agriculture

The practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil (for raising crops) and the raising of domesticated animals. The units for managing agricultural production vary from smallholdings and individually owned farms to corporate-run farms and collective farms run by entire communities or by the government.

Crops are cultivated for human or animal food, or as industrial crops such as cotton and sisal. For successful production, the land must be prepared (ploughed, cultivated, harrowed, and rolled), seed must be planted and the growing plants nurtured. This may involve fertilizers, irrigation, pest control by chemicals, and monitoring of acidity or nutrients. When the crop has grown, it must be harvested and, depending on the crop, processed in a variety of ways before it is stored or sold. Greenhouses allow cultivation of plants in cold climates. Hydroponics allows commercial cultivation of crops using nutrient-enriched water instead of soil. Special methods, such as terracing, may be adopted to allow cultivation in steep regions and to retain topsoil in mountainous areas with heavy rainfall.

Animals are raised for wool, milk, leather, dung (as fuel), or meat. They may be semidomesticated, such as reindeer, or fully domesticated but nomadic (where naturally growing or cultivated food supplies are sparse), or kept on a farm. Animal farming involves rearing, feeding, breeding, gathering the produce (eggs, milk, or wool), slaughtering, and further processing such as tanning.