Wp/nth/Agricultur

Agricultur encompasses crop and livestock production, aquacultur, fisheries and forestry for food and other products derived frev organisms. Agricultur wes the key development i the rise o sedentary human civilisation, where the farmin o domesticated species created fuid surpluses at enabled folk te live i cities. While humans started gatherin grains at least 105,000 years sin syne, nascent farmers nobbut began plantin em aroond 11,500 years sin syne. Sheep, goats, pigs and kye wes furst domesticated aroond 10,000 years sin syne. Plants wes independently cultivated iv at least 11 regions o the warld. I the twentieth century, industrial agricultur based on large-scale monoculturs cam te dominate agricultural ootput.

The day, smaa farms produces aboot a thurd o the warld's fuid, but muckle farms is mair prevalent. The top ane percent o farms i the warld is larger nor 50 hectares and operates mair nor 70 percent o the warld's farmland. Aamaist 40 percent ov agricultural land is fund on farms at's larger nor 1,000 hectares. Hooiver, five oot ov ivery six farms i the warld consists o less than twe hectares and takes up nobbut 12 percent ov aa agricultural land.

The major agricultural products can be braidly grouped inte fuids, fibers, fuels, and raw materials (sic as rubber). Fuid classes includes cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, ceukin oils, meat, milk, eggs, and fungi. Global agricultural production amoonts tiv approximately 11 billion tonne o fuid, 32 million tonne o natural fibres and 4 billion m3 o wood. Hooiver, aroond 14 percent o the warld's food is lost frae production afore reachin the retail level.

Modren agronomy, plant breedin, agrochemicals sic as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments hes sharply increased crop yields, but hes contributed tiv ecological and environmental damage an aa. Selective breedin and modren practices iv animal husbandry hes similarly increased the ootput o meat, but hes raised conçarns aboot animal welfare and environmental damage. Environmental issues includes contributions te climate change, the depletion o aquifers, deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and other agricultural pollution. Agricultur is baith a cause ov and sensitive te environmental degradation, sic as biodivarsity loss, desertification, soil degradation, and climate change, at can aa cause decreases i crop yield. Genetically modified organisms is widely used, although some countries bans em.

Etymology and scope
The word agricultur is a late Middle English adaptation o the Latin agricultūra, frae ager 'field' and cultūra 'cultivation' or 'grawin'. While agricultur usually refers te human activities, çartain species o ant, termite and beetle hes been cultivatin crops for up te 60 million years. Agricultur is defined wi varyin scopes, in its braidest sense usin natural resources te "produce commodities at maintains life, includin food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops, and their related sarvices". Thus defined, it includes arable farmin, horticulture, animal husbandry and forestry, but horticulture and forestry is often excluded i practice. It may be braidly decomposed inte plant agricultur, that conçarns the cultivation o useful plants, and animal agricultur an aa, the production o agricultural animals.