Agriculture

Agriculture, sometimes known as farming, is the process of raising plants and animals for food and/or profit. Farming of domesticated species resulted in food surpluses, which in turn made it possible for humans to dwell in cities. Agriculture was the most important step in the progression of human civilization toward sedentary lifestyles. The beginning of agriculture may be traced back many thousands of years. Around 11,500 years ago, farmers just getting their feet wet started planting cereal grains after having gathered wild grains for at least the previous 105,000 years. Animals such as pigs, sheep, and cattle were first domesticated more than 10,000 years ago. At least 11 different locations throughout the globe were responsible for the cultivation of their own plants. In spite of the fact that over 2 billion people were still dependent on agriculture for their sustenance, industrial agriculture that was built on large-scale monoculture began to dominate agricultural production in the twentieth century.

The primary goods that come from agriculture may be broken down into four categories: foods, textiles, fuels, and raw materials (such as rubber). Cereals (sometimes called grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meat, milk, eggs, and fungus are all considered different types of foods. Although the global trend of a decreasing number of agricultural workers continues, especially in developing countries, where smallholding is being overtaken by industrial agriculture and mechanisation that brings an enormous crop yield increase, agriculture employs more than one-third of the world's workforce, making it the second largest industry after the service sector.

The employment of modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals like pesticides and fertilisers, and technical advancements have all contributed to a significant rise in food yields, but at the expense of the environment and ecology. In the same way that selective breeding and contemporary procedures in animal husbandry have improved the production of meat, they have also created concerns over the welfare of animals and the harm they do to the environment. Environmental problems consist of things like people's contributions to climate change, the depletion of aquifers, the destruction of forests, the development of antibiotic resistance, and other forms of agricultural pollution. Agriculture is both a cause of and sensitive to environmental degradation, such as the loss of biodiversity, desertification, soil degradation, and global warming, all of which can cause decreases in crop yield. This is because agriculture is both a cause of and sensitive to environmental degradation. The usage of genetically modified organisms is widespread, despite the fact that some of them are illegal in some nations.