Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock. It’s includes the preparation of plant and animal products for people to use and their distribution to markets. Before agriculture became widespread, people spent most of their lives searching for food—hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants. Nearby 11,500 years ago, people gradually learned how to grow cereal and root crops, and settled down to a life based on farming. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family. At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture. Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization. These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock.

Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine).

The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry. Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals. Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance. Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area. Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants.                           Increasing population, changing climate, diminishing resources and increasing disposable incomes have put agriculture worldwide under tremendous pressure. While the developed countries moved up in food, nutrition and health chain through technological advancements, second and third world countries are grappling with challenges in farming and food production. Developing and underdeveloped nations in order to boost agriculture and unlock the potential of trade and technologies, need cooperation and collaboration and global experiences at an accelerated pace.