Article
Article
- Agriculture, Forestry & Soils
- Farming
- Agriculture
Agriculture
Article By:
Janick, Jules Department of Horticulture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Last reviewed:February 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.016200
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- Agriculture, published June 2014:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Nature of agricultural products
- Environmental concerns
- Related Primary Literature
- Additional Reading
The art and science of crop and livestock production. In its broadest sense, agriculture comprises the entire range of technologies associated with the production of useful products from plants and animals, including soil cultivation, crop and livestock management (see illustration), and the activities of processing and marketing. The term agribusiness has been coined to include all the technologies that mesh in the total inputs and outputs of the farming sector. In this light, agriculture encompasses the whole range of economic activities involved in manufacturing and distributing the industrial inputs used in farming; the farm production of crops, animals, and animal products; the processing of these materials into finished products; and the provision of products at a time and place demanded by consumers. See also: Agricultural science (animal); Agricultural science (plant); Food manufacturing
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