AgroPedia™ - The Agro Encyclopedia

Welcome to AgroPedia™ -- The Agro Encyclopedia

Our Mission:
To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of Agro/Agriculture.

Our Goal:
To be your source for Agro related information. We will supply our visitors with up to date news, stories, and latest Agro News Links section below.

Agro News Links:
Area Agriculture:
17 May 2008 at 4:18am
Patches cost $30 each, and families or groups can go in together on a single patch.
Solving the food crisis
17 May 2008 at 3:49am
Friday, May 16, 2008 Solving the food crisis MUHAMMAD YUNUS A comprehensive global plan is needed to...
Bukidnon losing rice, corn lands to cash crops plantations
17 May 2008 at 3:44am
MALAYBALAY CITY Bukidnon is losing its rice and corn farms at alarming rate because of the increasin...
India asks US, EU to lead the way for successful WTO talks
17 May 2008 at 3:40am
Economy Bureau Posted online: Saturday , May 17, 2008 at 2132 hrs IST New Delhi, May 16 Ahead of the...
Daily News
17 May 2008 at 3:36am
U.S. rejects redoing beef deal SEOUL - A U.S. trade official said Friday that U.S. beef is safe and ...
Badal asks Centre to include state in food security mission
17 May 2008 at 3:32am
States Bureau Posted online: Saturday , May 17, 2008 at 0041 hrs IST Chandigarh, May 16 The Punjab g...
Global food price surge may be nearing end
17 May 2008 at 3:28am
Forecasts for record wheat and rice crops this year have tempered a rally in global grain prices, bu...

Agro/Agriculture:
Agro or Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants, animals and other life forms. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science.

Agriculture encompasses many subjects, including aquaculture, agronomy, animal husbandry, and horticulture. Each of these subjects can be further partitioned: for example, agronomy includes both sustainable agriculture and intensive farming, and animal husbandry includes ranching, herding, and intensive pig farming. Agricultural products include food (vegetables, fruits, and cereals), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine), and other useful materials such as resins. Recently crops have been designed to produce plastic as well as pharmaceuticals.

The history of agriculture is a central element of human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Wealth-building and militaristic specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures are commonplace in agricultural and agro-industrial societies—when farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in the tribe/village/City-state/nation/empire were freed to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Jared Diamond, among others, has argued that the development of civilization required agriculture.

As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world's workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996). However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide. Despite the fact that agriculture employs over one-third of the world's population, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products).Agriculture has played a key role in the development of human civilization—it is widely believed that the domestication of plants and animals allowed humans to settle and give up their previous hunter-gatherer lifestyle during the Neolithic Revolution. Until the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of the human population labored in agriculture. Development of agricultural techniques has steadily increased agricultural productivity, and the widespread diffusion of these techniques during a time period is often called an agricultural revolution. A remarkable shift in agricultural practices has occurred over the past century in response to new technologies. In particular, the Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate made the traditional practice of recycling nutrients with crop rotation and animal manure less necessary. Synthetic nitrogen, along with mined rock phosphate, pesticides and mechanization, have greatly increased crop yields in the early 20th century. Increased supply of grains has led to cheaper livestock as well. Further, global yield increases were experienced later in the 20th century when high-yield varieties of common staple grains such as rice, wheat, and corn were introduced as a part of the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution exported the technologies (including pesticides and synthetic nitrogen) of the developed world out to the developing world. Thomas Malthus famously predicted that the Earth would not be able to support its growing population, but technologies such as the Green Revolution have allowed the world to produce a surplus of food.

Many governments have subsidized agriculture to ensure an adequate food supply. These agricultural subsidies are often linked to the production of certain commodities such as wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, and milk. These subsidies, especially when done by developed countries have been noted as protectionist, inefficient, and environmentally damaging. In the past century agriculture has been characterized by enhanced productivity, the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, selective breeding, mechanization, water contamination, and farm subsidies. Proponents of organic farming such as Sir Albert Howard argued in the early 1900's that the overuse of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers damages the long-term fertility of the soil. While this feeling lay dormant for decades, as environmental awareness has increased recently there has been a movement towards sustainable agriculture by some farmers, consumers, and policymakers. In recent years there has been a backlash against perceived external environmental effects of mainstream agriculture, particularly regarding water pollution, resulting in the organic movement. One of the major forces behind this movement has been the European Union, which first certified organic food in 1991 and began reform of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2005 to phase out commodity-linked farm subsidies, also known as decoupling. The growth of organic farming has renewed research in alternative technologies such as integrated pest management and selective breeding. Recent mainstream technological developments include genetically modified food.

As of late 2008, increased farming for use in biofuels, along with world oil prices over $100 a barrel, has pushed up the price of grain used to feed poultry and dairy cows and other cattle, causing higher prices of wheat (up 58%), soybean (up 32%), and maize (up 11%) over the year. Food riots have recently taken place in many countries across the world. An epidemic of stem rust on wheat caused by race UG99 is currently spreading across Africa and into Asia and is causing major concern. Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

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