Table of Contents
What is Agriculture, why is agriculture important to humans?
Agriculture is the practice of farming which includes preparing the soil for growth of crops and the nurturing of animals to provide food, wool and other important and useful products.
Why is Agriculture Important?
Agriculture is essential for any society to feed the population. It plays a vital role in the growth of the economy of any country and its development. Since agriculture is considered to be a provider of food, human existence depends directly on it. Importance of Agriculture can be realized by the fact that the economy of many countries in the world depends solely on agriculture.
A few benefits of importance of agriculture are mentioned below;
Helpful in providing Raw materials
- Without any raw materials, makers can’t manufacture any products. Many raw materials come directly from agriculture like lumber for construction materials, herbs for adding flavor to food, etc
Encourage Economic Development
- Agriculture affects global trade at a high scale because it directly impacts other sectors of the economy, providing job opportunities and encouraging economic development. Countries who have strong agricultural support experience growth in other sectors as well.
Provision of enough food
- Agriculture is essential for any society because it helps to feed people. When people are asked about their thinking of agriculture, they often think of farms or lands where crops are grown. In addition to that livestock such as cows, chicken and sheep etc are also raised on farms which provide an important source of food for humans.
- Another form of agriculture, aquaculture is the farming of fish and other aquatic plants. Fish and many other aquatic animals are considered to be good sources of proteins.
- Horticulture is another form of agriculture concerned with growth of vegetables, fruits, flowers and other ornamental plants.
- Last but not the least, forestry is the management and conservation of trees and wildlife in forests. All these forms of agriculture ensure that everyone has access to food, regardless of where they live or their economic status.
Protecting against famine
- Agriculture is known to be important for survival because it protects against famine because if agricultural output of a land is less, there would be no food for people or animals and famine can result because of that. Therefore, even if a drought occurs or farming lands get destroyed by certain pests, farmers will already have some supply of food to feed it to their animals or people.
Agriculture maintains social order
- Another reason why agriculture is important is that it maintains social order. When everyone is dependent on one another for food and other necessities of life, a sense of cooperation develops in people and this gives people a sense of responsibility because they realize the importance of agriculture and they know that without agriculture, they won’t be able to feed people and this social order will be destroyed. Agriculture rings people together and helps form the society itself. Therefore, to make sure that people have a way to get food and other resources, everyone needs to work together as one society to sustain the agricultural land.
Helps balance the ecosystem
- Agriculture also helps in balancing the ecosystem. It can help to regulate the ecosystem because it provides food and shelter for animals, regulates water resources, and restores degraded areas.
It provides employment
- The agricultural industry is considered to be one of the biggest sources of employment. Whether it’s working as a farmer, harvester, technician for farm equipment, scientist, or any other form of employment , agriculture provides employment opportunities to a huge number of people reducing the percentage of unemployment and poverty.
Food for Animals
- Animals also get their food grown through agriculture for example fodder, silage and more and that is why agriculture is important.
Provide Greener Environment
- Agriculture can help enhance the surrounding because of utilization of natural ways to grow crops and vegetables instead of bare soil and rocks.
Good for surroundings
- Modern agriculture relies on drip irrigation and helps to conserve water.Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen and help purify the air and also trap harmful toxins and pathogens in the air, thus making air pure.
Why is sustainable agriculture so important ?
The answer to the question why is sustainable agriculture important is that it is intended to preserve the environment and expand the natural resources of earth and this helps in providing a good quality of life to animals and humans likewise. Importance of sustainable agriculture needs to be realized because the main aim of sustainable agriculture is to preserve the natural resources as such resources are already depleting. It also benefits the environment through maintaining the soil quality, reducing erosion, and preserving water for future generations.
Why was agriculture important for the development of civilization ?
Humans innovated agriculture and it enabled people to grow all the food they needed. Development of food and other products is why agriculture is important and this led to massive population growth, which led to creating cities and trade.
About 12000 years ago, agriculture made such a huge change in society and the way in which people lived, cities and civilizations came into existence, and crops and animals were used to meet demands of the ever growing population, the global population rocketed, from some five million people 10,000 years ago, to more than seven billion today.
Why is Genetic Engineering important in Agriculture?
- Genetic engineering can provide numerous benefits in the agricultural field like faster and more precise breeding, increased crop yields, growth of nutritious food in increased quantity, and decreased need for harmful chemicals like herbicides and pesticides.
- In addition to that, it has also enabled the development of disease-resistant crops, which is why the yield has increased so much which is sufficient to meet the demands of the increasing population.
- Crops cultivated and developed by genetic engineering have increased tolerance to various diseases.
In short, the importance of agriculture can not be avoided at any cost because it not only provides food and job opportunities to people but also maintains social order in the society. In addition to that, agriculture proves to be beneficial for our surroundings and provides a good environment for us.
