin rather than being wild plants. Over time there was an increasing need to distinguish between plants growing in the wild, and those with variations that had produced in cultivation. In the nineteenth century many garden-derived plants were given names, sometimes in Latin. In the twentieth century an improved international terminology was proposed for the classification and it is essentially the equivalent of the botanical variety except in respect to its origin. However, Bailey was never explicit about the etymology of the word, and it has suggested that it is a contraction of the words cultigen and variety
7.
Drought
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A drought is a period of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or years, or may be declared after as few as 15 days and it can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing, periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour. Many plant species, such as those in the family Cactaceae, have drought tolerance adaptations like reduced leaf area, some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands, prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crises. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity, the most prolonged drought ever in the world in recorded history occurred in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Drought are mainly course by in low rain areas, if these factors do not support precipitation volumes sufficient to reach the surface over a sufficient time, the result is a drought. Once a region is within drought, feedback mechanisms such as local arid air, hot conditions which can promote warm core ridging, within the tropics, distinct, wet and dry seasons emerge due to the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone or Monsoon trough. The dry season greatly increases drought occurrence, and is characterized by its low humidity, with watering holes, because of the lack of these watering holes, many grazing animals are forced to migrate due to the lack of water and feed to more fertile spots. Examples of such animals are zebras, elephants, and wildebeest, because of the lack of water in the plants, bushfires are common. Since water vapor becomes more energetic with increasing temperature, more water vapor is required to increase relative humidity values to 100% at higher temperatures, periods of warmth quicken the pace of fruit and vegetable production, increase evaporation and transpiration from plants, and worsen drought conditions. Drier and hotter weather occurs in parts of the Amazon River Basin, Colombia, winters during the El Niño are warmer and drier than average conditions in the Northwest, northern Midwest, and northern Mideast United States, so those regions experience reduced snowfalls. Conditions are also drier than normal from December to February in south-central Africa, mainly in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana. Direct effects of El Niño resulting in drier conditions occur in parts of Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, increasing bush fires, worsening haze, drier-than-normal conditions are also in general observed in Queensland, inland Victoria, inland New South Wales, and eastern Tasmania from June to August. As warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, it causes extensive drought in the western Pacific. Singapore experienced the driest February in 2014 since records began in 1869, with only 6.3 mm of rain falling in the month, the years 1968 and 2005 had the next driest Februaries, when 8.4 mm of rain fell. Human activity can directly trigger exacerbating factors such as farming, excessive irrigation, deforestation
8.
Fertilizer
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A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soils or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Fertilizers enhance the growth of plants and this goal is met in two ways, the traditional one being additives that provide nutrients. The second mode by which some fertilizers act is to enhance the effectiveness of the soil by modifying its water retention and aeration and this article, like many on fertilizers, emphasises the nutritional aspect. The nutrients required for plant life are classified according to the elements. Instead compounds containing these elements are the basis of fertilizers, the macronutrients are consumed in larger quantities and are present in plant tissue in quantities from 0. 15% to 6. 0% on a dry matter basis. Plants are made up of four elements, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are widely available as water and carbon dioxide, although nitrogen makes up most of the atmosphere, it is in a form that is unavailable to plants. Nitrogen is the most important fertilizer since nitrogen is present in proteins, DNA, to be nutritious to plants, nitrogen must be made available in a fixed form. Only some bacteria and their host plants can fix atmospheric nitrogen by converting it to ammonia, phosphate is required for the production of DNA and ATP, the main energy carrier in cells, as well as certain lipids. Micronutrients are consumed in quantities and are present in plant tissue on the order of parts-per-million, ranging from 0.15 to 400 ppm DM. These elements are present at the active sites of enzymes that carry out the plants metabolism. Because these elements enable catalysts their impact far exceeds their weight percentage, Fertilizers are classified in several ways. They are classified according to whether they provide a single nutrient, multinutrient fertilizers provide two or more nutrients, for example N and P. Fertilizers are also sometimes classified as inorganic versus organic. Inorganic fertilizers exclude carbon-containing materials except ureas, organic fertilizers are usually plant- or animal-derived matter. Inorganic are sometimes called synthetic fertilizers since various chemical treatments are required for their manufacture, the main nitrogen-based straight fertilizer is ammonia or its solutions. Ammonium nitrate is widely used. Urea is another source of nitrogen, having the advantage that it is solid and non-explosive, unlike ammonia and ammonium nitrate. A few percent of the fertilizer market has been met by calcium ammonium nitrate
9.
Forestry
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Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands, the science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester, other terms are used a verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft, and technology. Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries, the preindustrial age has been dubbed by Werner Sombart and others as the wooden age, as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism, economy as a science and varying notions of land use. Roman Latifundiae, large estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans, however already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and food. This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy, the use and management of many forest resources has a long history in China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry. A similar approach was used in Japan and it was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. In Europe, land rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests. The notion of commons refers to the traditional legal term of common land. The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times, however, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting. Systematic management of forests for a yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e. g. in Nuremberg. Typically, a forest was divided into sections and mapped. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards, large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens, timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland. The notion of Nachhaltigkeit, sustainability in forestry, is connected to the work of Hans Carl von Carlowitz
10.
Clearcutting
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Clearcutting, clearfelling, or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in some support the practice for scientific, safety. Detractors see clearcutting as synonymous with deforestation, destroying natural habitats, Clearcutting is the most common and economically profitable method of logging. Aside from the purpose of harvesting wood, clearcutting is also used to land for farming. The insatiable human demand for wood and arable land through clearcutting, the same reasons for preserving the world’s tropical rainforests also apply to the taiga, as do the reasons for destroying them. Long-term studies of clearcut forests, such as studies of the Pasoh Rainforest in Malaysia, are important in providing insights into the preservation of forest resources worldwide. Many variations of clearcutting exist, the most common practices are, Standard clearcut – removal of every stem. Patch clearcut – removal of all the stems in a limited, predetermined area, strip clearcut – removal of all the stems in a row, usually placed perpendicular to the prevailing winds in order to minimize the possibility of windthrow. Clearcutting-with-reserves – removal of the majority of standing stems save a few reserved for other purposes, slash-and-burn – the permanent conversion of tropical and subtropicals forests for agricultural purposes. This is most prevalent in tropical and subtropical forests in overpopulated regions in developing, slash-and-burn entails the removal of all stems in a particular area. This can be a form of deforestation, when the land is converted to other uses, however, some indigenous forest peoples, for example the 19th century Forest Finns rotate over the land and it does return to forest and this would be sustainable. Slash and burn techniques are used by civilians in search of land for living. The forest is first clear cut, and the material is burned. One of the forces behind this process is a result of overpopulation. These methods also occur as a result of commercial farming, the lumber is sold for profit, and the land, cleared of all remaining brush and suitable for agricultural development, is sold to farmers. Selection cutting – which can be done for timber harvesting or for ecological reasons, when so done it is often called ecoforestry. Clearcutting contrasts with selective cutting, such as high grading, in which only commercially valuable trees are harvested and this practice can reduce the genetic viability of the forest over time, resulting in poorer or less vigorous offspring in the stand. Clearcutting also differs from a system, by allowing revegetation by seedlings
