Page 11 - Introduction to Agriculture by: Aqleem Abbas

Introduction to Agriculture Notes prepared by: Aqleem Abbas

points fastened onto the wood with strips of leather. In 1797, Charles Newbold, a blacksmith in Burlington, New Jersey,
reconceived of the cast-iron moldboard plow (first used in China nearly 2,000 years earlier). John Deere, another American
blacksmith, further improved the plow in the 1830s and manufactured it in steel. Other notable inventions included the seed drill
of English farmer Jethro Tull, developed in the early 1700s and progressively improved for more than a century; the reaper of
American Cyrus McCormick in 1831; and numerous new horse-drawn threshers, cultivators, grain and grass cutters, rakes, and
corn shellers. By the late 1800s, steam power was frequently used to replace animal power in drawing plows and in operating
threshing machinery.

The demand for food for urban workers and raw materials for industrial plants produced a realignment of world trade. Science
and technology developed for industrial purposes were adapted for agriculture, eventually resulting in the agribusinesses of the
mid-20th century.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the first systematic attempts were made to study and control pests. Before this time, handpicking
and spraying were the usual methods of pest control. In the 19th century, poisons of various types were developed for use in
sprays, and biological controls such as predatory insects were also used. Resistant plant varieties were cultivated; this was
particularly successful with the European grapevine, in which the grape-bearing stems were grafted onto resistant American
rootstocks to defeat the Phylloxera aphid.

Improvements in transportation affected agriculture. Roads, canals, and rail lines enabled farmers to obtain needed supplies from
remote suppliers and market their produce over a wider area. Food could be protected during transport more economically than
before as the result of rail, ship, and refrigeration developments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Efficient use of these
developments led to increasing specialization and eventual changes in the location of agricultural suppliers. In the last quarter of
the 19th century, for example, Australian and North American suppliers displaced European suppliers of grain in the European
market. When grain production proved unprofitable for European farmers, or an area became more urbanized, specialization in
dairying, cheese making, and other products was emphasized.

The impetus toward increased food production following World War II (1939-1945) was a result of a new population explosion.
A so-called green revolution, involving selective breeding of traditional crops for high yields, new hybrids, and intensive
cultivation methods adapted to the climates and cultural conditions of densely populated countries such as India, temporarily
stemmed the pressure for more food. A worldwide shortage of petroleum in the mid-1970s, however, reduced the supplies of
nitrogen fertilizer essential for the success of the new varieties. Simultaneously, erratic weather and natural disasters such as
drought and floods reduced crop levels throughout the world. Famine became common in many parts of Africa south of the
Sahara. Economic conditions, particularly uncontrolled inflation, threatened the food supplier and the consumer alike. These
problems became the determinants of agricultural change and development.

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE

Many of the innovations introduced to agriculture by the scientific and Industrial revolutions paved the way for a qualitative
change in the nature of agricultural production, particularly in advanced capitalist countries. This qualitative change became
known as industrial agriculture. It is characterized by heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides; extensive irrigation; large-
scale animal husbandry involving animal confinement and the use of hormones and antibiotics; reliance on heavy machinery; the
growth of agribusiness and the commensurate decline of family farming; and the transport of food over vast distances. Industrial
agricultural has been credited with lowering the cost of food production and hence food prices, while creating profitable