Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing and harvesting crops, and raising livestock for human use. The word agriculture comes from the Latin words agermeaning a field and culturameaning cultivation. Prehistoric peoples hunted, fished, or gathered their food, but by about 11,000 B.C., people began to domesticate and breed plants and animals.The early peoples noted which of the wild plants were edible or otherwise useful, saved the seeds, and replanted them in cleared land. Through time, cultivation of the most productive and hardiest plants yielded a stable strain. Young, wild animals were captured and those with the most useful traits, such as small horns or high milk yield were bred. The evolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers to cultivators allowed people to establish permanent villages because they had a close and reliable food supply. Fewer people were required to provide food and were freed to develop other technologies and services, such as building and crafts (e.g., pottery, weaving, or leatherwork).
The most important domesticated plants are cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, corn and rye; feed grains for animals such as soybeans, field corn, and sorghum; fruits and vegetables; and tobacco, coffee, and tea. The most important domesticated animals include meat animals, such as sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs; and poultry such as chicken, ducks, and turkeys. Other important domesticated plant and animal products include milk, cheese, eggs, nuts, and oils. Agricultural income is also produced from non-food crops (e.g., rubber, fiber plants that are made into clothing, rugs, curtains, ropes, and canvas; and oilseeds used in synthetic chemical compounds) and from raising animals for their pelts and hides and bees for their honey.
Farms vary in size according to the region and purpose of the farm. Commercial farming enterprises are usually conducted on large areas, such as single-crop (e.g., tea, rubber, sugarcane, or oranges) plantations, wheat farms, and Australian sheep farms, to produce cash crops or livestock that can be sold for profit. Individual subsistence farms, where most products are produced for a family's own use (though surplus products may be sold at a local market) and small-family mixed product farm operations are decreasing in number in developed countries but are numerous in developing countries. Nomadic herders are still important agricultural producers in the grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, and Mongolia.
The success of modern agriculture has resulted from soil conservation and improved methods of irrigation and drainage; the development of agricultural machinery which has increased farm efficiency and productivity; and agricultural chemistry, which has resulted in the production of herbicides and pesticides as well as the development of soil testing procedures that improve the use of fertilizers. Plant and livestock breeding in developed countries is now based on scientific principles and genetics. Improvements in packing, storage, processing, and transportation of agricultural products has increased the marketability of farm products.
Today, nearly 50% of the world's labor force is employed in agriculture, though the percentages ranged in the late 1980s from 64% of the economically active population in Africa to less than 4% in the United States and Canada.
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