Cultivating Life: The Evolution and Significance of Agriculture
In order to realize the importance of agrarian culture for humanity, it is necessary to begin with understanding the history of its appearance in society and what role it played - it will be considered in the importance of agriculture essay.
Agriculture is a very ancient occupation of mankind. It is so old that nobody can say what certainty when and ''where it was first begun''. It's probably began when man through necessary discovered that certain wild plants would supply him food in the form of fruits and seeds. Following this discovery he went from a place in search of these food materials. Some of the seeds of these food plants dropped around his dwellings, and later bore the fruit and grain which he could use again as his food. This again led him to discover that by scattering seeds near his dwelling. He could have him to materials near his home without having to search for them at long distances. The primitive living perhaps also realized that the fruits and seeds gathered were not sufficient to meet his needs and these of resources of the clearing of forests for the growing of his crops. But he probably found out that the continuous growing of crops in the place gives diminished yields. So he moved about from place to place. later as the population grew. He was forced to restrict himself to a certain locality. This against must have resulted in competition for certain favorable localities, and the giving up of his nomadic life.
In the course of time, this primitive man again must have discovered that certain wild plants which he was growing gave him more and better food than others. This must have led him to the selection of certain wild plants for cultivation. In this way, primitive man made a remarkable choice of crops. Cultivation began to center around the growing of certain crops like wheat, cotton in central Asia, rice in China and south-eastern Asia, and maize and, potato in tropical America. By this man had also learned the usefulness of animals as a source of food and clothing. A first he went out to hunt for them, but later he learned that they could be domesticated. He probably noticed that where the animals dropped their excreta the plants grew more luxuriant. this led him to apply animal excreta to his fields. This was the discovery of the use of animal manure for the growing of crops. and herein lies the beginning of the development of the art of farming. This was the condition of farming in most parts of the country about thine. When Aryans came to indin. The old civilization developed along river banks and flourished only because food production was possible from irrigated lands much in excess of the needs of the produces.
Simply agriculture means the cultivation of fields. Agriculture means the cultivation of the soil, which includes several operations such as plowing, planting, sowing of crops, harvesting of crops abd feeding animals, etc. Broadly speaking agriculture can be defined as an art, since or an industry which makes use of soil for production of plants, rearing of animals and birds which are directly or indirectly useful for maintaining the human life. Or activity of man, primarily aimed at the production of food, fiber and other materials by the controlled use of plants and animals, or the work of cultivating the soil, producing crops, abd raising livestock.
The three basic necessities of mankind are food, cloth, and shelter. Agriculture is only the field which provides us with all the three necessities, as described below:
- Food - We know that all of the foodstuffs which to cal and to keep our selves are the production of agriculture such as milk, meat, seeds, roots, shoots, flowers, and fruits.
- Clothes - Clothes of all major kinds are made from such agricultural products as cotton, wool, jute, and natural silk.
- Shelter - Trunks, wood, and leaves have been from sheltering mankind from ages. Even now the wood is the basic material used in our houses.
Also agriculture provides the raw material for local industries such as textiles, sugar, paper, oil, wool, and jute mills. It provides raw materials for local industries. Other industries that can be cited in this connection are cigarettes, leather, flour mills, dairy, poultry rice, and fruit industry.
Moreover, agriculture provides employment to a large number of people. it has been estimated that about 70 percent of our population is engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture It provides foreign exchange earnings. The major product which earns foreign exchange(80%) are cotton, rice, wool, yarn, hides or skins. the important by-products which earn foreign exchange are footwear, leather goods, sports, garments, and carpets which consume most of the raw material obtained from agriculture. ANd the last one, agriculture plays an important role in cleaning of atmosphere ants taken CO₂ and gives out the almost same quantity of oxygen for our use. A youth tree absorbs about.13 lbs. CO₂ in a year; a tree having 1-ton weight uses about 1.5 ton CO₂ and releases more than 1-ton oxygen within a year. ten to 50 percent of expenses to keep the house cool can be saved planting three trees.
Conclusion
In it's broad sence the definition of agriculture includes field, range, horticultural/ floricultural and cultural crops. Agriculture has great importance in an overpopulated world, without giving due importance to agriculture, this impossible to feed the people of the world and man cannot live without food. The importance of agriculture is briefly discussed below.
