- What is Agriculture?
Agriculture classifies the science, art and industry of animal and plant cultivation for use by humans such as a source of food, clothing, income, pets, et. In general, agriculture includes horticulture, livestock, dairy, and forestry. Image

- Modern Agriculture
Engineering and technology is heavily utilized in modern agriculture. Fields utilizing agricultural engineers includes, but not limited to Irrigation and Drainage .

One area of agriculture where plant production is advancing rapidly is Hydroponics; a method for growing plants' (soilless) in an inert medium like expanded clay pebbles or rockwool.

Because of the soilless aspect of hydroponics, people in extremely dry regions like parts of Africa, for example, can cultivate plants for food and other natural resources. Hydroponics may also increase food production - a concern for the growing population.

Plant genetics and breeding offers great benefits to farm productivity. Genetics has also turned livestock breeding into a science.

- Agricultural Chemistry
Agricultural chemistry is associated with other important farming concerns like fertilizer application, insecticides or pest control, fungicides, soil composition, agricultural products analysis, and nutritional requirements of farm animals.

- Packaging, Processing & Marketing
Technological progress and advancements have revolutionized the way produce is packaged, proces and market to consumers. Food processing summarize the steps required to process, package and ship the products to consumers from the time of harvest.

Food processing also includes analyzing food for bacteria, packaging, and preserving.

- Technology
Technology offered dual benefits to farmers like reducing the labor-intense portion of farming and increased the farms' effiency and productivity.

While technology dominates most modern farms today, animals like horses, donkey's and dogs are still actively working on farms as a means to transport produce or till the farm land.

Computers have also become an important agricultural management tool. Hydroponics and Greenhouse cultivation are two examples of agriculture that generally involve computers for managing lighting, feeding, temperature and pH.

Aircrafts including planes and helicopters are also used in daily agricultural business. Spraying insecticides on large farm land is pretty effective and efficient from the air. It's also a quick method to transport perishable produce.

Article Courtesy of HydroponicSearch.com - The Agriculture Search Engine & Educational Community.