Agriculture

Agriculture is a generic word which evolves all scientific and social activities in producing food from land and animals including birds (poultry). In this meaning it excludes food resources from forest and marine. It is a growing science of so many different branches. All most every decade new disciplines emerge and main branches are split into many. For simplification and understanding we hereby stand on main branches up to bachelor level and explore sub-divisions under these branches.

Agriculture can be divided mainly into production, protection and socio-economic. The production is the division that deals with soil-plant-water-animal relationships while the protection division deals with protecting plants and animal from other biological elements (insects and diseases) that are threat to growth and developments of plants/animals. The socio-economic side deals with cultures, traditions and economic status of farmers in relation to the production activities. Production division can also be sub divided into agriculture and animal husbandry (some universities include veterinary science/medicine in agriculture).

Branches of Agriculture

Although agriculture is a generic name (as above) which combines all food production activities including animal food resources it must not be confused with the one we elaborate in this paragraph. Here agriculture is subdivided into many subdivisions such as agronomy, horticulture, plant breeding & genetics, soil sciences, water management, farm mechanization, plant protection, weed science/ecology, entomology, plant pathology, food technology, animal/human nutrition, agricultural economics, rural social sciences.

Agronomy: is the branch of agricultural sciences which deal with production of crop plants. It is generally defined as the arts and the science of crop production and management. In agronomy, crops are divided into groups in terms of use such as cereals (all food crops from grass family such maize, rice and sorghum), legumes (all kinds of beans), tubers and root crops (potato, carrots and ginger), sugar crops (sugar cane and sugar beet), oil crops (sesame and sunflower), forage crop (grasses, barseem and alfalfa for animal feed), fibre crop crops (cotton and jute), cash crop (tobacco, cafe, tea etc). Agronomists are usually engaged in studying the relationship between these crops and their physical environment such as soil, water, temperature and light. It is the tusk of agronomists to understand the environmental constrains of producing these crop and find scientific solution to the problems. Main sections of this branch are crop physiology, crop and soil management, and seed technology.

Horticulture: Is the same as agronomy but deals with fruits, vegetables and ornamental flowers. Both agronomy and horticulture are central to all agricultural braches and most branches are detached from them. Thus agronomists and horticulturists can be called as coordinators of all agricultural activities.

Plantation crops such as palm oil, cocoa, and café are disputed areas of agriculture as they form oil trees, horticultural fruit trees as well as cash crop.

Plant breeding and genetics: To produce higher yields per unit area of land crops require fertile soil which provide nutrients for growth and reproduction, optimum water, and light, and protection from pests and diseases which can cause damage to crops. If all these factors provided at optimum level still crop are different in their genetic make up. Some crop plants are able to grow in dry land, resist to pests and diseases and produce relatively higher yields even if the care given to them is minimized. This phenomenon is known as the genetic potential of crops plants. This branch of agriculture deals with exploring crop varieties capable of producing higher yields. They achieve this goal by isolating and manipulating gene in plant cells which are responsible for the good qualities of crop plants. For example if the problem of a region is low maize production due to low rain fall or low irrigation water, breeders explore crops that are resistant to drought. Naturally, drought resistant crops do not produce higher yields. To complement this low quality, breeders have to find a high yielding crop that does not necessarily have other qualities. Breeders bring these two desirable genes responsible of high yielding and disease resistance together into a one plant. They do so by crossing the two crops frequently in many years and observe the off-springs of these crosses and select the plants that show the desirable characteristics. As this process is time consuming contemporary scientist use the knowledge of biotechnology and genetic engineering to shorten the required to obtain desirable crop varieties.

Soil sciences: Is a branch of agricultural sciences which deals with soil problems in terms supporting the growth and reproduction of crops plants. Soils should have good chemical and physical characteristics that support plant growth. They should also have ability to support micro-organisms living in soils. These micro-organisms in turn support plant growth. Soil scientists are engaged in solving problems of soils such high content of salts (salinity), high content of sodium (sodicity), and high/low acidity and many other soil problems. Note that soil management mentioned above is different from soil science. Soil management is knowledge focusing conditioning and selecting type of soil as per requirement of a crop. It can be called soil preparation for a particular crop in terms of water and nutrient condition, and ploughing method.

Water management: Water is asset to growth and development of crops and trees. The unique source of water is the rain and it is only water from that source which percolates into the soil to form ground water, and flow into streams to form rivers, lakes and bonds and evaporate into air. These different sub-sources of water need management and proper use in order to avoid water loss and secure sufficient water for crops and trees. While the hydraulic engineers are engaged in up-stream levels of water such as building and engineering dams and diverting streams, water management in agricultural science deals with down-streams or canal and field level such as engineering proper canals for irrigation and efficient use of water. Note that a water requirement for particular crop is determined by agronomists while proper use of water comes under water management.

Farm mechanization: Both water management and farm mechanization are sometimes called agricultural engineering. The later deals with tools and implements used to cultivate agricultural land such as tractors, ploughing machineries.

Plant protection: Is a branch of agriculture which deals with protecting trees and crops from pests and diseases. Protection means can be biological, chemical and physical. Biological control of harmful insects, nematodes (such as worms), rodents (eg rats, birds), and micro-organisms is use their natural enemies which eat them to control their population from a level that may cause economic damage. In chemical control, pesticides are used to reduce pest population while physical control is collecting them in a place or use substances which repel them. Another method is agronomic control in which crops are rotated and changed periodically in order to disturb the life cycle of pests.

Weed science/ecology: Before the crops were domesticated by human being they were growing in the wild without the care of man. Man has selected among wild plants and improved them. Still there are undesirable plants that are naturally growing without the care of man. These unwanted plants, usually small plants, are called weeds. They are associated with crop plants in a selective manner and compete with crops in environmental resources such as nutrient, water and light. Branch of agriculture which studies these undesirable plants is called weed science. Scientists in this field are engaged in finding ways to control these obnoxious plants.

Entomology: Is a branch of agriculture which studies the life of both harmful insects such as aphids and stem borers and useful insects such as honey peas and silk worms. However, it is disputed field of agriculture and biology.

Plant pathology: Is the science which studies harmful micro-organisms such as bacteria, virus and fungi which cause diseases to plants.

Food technology: It is a branch agricultural science which deals with storage and processing agricultural food after harvesting.

Agricultural economics: Is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of producing and processing of agricultural food.

Rural social sciences: Medicine and engineering are disciplines of science in which scientists use their knowledge cure diseases and construct huge buildings. Agricultural science is different from these disciplines in such a way the end users of technology are scientific findings are, among others, rural farmers. It is not easy to change cultures and traditions of rural population. They have their own traditional way of producing food and cultural way of eating it. For example you cannot introduce good breeds of pigs into Muslim society or you cannot convince Somali nomad to change his camels into good breeds of cows producing a lot of milk or eat fish. Similarly, you cannot convince farmers to change their inherited way of cultivation and kind of crops they traditionally grow. You cannot easily change crop varieties farmers grow. You cannot introduce yellow maize where villagers use only white maize. Therefore, before you take any agricultural development step you must know the social life of people to which you aim your development project.

Branches of Animal Husbandry

Animal husbandry is a branch of agricultural science which deals with animals used by farmers as a food source such as livestock and birds and those used as power such as bulls, donkeys and horses. Main division of this field is livestock management, animal breeding, Poultry science, veterinary science etc.

Agroforestry

Agroforetry is a newly emerged discipline which combines agriculture and forestry. Although forests are mainly considered as a timber source it also provides none-timber products for people living in and around forests. These products which include food were first given the name None-Timber Forest Products (NTFP). It was later realized that there are systems in which people cultivate crops and rear animal under trees which also a source of food. They do so because if crops fail they relay on tree and animals. As the concept of agroforestry emerged in 1980’s and developing in parallel with agriculture and forestry. It deals with the interactions of trees crops and animals.

Job Opportunities

Unemployment of agricultures staff in most of developing countries is negligible. Poverty alleviation is one of the main UN Millennium goals. As such there’s huge amount fund allocated to achieve this goal which goes mostly to agricultural sectors in the developing world. Therefore, there’s a need for agricultural staff in many countries of the world. Companies which are specialized in commercial production also employ agricultural staff mainly agronomists and horticulturists. Likewise, international NGO’s running agricultural development projects require agricultural personnel. So far as Somalia is concerned, the only sources of current employment are international NGO’s. Opportunities will be limited until the restoration of Somali state with good governance. However, I encourage Somali students to learn agriculture as the future need will be tremendous in Somalia because the country is the poorest one in Africa in terms of agricultural personnel relative to agricultural resources.

Prerequisites:

Students enrolling in agricultural institutes must have finished 12 years of schooling and have passed mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and geography. In some countries like Pakistan geography is not necessary and student must have passed mathematics or biology, plus physics and chemistry. In NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar students are divided into two groups in the first year on the basis of what kind of subjects they have passed. This is because Pakistani schooling system divides students in to pre-medical (biologically based) and pre-engineering (mathematically based). Both groups can be accepted in agriculture. Pre-medical students are taught secondary school mathematics in the first year of the university in an intensive way while pre-engineering students learn biology in the same way. If Somali student, for example, did not pass mathematics he/she will join mathematics group who will learn mathematics in the university and vice-versa. Students must have good command in English in countries where English is medium of instruction. The same is true in students going to Arabic countries like Syria. They must be fluent in Arabic.