Basics Of Agriculture

By
Rattan Kaur Chawla
Introduction to Agriculture
Agriculture
• Latin words Ager and Cultura.
• Ager means land or field and Cultura means cultivation
• Agriculture means cultivation of land. i.e., the science and art of
producing crops and livestock for economic purposes.
• It is also known as farming or Husbandry
• Agriculture is defined in the Agriculture Act 1947, “horticulture, fruit
growing, seed growing, dairy farming and livestock breeding and
keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land,
market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands
where that use ancillary to the farming of land for Agricultural
purposes”
Cont..
• The primary aim of agriculture is to cause the land to
produce more abundantly, and at the same time, to
protect it from deterioration and misuse.
• It is synonymous with farming–the production of food,
fodder and other industrial materials
• But farming is a part of agriculture. It is the business of
crop production and livestock rearing
• Agriculture is considered the backbone of Pakistan's
economy, which relies heavily on its major crops
 Crops
Crop, in agriculture, is a plant or plant product that can be grown and
harvested extensively for profit or subsistence.
By use, crops fall into six categories:
1. Food crops, for human consumption (e.g., wheat, potatoes);
2. Feed crops, for livestock consumption (e.g., oats, alfalfa);
3. Fibre crops, for cordage and textiles (e.g., cotton, hemp);
4. Oil crops, for consumption or industrial uses (e.g., cottonseed, corn);
5. Ornamental crops, for landscape gardening (e.g., dogwood, azalea);
and
6. Industrial and secondary crops, for various personal and industrial
uses (e.g., rubber, tobacco).
• Food Crops • Fiber Crops

• Wheat • Cotton
• Millet (Bajra) • Flax
• Rice • Ramie
• Barley • Sunhemp
• Maize • Jute
• Sorghum
• Sugar Crops • Oilseed Crops

• Sugarcane • Rapeseed and Mustard

• Sugarbeet • Linseed
• Stivia • Soybean
• Sweet sorghum • Sesame
• Sunflower
• Groundnut
• Castor bean (Arind)
Pulses

• Gram Fodders
• Lentil
• Mungbean • Berseem
• Mashbean • Lucern
• Oat
Cash Crops • Sorghum
• Guara
• Sugarcane
• Mottgrass
• Cotton
• Tobacco
• Maize
• Sugarbeet • Millet
Branches of Agriculture
A. Crop Improvement (i) Plant breeding and genetics
(ii) Bio-technology

(i) Agronomy
(ii) Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
(iii) Seed technology
(iv) Agricultural Microbiology
B. Crop Management
(v) Crop-Physiology
(vi) Agricultural Engineering
(vii) Environmental Sciences
(viii) Agricultural Meteorology

(i) Agricultural Entomology

C. Crop Protection (ii) Plant Pathology
(iii) Nematology

(i) Agricultural Extension

D. Social Sciences
(ii) Agricultural Economics

(i) Agricultural Statistics

E. Allied disciplines (ii)Mathematics
(iii) Bio-Chemistry etc
History of agriculture
• Primary/ primitive/ root grabbing stage
• used to take shelter together in the cave, earth-hole
• afraid of wild animals
• Hunting and old stone stage
• people had learned to save themselves from the wild animals
• used to eat flesh of wild animals
• Fire and new stone stage
• able to make sharp and pointed arms
• Animal domestication/ husbandry stage
• hunting wild animals
• Crop production stage

• Modern agriculture was started from 18th century.

• Green revolution was started in 1960s.
 Importance of Agriculture
• Food CHO, Protein, Fat, Vitamins and minerals
• Clothes 70% of the fiber comes from cotton
• Houses timber, bamboo, straw, rope etc.
• Fuel Coal, petrol and gasses are obtained from plant materials.
• Biodiesel
• Earning source
• contributes 21.8 %to GDP
• 45% of the labour force
• Livestock having share of 55 % in agri. and 11.5 % in GDP
• Foreign currency / Revenue
• agricultural products directly or in processed condition are exported
• Export problems
• International relation
• Natural beauty
Flower, ornamental grasses and plants bring natural beauty, Such as, roses, jasmine etc.
• Environmental balance
Importance of Agriculture
• Industry
Agriculture provides raw materials in different industries.
• a. Medicine industry: arjun, tobacco, sesame etc.,
• b. Paper industry: Bamboo, geoa, straw etc.,
• c. Rubber industry: Rubber is prepared from the latex of rubber plant.
• d. Soap, candle and paint industry: oils (mustard, sesame, linseed, groundnut) animal fats (goat,
cattle), wax of honeybee chamber, turmeric, safflower etc.
• e. Perfume industry: Volatile oils, rose, etc.
• f. Beverage industry: Tea, coffee, Coca-Cola, etc.
• g. Bakery: Flour, egg, sugar, oil etc.
• h. Sugar industry: Sugarcane, sugarbeet, date palm etc.
• i. Narcotic and chewing industry: tobacco, poppy, cocoa etc.
• j. Leather industry: Hide and skin of different animals used in leather industry
Agronomy
• two Greek word- agros nomos meaning to manage
• branch of agricultural science deals with principle and practices of
field management for the production of field crops
• Agronomists need to understand plants, soils, insects,
microorganisms, climate and how they interact with each other within
agroecosystems
• Soil – plant – environment relationship
Basic principles of agronomy
• Planning, programming and executing measures for max. utilization of land,
labour, capital, sunshine, rain-water, temp., humidity, transport and marketing
facilities.
• Choice of crop varieties adaptable to the particular agro-climate, land situation,
soil fertility, season and method of cultivation and benefiting to the cropping
system.
• Proper field management by tillage, preparing field channels or bunds for
irrigation and drainage, checking soil erosion, leveling
• Adoption of multiple cropping and also mixed or intercropping to ensure
harvest even under adverse environmental condition.
• Timely application of proper / balanced nutrients to crop & improvement of soil
fertility & productivity
• Choice of quality seed or seed material and maintenance of requisite plant
density per unit area with healthy and uniform seedlings.
•
Cont..
• Proper water management with respect to crop, soil and environment
through conservation and utilization of soil moisture as well as by water
that is available in excess.
• Adoption of adequate, need-based, timely and exacting plant protection
measures against weeds, insect-pests, pathogens as well as climatic
hazards.
• Adoption of suitable method and time of harvesting of crops to reduce
field damage and to release land for succeeding crop(s) and efficient
utilization of residual moisture, plant nutrients and other management
practices.
• Adoption of suitable post-harvest technologies.
Factors leading to decreased agricultural
Production
1. Low soil fertility
2. Seeds of low yielding genetic potential
3. Inadequate and non existing control of diseases and insects
4. Non-availability of production inputs
5. Weak research and extensive programs
6. Government economic policies affecting agriculture
Horticulture – an
introduction
 Horticulture
• Latin words, Hortus - garden Cultura, cultivation
• the science and art of cultivating high value plants including fruits, veg.,
ornamentals (flowers, trees and shrubs), herbs and medicinal plants.
• “the production of crops within an enclosure” (Bailey 1939)
• “the branch of agriculture concerned with intensively cultured plants
used for food, medicinal purposes or aesthetic gratification”
• Includes cultivating, processing, and marketing of fruits, vegetables and
ornamental plants

26
Horticulture
Olericulture Vegetables

Pomology Fruits

Viticulture Grapes

Floriculture Flowers

Arboriculture production of ornamental tree plants

27
 Horticulture
• the production of fruit crops, including the growing, harvesting and
postharvest handling practices
• Botanically, fruit is a ripened ovary.
• Pomes - false fruits in which edible portion is thalamus and ovary, e.g.,
apple, pear

28
True vs false fruit
• The main difference between true fruit and false fruit is that true
fruit or the eucarp develops from the mature, ripened ovary
whereas the bulk of the false fruit or pseudo-carp develops from
the floral parts other than the ovary.
Cont..
• Stone fruits or drupes are identified as true fruits whose
development is associated with the ovary wall with a hard stone/seed
inside, as in case of peach, apricot, plum and cherry.
• Berry - category of true fruits which have fleshy skin and inner walls,
for example citrus and cucurbits
• Aggregate fruit is developed from flower having multiple pistils on a
common receptacle as blackberry, and strawberry.
• Multiple fruit - developed from many but closely clustered flowers
such as pineapple, fig and mulberry
Horticulture
• Olericulture
• sub-groups based on their edible portion
• leaves (spinach, fenugreek, amaranth, cabbage and lettuce),
• fruits (tomato, chillies, okra, cucurbits and brinjal),
• pods (peas, cowpea and cluster bean),
• roots (radish, carrot, turnip and beet)
• tubers (potato, a stem and sweet potato, a root)
• Source of CHO, vitamins and minerals

31
Horticulture
• Ornamental horticulture
• ornamental foliage plants, which are grown for the beauty of their leaves
• flowering plants which are grown for their flowers
• production of flowering plants – floriculture
• Indoor
• Outdoor
• The production of ornamental tree plants is called as arboriculture
• Landscaping

32
Ornamental plants
Indoor plants
Outdoor plants
Landscaping
Landscaping
Horticulture in world
• Global fruit production in 2012 was 636 million tons, an increase of 160
million tons (33%) occurred in 12 years since the year 2000.
• banana (101 million tons) followed by apples (76 million tons)
• Potato is the leading vegetable
• Asia contributes 52% fruits and 76.9% veg. of the total world production
• World’s floriculture business is about US$ 100 billion.
• 70% of the world’s cut flowers are grown by the Netherlands, Columbia,
Ecuador and Kenya
Watch videos and pics of Keukenhof

38
39
40
41
Horticulture in Pakistan
• varied environments of Pakistan are favorable for cultivation of a large variety of
horticultural crops

42
Horticulture in Pakistan

43
Horticulture in Pakistan

44
Horticulture in Pakistan
• More than sixty types of fruits belonging to temperate, subtropical and
tropical climates are produced in Pakistan.
• 35 vegetables are produced through out the year, beginning an early
production from the Sindh province and out-of-season summer vegetables
from the higher elevations.
• only 16% of fruits are being processed into value added products
• Major exports are dates, citrus, mango, apricots and many veg.
• Overall fruits, vegetables, juices and spices exports from Pakistan had a
value of US$ 690 million, which contributes only 3% of the total exports.

45
 Horticulture – Export limitations
• Insufficient availability of quality seed and planting materials.
• Imbalanced use of inputs such as fertilizer, irrigation, plant protection.
• Significant losses caused by biotic and abiotic stresses.
• Non-availability of proper services for harvest & PH management & supply
chains – high PH losses
• Inadequate storage and processing/packaging facilities.
• Poor market infrastructure and access to information.
• Insufficient infrastructure to support tech. development research, education
and training
• low productivity, high cost of production, poor quality of produce and high
postharvest losses make us uncompetitive in the global markets
46
Horticulture – Export limitations
• Fruits and vegetable production calls for an expensive investment.
• Inadequate availability of good quality seed and planting materials
• Low productivity and high cost of production
• Inadequate storage facilities and outdated methods used in processing / packaging
• Inadequate market information and difficulties in marketing
• Lack of irrigation facilities
• Non -availability of cold storage facilities to store perishables prior to shipment
• Insufficient air cargo space and non-priority to perishable floriculture produce at
air ports
• Lack of appropriate packaging for floricultural produce
• Lack of a well established information database
47
Horticulture – Recommendations
• Land for the establishment and expansion of nurseries
• Incentive schemes and financial assistance
• Cold storage facilities
• Air cargo space / subsidy on air and sea freights
• Packaging and other associated facilities
• Institutional support research and development
• Exchange of new germ plasm in developing new crop varieties
• Seed policies to facilitate the importation of hybrid seeds of horticultural
crops

48
Horticulture – Recommendations
• Exchange of experts in different fields
• Joint ventures in seeds and planting material production
• Joint ventures in storage and processing industry
• Exchange of tech. in production of small farm machinery and equipment
• Training programs on hybrid seed production, post-harvest handling,
processing, socio-economic data collection and analysis
• Setting up of a regional information network.
• Appropriate handling of horticultural items at airport and seaport
• Establishment of modern wholesale markets for fruits, vegetables and
flowers.
49