AGRI 1: Philippine and

Asian Agriculture

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE History and

Concepts of
Agriculture
Lemuel L. Alvior Jr.
Instructor

Topic 1- 08/19/19
History: Era of Agriculture
• 105,000 years ago - gathering of wild grains
• 11,500 years ago - nascent farmers began to
plant them
• 10,000 years ago - pigs, sheep and cattle were
domesticated over. Plants were independently
cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world
• 20th century - industrial agriculture based on
large-scale monoculture came to dominate
agricultural output, though about 2 billion people
still depended on subsistence agriculture into the
twenty-first.
The growth of Human Population in Connection with the Development
of Agrarian Systems throughout the World
Centers of origin identified by Nikolai Vavilov in the 1930s. Area 3 (grey) is no longer recognized
as a center of origin, and Papua New Guinea (red, 'P') was identified more recently.

(1) Mexico-Guatemala, (2) Peru-Ecuador-Bolivia, (2A) Southern Chile, (2B) Paraguay-

Southern Brazil, (3) Mediterranean, (4) Middle East, (5) Ethiopia, (6) Central Asia, (7) Indo-
Burma, (7A) Siam-Malaya-Java, (8) China and Korea
Neolithic Agricultural Revolution Map
History: Types of Farming/Cultivation
1. Pastoralism - managing domesticated animals. Herds of
livestock are moved from place to place in search of
pasture, fodder, and water.
2. Shifting cultivation - a small area of forest is cleared by
cutting and burning the trees. The cleared land is used for
growing crops until the soil becomes too infertile, and the
area is abandoned. Another patch of land is selected and
the process is repeated.
3. Subsistence farming - practiced to satisfy family or local
needs alone, with little left over for transport elsewhere.
4. Intensive farming - cultivation to maximize profit, with a
low fallow ratio and a high use of inputs
History: Green Revolution
• 1940s and the late 1970s - Green Revolution research
technology transfer initiatives occurred that increased
agricultural production worldwide
• Norman Borlaug - the "Father of the Green
Revolution", who received the Nobel Peace Prize in
1970. He is credited with saving over a billion people
from starvation
• The basic approach was the development of high-
yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of
irrigation infrastructure, modernization of
management techniques, distribution of hybridized
seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.
History: Research and Development
• 1960 – establishment of the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI);
• 1966 - one of the breeding lines became a new
cultivar, IR8, which requires the use of fertilizers
and pesticides, but produced substantially higher
yields than the traditional cultivars;
• Annual rice production in the Philippines
increased from 3.7 to 7.7 million tons in two
decades;
• The switch to IR8 rice made the Philippines a rice
exporter for the first time in the 20th century.
Definitions of Agriculture
• Agriculture is the systematic raising of useful plants
and livestock under the management of man
(Rimando, 2004).
• Agriculture is the growing of both plants and animals
for human needs (Abellanosa, 1987).
• Agriculture is the deliberate effort to modify a
portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of
crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or
economic gain. (Rubenstein, 2003).
Agriculture: Legal meaning and scope
• Agriculture includes farming in all branches and, among
other things, includes the cultivation and tillage of soil,
dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and
harvesting of any agricultural and horticultural
commodities, the raising of livestock or poultry, and
any practices performed by a farmer on a farm as an
incident to or in conjunction with such farming
operations, but does not include the manufacturing or
processing of sugar, coconuts, abaca, tobacco,
pineapple or other farm products (Art. 97 (d), Chapter
I, Title II, Labor Code of the Philippines).
Agriculture: Legal meaning and scope

• Agriculture, Agricultural Enterprise or Agricultural

Activity means the cultivation of the soil, planting of
crops, growing of fruit trees, including the harvesting of
such farm products, and other farm activities and
practices performed by a farmer in conjunction with
such farming operations done by persons whether
natural or juridical. (Sec. 3b, Chapter I, Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (R.A. No. 6657 as
amended by R. A. 7881), Philippines.
 Agriculture: Legal meaning and scope
• Agriculture is the science of cultivating the soil,
harvesting crops, and raising livestock and also as
the science or art of the production of plants and
animals useful to man and in varying degrees the
preparation of such products for man's use and
their disposal (Black, HC. 1990. Black's Law
Dictionary: Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of
American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and
Modern. 6th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing
Co. p. 68).
Commonalities in the definitions:
1. Agriculture is an enterprise or business, activity or
practice. It is synonymous to farming.
2. The practice of agriculture is based on systematized
body of knowledge (science) and requires skill (art).
3. Agriculture often involves the cultivation of the soil to
grow plants and the raising of animals for human
needs.
4. Agriculture is practiced for the purpose of producing
food and other human needs such as clothing, shelter,
medicines, weapons, tools, ornaments, and
indefinitely many more including livestock feed. It is
likewise practiced as a business for economic gain.
 “Agriculture is the science and practice of
producing plants, other crops, and animals for
food, other human needs, for economic gain”
(Bareja, 2010, edited Apr. 26, 2019)

Agriculture is an art, science and business of

producing crops and livestock for
economic purposes.
Impact/importance of Agriculture
• Agriculture helps to elevate the community
consisting of different castes and communities to
a better social, cultural, political and economical
life.
• Agriculture maintains a biological equilibrium in
nature.
• Satisfactory agricultural production brings peace,
prosperity, harmony, health and wealth to
individuals of a nation by driving away distrust,
discord and anarchy.
Branches of Agriculture:
Agronomy
Horticulture
Forestry
Animal husbandry
Fishery science
Agricultural Engineering and
Home science
 Agricultural sciences:

Crop Science
Animal Science
Soil Science
Crop Protection
Agricultural Economics and Marketing
Agricultural Extension and Communication
Other uncommon farming systems:

Alligator farming

Sericulture

Apiculture
Agronomic and Horticultural crops

(Source: Rimando 2004; Janick 2005; ISHS 2011).

Why it is important to know whether a
crop is vegetable or a fruit?
• In the 1893 United States Supreme Court
case Nix. v. Hedden, the court rule
unanimously that an imported tomato should
be taxed as a vegetable, rather than as a (less
taxed) fruit.
• The court acknowledged that a tomato is a
botanical fruit, but went with what they called
the "ordinary" definitions of fruit and
vegetable — the ones used in the kitchen.
 Miscellaneous crop

• includes crops that are grown for a wide

variety of uses, but do not fit logically into one
of the other commodity groups

• Example: pepper, cacao, coffee, turmeric

 Cash crop and Subsistence crop
• A cash crop or profit crop is an agricultural
crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is
typically purchased by parties separate from a
farm.
• Subsistence crops are crops grown by the
farmers to feed themselves and their families,
also for their livestock.
 Industrial and Plantation crops
• An industrial crop, also called a non-food crop, is a crop grown
to produce goods for manufacturing, for example of fiber for
clothing, rather than food for consumption, like rubber,
wheat, Jatropha, etc.

• A plantation is a large-scale farm that specializes in cash crops.

The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar
cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, and fruits. A
plantation is always a monoculture over a large area and does
not include extensive naturally occurring stands of plants that
have economic value.