Agriculture

Agriculture has played a key role in the development of human civilization. Until the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of the human population labored in agriculture. The type of agriculturethey developed was typically subsistence agriculture in which farmers raised most of their crops for consumption on farm, and there was only a small portion left over for the payment of taxes, dues,or trade. In subsistence agriculture cropping decisions are made with an eye to what the family needs for food, and to make clothing, and not the world marketplace. Development of agriculturaltechniques has steadily increased agricultural productivity, and the widespread diffusion of these techniques during a time period is often called an agricultural revolution. A remarkable shift inagricultural practices has occurred over the past century in response to new technologies, and the development of world markets. This also led to technological improvements in agricultural techniques, such asthe Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate which made the traditional practice of recycling nutrients with crop rotation and animal manure less necessary.
Synthetic nitrogen, along withmined rock phosphate, pesticides and mechanization, have greatly increased crop yields in the early 20th century. Increased supply of grains has led to cheaper livestock as well. Further, global yieldincreases were experienced later in the 20th century when high-yield varieties of common staple grains such as rice, wheat, and corn (maize) were introduced as a part of the Green Revolution. TheGreen Revolution exported the technologies (including pesticides and synthetic nitrogen) of the developed world to the developing world. Thomas Malthus famously predicted that the Earth would not be ableto support its growing population, but technologies such as the Green Revolution have allowed the world to produce a surplus of food.[11]

Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, is often...