Introduction to Agriculture

1. Agriculture is derived from Latin words
Ager and Cultura.
Ager means land or field and
Cultura means –cultivation
Agriculture is the systematic raising of
useful plants and livestock under the
management of man.

2. Agriculture is a purposeful work through which
the elements of nature are harnessed to
produce plants and animals to meet human
needs.
Although it does not by itself create civilization,
civilization can not develop without agriculture.
The broad industry engaged in the production of
plants and animals for food and fiber, the
provision for agricultural supplies and services,
and the processing, marketing and distribution of
agricultural products.

3.  Agriculture helps to meet the basic needs of
human and their civilization by providing
food, clothing,
 shelters, medicine and recreation. Hence,
agriculture is the most important enterprise
in the world. It is
 a productive unit where the free gifts of
nature namely land, light, air, temperature
and rain water etc.,

4. AGRICULTURE
It is also referred as the science 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.

5. AGRICULTURE
As an Art-it embraces knowledge of the way to
perform the operations of the farm in a
skillful
manner. In which categorize into two:
Physical skill
Mental skill

6. As a science : It utilizes all modern technologies
developed on scientific principles such as crop
improvement/breeding, crop production, crop
protection, economics etc., to maximize the
yield and
profit.

7. AGRICULTURE
As the business : As long as agriculture is the
way of life of the rural population, production
is ultimately bound to consumption.

8. History of AGRICULTURE

9. Pastoral stage.
Hunting and fishing are the dominant means of
gathering food.
Using randomly acquired weapons, man lived on
the gift of nature, gathering wild plants for their
medicinal, cosmetic, aphrodisiac properties, as well
as for their food value.
For communities near bodies of water, fishes are
caught by hand.

10. Middle stone age.
characterized by a) use of bow and arrow; b)
catching, drying and storage of fish; c) stored
seeds, nuts and fruits.
New stone age or neolithic age.
a. Discovery of the relation of seed to plant
b. Domestication of plants and animals- it has
proved to be the single most important
intervention man has ever made in his
environment.

11. c. Villages began to grow and man made the
transition from food collection to the
deliberate raising of crops.
They practiced both “seed” agriculture and
“vegeculture”.
The latter refers to vegetatively propagated
plants like taro, sweet potato, yam, banana,
etc. while the former includes most of the
cereals and grain legumes whose culture
require the clearing of vast areas and seeds
are sown en masse and harvested at the same
time.
They consist mostly of annuals or plants with
a life cycle of less than a year or one season.

12. ORIGIN, DOMESTICATION AND HISTORY OF THE
MAJOR CROPS OF THE WORLD
According to Matheson et. al. credit for the earliest
domestication, seems to have occurred in the
Middle East, is generally given to a remarkable race
of people called Cushites, who not only
experimented with plants as a food source, but
also attempted their culture.
In effect, these people may be regarded as the first
agriculturists. Cushites are semi-nomadic.

13.  Early man intuitively realized that in
a vegetative diet he needed three major
components, i.e., carbohydrates for energy,
protein for muscle development, and vitamins
to augment different types of proteins and
minerals.
 Two plant families achieved absolute
dominance in regard to carbohydrate and
protein sources, namely Graminae and the
Leguminoceae respectively.

14. The Americas -maize and peanuts
Africa - sorghum and beans
The Middle East - wheat, barley and beans
Asia - rice and soybeans

15. Soybean.
Soybean (Glycine max) is a member of the
Leguminoceae family and subfamily Papilionoideae.
Beginning its history as a human food, later
developing as a hay and forage crop and finally as
a vegetable oil and protein source, it now occupies
a position of pre-eminence as the world’s largest
source of vegetable oil.
Its center was in Asia (Eastern half of China). By
1968 the U.S. 6. Produced 76% of the world’s
soybean crop, whereas China produced 17%. Other
areas with large areas are Brazil, Indonesia, South
Korea, the U.S.S.R.

16. Sorghum.
sorghums originated from Abyssinia
(Northeast Africa) and were probably first
domesticated in Africa around Ethiopia by the
Cushites.

17. Corn.
 Maize has the Central and Southern portion
of the Americas (Mexico) as its center of
origin.

18. Rice.
The cultivated rice, Oryza sativa, is a
semi-aquatic, erect, annual grass.
It has been cultivated for several
thousand years as the principal
cereal of Southeast Asia.
In terms of hectarage, the major
producers are China, India,
Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.

19. 1. Oil Crops
2. Vegetable Crops
3. Cultivated Tropical Fruits
4. Cutflowers
5. Stages of Development of Philippine
Agriculture
6. Problems of Philippine Agriculture

20. Oil Crops
a. Peanut- native to South America.
 It was introduced to Africa where along
with bananas, it forms a large part of the
diet of the people.
a. Coconut- have a center of diversity in
Northwest South America.

21. Vegetable Crops
a. Beans, snap or green and lima beans-
probably native to tropical America.
Phaseolus vulgaris is the most widely grown for
the four cultivated species of Phaseolus. It is
the most important grain legume for human
consumption.

22. b. Eggplant- also known as eggfruit,
aubergine, guinea squash. It is probably
native to South and Eastern Asia, but was also
grown in China for many centuries. It is
thought to have been domesticated in India
where wild plants now grow, but it has spread
throughout the tropics.

23. c. Muskmelon- believed to have originated in
Asia, particularly in Iran and India.
d. Okra- also called gumbo, gombo or lady’s
finger, it is either Asian or African in origin.

24. e. Tomatoes- native to tropical Central and
South America where it was cultivated in pre-
Columbian times. Its progenitor is thought to
have been the cherry tomato which now
grows in the wild in Peru-Ecuador area
though tomatoes were probably domesticated
from weedy forms which had spread as far as
Mexico.

25. f. Asparagus- thought to be native to southern
Russia, has been found growing wild in
Europe, England, Poland, and around the
Mediterranean sea.
g. Onion- an ancient crop thought to have
been domesticated in Central Asia though its
wild ancestor is unknown, nor do onions
occur as wild plants.

26. Cultivated Tropical Fruits
a. Bananas- appear to have originated in
Southeast Asia, spreading to India, Africa
and finally to tropical America.
b. Citrus- they may have been domesticated in
in the drier tropics of Southeast Asia.
Though the crops is of tropical origin, it is
now cultivated extensively in the sub-
tropics with Mediterranean climate.

27. c. Mango- originated in the India-Bangladesh-
Burma region, and had spread into cultivation
and common use in the Indian sub-continent
by 2,000 B.C.
d. Pineapple- native to tropical regions of
South America, and was grown in the New
World for food, for its medicinal properties
and for the production of wine long before
the discovery of the New World.

28. e. Papaya- probably originated in Central
America, perhaps as a natural hybrid between
other species.
Cutflowers
a. Chrysanthemum- native to China and was
brought to Europe sometime in 1789 by
Captain M. Blanchard of Marseiles.

29. b. Carnation- indigenous to the Mediterranean
area. Man’s improvement of the native
Dianthus (Greek word which means divine
flower) began in the 16th century.
c. Rose- native to the Northern temperate
zone.
d. Gladiolus- the species were recognized over
2,000 years growing in the field of Asia Minor
and were called “corn lilies”.

30. e. Easter Lily- Lilium longiflorum is a native
of Japan and its center of origin is
apparently Japan’s three small
southernmost islands. The local
counterpart of Easter lily which is endemic
to the Philippines is Lilium philippinense.