Page 4 - Introduction to Agriculture by: Aqleem Abbas

Introduction to Agriculture Notes prepared by: Aqleem Abbas

Mechanization, the outstanding characteristic of late 19th- and 20th-century agriculture, has eased much of the backbreaking
toil(involving enormous physical effort) of the farmer. More significantly, mechanization has enormously increased farm
efficiency (desired result without using much effort) and productivity (rate of production). Animals including horses, oxen,
llamas, alpacas, and dogs, however, are still used to cultivate fields, harvest crops, and transport farm products to markets in
many parts of the world. Airplanes and helicopters are employed in agriculture for seeding, spraying operations for insect and
disease control, transporting perishable products, and fighting forest fires. Increasingly satellites are being used to monitor
crop yields. Radio and television disseminate vital weather reports and other information such as market reports that
concern farmers. Computers have become an essential tool for farm management.

WORLD AGRICULTURE

Over the 10,000 years since agriculture began to be developed, peoples everywhere have discovered the food value of wild
plants and animals, and domesticated and bred them. The most important crops are cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, corn,
and rye; sugarcane and sugar beets; meat animals such as sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs or swine; poultry such as chickens,
ducks, and turkeys; animal products such as milk, cheese, and eggs; and nuts and oils. Fruits, vegetables, and olives are also
major foods for people. Feed grains for animals include soybeans, field corn, and sorghum. Agricultural income is also derived
from nonfood crops such as rubber, fiber plants, tobacco, and oil seeds used in synthetic chemical compounds, as well as
animals raised for pelts(animal skin). Conditions that determine what is raised in an area include climate, water supply and
waterworks, terrain, and ecology. In 2003, 44 percent of the world’s labor force was employed in agriculture. The
distribution ranged from 66 percent of the economically active population in sub-Saharan Africa (mali,Ethiopia,Zimbabwe
etc) to less than 3 percent in the United States and Canada. In Asia and the Pacific the figure was 60 percent; in Latin
America and the Caribbean, 19 percent; and in Europe, 9 percent. Farm size varies widely from region to region. In the early
2000s the average for Canadian farms was about 273 hectares (about 675 acres) per farm; for farms in the United States,
180 hectares (440 acres). By contrast, the average size of a single land holding in India was 2 hectares (about 5 acres).
Size also depends on the purpose of the farm. Commercial farming, or production for cash, usually takes place on large
holdings. The latifundia of Latin America are large, privately owned estates worked by tenant labor. Single-crop
plantations produce tea, rubber, and cocoa. Wheat farms are most efficient when they comprise thousands of hectares
and can be worked by teams of people and machines. Australian sheep stations and other livestock farms must be large to
provide grazing for thousands of animals. Individual subsistence(condition of managing to stay alive) farms or small-
family mixed-farm operations are decreasing in number in developed countries but are still numerous in the developing
countries of Africa and Asia. Nomadic herders range over large areas in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, and Lapland
(region largely within the arctic circle, extending across the northern parts of Norway,Sweden, finland and the Kola
peninsula of Russia.) ; and herding is a major part of agriculture in such areas as Mongolia.
Much of the foreign exchange earned by a country may be derived from a single agricultural commodity; for example, Sri
Lanka depends on tea, Denmark specializes in dairy products, Australia in wool, and New Zealand and Argentina in meat
products. In the United States, wheat, corn, and soybeans have become major foreign exchange commodities in recent
decades.