Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

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.

History

In the 18th century, Johann Friedrich Mayer conducted experiments on the use of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate) 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 of 1917 shifted agricultural education back to its vocational roots, but the scientific foundation had been built. For the next 44 years after 1906, federal expenditures on agricultural research in the United States outpaced private expenditures.Huffman WE, Evenson RE. (2006).
Science for Agriculture
'. Blackwell Publishing.

Prominent agricultural scientists

* Wilbur Olin Atwater * Robert Bakewell * Norman Borlaug * Luther Burbank * George Washington Carver * Carl Henry Clerk * George C. Clerk * René Dumont * Sir Albert Howard * Kailas Nath Kaul * Thomas Lecky * Justus von Liebig * Jay Laurence Lush * Gregor Mendel *

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

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

Fields or related disciplines

Scope

Agriculture, agricultural science, and agronomy are closely related. 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 is research and development related to studying and improving plant-based crops. * is the science of cultivating the earth.“Geoponics.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geoponics. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024. * Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in an artificial environment.

Research topics

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 pesticides, yield-sensing technologies, simulation models of crop growth, in-vitro cell culture techniques) * Minimizing the effects of pests ( weeds,

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pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

s, mollusks, nematodes) on crop or animal production systems. * Transformation of primary products into end-consumer products (e.g., production, preservation, and packaging of dairy products) * Prevention and correction of adverse environmental effects (e.g., soil degradation, waste management, bioremediation) * Theoretical production ecology, relating to crop production modeling * 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 globally, with particular attention paid to the primary 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.

History

Prominent agricultural scientists

Fields or related disciplines

Scope

Research topics

See also

References

Further reading