52. Agriculture

Agriculture is the classification name for the farming industry, so the agricultural industry. If so agriculture can be from fruit growers, dairy farm, wheat farm, cattle farm, wool etc. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated animals. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. The related practice of gardening is studied in horticulture. The word agriculture is the English adaptation of Latin agriculture, from ager, "a field" and cultura, "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil". Thus, a literal reading of the word yields "tillage of a field / of fields".

India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. It also has the world's largest cattle population (193 million). It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of tobacco. India accounts for 10% of the world fruit production with first rank in the production of banana and sapota. Agriculture encompasses a wide variety of specialties. Cultivation of crops on arable land and the pastoral herding of livestock on rangeland remain at the foundation of agriculture. In the past century a distinction has been made between sustainable agriculture and intensive farming.

Modern agronomy, plant breeding, pesticides and fertilizers, and technological improvements have sharply increased yields from cultivation. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry such as intensive pig farming (similar practices applied to the chicken) has similarly increased the output of meat. The more exotic varieties of agriculture include aquaculture and tree farming. The history of agriculture has played a major role in human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Wealth-building and militaristic specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures are commonplace in societies which practice agriculture. So, too, are arts such as epic literature and monumental architecture, as well as codified legal systems.

When farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in their society were freed to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Historians and anthropologists have long argued that the development of agriculture made civilization possible. India has many farm insurance companies that insure wheat, fruit and rice and rubber farmers in the event of natural disasters or catastrophic crop failure, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. One notable company that provides all of these insurance policies is agriculture insurance company of India and it alone insures almost 20 million farmers.