Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have sharply increased crop yields, but cause ecological and environmental damage. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal welfare and environmental damage. Environmental issues include contributions to global warming, depletion of aquifers, deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and other agricultural pollution. Agriculture is both a cause of and sensitive to environmental degradation, such as biodiversity loss, desertification, soil degradation, and global warming, all of which can cause decreases in crop yield. Genetically modified organisms are widely used, although some are banne in certain countries
Etymology together with Scope
The word agriculture is a Late Middle English adaptation of the Latin agriculture, coming from ager 'field' and kultur 'cultivation' or 'cultivation'. While agriculture usually refers to human activities, certain species of ants, termites and beetles have been growing crops for 60 million years. Agriculture has been defined to varying degrees, in the broadest sense "using natural resources to produce food, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops, and related services". It includes horticulture, animal husbandry and forestry, although in practice horticulture and forestry are often excluded. In addition, it can be broadly divided into crop agriculture, which involves the cultivation of crops, and livestock, which involves the production of livestock.
Origins
With the development of agriculture, the population increased several times that which hunter-gatherers could sustain. Agriculture began independently in different regions of the world, spanning different taxa in at least 11 different origins, and grains were collected and eaten at least 105,000 years ago. Grain cultivation of emmer, barley and oat was observed near the Sea of Galilee in the Paleolithic Levant 23,000 years ago. Rice was cultivated in China between 11,500 BC and he 6,200. It has been domesticated, with the earliest known cultivation dating from 5,700 BC. Chr., followed by mung beans, soybeans, and adzuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia 13,000 to 11,000 years ago. Cattle were domesticated by wild aurochs in areas of modern-day Turkey and Pakistan about 10,500 years ago, and were first domesticated about 10,500 years ago. In the Andes of South America, potatoes were domesticated 10,000 to 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea about 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa 7,000 years ago. Cotton was domesticated in Peru 5,600 years ago and was domesticated independently in Eurasia. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinthe was cultivated into maize 6,000 years ago. Horses were invented around 3500 BC. Domesticated in the steppes of Eurasia. Scholars have put forward several hypotheses to explain the historical origins of agriculture. Studies of the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies show an initial intensification and an increase in sedentary behavior. Examples include the Natuf culture of the Levant and the early Chinese Neolithic period of China. The previously harvested wild stock was then planted and gradually domesticated.
Revolution
In the Middle Ages, agriculture in Western Europe became more self-sufficient than in Roman times. Agricultural populations under feudalism were typically organized into mansions of several hundred acres or more, presided over by lords with Roman Catholic churches and priests.
Thanks to exchanges with Al-Andalus, where the Arab Agricultural Revolution was underway, European agriculture was transformed by improved technology and the spread of crops, including the introduction of sugar, rice, cotton and fruit trees (such as oranges).
Since 1492, Colombian exchanges have traded New World crops such as corn, potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and cassava, and Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and beets, as well as livestock (horses, cattle, sheep, and goats) to the Americas.
Irrigation, crop rotation and fertilization were advanced during the British Agricultural Revolution from the 17th century onwards, allowing for a massive increase in the world's population. Since the 1900s, mechanization has replaced human labour, aided by synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and selective breeding, increasing productivity in agriculture in developed and developing countries alike. Much improved. The Haber-Bosch process enabled the synthesis of ammonium nitrate fertilizers on an industrial scale, significantly increasing crop yields and further supporting world population growth. Modern agriculture poses or faces environmental, political and economic problems such as water pollution, biofuels, genetically modified organisms, tariffs and agricultural subsidies, leading to alternative approaches such as the organic movement. . In the 1930s, the United States experienced a disastrous Dust Bowl.
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