TALKS ABOUT AGRICULTURE (PART 4)

 

AGRICULTURE is is very important sector in the world to supply food for inhabitants, Agriculture the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock. It includes the preparation of plant and animal products for people to use and their distribution to markets. Agriculture provides most of the world’s food and fabrics. Cotton, wool, palm oil, fish, meat and many others are all agricultural products. Agriculture also provides wood for construction and paper products also produce more food chain and industrial product. These products, as well as the agricultural methods used, may vary from one part of the world to another. For me the start of agriculture over centuries with the growth of agriculture contributed to the rise of the civilizations. This blog in "Anim Agriculture Technology'' we share about the agriculture and their important.

Methods of cultivation in agriculture improved for many decades. Agricultural methods often vary widely around the world mostly are depending on climate, terrain, traditions, and available technology. For tropical country like Malaysia the farming are throughout the years in which oil pam tree harvested all year round. The low-technology farming involves permanent crops: food grown on land that is not replanted after each harvest. Citrus trees and coffee plants are examples of permanent crops. Higher-technology farming involves crop rotation, which requires knowledge of farmable land. Scholars and engineers not only use crop rotation and irrigation, but plant crops according to the season, type of soil, and amount of water needed. In coastal West Africa, farmers, usually women, plant corn soon after the first rains of the growing season. They often use an ancient method of clearing called slash-and-burn. First, the farmer cuts all the brush in her plot. When this vegetation dries, she sets fire to it. The heat from the fire makes the soil easy to turn, and the burned vegetation fertilizes it. The farmer then sows kernels of corn saved from the previous year’s harvest. Between rows of corn, the African farmer plants other staple crops: legumes, such as peas, or root vegetables, such as yams. This practice of growing several crops in the same plot is called intercropping. By covering most of the ground with vegetation, intercropping prevents moisture loss and soil erosion from seasonal rains.

Rain supplies water for the growing plants especially for paddy, vegetables and most cereal. The farmer weeds her plot with a hoe. At harvest time farmers pick the corn, husk it then spread the ears in the sun to dry and later they grind the dried corn to make porridge. Traditionally, the African farmer uses the same plot for several years, until its fertility declines. Then she moves to another plot, leaving the first to lie fallow for up to 10 years. Now, an increasing population has caused fallow periods to be reduced and has made permanent cultivation more common. Agricultural methods used in the Corn Belt of the U.S. are very different. The Corn Belt is the area of the northern Midwest where most of the nation’s corn crop is grown. First of all many farmers rarely work alone the size of European farms requires a lot of labor. Soon after they harvest the corn in autumn, farmers work leftover vegetation, or stubble, into the soil. In the spring, farmers work the soil again, using an implement with rows of sharp-edged steel discs, called a disc harrow. The discs cut into the soil, breaking it into smaller pieces and supplying it with air. Later  the tractor-pulled planter sows rows of seed. The machine makes furrows in the soil, drops in kernels of high-yield, genetically modified corn, and covers them with dirt. After the corn seeds have sprouted, another machine injects liquid fertilizer into the ground. The farmers then use chemicals to control weeds and pests, and loosen the soil with a tractor-pulled cultivator during the harvesting season. USA industrial farmers may plant a thousand acres of just corn. The practice of specializing in a single crop is known as monoculture. To harvest the crop, farmers use a mechanical harvester that picks the ears of corn and shells them into a bin. Little of the corn grown in the Corn Belt is for human consumption. Most of the corn grown in the U.S. is for cattle feed and industrial uses, such as corn syrup sweeteners. Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. Continue to read in Part 5 of this article. Thanks.

By,

M Anim,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia

(January 2021). 

Updated on April 2023.