Brief Introduction to Agriculture

Agriculture

Food is among the few major needs required for the survival of animal. Without food an animal cannot survive. All the animals except for human being and domesticated animals fulfill the requirement of food from surrounding environment of their habitats. Thousands of years ago before the Neolithic era human being also fulfilled their requirement of food from their surrounding environment but, as the time went by food obtained from surrounding environment became insufficient. Need of more food became a matter of life and death which required an efficient answer and the answer for this matter was Agriculture. Agriculture is simply defined as the science and art of crop cultivation and raring animals. As this is a science it requires a certain knowledge to grow crops and rare animals. As this is an art it requires certain creativity to improve the productivity. 

Some Definitions for Agriculture

• Agriculture (from the Latin: ager meaning "field" and cultura meaning "growing") is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance life (Wikipedia, 2018).
• Agriculture is the deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain (Rubenstein, J.M 2003).
• The practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products. (RROIJ, n.d.)

Contemporary agriculture has come a long way from where it began and now it is not limited to crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Modern day agriculture is employed from the time of land selection for crop cultivation/animal husbandry to the time final product reaches the market. Modern agriculture is now more concerned on the sustainability because of the major environmental threats that endangered the well being of the planet Earth. 

Contemporary agriculture has many branches and most of these branches are interconnected with the other science disciplinaries such as computer science. Few branches of modern agriculture are listed below. 

Two Major Areas

• Crop production 
• Animal husbandry

Some Areas Comes Under Two Major Areas

• · Agronomy 
• · Horticulture 
• · Soil Sciences 
• · Organic Agriculture 
• · Precision Agriculture 
• · Aquaculture 
• · Apiculture 
• · Entomology 
• · Ecology 
• · Pathology 
• · Agricultural Microbiology 
• · Agricultural Economics 
• · Agricultural Engineering 
• · Genetics 

Even though agriculture has developed greatly, the development has not been sufficient to deliver the required amount of food to the increasing human population. Modern agriculture faces many challenges which need to be addressed rationally. 

Some Major Challenges Modern Agriculture Faces 

• Climate changes and challenges comes with that
• Reduction of arable land
• Water scarcity
• Labor scarcity
• New pest and diseases

Agriculture Sector of Sri Lanka

Agriculture of Sri Lanka is still highly dependent on the conventional farming systems. These conventional farming systems have been practiced by farmers for hundreds of years and they have proven to be effective for certain extent. However, the technologies used in Sri Lankan agriculture need to be developed to meet the demand of the country. As an agricultural country Sri Lankan farmer need to be given the knowledge of modern farming methods and practices to increase the productivity.

Agriculture is the most important sector of the Sri Lankan economy. Sri Lankan agriculture sector mainly produce rice as it is the staple food of the country. Apart from that Vegetable, fruits, Plantation crops, Ornamental crops and animal husbandry is done to a certain extent. 

Implementation of new projects to ensure the safeguard of Sri Lankan farmers is another area that need to be addressed with care.


References

Rubenstein, J.M. 2003. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. p. 496.

RROIJ, n.d. Agriculture definition. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rroij.com/scholarly/agriculture-definition-journals-articles-ppts-list.php
[Accessed 12 03 2018].

Wikipedia, 2018. Agriculture. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture
[Accessed 12 03 2018].