The following
outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to agricultural science:
Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of
biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and
social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of
agriculture. Professionals of the agricultural science are called agricultural scientists or
agriculturists.
What type of thing is agricultural science?
Agricultural science can be described as all of the following:
an
academic discipline – branch of knowledge. It incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with a given scholastic subject area or college department.
branch of
science – systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
branch of
natural science – branch of science concerned with the description, prediction, and understanding of natural phenomena, based on observational and empirical evidence.
branch of
biology – natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, identification and taxonomy.
branch of
applied science – discipline of science that applies existing scientific knowledge to develop more practical applications, like technology or inventions.
branch of
agriculture – cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life.
Areas of research and development in agricultural science
Production techniques (e.g.,
irrigation management, recommended
nitrogen inputs)
Improving
agricultural productivity in terms of quantity and quality (e.g., selection of
drought-resistant crops and animals, development of new
pesticides, yield-sensing technologies, simulation models of crop growth, in-vitro
cell culture techniques)
Traditional agricultural systems, sometimes termed
subsistence agriculture, which feed most of the poorest people in the world. These systems are of interest as they sometimes retain a level of integration with natural ecological systems greater than that of
industrial agriculture, which may be more sustainable than some modern agricultural systems.
Food production and demand on a global basis, with special attention paid to the major producers, such as China, India, Brazil, the USA and the EU.
Various sciences relating to agricultural resources and the environment (e.g. soil science, agroclimatology); biology of agricultural crops and animals (e.g. crop science, animal science and their included sciences, e.g. ruminant nutrition, farm animal welfare); such fields as agricultural economics and rural sociology; various disciplines encompassed in agricultural engineering.
History of fertilizer – Egyptians, Romans, Babylonians, and early Germans all are recorded as using minerals and/or manure to enhance the productivity of their farms. The use of wood ash as a field treatment became widespread. Today, the main form of fertilizer used globally is manufactured using the
Haber process and the
Ostwald process.