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Agriculture, also known as farming, is one of the main spheres of material production, the purpose of which is to obtain plant products and livestock products by growing and using agricultural plants and animals. The agricultural sector provides food, raw materials for industry, reproduces live traction force (horse breeding, reindeer breeding, etc.) and has a significant share in the national economy. Around half of the world's population is engaged in agriculture. The area used in agriculture is more than 37% of the globe's land surface. The initial usage of agriculture was one of the major factors that led to the formation of civilization, as well as the creation of class-based society.
Scope
The agricultural sector is divided into two major branches: crop and livestock farming. Often forestry is included as a special branch, as well as primary processing of agricultural products (oil production, wool washing, cotton cleaning, primary processing of flax, etc.), if it has not been separated into independent industries. The complex of many production branches which are the part of agriculture determines the variety of agricultural production processes: for land reclamation and soil treatment, sowing, breeding and improvement of sowing material and cultivation of new plant varieties; crop care and harvesting; animal care, their economic use and breeding new breeds; primary processing and storage of agricultural products, etc. Such versatility of agricultural production determines the multiplicity of the links between agriculture and various branches of knowledge and sciences (geology, soil science, plant and animal physiology, meteorology, mechanics, etc.) and the emergence of a system of agricultural sciences (agronomy, agronomy and plant and animal physiology, meteorology, mechanics, etc.). The system of agricultural sciences (agronomy, agrobiology, general and particular agriculture, general and particular cattle breeding, agricultural economics, organization of agricultural production, etc.) emerged.
Distinctive features of agricultural production are associated with the conditions of agricultural production and depend on the level of development of productive forces and the mode of production. In agriculture, the difference between the time of production and the working period (i.e. the period in which the living labor force is connected with the means of production) is related to biology, the process of growth and development of the living organism of plants and animals. For example, reproduction of cattle lasts for several years. To a certain extent it is possible to speed up the process of creating a ready product: a more rational feeding to accelerate the animal reaching slaughter weight; special pre-sowing treatment of seeds and care of plants to accelerate the process of their maturation; in appropriate climatic conditions with careful soil treatment and proper plant care two or even three crops from one and the same area can be obtained within a year. All this is achieved in agriculture on the basis of the study of biology, the process of plant and animal organism development and active influence on it to achieve desirable and possible in these or those conditions biology, organism properties