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 An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...

History

In the 18th century, Johann Friedrich Mayer conducted experiments on the use of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulphate) as a fertilizer.John Armstrong, Jesse Buel. ''A Treatise on Agriculture, The Present Condition of the Art Abroad and at Home, and the Theory and Practice of Husbandry. To which is Added, a Dissertation on the Kitchen and Garden.'' 1840. p. 45. In 1843, John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert began a set of long-term field experiments at Rothamsted Research in England, some of which are still running as of 2018. In the United States, a scientific revolution in agriculture began with the Hatch Act of 1887, which used the term "agricultural science". The Hatch Act was driven by farmers' interest in knowing the constituents of early artificial fertilizer. The

Smith–Hughes Act The Smith–Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917 was an act of the United States Congress that promoted vocational education in "agriculture, trades and industry, and homemaking," and provided federal funds for this purpose. As such, it ...

of 1917 shifted agricultural education back to its vocational roots, but the scientific foundation had been built.Hillison J. (1996)
The Origins of Agriscience: Or Where Did All That Scientific Agriculture Come From?
. ''Journal of Agricultural Education''. After 1906, public expenditures on agricultural research in the US exceeded private expenditures for the next 44 years.Huffman WE, Evenson RE. (2006).
Science for Agriculture
'.

Blackwell Publishing Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

Prominent agricultural scientists

* Wilbur Olin Atwater * Robert Bakewell * Norman Borlaug * Luther Burbank *

George Washington Carver George Washington Carver ( 1864 – January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was one of the most prominent black scientists of the ea ...

* Carl Henry Clerk *

George C. Clerk George Carver Clerk, (29 July 1931 – 2 May 2019) was a Ghanaian botanist and plant pathologist. A professor and later, an emeritus professor at the University of Ghana, Legon, he also focused his research on West African mycology and ecolo ...

René Dumont René Dumont (March 13, 1904 – June 18, 2001) was a French engineer in agronomy, a sociologist, and an environmental politician. Biography Dumont was born in Cambrai, Nord, in the north of France. His father was a professor in agriculture ...

Sir Albert Howard Sir Albert Howard (8 December 187320 October 1947) was an England, English botanist. His academic background might have been botany. While working in India he was generally considered a Pathologist; this more than likely being the reason for hi ...

Kailas Nath Kaul Kailas Nath Kaul (1905–1983) was an Indian botanist, naturalist, agricultural scientist, horticulturist, herbalist, plant collector and herpetologist, and a world authority on Arecaceae. He founded India's National Botanical Research Institut ...

Thomas Lecky Thomas Phillip Lecky, known as T.P. Lecky (1904-1994), was a Jamaican scientist who developed several new breeds of cattle. Lecky is known as one of Jamaica's earliest environmentalists, and a strong advocate for conservation of hillsides. His rese ...

Justus von Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at t ...

Jay Laurence Lush Jay Laurence Lush (January 3, 1896 – May 22, 1982) was a pioneering animal geneticist who made important contributions to livestock breeding. He is sometimes known as the father of modern scientific animal breeding. Lush received National Med ...

* Gregor Mendel *

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

* M. S. Swaminathan * Jethro Tull * Artturi Ilmari Virtanen * Sewall Wright

Fields or related disciplines

Scope

Agriculture, agricultural science, and agronomy are often confused. However, they cover different concepts: *Agriculture is the set of activities that transform the environment for the production of animals and plants for human use. Agriculture concerns techniques, including the application of agronomic research. *

Agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

related to studying and improving plant-based crops.

Soil forming factors and soil degradation

Agricultural sciences include research and development on: * Improving agricultural productivity in terms of quantity and quality (e.g., selection of drought-resistant crops and animals, development of new

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

s, yield-sensing technologies, simulation models of crop growth, in-vitro

cell culture Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. The term "tissue culture" was coined by American pathologist Montrose Thomas Burrows. This te ...

techniques) * Minimizing the effects of pests ( weeds, insects, pathogens, mollusks,

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

s) on crop or animal production systems. * Transformation of primary products into end-consumer products (e.g., production, preservation, and packaging of

dairy product Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in th ...

s) * Prevention and correction of adverse environmental effects (e.g., soil degradation, waste management, bioremediation) *

Theoretical production ecology Theoretical production ecology tries to quantitatively study the growth of crops. The plant is treated as a kind of biological factory, which processes light, carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients into harvestable parts. Main parameters kept into ...

, relating to crop production modeling * Traditional agricultural systems, sometimes termed

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

, 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 US 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.

References

External links

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)Agricultural Research ServiceIndian Council of Agricultural ResearchInternational Institute of Tropical AgricultureInternational Livestock Research InstituteThe National Agricultural Library (NAL)
- The most comprehensive agricultural library in the world.
Crop Science Society of AmericaAmerican Society of AgronomySoil Science Society of AmericaAgricultural Science Researchers, Jobs and DiscussionsInformation System for Agriculture and Food ResearchNMSU Department of Entomology Plant Pathology and Weed Science
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