Agriculture and its development: Introduction

Over the years, the development of agriculture contributed to the rise of civilizations. There is also a sharp increase in the employment in agriculture ranging from 42.5%  of the total employment in the year  2018-19 to 46% in the year 2019-20. Agriculture includes plant preparation and animal products to use for the people and for their distribution in the market. Most of the world’s fabric and food, leather and cotton wool are all agricultural products. Not only this, agriculture also provides wood for the construction and all the paper products. Agricultural methods used are different among the countries.

Different types of economic activities

Three types of economic activities are included in the transformation of a plant into a finalized product. These are primary, secondary, and tertiary activities.

• Primary activities: These involve all those activities related to the extraction and production of natural resources. For example, agriculture, fishing, and gathering etc. Agriculture is considered as an important sector in the Indian economy as it contributes over 17% of total GDP. Fishing contributes over 1% of total India’s GDP and more than 5% to the agricultural GDP
• Secondary activities: These are involved with the processing of these resources. For example, manufacturing of steel, baking of bread, and weaving of cloth etc
• Tertiary activities: These supply support to the primary and secondary sectors through services. For example, transport, trade, banking, insurance, and advertising etc

Agriculture can be defined as the practice or science of farming,  art of soil cultivation, raising crops and rearing livestock. It is also called farming.

• It is a primary activity.

Agriculture and Allied Activities:

• Seri culture: Commercial rearing of silkworms. It supplements the income of the farmer
• Pisciculture: Fishes are bred in tanks and ponds which are made especially for this purpose
• Horticulture: For commercial purposes, vegetables, flowers and fruits are grown
• Organic Farming: The use of organic manure and natural pesticides are the main features of this type of farming instead of chemicals. Genetic manipulation is not performed to magnify the yield of the crop

Horticulture

Horticulture can be checked out as a framework as it incorporates every one of the significant exercises, for example,

• Inputs like seeds, fertilizers, machinery, and labour
• Operations involved furrowing, planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting
• Outputs like yields, fleece, dairy, and poultry products.

Agriculture Development

• It depicts efforts made to grow farm production in order to reach the growing demand of the increasing population
• The supreme objective of agricultural development is to increase food security
• Agricultural development is the most powerful tool to end extreme poverty from India
• Agricultural development will boost prosperity and will feed around 9.7 billion people by 2050
• Compared to the other sectors, growth in agriculture is four times more effective in raising income among the poor people

Food security signifies when every person has access to adequate, safe and nutritious food at all times to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Ways to achieve agricultural development and food security

• Expansion of both the cropped area and the number of crops grown
• Improving irrigation facilities
• Use of fertilizers
• High yielding variety of seeds
• Mechanization of agriculture

Conclusion

Economic activities are the lifeline of a nation. They are the most important for the social, economic, financial and political conditions of people. There are basically three types of economic activities and of these agriculture or  primary activities hold the most importance. Agriculture is the science and art of raising crops and rearing livestock. Nearly 50% of the world population is employed in the agricultural sector. Along with agriculture, there are many allied activities  such as agriculture, horticulture, pisciculture etc. For the food security and high production of agriculture; agricultural development should be taken place. Proper utilization of Technology, irrigation facilities, use of fertilizers, mechanization and awareness among farmers are some tools for agriculture development.