Agriculture

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). The practice of agriculture is also known as farming, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture.

Crops

World production of major crops in 2004

In millions of metric tons, based on FAO estimateshttp://faostat.fao.org/faostat/form?collection=Production.Crops.Primary&Domain=Production&servlet=1&hasbulk=0&version=ext&language=EN:

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:Maize 705

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:Wheat 624

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:Rice 608

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:Soybean 206

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Crop improvement

• See main article on Plant breeding

Domestication of plants is done in order to increase yield, improve disease resistance and drought tolerance, ease harvest and to improve the taste and nutritional value and many other characteristics. Centuries of careful selection and breeding have had enormous effects on the characteristics of crop plants. Plant breeders use greenhouses and other techniques to get as many as three generations of plants per year so that they can make improvements all the more quickly.

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Plant selection and breeding in the 1920s and '30s improved pasture (grasses and clover) in New Zealand. Extensive radiation mutagenesis efforts (i.e. primitive genetic engineering) during the 1950s produced the modern commercial varieties of grains such as wheat, corn and barley.

Related Topics:
Pasture - 1950s

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For example, average yields of corn (maize) in the USA have increased from around 2.5 tons per hectare (40 bushels per acre) in 1900 to about 9.4 t/ha (150 bushels per acre) in 2001, primarily due to improvements in genetics. Similarly, worldwide average wheat yields have increased from less than 1 t/ha in 1900 to more than 2.5 t/ha in 1990. South American average wheat yields are around 2 t/ha, African under 1 t/ha, Egypt and Arabia up to 3.5 to 4 t/ha with irrigation. In contrast, the average wheat yield in countries such as France is over 8 t/ha. Higher yields are due to improvements in genetics, as well as use of intensive farming techniques (use of fertilizers, chemical pest control, growth control to avoid lodging).

Related Topics:
Maize - 1900 - 2001 - 1990 - South America - Africa - Egypt - France - Pest control

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Very recently, genetic engineering has begun to be employed in some parts of the world to speed up the selection and breeding process. The most widely used modification is a herbicide resistance gene that allows plants to tolerate exposure to glyphosate, which is used to control weeds in the crop. A less frequently used but more controversial modification causes the plant to produce a toxin to reduce damage from insects (c.f. Starlink).

Related Topics:
Genetic engineering - Starlink

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There are specialty producers who raise less common types of livestock or plants.

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Aquaculture, the farming of fish, shrimp, and algae, is closely associated with agriculture.

Related Topics:
Aquaculture - Fish - Shrimp - Algae

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Apiculture, the culture of bees, traditionally for honey—increasingly for crop pollination.

Related Topics:
Apiculture - Honey - Pollination

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See also : botany, List of domesticated plants, List of vegetables, List of herbs, List of fruit

Related Topics:
Botany - List of domesticated plants - List of vegetables - List of herbs - List of fruit

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