Meaning and Importance of Agriculture – JSS1 Agricultural Science Lesson Note (First Term)

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. State the meaning of agriculture.
2. Explain where the word agriculture comes from.
3. Describe how early people lived before they began to farm.
4. Explain how farming started.
5. Name some places where agriculture developed and some changes in farming over the past 200 years.

What is agriculture?

Agriculture means all the activities involved in the rearing of animals and the cultivation of crops for man’s and the nation’s benefit. Many people define it simply as the cultivation of land.

As a science, agriculture deals with the systematic study of plant and animal life in their environment. It seeks to provide natural conditions for them to produce the best quality products, which man uses directly or indirectly.

Where does the word agriculture come from?

The word agriculture comes from two Latin words, ‘ager’ and ‘cultura’, meaning ‘land’ and ‘cultivation’.

How did agriculture develop?

How did early people live?

Agriculture began when man started to exist on earth. The early people lived by gathering wild fruit and hunting wild animals, because they were wanderers. The type and quantity of food available were irregular and uncertain, and depended on the weather and luck.

They continued with this nomadic life until their families and properties grew large enough to require the building of huts. They then changed from a nomadic way of life to a more settled one.

How did farming start?

Farming started by accident about 12,000 years ago. Early people found that seeds and other propagative parts left over from their food germinated, grew to maturity and reproduced their kind. They also found that certain animals were friendly, so they began to domesticate them.

Crops and animals from different parts of the world were later spread to other countries by early missionaries, explorers and traders.

How has agriculture changed over time?

Agriculture has changed greatly since the time of the earliest cultivation. The Fertile Crescent of Western Asia, Egypt and India were the sites of the earliest planned sowing and harvesting of plants that had previously been gathered in the wild. Agriculture also developed independently in northern and southern China, Africa’s Sahel, New Guinea, parts of India and several regions of America.

Techniques such as irrigation, crop rotation and the application of fertilisers were developed soon after the Neolithic Revolution, and they have advanced greatly in the past 200 years. The Haber-Bosch method for synthesising ammonia was a breakthrough. It allowed crop yields to overcome earlier limits.

What has marked agriculture in the past century?

In the past century, agriculture in the developed nations, and to a lesser extent in the developing world, has been marked by:

• higher productivity
• the replacement of human labour by synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, selective breeding and mechanisation

The recent history of agriculture has been closely tied to political issues such as water pollution, biofuels, genetically modified organisms, tariffs and farm subsidies.

Evaluation

1. What is agriculture?
2. Name the two Latin words from which agriculture comes, and give their meanings.
3. How did early people get their food before they began to farm?
4. Explain how farming started about 12,000 years ago.
5. Name two techniques that were developed soon after the Neolithic Revolution.

Assignment

1. In your own words, write a short note on how early people changed from a nomadic life to a settled life.
2. Name any four places where agriculture developed independently.