Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences The social sciences are the fields of academic scholarship that explore aspects of human society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences. These include: anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, linguistics, political science, international that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as. (Veterinary science The field of veterinary medicine is a highly competitive yet under employed field of medicine. Today's veterinarians are doctors who are highly educated to protect both the health of animals and humans. The skills of highly qualified veterinarians are in constant demand and job opportunities within this field are endless. In order to be considered, but not animal science Animal science is described as "studying the biology of animals that are under the control of mankind". Historically, the animals studied were farm animals, including livestock and horses, but courses available now look at a far broader area to include companion animals, for example dogs, cats and exotic species. At the University of, is often excluded from the definition.)

Agriculture and agricultural science

The two terms are often confused. However, they cover different concepts:

• Agriculture Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as is the set of activities that transform the environment for the production of animals and plants for human use. Agriculture concerns techniques, including the application of agronomic research.
• Agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology, chemistry, ecology, earth science, and genetics. Agronomists today are is research and development New product design and development is more often than not a crucial factor in the survival of a company. In an industry that is fast changing, firms must continually revise their design and range of products. This is necessary due to continuous technology change and development as well as other competitors and the changing preference of customers related to studying and improving plant-based agriculture.

Agricultural sciences include research and development on:

• Production techniques (e.g., irrigation Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants management, recommended nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere inputs)
• Improving agricultural productivity Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to agricultural inputs. While individual products are usually measured by weight, their varying densities make measuring overall agricultural output difficult. Therefore, output is usually measured as the market value of final output, which excludes intermediate products in terms of quantity and quality (e.g., selection of drought A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. Although droughts can persist for several years, even a short,-resistant crops and animals, development of new pesticides A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest. A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest. Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms),, yield-sensing technologies, simulation models of crop growth, in-vitro cell culture Cell culture is the complex process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions. In practice the term "cell culture" has come to refer to the culturing of cells derived from multicellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells. The historical development and methods of cell culture are closely interrelated to those of tissue techniques)
• Transformation of primary products into end-consumer Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary products (e.g., production, preservation, and packaging of dairy products Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing mostly comes from cows and to a lesser amount from domestic buffalos , but occasionally from other)
• Prevention and correction of adverse environmental effects (e.g., soil degradation Soils retrogression and degradation in the French school of pedology are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. Retrogression is primarily due to erosion and corresponds to a phenomenon where succession reverts back to pioneer conditions . Degradation is an evolution, different of natural, waste management Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is also carried out to recover resources from it. Waste, bioremediation Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the natural environment altered by contaminants to its original condition. Bioremediation may be employed to attack specific soil contaminants, such as degradation of chlorinated hydrocarbons by bacteria. An example of a more)
• Theoretical production ecology, relating to crop production modeling
• Traditional agricultural systems, sometimes termed subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which farmers grow only enough food to feed their families. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat during the year. Planting decisions are made with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, rather than market prices, which feed most of the poorest people in the world. These systems are of interest as they sometimes retain a level of integration with natural ecological systems greater than that of industrial agriculture Industrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. The methods of industrial agriculture are technoscientific, economic, and political. They include innovation in agricultural machinery and farming methods, genetic technology, techniques for achieving economies of, which may be more sustainable than some modern agricultural systems.
• Food production and demand on a global basis, with special attention paid to the major producers, such as China, India, Brazil the USA and the EU.

Agricultural science: a local science

of theoretical agronomy, research in agronomy, more than in any other field, is strongly related to local areas. It can be considered a science of ecoregions An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna, because it is closely linked to soil properties and climate Climates encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these same elements and their variations over periods up to two weeks, which are never exactly the same from one place to another. Many people think an agricultural production system relying on local weather, soil Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics characteristics, and specific crops has to be studied locally. Others feel a need to know and understand production systems in as many areas as possible, and the human dimension of interaction with nature.

History of agricultural science

Agricultural science began with Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel was an Augustinian priest and scientist, who gained posthumous fame as the figurehead of the new science of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of these traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him. The significance of Mendel's work's genetic work, but in modern terms might be better dated from the chemical fertilizer outputs of plant physiological Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology , plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (biochemistry of plants), cell biology, and molecular biology understanding in eighteenth century Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state,.^{[citation needed]} In the United States, a scientific revolution in agriculture began with the Hatch Act of 1887, which used the term "agricultural science". The Hatch Act was driven by farmers' interest in knowing the constituents of early artificial fertilizer. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 shifted agricultural education back to its vocational roots, but the scientific foundation had been built.^[1] After 1906, public expenditures on agricultural research in the US exceeded private expenditures for the next 44 years.^[2]:xxi

Intensification of agriculture since the 1960s in developed and developing countries Developing country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well being. There is no single internationally-recognized definition of developed country, and the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries, with some developing countries having high average standards of living, often referred to as the Green Revolution Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between 1943 and the late 1970s, that increased industrialized agriculture production in many developing nations, was closely tied to progress made in selecting and improving crops and animals for high productivity, as well as to developing additional inputs such as artificial fertilizers Fertilizers are soil amendments applied to promote plant growth; the main nutrients present in fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium and other nutrients ('micronutrients') are added in smaller amounts. Fertilizers are usually directly applied to soil, and also sprayed on leaves ('foliar feeding') and phytosanitary products A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest. A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest. Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms),.

As the oldest and largest human intervention in nature, the environmental impact of agriculture in general and more recently intensive agriculture Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by the high inputs of capital, labour, or heavy usage of technologies such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area, industrial development, and population growth have raised many questions among agricultural scientists and have led to the development and emergence of new fields. These include technological fields that assume the solution to technological problems lies in better technology, such as integrated pest management These methods are performed in three stages: prevention, observation, and intervention. It is an ecological approach with a main goal of significantly reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides while at the same time managing pest populations at an acceptable level, waste treatment Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is also carried out to recover resources from it. Waste technologies, landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions that will produce the desired outcome. The scope, genomics Genomics is the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis, epistasis, pleiotropy and other interactions between loci and alleles within the genome. In, and agricultural philosophy Agricultural Philosophy is the love of, search after and wisdom associated with agriculture, as one of humankind's founding components of civilization. In everyday usage, it is the knowledge of phenomena and their causes and effects in and explained by agriculture. It also includes the general principles under which all facts relating to fields that include references to food production The food industry is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population. Only subsistence farmers, those who survive on what they grow, can be considered outside of the scope of the modern food industry as something essentially different from non-essential economic 'goods'. In fact, the interaction between these two approaches provide a fertile field for deeper understanding in agricultural science.

New technologies, such as biotechnology Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living things in engineering, technology, medicine, and other useful applications. Modern use similar term includes genetic engineering as well as cell- and tissue culture technologies. The concept encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms according to and computer science Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe, and transform information. Computer science (for data processing and storage), and technological advances have made it possible to develop new research fields, including genetic engineering Genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation , and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organism's genes. Genetic engineering is different from traditional breeding, where the organism's genes are manipulated indirectly. Genetic engineering uses the techniques of molecular, agrophysics Agrophysics is a branch of science bordering on physics and agronomy, whose objects of study are the agroecosystem and the biological objects affected by human activity, studied and described using the methods of physical sciences, improved statistical analysis Statistics is the formal science of making effective use of numerical data relating to groups of individuals or experiments. It deals with all aspects of this, including not only the collection, analysis and interpretation of such data, but also the planning of the collection of data, in terms of the design of surveys and experiments, and precision farming Precision farming or precision agriculture is an agricultural concept relying on the existence of in-field variability. It's about doing the right thing, in the right place, in the right way, at the right time. It requires the use of new technologies, such as global positioning , sensors, satellites or aerial images, and information management. Balancing these, as above, are the natural and human sciences of agricultural science that seek to understand the human-nature interactions of traditional agriculture Agriculture was developed at least 10,000 years ago, and it has undergone significant developments since the time of the earliest cultivation. Evidence points to the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East as the site of the earliest planned sowing and harvesting of plants that had previously been gathered in the wild. Independent development of, including interaction of religion and agriculture Religion and agriculture have been closely associated since neolithic times and the development of early Orphic religions based upon fertility and the seasons, and the non-material components of agricultural production systems.

Prominent agricultural scientists

• Justus von Liebig Justus von Liebig was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time. He is known as
• Robert Bakewell
• Norman Borlaug Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate who has been deemed the father of the Green Revolution. Borlaug was one of only six people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He was also a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest
• Luther Burbank Luther Burbank was an American botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science
• George Washington Carver George Washington Carver , was an American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born before slavery was abolished in Missouri in January 1864
• René Dumont
• Jay Lush Jay Laurence Lush , Shambaugh, Iowa - May 22, 1982) was a pioneering animal geneticist who made important contributions to livestock breeding. He is sometimes known as the father of modern scientific animal breeding. Lush received National Medal of Science in 1968 and the Wolf Prize in 1979
• Gregor Mendel
• Kailas Nath Kaul
• Louis Pasteur
• Eli Whitney
• Sewall Wright

Agricultural science and agriculture crisis

Agriculture sciences seek to feed the world's population while preventing biosafety problems that may affect human health and the environment. This requires promoting good management of natural resources and respect for the environment, and increasingly concern for the psychological wellbeing of all concerned in the food production and consumption system.

Economic, environmental, and social aspects of agriculture sciences are subjects of ongoing debate. Recent crises (such as avian influenza, mad cow disease and issues such as the use of genetically modified organisms) illustrate the complexity and importance of this debate.

Fields or related disciplines

See also

• Agriculture ministry
• Agricultural sciences basic topics
• Agroecology
• American Society of Agronomy
• List of agriculture topics
• History of agricultural science
• Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
• International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development
• International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI
• Research Institute of Crop Production (RICP) (in the Czech Republic)
• University of Agricultural Sciences

Further reading

• Agricultural Research, Livelihoods, and Poverty: Studies of Economic and Social Impacts in Six Countries Edited by Michelle Adato and Ruth Meinzen-Dick (2007), Johns Hopkins University Press Food Policy Report^[3]
• Claude Bourguignon, Regenerating the Soil: From Agronomy to Agrology, Other India Press, 2005
• Pimentel David, Pimentel Marcia, Computer les kilocalories, Cérès, n. 59, sept-oct. 1977
• Russell E. Walter, Soil conditions and plant growth, Longman group, London, New York 1973
• Salamini Francesco, Oezkan Hakan, Brandolini Andrea, Schaefer-Pregl Ralf, Martin William, Genetics and geography of wild cereal domestication in the Near East, in Nature, vol. 3, ju. 2002
• Saltini Antonio, Storia delle scienze agrarie, 4 vols, Bologna 1984-89, ISBN 88-206-2412-5, ISBN 88-206-2413-3, ISBN 88-206-2414-1, ISBN 88-206-2414-X
• Vavilov Nicolai I. (Starr Chester K. editor), The Origin, Variation, Immunity and Breeding of Cultivated Plants. Selected Writings, in Chronica botanica, 13: 1-6, Waltham, Mass., 1949-50
• Vavilov Nicolai I., World Resources of Cereals, Leguminous Seed Crops and Flax, Academy of Sciences of Urss, National Science Foundation, Washington, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem 1960
• Winogradsky Serge, Microbiologie du sol. Problèmes et methodes. Cinquante ans de recherches, Masson & c.ie, Paris 1949

References

1. ^ Hillison J. (1996). The Origins of Agriscience: Or Where Did All That Scientific Agriculture Come From?. Journal of Agricultural Education.
2. ^ Huffman WE, Evenson RE. (2006). Science for Agriculture. Blackwell Publishing.
3. ^ http://www.ifpri.org/publication/agricultural-research-livelihoods-and-poverty

External links

• Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research
• International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
• International Livestock Research Institute
• The National Agricultural Library (NAL) - The most comprehensive agricultural library in the world.
• Crop Science Society of America
• American Society of Agronomy
• Soil Science Society of America
• Agricultural Science Researchers, Jobs and Discussions

Categories: Agronomy

See Also:

• Agriculture: Encyclopedia
• Food Science: Encyclopedia
• Food Science: Encyclopedia
• Agricultural Policy: Encyclopedia
• Industrial Agriculture: Encyclopedia

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