Why is agriculture important? The concept of 'food security' is
fundamentally important, and for that reason, agriculture is important.
The task of feeding its people has been perhaps the first priority of
its rulers throughout history. As such, agriculture is considered to be
the very basis of political and social stability of a nation since times
immemorial.
Moreover, the agricultural sector plays an important role in the sphere
of providing large scale employment to people. Large and moderately
large farms employ workers to undertake the various jobs relating to
cultivation of crops and care of farm animals. In most of the countries
of the world, agriculture still remains the biggest sector responsible
for the employing and feeding a large percentage of the population.
Agriculture
is also important from the point of view of appraising the standard of a
country's development, based on the competence of its farmers. Poorly
trained farmers cannot apply the advanced methods and new technologies.
The prominence of science and technology in the development of
agriculture is quite clear from the words of Deng Xiaoping -
The
development of agriculture depends first on policy, and second on
science. There is neither any limit to developments in science and
technology, nor to the role that they can play in the field of
agricultural growth'.
Though agriculture often plays a
contributory role in the 'Gross Domestic Product' - GDP - of most
countries, it nevertheless requires a substantial boost from both the
local and the international community.
Agriculture is
traditionally based on bulk manufacturing. Harvesting is done once a
season, most of the times, and stocked and used later. In fact, some
thinkers opine that people have begun to adopt 'batch processing' and
'stocking' in manufacturing, as a result of the practices from
agricultural thinking. Before industrialization, people with the biggest
stocks of food and other supplies were considered more stable, and they
were able to face challenges of nature without having to starve.
So
important is the role of agriculture that new concepts keep 'cropping
up' to give the traditional activity a modern turn. One such new concept
the world is raving about these days is - the importance of 'organic
farming'. There is evidence that, apart from their numerous other
benefits, organic farms are more sustainable and environmentally sound,
giving agriculture a new dimension.
The importance of
agricultural practices was further established when 'Organic food' began
as a small movement decades ago, with gardeners and farmers rejecting
the use of conventional non-organic practices. With the growth of the
Organic food market now outpacing much of the food industry, many big
companies have ventured into it. With the emergence of multi-national
companies, and with the creation of a legal certification framework such
as the Soil Association, there is every doubt that the very definition
of organic food will change, making it more of a commercial activity
than ever before!
In fact, modern agriculture has already
undergone a sea-change from the ancient times. Today, the importance of
agriculture lies in the fact that it is practiced both for subsistence
as well as commercial reasons!.
