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Definition: agriculture from Dictionary of Energy

Consumption & Efficiency. the process, business, or science of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). See next column.

Agriculture

From Encyclopedia of Environment and Society
AGRICULTURE IS THE practice of cultivating plants and herding animals for food, fiber, and other products. Agriculture is the single largest land use in the world and it is the single greatest employer. Nearly 38 percent of the earth’s land area is in agriculture. In 2004, more than 2.6 billion people, or 42 percent of the world’s population, were engaged in agriculture. 10,000 years ago, only a trivial fraction of the earth’s surface was dedicated to agriculture. Since then, agriculture has replaced prairies, wetlands, forests, and other ecosystems, allowing the global population to exceed 6.3 billion. Agriculture features prominently in many debates linking environment and society. It is blamed for reducing biodiversity, polluting aquatic ecosystems with eroded soils and toxic chemicals, and contributing to global climate change. Agriculture is also at the center of the debate about genetically altered food, trade, and globalization. Developing more sustainable agricultural systems…
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Full text Article agriculture

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy
Agriculture is the systematic raising of plants and animals for the purpose of producing food, feed, fiber, and other outputs. Historically, agricultural production has been linked to the use of the land and the tillage of the soil, and it is agriculture that allowed humans to initially establish…
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Agriculture
Origins After the last Ice Age ended, c.10,000 BC , a favourable climate and a good supply of food resulted in an expansion of the human population; a more certain source of food than the hunter-gatherer mode of living could provide was required. In the Near East from 8000 BC and a little later in…
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Full text Article agriculture

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Practice of cultivating crops and raising livestock. Early humans were hunters and gatherers, but development of husbandry and crop farming skills enabled them to produce food on a small scale. Modern archaeological dating techniques suggest that the production of cereals and the domestication of…
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Full text Article Agriculture

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
The economic sector that grows grains, fruits, and vegetables to feed the population. Agricultural production in the ancient world, whether for food or clothing, necessarily remained local. Ancient Egypt, for example, produced plentiful grain for bread and beer as well as hemp for clothes. By the…
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Full text Article agriculture

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
The active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture may include cultivating the soil , growing and harvesting crops , and raising livestock . Agriculture was independently developed in many places, including the Middle East, East Asia, South…
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Full text Article agriculture

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
science and practice of producing crops and livestock from the natural resources of the earth. The primary aim of agriculture is to cause the land to produce more abundantly and at the same time to protect it from deterioration and misuse. The diverse branches of modern agriculture include agronomy…
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Full text Article AGRICULTURE

From Historical Dictionary of Australia
Since the European settlement of Australia, agriculture has played an important role in the development of the nation, and Australia is now a major agricultural producer and exporter, despite the ever present threat of drought . Agriculture and associated activities now account for 12 percent of…
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Full text Article agriculture.

From The Oxford Companion to British History
is the process of cultivating the land to grow crops. It reflects a level of civilization beyond that of early man, who lived by hunting wild animals and by eating natural produce of the earth such as berries. The system of agriculture which spread across much of northern Europe in the late Saxon…
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Full text Article agriculture

From Dictionary of Energy
Humans began to cultivate their food crops about 10,000 years ago. Prior to that time, hunter-gatherers secured their food as they traveled in the nearby environment. When they observed some of the grains left behind at their campsites sprouting and growing to harvest, they began to cultivate these…
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Full text Article agriculture

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
The practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil (for raising crops ) and the raising of domesticated animals. The units for managing agricultural production vary from smallholdings and individually owned farms to corporate-run farms and collective farms run by entire communities or by…
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