AGRICULTUREBY:ACOSTA, JOANA MAIKOCANONIGO, KAREN KAYELESACA, ANGELUBSA 2-1

What is AGRICULTURE?

In relation to crop farming and livestock farming

“agriculture” may be defined as:

The art and science of growing plants and other crops and the raising of animals for food, other human needs,

or economic gain.

HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE

The history of agriculture is the story of humankind's development and cultivation of processes for producing food, feed, fiber, fuel, and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. Prior to the development of plant cultivation, human beings were hunters and gatherers.

The knowledge and skill of learning to care for the soil and growth of plants advanced the development of human society, allowing clans and tribes to stay in one location generation after generation. Archaeological evidence indicates that such developments occurred 10,000 or more years ago.

Origins of agriculture

Agriculture is believed to have been developed at multiple times in multiple areas. By 7000 B.C.E., sowing and harvesting reached Mesopotamia and there, in the super fertile soil just north of the Persian Gulf, Sumerian ingenuity systematized it and scaled it up. By 6000 B.C.E. farming was entrenched on the banks of the Nile River. About this time, agriculture was developed independently in the Far East, probably in China, with rice rather than wheat as the primary crop.

Intensive farming allows a much greater density of population than can be supported by hunting and gathering, and allows for the accumulation of excess product for off-season use, or to sell/barter.

Ancient Egyptian farmer

Sumerian agriculture

(The "Fertile Crescent" of the Middle East)In Sumer, barley was the main crop, but wheat, flax, dates, apples, plums,, and grapes, were grown as well. While Mesopotamia was blessed with flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that helped cultivate plant life, the salt deposits under the soil, made it hard to farm.

Aztec and Maya agriculture

Agriculture in Mesoamerica dates to the Archaic period of Mesoamerican chronology (8000-2000B.C.E.).

The Aztecs were some of the most innovative farmers of the ancient world, and farming provided the entire basis of their economy. The land around Lake Texcoco was fertile but not large enough to produce the amount of food needed for the population of their expanding empire. The Aztecs developed irrigation systems, formed terraced hillsides, and fertilized their soil. However, their greatest agricultural technique was the chi Nampa or artificial islands also known as "floating gardens."

Roman agriculture

By the fifth century Greece had started using crop rotation methods and had large estates while farms in Rome were small and family owned.

Roman agriculture reached its height of productivity and efficiency during the late republic and early empire.

Agriculture in the Middle AgesThe Muslims introduced what was to become an agricultural revolution based on four key factors:

• Development of a sophisticated system of irrigation using machines such as norias (newly invented water raising machines), dams and reservoirs.

• The adoption of a scientific approach to farming enabled them to improve farming techniques derived from the collection and collation of relevant information throughout the whole of the known world

• Incentives based on a new approach to land ownership and laborers' rights, combining the recognition of private ownership and the rewarding of cultivators with a harvest share commensurate with their efforts.

• The introduction of new crops transformed private farming into a new global industry exported everywhere

18TH and 19th CENTURY

Threshing machine

A tractor sloughing an alfalfa field

Agricultural production across the world doubled four times between 1820 and 1975.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO THE ECONOMY

MAIN SOURCE OF LIVELIHOOD

According to economist Gerardo Sicat,” The more underdeveloped an economy is, the more it is dependent primarily on agriculture”

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood among Filipinos.

The October 2003 Labor Force Survey recorded that 37% of the labor force is involved among agriculture.

A SOURCE OF FOOD AND RAW MATERIALS

Agriculture supplies the country’s food needs. Agricultural products such as rice, fish, vegetables, fruits and meat sustain the needs of the population.

A MARKET FOR THE PRODUCTS OF OTHER INDUSTRIES

Those involved in agriculture spend part of their income on machinery, fertilizers, clothing, and more. Increased income could lead them to demand more of such products, and in the process hike the income of the industrial sector.

A SOURCE OF FOREIGN EARNINGS

Agricultural products being exported to other countries bring much-needed foreign currency. These foreign earnings are in turn used to purchase goods needed by the economy but are not produced locally.

Problems in the Agricultural Sector

Problems related to natural resources

DeforestationSoil erosionPollutionGlobal warming

Other major problemsUneconomical farm sizeInadequate farm facilitiesTraditional farmingIncrease in population

PROGRAMS OF THE GOVERNMENT

Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Program

This program is focuses on achieving food security and poverty alleviation. Such plans and programs aim to ensure food security by increasing productivity in irrigated areas.

The program envisions a modernized and productive agriculture and fishery sector, and being able to provide food at prices affordable to all.

MAUNLAD NA NIYUGAN TUGON SA KAHIRAPAN PROGAM

Through this program, modal farms are organized in the different coconut-producing regions to help small coconut farmers have an adequate food supply and at the same time, increases their average gross annual income.

UNLAD ABAKA MASA PROGRAM

This program aims to assure an adequate supply of abaca fiber, improve the quality of the fiber and effect significant technology transfer.

IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

This program aims to support the national food production program through improvements in the irrigations system.

COCONUT FARMER FOOD ACCESS PROGRAM

This program was launched to help coconut farmers cope with the effects of low copra prices.