One of these following facts about agriculture might help you on your activity on planting. Agriculture, or also known as farming or husbandry, is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinals and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. Furthermore, to get to know more about the cultivation, here are some facts about agriculture you might be interested in.
Facts about agriculture 1: Green Revolution
The Third Agricultural Revolution, or the Green Revolution, corresponds in the late 20th century with the exponential population growth occurring around the world. It includes biotechnology, genetic engineering, chemical fertilizers, and mass production of agricultural goods.
Facts about agriculture 2: Subsistence Farmer
Subsistence farmers are farmers who produce the food they need to survive on a daily basis. They are farmers who raise enough food for themselves and their families. The food is not intended to be sold in a market.
Facts about agriculture 3: Irrigation
The Mesopotamians built the first simple irrigation system around 7000 B.C. The earliest large-scale irrigation system was created around 4000 B.C. in southern Russia. This system had canals up to 10 feet across and more than a mile long.
Facts about agriculture 4: Tractors Invention
Tractors were invented in the 1880s to pull plows through fields. By the 1920s the all purpose, modern tractor had been developed. With different caterpillar parts, tractors can be used for plowing, planting, cultivating, mowing, harvesting, and moving soil and heavy equipment.
Facts about agriculture 5: Raising Beef Cattle
Raising beef cattle is the single largest segment of American agriculture. The United States produces more beef than any other country. About 34 million cows are slaughtered in the U.S. each year
Facts about agriculture 6: Merging Disease
According to the UN, an exploding world population, intensive farming practices, and changes in climate have provided a breeding ground for an unprecedented number of merging diseases. Poultry farming, for example, may account for the global spread of bird flu. In fact, the majority of the 39 new diseases that have emerged in just one generation have come from animals, including Ebola, SARS, and the bird flu.
Facts about agriculture 7: Factory Pollution
People living near factory farms often suffer from headaches, nausea, and respiratory distress due to the effects of factory pollution. Factory farms are those that pack hundreds, thousands, and sometimes millions of cows, pigs, chickens into the farms.
Facts about agriculture 8: Farm Ownership
Owning and controlling a farm has historically been linked to status and power, especially in Medieval European agrarian societies. Farm ownership has also been historically linked to types of government (feudalism, democracy, etc.).
Facts about agriculture 9: Prehistoric Origins
Forest gardening, a plant-based food production system, is thought to be the world’s oldest agroecosystem. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions.
Facts about agriculture 10: Agricultural Productivity
Since the 1940s, agricultural productivity has increased dramatically, due largely to the increased use of energy-intensive mechanization, fertilizers and pesticides. The vast majority of this energy input comes from fossil fuel sources.
Hope you would find those agriculture facts really interesting, useful and helpful for your reading and activity.
