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Introduction To Agriculture

Agriculture involves the production of crops and livestock for economic purposes using skills, science, and business practices. Its history in the Caribbean involved early inhabitants gathering and hunting before settling into villages to farm crops and domesticate animals. Presently, traditional plantation crops like sugar cane and cotton are still important to Caribbean economies. Conventional farming utilizes synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and GMOs to be highly productive but is also high resource intensive.

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1K views

Introduction To Agriculture

Agriculture involves the production of crops and livestock for economic purposes using skills, science, and business practices. Its history in the Caribbean involved early inhabitants gathering and hunting before settling into villages to farm crops and domesticate animals. Presently, traditional plantation crops like sugar cane and cotton are still important to Caribbean economies. Conventional farming utilizes synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and GMOs to be highly productive but is also high resource intensive.

Uploaded by

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Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to Agriculture

Definition, History, Conventional Farming


Look at the videos below and let’s discuss
Agriculture is defined as:
The art, science and business of producing crops and livestock
for economic purposes -
– Using good skills to perform farm operations is an ART
– Using knowledge of the natural world for farming and using
modern technologies encompasses SCIENCE
– Maximising economic returns by managing land, labour and
capital is a BUSINESS
Agricultural Science is defined as:
• An understanding of the factors of production (land, labor,
capital, management) to achieve crop and animal
production in a sustainable manner
The History of Agriculture in the Caribbean:
• Early men such as the Tainos were hunters and gatherers and
were called nomads as they moved from place to place
• Eventually they started settling in villages as they began farming
for their food (planting crops and domesticating animals). These
settlements would usually be near an abundant water source
• With colonization by European countries agriculture began a new
order of trade and commerce through plantation crops like sugar
cane and cotton
• Presently in the Caribbean we continue to produce these
traditional crops for industry and for local and global trade
The Importance of Agriculture to the Caribbean
• Contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Employment opportunities from labourer to highly trained
professionals
• Food and nutrition security where all people at all times have
access to food
• Industrial input raw materials for processing
• Earns foreign exchange and encourages trade
• Import substitution where we replace imported goods with
domestic products causing a decreased food import bill
What are Conventional Farming Systems:
• Refers to farming techniques that traditionally use; synthetic
fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides and other chemicals as well as
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s), concentrated
animal feeding operations, heavy irrigation, intensive tillage
and other artificial tools
• “conventional” seems to be the opposite of “organic” farming
• Conventional agriculture is high resource and energy intensive
and highly productive
• Conventional systems include; monoculture, mixed cropping
and mixed farming (research and explain these for Homework)

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