Agricultural science

History

Main article: History of agricultural science

In the 18th century, Johann Friedrich Mayer conducted experiments on the use of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate) as a fertilizer.

In 1843, John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert began a set of long-term field experiments at Rothamsted Research in England, some of which are still running as of 2018.

In the United States, a scientific revolution in agriculture began with the Hatch Act of 1887, which used the term "agricultural science". The Hatch Act was driven by farmers' interest in knowing the constituents of early artificial fertilizer. The Smith–Hughes Act of 1917 shifted agricultural education back to its vocational roots, but the scientific foundation had been built. For the next 44 years after 1906, federal expenditures on agricultural research in the United States outpaced private expenditures. Intensification of agriculture since the 1960s in developed and developing countries, often referred to as the Green Revolution, was closely tied to progress made in selecting and improving crops and animals for high productivity, as well as to developing additional inputs such as artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

As the oldest and largest human intervention in nature, the environmental impact of agriculture in general and more recently intensive agriculture, industrial development, and population growth have raised many questions among agricultural scientists and have led to the development and emergence of new fields. These include technological fields that assume the solution to technological problems lies in better technology, such as integrated pest management, waste treatment technologies, landscape architecture, genomics, and agricultural philosophy fields that include references to food production as something essentially different from non-essential economic 'goods'. In fact, the interaction between these two approaches provide a fertile field for deeper understanding in agricultural science.

New technologies, such as biotechnology and computer science (for data processing and storage), and technological advances have made it possible to develop new research fields, including genetic engineering, agrophysics, improved statistical analysis, and precision farming. Balancing these, as above, are the natural and human sciences of agricultural science that seek to understand the human-nature interactions of traditional agriculture, including interaction of religion and agriculture, and the non-material components of agricultural production systems.--

Environmental impact

Climate change has had significant effects on modern agriculture, making weather patterns less predictable and increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as prolonged droughts, floods and heatwaves. As a result, crop production has become more uncertain even in regions that were previously characterised by relatively stable climatic conditions.{{cite web |title=Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Supply |url=https://www.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-change-impacts-agriculture-and-food-supply

To address these issues, there has been increasing interest in agricultural research and practice in the so-called climate-smart strategies aimed at adapting agricultural systems to the existing and the forecasted climate effects and the minimisation of greenhouse gas emissions wherever feasible. These measures involve more efficient use of water and nutrients, crop and agriculture system diversification, soil and water protection, and creating crops and livestock strains more resistant to heat and drought among other challenges. The thrust of these endeavors defines the fundamental importance of agricultural science to the maintenance of food production, safeguarding natural resources and promoting resilience to environmental change.{{cite web |title=Climate-smart agriculture |url=https://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture/en/

Prominent agricultural scientists

• Wilbur Olin Atwater
• Robert Bakewell
• Norman Borlaug
• Luther Burbank
• George Washington Carver
• Carl Henry Clerk
• George C. Clerk
• René Dumont
• Sir Albert Howard
• Kailas Nath Kaul
• Thomas Lecky
• Justus von Liebig
• Jay Laurence Lush
• Gregor Mendel
• Louis Pasteur
• M. S. Swaminathan
• Jethro Tull
• Artturi Ilmari Virtanen
• Sewall Wright

Fields or related disciplines

• Agricultural biotechnology
• Agricultural chemistry
• Agricultural diversification
• Agricultural education
• Agricultural economics
• Agricultural engineering
• Agricultural geography
• Agricultural marketing
• Agricultural soil science
  • Soil science
• Agroecology
• Agronomy
  • Botany
  • Theoretical production ecology
  • Horticulture
  • Plant breeding
  • Plant fertilization
• Agrophysics
• Animal science
  • Animal breeding
  • Animal husbandry
  • Animal nutrition
• Biological engineering
  • Genetic engineering
• Entomology
• Environmental science
• Farm management
• Fisheries science
  • Aquaculture
  • Fisheries
  • Marine fisheries
• Food science
  • Human nutrition
• Irrigation and water management
• Microbiology
  • Plant pathology
• Nematology
• Range management
• Waste management
• Weed science

Scope

Agriculture, agricultural science, and agronomy are closely related. However, they cover different concepts:

• Agriculture is the set of activities that transform the environment for the production of animals and plants for human use. Agriculture concerns techniques, including the application of agronomic research.
• Agronomy is research and development related to studying and improving plant-based crops.
• Geoponics is the science of cultivating the earth.
• Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in an artificial environment.

Research topics

Agricultural sciences include research and development on:

• Improving agricultural productivity in terms of quantity and quality (e.g., selection of drought-resistant crops and animals, development of new pesticides, yield-sensing technologies, simulation models of crop growth, in-vitro cell culture techniques)
• Minimizing the effects of pests (weeds, insects, pathogens, mollusks, nematodes) on crop or animal production systems.
• Transformation of primary products into end-consumer products (e.g., production, preservation, and packaging of dairy products)
• Prevention and correction of adverse environmental effects (e.g., soil degradation, waste management, bioremediation)
• Theoretical production ecology, relating to crop production modeling
• Traditional agricultural systems, sometimes termed subsistence agriculture, which feed most of the poorest people in the world. These systems are of interest as they sometimes retain a level of integration with natural ecological systems greater than that of industrial agriculture, which may be more sustainable than some modern agricultural systems.
• Food production and demand globally, with particular attention paid to the primary producers, such as China, India, Brazil, the US, and the EU.
• Various sciences relating to agricultural resources and the environment (e.g. soil science, agroclimatology); biology of agricultural crops and animals (e.g. crop science, animal science and their included sciences, e.g. ruminant nutrition, farm animal welfare); such fields as agricultural economics and rural sociology; various disciplines encompassed in agricultural engineering.

References

References

1. "Agriscience {{!}} Meaning & Definition for UK English". [[Oxford University Press]] via [[Lexico]].
2. John Armstrong, Jesse Buel. ''A Treatise on Agriculture, The Present Condition of the Art Abroad and at Home, and the Theory and Practice of Husbandry. To which is Added, a Dissertation on the Kitchen and Garden.'' 1840. p. 45.
3. "The Long Term Experiments". Rothamsted Research.
4. (2014-11-19). "Fertilizer History: The Haber-Bosch Process".
5. "Lawes and Gilbert: an unlikely Victorian agricultural partnership".
6. "The Hatch Act of 1887".
7. (2020-11-23). "Hatch Act of 1887".
8. Hillison J. (1996). [http://pubs.aged.tamu.edu/jae/pdf/vol37/37-04-08.pdf The Origins of Agriscience: Or Where Did All That Scientific Agriculture Come From?] {{webarchive. link. (2 October 2008. ''Journal of Agricultural Education''.)
9. Huffman WE, Evenson RE. (2006). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWcolrGftT0C Science for Agriculture]''. [[Blackwell Publishing]].
10. “Geoponics.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geoponics. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
11. Bosso, Thelma. (2015). "Agricultural Science". Callisto Reference.
12. Boucher, Jude. (2018). "Agricultural Science and Management". Callisto Reference.
13. [https://www.ifpri.org/publication/agricultural-research-livelihoods-and-poverty/ Agricultural research, livelihoods, and poverty. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)] {{webarchive. link. (26 June 2010)