FREE ESSAY ON PLOWING UP NEW SOIL WITH WORLD AGRICULTURE

PLOWING UP NEW SOIL WITH WORLD AGRICULTURE

Plowing Up New Soil with World Agriculture
Since agriculture began to be developed nearly 10,000 years ago, people throughout the
world have discovered the food value of wild plants and animals, and domesticated and
bred them (Early Civilization). Today, people go to the market or grocery store to pick
up cereal, rice, bread, meat, fruit, vegetables, and olives. People hardly ever think of
where the food generally comes from. Most of the food that is found in the grocery store
wouldn't be possible without world agriculture.
Farming used to be primarily a family enterprise and to a large extent still is in most
countries. In the more developed areas, however, more efficient large-scale operations
are overtaking the smaller family farms. These large farms usually specialize in one crop
or one type of crop and often are run by giant parent cooperation's. Such farms are part
if the current trend toward more controlled and cost-effective agriculture. The goal in
agriculture has almost always been increased production and decreased labor (Early
Civilization). In the early 1900s the American farm, for example, was run by the muscles
of people of draft animals. Today machines of great size and complexity accomplish in
hours what took many of those people and animals days to complete (Timelines of the
Ancient World). There are still family farmers similar to those of the earlier era in the
most industrialized nations, but they are becoming fewer every year. There are also
small-scale systems in many emerging nations of the world. But the trend almost
everywhere is toward larger farms that are mechanized and utilize the latest scientific
agricultural methods to provide products more effectively. 
In the mid-1990s, 48 percent of the world's labor force was employed in agriculture. The
distribution ranged from 61 percent of the economically active population in Asia to less
than 23 percent in the United States and Canada. In Africa the figure was 60 percent; in
South America 20 percent; and in Europe, 9 percent. The farm size varies ubiquitously
from region to region. In the 1990s the average for Canadian farms was about 654 acres
per farm; for farms in the United States, 469 acres. By comparison, the average size of a
single land holding in the Philippines was 6.5 acres. The size also depends on the
purpose of the farm (Compton 95). Commercial farming, or production for cash, is usually
on large equities. Single-crop plantations normally produce tea, rubber, and cocoa. Wheat
farms are most competent when they comprise 1000s of acres and they can be managed by
teams of people and machines. Livestock farms and Australian Sheep Stations must be
immense enough to provide grazing for thousands of animals. The agricultural plots of
Chinese communes and the cooperative farms held by Peruvian communities and other
necessarily large agricultural units, as well as were the farms that were operated and
owned by state employees in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). 
Much of the foreign exchange earned by a single country may be derived from a discrete
agricultural commodity; for example, Denmark specializes in dairy products, Sri Lanka
relies on tea, Australia in wool, and New Zealand and Argentina in meat products. In the
United States, wheat, corn, and soybeans have become major foreign exchange commodities
in recent decades. Each individual country has an importance as an exporter of
agricultural products relying on many factors. Among them is the possibility that the
country is too small developed industrially to produce manufactured goods in sufficient
quality on technical sophistication. Some agricultural exporters include Ghana, with
cocoa, and Myanmar (Burma), with rice. However, a well-developed country may produce
surpluses that are not needed by its own population; for example the United States,
Canada, and some Western European countries (Compton 95).
Because each nation depends on agriculture not only for food but for national income and
raw materials for industry as well, trade in agriculture is a continuing international
concern. It is governed by international agreements such as the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and by trading
regions such as the European Community. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of
the United Nations directs attention to agricultural policies and trade. According to the
FAO, world agricultural production, provoked by improving technology reached a record
high in the mid-1990s. Furthermore, the agricultural output in developing nations
increased 54 percent during the period from 1976 to 1996. On a per capita basis food
production rose by 38 percent in developing nations (Early Civilization). 
Early farmers were, archaeologists agree, largely of Neolithic culture. The sites which
were occupied by such people are located in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Turkey,
Thailand, Europe, Macedonia, Thrice, and Thessaly (Compton 95). Early centers of
agriculture have also been identified in the Huang He (Yellow River) are of China; the
Indus River Valley of India and Pakistan; and the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico with each
step of agriculture becomes a new obstacle.
The transit from hunting and food gathering to dependence on food production was gradual,
and in a few secluded parts of the world this transition had not yet been achieved. Crops
and domestic meat supplies were upsurged by fish and wild animals and wild fowl. Each
farmer would began by noting each of the wild plants that were edible or otherwise useful
and they learned to save the seeds and replant them in clear land. Prolonged cultivation
of the most prolific and stoutest plants yielded stable strains. Herds of sheep and goats
were molded from captured young wild animals, and those with the most useful traits- for
example small horns and high milk production- were bred. The wild aurochs was the
ancestor of European cattle, and an Asian wild ox of the zebu, was the ancestor of the
humped cattle of Asia. Cats, dogs, and chickens were tamed very early (Early
Civilization).
Neolithic farmers lived in simple swellings-caves and small houses of sun baked mud brick
or wood and reeds. These homes were grouped into small villages or existed as single
farmsteads surrounded by fields, sheltering animals, and humans in joined buildings. In
the Neolithic Period, the growth of cities such as Jericho was stimulated by the
production of surplus crops (Compton 95). Pastoralism was later developed. Evidence
indicates the mixed farming, combining cultivation of crops and stock raising, was the
most common Neolithic pattern. Nomadic herders, however, roamed the lands of Europe and
Asia, where the horse and camel were domesticated.
The earliest tools of the farmer were made of wood and stone. Some of which included the
stone adz, an ax like tool with blades at right angles to the handle, used for
woodworking; the sickle or reaping knife with sharpened stone blades, used to gather
grain; the digging stick, used to plant seeds and as a spade or hoe; and a rudimentary
plow, a restricted tree branch used to grate the surface of the soil and prepare it for
planting (Compton 95). The plow was later adapted for pulling by oxen (Early
Civilization). The improvements in tools and implements were particularly important.
Tools of bronze and iron were longer lasting and more effectual, and cultivation was
greatly improved by such aides as the ox-drawn plow fitted with an iron-tipped point. In
Mesopotamia a funnel-like figure was attached to the plow to help in seeding, and other
early forms of seed drills were used in China (What Life Was Like).
The prominence areas of southwestern Asia and the forests of Europe had enough rain to
sustain agriculture, but Egypt depended on the yearly floods of the Nile River to
replenish soil moisture and fertility. The inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent around the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East also depended on annual floods to provide
irrigation water. Drainage was necessary to prevent the erosion of land from the
hillsides through which the rivers flowed. The farmers who lived in the area near the
Huang He developed a system of irrigation and drainage to control the damage caused to
their fields in the flood plain of the meandering river. With the close of the Neolithic
period and the introduction of metals, the age of innovation in agriculture was mostly
over (What Life Was Like) . The historical period was highlighted by agricultural
improvements. A few high points must serve to draft the development of worldwide
agriculture in this era, roughly defined as 2500 BC to 500 AD. 
Rome started as a rural agricultural society of independent farmers. In 1000 BC, after
the city of Rome was established, however, agriculture started a development that reached
a peak in the Christian era. Large possessions that supplied grain to the cities of the
empire were owned by absentee landowners and cultivated by slaves labor under the
supervision of employed overseers. As slaves, usually were captives, decreased in number,
tenants replaced them. The late Roman villa of the Christian era approached the medieval
in organization.
By the 16th century, population was increased in Europe, and agricultural production was
again expanding. The nature of agriculture there and in other regions was to change
considerably in succeeding centuries. Several reasons can be identified for this trend.
Europe was cut off from Asia and the Middle East by an extension of Turkish power. New
economic theories were put into practice, directly affecting agriculture (Early
Civilization). Continued wars between England and France, within each of these countries,
and in Germany consumed capital and human resources.
A new period of global exploration and colonization was undertaken to circumvent Turkey's
control of the spice trade, to provide home for religious refugees, and to provide new
resources for European nations convinced that only precious metals constituted wealth.
Colonial agriculture was intended not only to feed the colonists but also to produce cash
crops and to supply food for the home country. This meant cultivation of such crops as
sugar, cotton, tobacco, and tea, and production of animal products such as wool and
hides. From the 15th to the 19th century the slave trade provided laborers needed to fill
the large work force required by colonial plantations. Many early slaves replaced native
people who died from diseases carried by the colonists or were killed by hard
agricultural labor to which they were unaccustomed. Slaves from Africa worked, for
example, on sugar plantations in what would become the southern United States. Native
Americans were practically enslaved in Mexico. Indentured slaves from Europe, especially
from the prisons of Great Britain, provided both skills and unskilled labor to many
colonies. Both slavery and servility were substantially wiped out in the 19th century
(Timelines of the Ancient World). 
When encountered by the Spanish conquistadors, the more advanced Native Americans in the
New Worlds- the Aztec, Inca, and Maya- already had intensive agricultural economies, but
no draft or riding animals and no wheeled vehicles. Squash, beans, peas and acorn had
long since been domesticated. Land was owned by clans and other kinship groups or by
ruling tribes that had formed sophisticated governments. The scientific revolution
resulting from the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment in Europe encouraged
experimentation in agriculture as well as in other fields. Trial-and-error efforts in
plant breeding produced improved crops, and a few new strains of cattle and sheep were
developed. Most common was the Guernsey cattle breed. Land enclosure was increasingly
practiced in the 18th century, enabling individual landowners to determine the
disposition of cultivated land and pasture that previously had been subject to common
use.
Crop rotation was more readily practiced outside the village strip system inherited from
the manorial period. In England, where scientific farming was most efficient, enclosure
brought about a fundamental reorganization of land ownership. From 1660 large landowners
had begun to aid to their properties, frequently at the expense of small independent
farmers. By the mid-19th century the agricultural pattern was based on the relationship
between the landowner, dependent on rents; the farmer, producer of crops; and the landed
laborers, the hired hand of American farming folklore (What Life Was Like). Drainage
brought more land into cultivation and farm machinery was introduced. It is not possible
to fix a clear decade of events as the start of the agricultural revolution through
technology. Among the important advances were the purposeful selective breeding of
livestock and the spreading of limestone on farm soils. Mechanical improvements in the
traditional wooden plow began in the mid- 1600s with the small iron points fastened onto
the wood with strips of leather. In 1797, Charles Newbold, a blacksmith in Burlington,
New Jersey, introduced the plow in the 1830s and manufactured it in steel. Other notable
inventions included the seed drill of English farmers Jethro Tull, developed in the early
1700s and advanced for more than a century; the reaper of American Cyrud McCormick in
1831; and numerous new horse-drawn threshers, cultivators, grain and grass cutters,
rakers, and corn shellers. By the late 1800s, steam power was oftentimes used to replace
animal power in drawing plows and in operating threshing machinery (Timelines of the
Ancient World).
The demand for food for urban workers and raw materials for industrial plants produced a
realignment of world trade. Science and technology developed for industrial purposes were
adapted for agricultural, eventually resulting in the agribusiness's of the mid-20th
century. In the 17th and 18th centuries the first systematic attempts were made to study
and control pests. Before this time, hand picking and spraying were the usual methods of
pest control. In the 19th century, poisons of various types were developed for use in
sprays, and biological controls such as predatory insects were also used. Resistant plant
varieties were cultivated; this was particularly successful with the European grapevine,
in which the grape-bearing stems were grafted onto resistant American rootstocks to
defeat the Phylloxera aphid (Compton 95).
Scientific methods are now exploited to pest control, limiting overuse if insecticides in
fungicides and employing more varied and targeted application techniques. New
understanding of significant biological control measures and emphasis on integrated pest
management make possible more efficient control of certain kinds of insects. Chemicals
for weed control are important for a number of crops, such as cotton and corn. The
increasing use of chemicals for the control of insects, diseases, and weeds, however, has
resulted in additional environmental problems and regulations that place strong demands
on the skill of farmers.
In North America, agriculture had progressed significantly before European colonists
arrived. There is evidence that corn was cultivated at least as early as 3000 years ago
in the southwestern United States. Although few Native Americans relied on domesticated
animals, some groups had advanced methods of cultivating food crops. The Wampanoag people
of what is now Massachusetts fertilized their corn seeds by burying fish in the group
near the seeds. The Iroquois of the eastern United States exploited the natural
relationship between plants to make their crops more productive. They planted corn,
beans, and squash together in small groups, so that the corn plants supported the beans,
the nitrogen released by the roots of the bean plants fertilized the corn, and the
sprawling squash vines reduced the number of weeds. Corn, beans , squash, potatoes,
tomatoes, peanuts, chocolate, and many other plants were originally domesticates by
Native Americans.
Until the 19th century, agriculture in the United States shared the history of European
and colonial areas and was dependent on European sources for seed, stocks, livestock, and
machinery. That dependency made American farmers somewhat more ingenious. They were aided
by the establishments of societies that lobbied for governmental agencies of agriculture;
the voluntary cooperation of farmers through associations; and the increasing use of
diverse types of power machinery on the farm. Government policies traditionally
encouraged the growth of land settlements. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the resettlement
plans of the 1930s were the key agricultural legislative acts of the 19th and 20th
centuries. In the 20th century steam, gasoline, diesel, and electrical power came into
wide use. Chemical fertilizers were manufactured in greatly increased quantities, and
soil analysis was widely employed to determine the components needed by a particular soil
to maintain or restore its fertility. The loss of soil by erosion was broadly combated by
the use of cover crops; contour plowing in which the furrows follow the contour of the
land and are level; and strip cropping.
Selective breeding produced strains of both farm animals and crop plants. Hybrids,
offspring of unrelated varieties or species, of desirable characteristics were developed;
especially important for food production was the hybridization of corn in the 1930s. New
uses for farm products, byproducts, and agricultural wastes were ascertained. Standards
of quality, size, and packing were established for various fruits and vegetables to aid
in wholesale marketing. Among the first to be standardized were apples, citrus fruits,
berries, and tomatoes. Improvements in storage, processing and transportation also
increased the widespread ability of the market farm products. The use of cold storage
warehouses and refrigerated railroad cars were complemented by the introduction of
refrigerated motor trucks, rapid delivery by airplane, and the quick-freeze process of
preservation in which farm produce also reached practical application for many perishable
foods.
Since the 1970s high technology farming, including new hybrids for wheat, rice, and other
grains, better methods of soil conservation and irrigation, and the growing use of
improved fertilizers has led to the production of more food per capita. Not only in the
United States, but in which of the rest of the world. United States farmers,
nevertheless, still have the advantage of superior private and government research
facilities to produce and perfect new technologies. New services of technologies in the
1990s are further improving crop production. Precision farming, site-specific farming,
utilizes global positioning systems (GPS) and geographical information systems (GIS) in
the satellite collection and transmission of data to create yield maps during harvest.
Farmers use the yield maps as they plant and fertilize their crops the following season.
This increases crop production while reducing the use of both fertilizers and fuel. GPS
also helps farmers observe with environmental regulations when applying fertilizers and
pesticides. Biotechnology is also increasing agricultural productivity. In recent years
farmers have begun producing a new, genetically engineered oil seed crop that grows from
canola, to yield lauric oil, which comes from coconuts.
Since World War II modern farming methods have been spread by national and international
organizations. Governments have continuing their traditional role in overseeing and
influencing agriculture. Numerous countries and set up development programs and five year
plans to improve agriculture, marketing and processing. Many nations have been
exceptionally eager to improve their economies at least partly through their agriculture.
Irrigation systems have been built by many countries, notably India, Pakistan, Israel,
and Egypt. To improve their agriculture, some of these countries have borrowed money from
the World Bank and wealthy countries such as the United States.
Farming has become a highly complex and competitive business. Today's farmers must be a
careful businessmen as well as a trained agriculturist. Today in society, there is now
the need to understand and use economics, marketing, and several other business-related
fields in addition to having a knowledge of agronomy, animal husbandry, breeding
techniques, and other fields traditionally related to agriculture.