Agriculture began around 10,000 years ago when nomadic hunter-gatherers settled and began cultivating plants and domesticating animals. This led to the development of civilizations with division of labor. Important early centers of agriculture emerged independently in several regions including China, India, the Near East, and Mesoamerica where crops like millet, rice, wheat, maize were domesticated. Over time agricultural practices advanced, but population growth created food supply challenges addressed by the Green Revolution through high-yielding varieties and modern inputs. Today major international research organizations continue working to develop new technologies and improve global food security.

1. Jupite Mark U. Banayag, L.Agr
Faculty
Compostela Valley State College
Purok 10, Poblacion, Compostela, 8803 Compostela Valley
pitebanayag@gmail.com
NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF
AGRICULTURE
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3. What is Agriculture?
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4. Agriculture is a sector of
economic activity that provides
human beings with some of
their basic needs. Its outputs
are food and raw materials.
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5. Agricultural sector of the
economy supplies most of
the raw materials used by the
industrial sector
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6. We can formally define
agriculture as the cultivation of
the soil for food crops, and the
breeding, feeding and
management of livestock.
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7. Historical Development of
Agriculture

8. • History of agriculture is difficult to
trace.
– Lack of historian in the ancient era
• Theory of Evolution
– Man has evolved from the apes.
– 35,000 years BC during the Neolithic age (the
new stone age), man evolved from
Neanderthal man to Cromagnon man
• Primitive man
– Not an agriculturist rather a hunter/gatherer of
food
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9. • The Bible
– Creation of Adam and Eve in the “Garden of
Eden”
• Evolutionists’ belief
– When the last glacier ice melted, animals and
fishes died.
– Thus, primitive man had to migrate to other
places in search for food.
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10. • Evolutionists’ belief
– Man discovered by accident that certain plants
(herbaceous annuals) as wheat, rice, barley, rye
and peas dropped near the camp site grew far
from their natural habitat and reproduced as in
the wilds.
– Man discovered that some plants possessed
seeds and these seeds could produce new
plants.
– Man who migrated in Europe discovered some
tubers that could reproduce new plants.
– Thus, the beginning of crop domestication
and the birth of agriculture.JMUBanayag

11. Things changed around 10 000 B.C.
• New lifestyle emerged
– around modern Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan
– Nomads became settlers
• Plant varieties domesticated
– wheat, barley, peas, lentils, chickpeas, flax
• Animals domesticated
– cattle, goats, sheep, pigs
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12. Civilization began with
agriculture.
When our nomadic ancestors
began to settle and grow their
own food, human society was
forever changed.
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13. • First Civilization
– Flourished near the Nile River, Indus and
Tigris Euphrates : as man began to settle and
had division of labor.
• Agriculture Progress and Civilization
– Wonders of the world : The Hanging Garden
of Babylon, Pyramid of Egypt, Leaning Tower
of Pizza, The Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of
China and the Rice Terraces of Philippines
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14. Our nomadic hunter-gatherer history
(Vincent 2008) (CC BY-ND)
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15. (Woodlouse 2008) (CC BY-SA) JMUBanayag

16. (Agencia de Noticias do Acre 2009) (CC BY)
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17.  Primitive people began to study plants.
 Is it edible?
 Does eating it modify well-being?
 Does it taste good?
 Can it used to keep me warm? As fuel? As
clothing?
 Is it useful to combat pain? Disease?
History of Agriculture

18. History of Agriculture
 Eventually people began asking questions
such as…..
 How do they grow?
 How do they reproduce?
 How are they constructed?
 How are they nourished?
 How are they related to one another?
 How are traits passed from one
generation to the next?

19. History of Agriculture
 The use of plant
products eventually
led to physicians,
pharmacists, and
scientists.

20. History of Agriculture
 Dioscorides
 Early Christian Era
 Wrote about the
medicinal uses of
plants
 Proposed ideas
about the
relationship of plants

21. History of Agriculture
 Theophrastus
 1st scientific
horticulturist
 Student of Plato and
Aristotle
 Wrote the books
History of Plants and
The Causes of
Plants.

22. History of Agriculture
 History of Plants
 Morphology of roots, flowers, and leaves.
 Anatomical features such as bark, pith,
fibers, and vessels.
 The Causes of Plants
 Relationship of weather, soils, and agricultural practices.
 Importance of seeds
 Value of grafting
 Tastes and flagrances of plants
 Death of plants

23. History of Agriculture
 Linnaeus (1707-1778)
 Swedish botanist.
 Developed binomial
classification scheme for
plants.
 Based on their sexual or
flowering parts.
 Basis for all classification
systems today.
 Built upon the work of
the Greeks, especially
Dioscorides.

24. Not only towns and cities begin
to flourish, but also knowledge,
the arts and the technological
sciences.
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26. JMUBanayag

27. Agriculture is remarkably recent
• First hominids 4 000 000 years ago
• First farmers 10 000 years ago
Farming has existed for 0.25% of our history
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28. • First Production of Food by Crop
Cultivation/Domestication
– 7,000 to 10,000 years ago
– Agriculture had originated in the well-watered
highlands of Indus, Tigris Euphrates and Nile
River
• Proposed location for the Birth of
Primitive Agriculture
– Southeast Asia : diverse geography and
diversity of vegetation and mild climate
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29. Center of Origin of Plants
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30. Ancient Centers of Agriculture
According to Vavilov:
– 1. China – millet, soybeans, legumes and
vegetables
– 2. India and Indo-Malayan Center including
Phils. – rice , sugarcane, legumes, tropical
fruits as mangoes and citrus
– 3. Central Asia – wheat, peas, oil plants and
cotton
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31. Millet
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32. According to Vavilov:
– 4. Near East – wheat, grapes, peas, cherry almond
and fig
– 5. Mediterranean Center – beet and vegetables
– 6. Ethiopia – barley and wheat
– 7. South Mexico and Central America – corn,
beans, squash, chilli-pepper, fruits, cacao and cotton
– 8. South America (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia) with
subcenters in Chile, Brazil, and Paraguay) – potato,
cassava, peanut, pineapple, cashew and rubber tree
Ancient Centers of Agriculture
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33. Fig plant
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34. JMUBanayag

35. Some of the most important
crops of the world
• Wheat -human food, good protein
• Rice -human food
• Maize -fed to livestock
• Potato -human food
• Barley -fed to livestock
• Oats -fed to livestock
• Sorghum -fed to livestock
• Soy bean -fed to livestock, high protein and
oil content
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36. Some of the most important
crops of the world
– Sugarcane
– Citrus
– Cotton fiber/seed
– Bean, pea
– Rye
– Banana
– Tomato
– Millets
– Sesame
– Oil Palm
– Peanut
– Sweet potato and
yams
– Coffee
– Tobacco
– Rubber
– Cacao
– Tea
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37. Philippine Agriculture
• Aboriginal people, the Pygmies or Negritos
from Central Asia 25,000 years ago were
not agriculturists
• They wandered and derived their food
from hunting , fishing and gathering wild
fruits
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38. Philippine Agriculture
• Indonesians – second migrant from
Southeastern Asia 5,000 years ago: practiced
crude agriculture “kaingin” also known as
“shifting cultivation”, “slash and burn” or
“Sweden-like” – start of the Phil. Agriculture
• Agriculture – main industry in the Pre-
Spanish Philippines
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39. Two Methods of Cultivation Used by
Ancient Farmers in the Philippines
1. Kaingin
– Farmer has to move to another forest and
clear again hence “shifting cultivation”
– This was not given much attention in the past
by policy makers – population was small
– As population grew enormously, together with
logging, kaingin agriculture was one of the
most destructive method due to deforestation
of the country
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40. Two Methods of Cultivation Used by
Ancient Farmers in the Philippines
1. Kaingin
– cutting of trees, shrubs, and bushes, allowed
to dry and then burned
– holes are bored in the ground with pointed
stick and seeds of corn, rice or vegetables
are planted
– after one or two croppings, weeds grow and
farmers have to move to another forest
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41. Two Methods of Cultivation Used by
Ancient Farmers in the Philippines
2. Tillage
–Regular cultivation of the soil using
wooden plow and harrows drawn by
carabao
–Stir the soil to loosen it and pulverize to
kill the weeds and for ease of planting
–Enables the farmer to stay in his farm
permanently instead of moving or
shifting cultivation
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42. Two Methods of Cultivation Used by
Ancient Farmers in the Philippines
2. Tillage
–Birth of permanent settlement and
development of tools and equipment for
efficient land preparation and planting
–In regions, irrigation was used to
increase production as evidence by the
Ifugao Rice Terraces
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43. Population and Food Supply
• Crop Production
– Important industry : crop products are
essential to the existence of man
– Man without food for 24 hours will quarrel; 48
hours without food will steal; and 72 hours
without food will fight
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44. Population and Food Supply
• Thomas Malthus, British economist – predicted
that population growth was much faster than the
increase in food production leading to mass
starvation
• Malthus’ predictions were not entirely
correct.
• Research centers were established.
• Scientific discoveries and advance
technology increased productivity.
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45. Population and Food Supply
• Use of high-yielding varieties through
breeding, massive application of fertilizer
and better soil and water management
practices, and effective and more efficient
crop protection practices for weeds,
insects and plant diseases
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46. Population and Food Supply
• Agriculture became a way of life – when
crop and animal domestication occurred
• Man realized that there are so many
problems with the raising of crops and
animals
• Discovery and manufacture of pesticides,
fertilizers that increased production
• Destruction/extinction of beneficial flora
and fauna in the environment
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47. Population and Food Supply
• Traditional breeding/natural selections –
produced resistant cultivars/animals to pest
pests
• Biotechnology/genetic engineering – genetically
modified organisms (GMO)
• World population increases rapidly yet arable
land for food production is diminishing
• Biotechnology enables researchers to provide
plants with new beneficial traits and reduces the
cost of production and protects the land
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48. Population and Food Supply
• Agricultural Research Centers Established
– Asian Vegetable Research and Development
Center (AVRDC) , Tainan, Taiwan- vegetables
– International Center for Research in Agroforestry
(ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya- trees in crop, animal and
fish production
– International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los
Banos, Laguna, Phils., rice, 1959,
– International Center for the Improvement of Maize
and Wheat (CIMMYT), El Batan, Mexico, Barley ,
wheat and maize, 1964
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49. Population and Food Supply
• Centro Internationale Agricule Tropicale
(CIAT), Palmira, Columbia, beef, cassava, field
beans, farming systems, swine , maize, rice,
1968
• International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
(IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, farming systems, rice,
maize, cowpea, soybean, lima bean, pigeon
peas, root, tuber crops-cassava, sweet potato,
yam, 1965
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50. Population and Food Supply
• International Potato Center (CIP),Lima
Peru,potatoes for tropic and temperate
regions,1972
• International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad,
India, Sorghum, pearl millet, pigeon peas, chick
peas, farming systems, ground nuts, 1972
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51. Population and Food Supply
• International Laboratory for Research on
Animal Diseases (ILRAD), Nairobi, Kenya,
Trypanosomiasis,theileriasis,1974
• International Livestock Center for Africa
(ILCA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, livestock
production systems, 1974
• International Board for Plant Genetic
Resources (IPBGR) FAO, Rome,Italy,
conservation of plant genetic material-
cereals,1973
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52. Population and Food Supply
• West African Rice Development Association
(WARDA), Monrovia, Liberia, rice, 1971
• International Center for Agricultural
Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Lebanon,
crop and mixed farming systems research,
sheep, barley ,wheat,
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53. Agricultural Research in the
Philippines
1. State colleges and universities offering degrees in
agriculture
2. Department of Agriculture Research Networks
3. National commodity research centers
– FIDA – Fiber Industry Development Authority
– NTA – National Tobacco Administration
– PhilRice – Philippine Rice Research Institute
– PCA – Philippine Coconut Authority
– SRA – Sugar Regulatory Administration
– PRCRTC – Phil. Rootcrops Research and Training Center
– NPRCRTC – Northern Phil. Rootcrops Research and Training
Center
– NARC – National Abaca Research Center
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54. Agricultural Research in the
Philippines
4. Specialized discipline-oriented research centers
– IPB – Institute of Plant Breeding
– NCPC – National Crop Protection Center
– NPGRL – National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory
– PHTRC – Postharvest Horticulture Training and Research
Center
– BIOTECH – National Institutes of Molecular Biology and
Biotechnology
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55. Agricultural Research in the
Philippines
5. Private seed companies
– East West
– Monsanto
– Pioneer
– Syngenta
– Allied Botanicals
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56. Major International Research
Organization
– IRRI – International Rice Research Institute
(Philippines)
– CIMMYT – Centro International de Mejoramiente de
Maize y Trigo (Mexico)
– CIP – Centro International de Patatas
– ICRISAT – International Center for Semi-Arid Tropics
(India)
CIAT – Centro de International de Agricultural Tropical
(Colombia)
– ICARDA – International Center for Agricultural
Research for Dry Areas (Syria)
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57. Major International Research
Organization
– IITA – International Institute for Tropical Agriculture
(Nigeria)
– ICRAF – International Center for Research on
Agroforestry (Kenya)
– AVRDC – Asian Vegetable Research and
Development Center (Taiwan)
– Bioversity International – for International Plant
Genetic Resources Institute (Italy)
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58. Evidences of our works related
to agriculture:
1. World food summit
2. Food and Agriculture
Organization
3. Formulation of policies and
programs
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59. IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE
• Source of Raw Material
• Vast Employment Opportunities
• Source of Saving
• Source of Government Income
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60. Q1. How many million people in the world
suffering from hunger based on the
latest data?
a.10 d. 800
b. 100 e. 925
c. 400

61. • 800 million people in the world - suffer
from hunger and malnutrition (2008 or
2009).
• World food production - must increase
50 percent by 2030 to meet increasing
demand
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62. Another source…..
925 million hungry people in
2010
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63. Number of hungry people in the world:
925 million hungry people in 2010
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64. There are 7 billion people in the
world. Thus, with an estimated
925 million hungry people in the
world, 13.1 %, or almost 1 in 7
people are hungry.
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65. Year Population
1000 275 million
1500 450 million
1650 500 million
1750 700 million
1850 1.2 billion
1900 1.6 billion
1950 2.55 billion
1955 2.8 billion
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66. Year Population
1970 3.7 billion
1980 4.5 billion
1990 5.3 billion
1995 5.7 billion
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67. Year Population
2006 6.5 billion
2011 7 billion
2025 8 billion
2043 9 billion
2083 10 billion
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68. Every 3.6 seconds someone
dies of starvation.
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69. Malnutrition is a general term
that indicates a lack of some or
all nutritional elements
necessary for human health
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70. Every year 15 million children die of hunger
About 183 million children weigh less than
they should for their age
One in twelve people worldwide is
malnourished, including 160 million children
under the age of 5
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71. Agriculture plays a great role on
different aspects of our lives.
It provides the foundation through
which people survive through the
provision of food to both humans and
their animals.
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72. Without agriculture, chances of
survival would be minimal as both
people and livestock would die out
of starvation.
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73. Agriculture reduces poverty by
providing both a source of food
and employment.
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74. STATE OF THE PHILIPPINE
AGRICULTURE
• The Philippine is rich in agricultural potential.
However, agricultural commodities reveal a poor
state of agriculture competitiveness.
• The modernization of the country’s agriculture
sector has been mandated with the signing of
law Republic Act 8435 or the Agriculture and
Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA).
• AFMA was signed into law in 1997 and yet the
country remains the biggest rice importer in the
world.
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75. Land utilization in the Philippines
as of 1996 (NLUC 2002)
Land Use Area (ha) Percentage
Agriculture 9 728 800 32.95
Forestry 19 062 600 64.56
Settlement 131 400 0.44
Mining and quarrying 8 700 0.029
Inland Fisheries 595 700 2.02
Open Land 1 100 0.004
Total 29 528 300 100.00
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76. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the
Threats (SWOT) to Philippine Agriculture.
• Strengths
–Availability of expertise in agricultural
research and development
–Basic institutions in research
–Endowed with natural resources
–Availability of agricultural technologies to
boost production
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77. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the
Threats (SWOT) to Philippine Agriculture.
• Weaknesses
– Physical
• Climate – Typhoons, drought
• Soil – erosion of top soil particularly in sloppy
areas
– Biological
• Insect Pests
• Weeds
• Pathogens
• Nutrient deficiencies and toxicities
• Suitable varieties
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78. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the
Threats (SWOT) to Philippine Agriculture.
• Weaknesses
– Socio-economic
• Low farm income
• Small land holdings
• Decreasing interest in agriculture
• Inadequate support and extension services for
optimum production
• Inadequate incentives and support for efficient
production
– E.g. irrigation and postharvest infrastructure
• Inadequate farm-to-market roads
• Marketing problems
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79. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the
Threats (SWOT) to Philippine Agriculture.
• Opportunities
– Diverse agro-environment for diverse
cropping system
– Wide range of soil and climate to grow
different crops
– Whole year round growing period
• Sunlight: 11-13 hrs
• Temperature: 24-32oC
• Rainfall: 2400-4000mm/yr
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80. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the
Threats (SWOT) to Philippine Agriculture.
• Threats
– Population
– Globalization
– Weak governance
– Deteriorating natural resources endowments
– Climate change
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81. Major Crops
Producers

82. LUZON
(I)
(II)
(III)
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83. VISAYAS
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84. MINDANAO
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85. Fruits
Banana
Pummelo
Durian
Davao Region (XI)
Mango
Tamarind
Ilocos Region (I)
Pineapple Northern Mindanao (X)
Calamansi MIMAROPA (IV-B)
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86. Fruits
Lanzones
Mangosteen
ARMM (XII)
Papaya SOCCSKSARGEN
Rambutan CALABARZON (IV-A)
Orange CAR
Mandarin Cagayan Valley (II)
Watermelon Western Visayas
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89. Vegetables
Eggplant, Tomato,
Garlic
Ilocos Region
Lettuce Northern Mindanao
Cabbage, Brocolli,
White Potato,
Carrots, Chinese
Pechay
CAR
Asparagus SOCCSKSARGEN
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90. Vegetables
Ampalaya, Okra,
Stringbeans, Onion
Central Luzon
Gourd , Radish CALABARZON
Ginger, Squash Cagayan Valley
Kangkong ARMM
Native Pechay Bicol Region
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91. Cereals, Legumes & Root crops
Rice SOCCSKSARGEN
Corn Cagayan Valley
Cassava ARMM
Mongo Ilocos Region
Peanut Ilocos Region
Ubi Central Visayas
Camote, Gabi Eastern Visayas
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97. Cutflowers
Gladiolus CAR
Rose CAR
Chrysanthemum CAR
Anthurium CAR
Orchids Bicol Region
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98. Plantation crops
Coconut Davao Region
Coffee SOCCSKSARGEN
Sugarcane Western Visayas
Abaca Bicol Region
Rubber Zamboanga Peninsula
Tobacco Ilocos Region
Cotton Central Visayas
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101. JMUBanayag

102. Agriculture Performance 2016
2.b CommdtyFactSht_2016F
2.c ais_agri_export_import2017
2.d Regional Agricultural Production
Accounts 2015-2017
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103. • Credits to the owners of slides and contents being used.
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