a long essay on agriculture

Essay on Agriculture for Students and Children

500+ words essay on agriculture.

Agriculture is one of the major sectors of the Indian economy. It is present in the country for thousands of years. Over the years it has developed and the use of new technologies and equipment replaced almost all the traditional methods of farming. Besides, in India, there are still some small farmers that use the old traditional methods of agriculture because they lack the resources to use modern methods. Furthermore, this is the only sector that contributed to the growth of not only itself but also of the other sector of the country.

Growth and Development of the Agriculture Sector

India largely depends on the agriculture sector. Besides, agriculture is not just a mean of livelihood but a way of living life in India. Moreover, the government is continuously making efforts to develop this sector as the whole nation depends on it for food.

For thousands of years, we are practicing agriculture but still, it remained underdeveloped for a long time. Moreover, after independence, we use to import food grains from other countries to fulfill our demand. But, after the green revolution, we become self-sufficient and started exporting our surplus to other countries.

Besides, these earlier we use to depend completely on monsoon for the cultivation of food grains but now we have constructed dams, canals, tube-wells, and pump-sets. Also, we now have a better variety of fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds, which help us to grow more food in comparison to what we produce during old times.

With the advancement of technology, advanced equipment, better irrigation facility and the specialized knowledge of agriculture started improving.

Furthermore, our agriculture sector has grown stronger than many countries and we are the largest exporter of many food grains.

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Significance of Agriculture

It is not wrong to say that the food we eat is the gift of agriculture activities and Indian farmers who work their sweat to provide us this food.

In addition, the agricultural sector is one of the major contributors to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and national income of the country.

Also, it requires a large labor force and employees around 80% of the total employed people. The agriculture sector not only employees directly but also indirectly.

Moreover, agriculture forms around 70% of our total exports. The main export items are tea, cotton, textiles, tobacco, sugar, jute products, spices, rice, and many other items.

Negative Impacts of Agriculture

Although agriculture is very beneficial for the economy and the people there are some negative impacts too. These impacts are harmful to both environments as the people involved in this sector.

Deforestation is the first negative impact of agriculture as many forests have been cut downed to turn them into agricultural land. Also, the use of river water for irrigation causes many small rivers and ponds to dry off which disturb the natural habitat.

Moreover, most of the chemical fertilizers and pesticides contaminate the land as well as water bodies nearby. Ultimately it leads to topsoil depletion and contamination of groundwater.

In conclusion, Agriculture has given so much to society. But it has its own pros and cons that we can’t overlook. Furthermore, the government is doing his every bit to help in the growth and development of agriculture; still, it needs to do something for the negative impacts of agriculture. To save the environment and the people involved in it.

FAQs about Essay on Agriculture

Q.1 Name the four types of agriculture? A.1 The four types of agriculture are nomadic herding, shifting cultivation, commercial plantation, and intensive subsistence farming.

Q.2 What are the components of the agriculture revolution? A.2 The agriculture revolution has five components namely, machinery, land under cultivation, fertilizers, and pesticides, irrigation, and high-yielding variety of seeds.

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Essay on Agriculture

Agriculture is one of the most commonly heard words. It’s the most vital practice for the survival of humans. Farmers are considered to be the backbone of agriculture and food production. The food we eat at home, the fruits and vegetables, have a long backstory to them, which in simpler words, can be attributed to agriculture. The following essay comprises fascinating insight into agriculture, its definition, the process and challenges, which can help you in your projects and assignments.

100 Word Essay on Agriculture

200 word essay on agriculture, 500 word essay on agriculture.

Agriculture is the art of practising soil cultivation, producing crops, and raising livestock. It involves the production of plants and animals for food, fibre, and other products. Agriculture plays a critical role in our lives for several reasons. Firstly, it provides food for people and animals. Without agriculture, we would not have access to the diverse and nutritious diet we enjoy today. Secondly, agriculture provides raw materials for various products, including clothing, medicine, and building materials.

The existence of humans would have been very critical if we hadn’t developed the practice of agriculture.

Agriculture refers to the process of cultivating crops for food, fuel, and other products. It is a crucial part of human civilisation, as it allows us to produce the food and essential items we need for survival.

Types Of Agriculture | The many types of agriculture range from small-scale subsistence farming to large-scale commercial operations. In subsistence farming, farmers grow enough food in small fields or house backyards to feed their families and may sell any excess produce at local markets. In commercial agriculture, farmers grow crops or raise animals on a larger scale, on larger pieces of land, to sell their products to large-scale consumers.

Impact Of Agriculture | Agriculture plays a vital role in the global economy, providing food and other products for people worldwide. It is also an important source of income and survival for many people, particularly in rural areas. However, agriculture can also have negative impacts on the environment. Some farming practices can lead to soil erosion, pollution, and biodiversity loss. As a result, sustainable agriculture has become the need of the hour in recent years, with farmers adopting practices that can help protect the environment while still producing the food we need.

Agriculture refers to cultivating land and raising crops or livestock for sustenance or commercial purposes. It is a crucial part of human civilisation, providing food, raw materials, and essential commodities that support communities and economies worldwide.

Origins of Agriculture

The origins of agriculture can be traced back to the Neolithic period when humans first began domesticating plants and animals. This marked a significant shift in human history as people transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle to a more settled one, with the development of permanent settlements and the growth of complex societies.

Challengeso of Agriculture

Today, agriculture remains a crucial industry, providing food and other products for a growing global population. However, agriculture also has its challenges. Farming can negatively impact the environment, as it involves the use of large amounts of water, pesticides, and other resources and even the negative impacts of climate change. Climate change is impacting agriculture significantly, with extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, threatening crops and livestock.

What is Sustainable Agriculture?

Despite these challenges, agriculture continues to play a vital role worldwide. In recent years, there has been a focus on sustainable agriculture, which seeks to minimise the negative impact of farming on the environment while still providing food and other essential products for the global population.

My Visit to a Rice Farm

I n July’ 22, I visited a rice farm with my family while we were on a trip to the wedding of one of our close relatives. The farm belonged to my uncle, he gave us a tour of it and explained to us about the art of cultivation of rice and the process of how the rice we eat at her home every other day is cultivated.

What I Learnt | I saw how the water system works in the fields, how much manure, supplements and insecticides are used to keep the crops healthy, and how the storage system works, and I got to explore a lot more about agriculture. I saw how the water system works in the fields, how much manure, supplements and insecticides are used to keep the crops healthy, and how the storage system works, and I got to explore a lot more about agriculture.

How I Felt | It was my first-time visit to the farm, and being a person who has spent all his life living in the city, I was extremely surprised at how peaceful the farm ambience is and how much effort, time and love goes into cultivating crops. We eat fruits and vegetables every day but don't realise how complex and effortful the process of agriculture is.

In conclusion, agriculture is an essential part of human civilisation, providing the food and raw materials that support communities and economies worldwide. While there are challenges to be addressed, such as the impact on the environment and the effects of climate change, agriculture remains crucial to humanity's well-being, survival and future.

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Environmental Engineer

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A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

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A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

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Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

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An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

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Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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Short & Long Essay on Agriculture 100, 150, 250, 500 Words

Essay on agriculture.

The essay on Agriculture is written in simple English and has easy words for children and students. This English essay tells about agriculture, what agriculture is for us, and why it is special for us. Students are often asked to write essay on agriculture in their schools and colleges. And if you are also looking for the same, then we have given essay on agriculture in 100 – words, 150 – words, 250 – words, and 500 – words.

An effective way to teach students would be through an essay on agriculture in English. Through essay writing on this topic of Agriculture for classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10, children will learn to collect facts and write them in their own words.

Essay – 100 Words

India is an agricultural country and it is not just a means of livelihood but a way of life. We have been doing agriculture since ancient times. After independence, we had to depend on other countries to meet the demand for food grains. But, the Green Revolution has made India self-reliant.

Farmers work very hard in the agricultural field to grow food. Our farmers stand by us in every situation by giving us food. Man cannot even imagine living without the help of agriculture. There are many types of agriculture like shifting cultivation, grain farming, fish farming, dairy farming, etc. Some bad effects of wrong farming on the environment have also been seen such as pollution from pesticides, fertilizers, and manure.

Essay – 150 Words

Agriculture is of great importance in our lives. Farmers do not grow anything in their fields rather they provide employment and business opportunities to others. Consumption of the final products of agriculture affects our entire lives. Without its help, it is impossible for a human being to fill his stomach. Agriculture helps maintain our ecosystem.

Agriculture plays an important role in the economic development of any country as many industries depend on agriculture for their raw materials. With the revolution in agriculture, the industrial sector has also expanded. Moreover, when production in the agricultural sector increases, more employment opportunities will also be created and provide work in crop growing, direct employment in agricultural extension, and other sectors as well.

But doing agriculture wrongly has many fatal consequences. It is also a major source of pollution, as pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic agricultural chemicals can poison water, marine ecosystems, soil, and air.

Essay – 250 Words

Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for most of the population in India. More than 70 percent of people here depend on agriculture. Agriculture has been in existence since ancient times and in today’s era it has evolved with new technologies and equipment that have replaced the old traditional farming methods.

Even today some farmers use traditional farming methods because they lack education and resources and understanding to use modern technologies. Today, India is the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, cotton, fruits, tea, and vegetables. Various types of spices are cultivated here and these spices are sent all over the world.

Growth and Development of Agricultural Sector

We have been doing agriculture for a long time, yet it has still remained underdeveloped. Even after independence, we used to import food grains from other countries to meet the country’s demand. But, due to the Green Revolution, we have now become self-reliant and export our surplus to other countries. Our government is also making continuous efforts to develop this sector.

Earlier we were completely dependent on monsoon for agriculture, but now we have built canals, dams, tube wells, and pump sets. Additionally, there are now better varieties of pesticides, fertilizers, and seeds that help grow more food.

Agriculture is an important sector of the Indian economy. It is progressing with the continuous changes, development, and policies implemented in the agricultural sector. It will always remain an important factor in India’s economic growth.

Essay – 500 Words

Agriculture is the main sector of the Indian economy and employment of farmers. Agriculture has existed for thousands of years. But it has evolved a lot over the years. In today’s era, the use of new inventions, technologies, and equipment has changed almost all the traditional methods of farming. But, even today some farmers are using old traditional methods of agriculture due to lack of information because they are unable to use modern methods. Agriculture has contributed not only to its development but also to the development of other areas of the country.

Role of Agriculture in Economic Development

Agriculture plays an important role in the economic development of the country as it is one of the largest sources of livelihood in the country. Even today 3/4 of the population is based on agriculture and earlier we mainly depended on monsoons for agriculture, but now canals, dams, tube wells, and pump sets have been constructed.

Industries get raw materials from the agricultural sector on which other businesses depend, hence a large part of the economy depends on the agricultural sector. Agriculture provides employment opportunities to most of the people in the country.

Agriculture contributes to Indian exports and also plays an important role in increasing foreign exchange. India exports goods like spices, coffee, tobacco, tea, vegetables, etc. to other countries.

Types of Agriculture

There are many types of agriculture as mentioned below:

Grain cultivation – This is done to provide food to animals and humans. It involves the process of sowing different types of crops which are then harvested at the end of the season.

Horticulture and fruit cultivation – In this process, fruits and vegetables are produced on a large scale. This is mainly done for business purposes.

Dairy Farming – It deals with the production of milk. In this process, products like sweets, curd, cheese, etc. are produced.

Negative Effects of Agriculture

Although agriculture is very beneficial from the point of view of the country’s economy and employment, some negative effects are also seen. These are harmful to the people involved in the agricultural sector as well as the environment.

First, the use of most chemical fertilizers and pesticides pollutes and poisons the land as well as the surrounding water bodies. Its use causes the depletion of topsoil and pollutes ground water.

Secondly, deforestation is also a negative effect of agriculture. To expand agricultural land, many forests have been cut down and converted into agricultural land. Also, excessive use of river water for irrigation causes many small rivers and ponds to dry up, disrupting the natural balance.

Agriculture has given a lot to the country from food to business, but agriculture has some advantages and disadvantages which we cannot ignore. The government is making every possible effort for the growth and development of proper agriculture. Also, the government needs to do something about the negative impacts on agriculture.

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Essay on Sustainable Agriculture

Introduction: what is sustainable agriculture, importance of sustainable agriculture, population growth, per capita food consumption, sustainable agriculture and technology, green politics, conclusion of sustainable agriculture.

Bibliography

Sustainable agriculture has dominated the sociological understanding of the rural world largely. Following the enthusiasm around the concept as a means of eradication of poverty and turning the economy to a “resource-efficient, low carbon Green Economy” 1 . Global population, and consequently consumption has increased.

However, technology development has matched the demand for food in terms of food production, but the distribution of food is not evenly distributed. This has brought forth the question of the possibility of supplying adequate food to the ever-growing global population.

Further, the challenges posed by depleting non-renewable sources of energy, rising costs, and climate change has brought the issue related to sustainability of food production and the related social and economic impact of the food production into forefront. This paper outlines the meaning and technology related to sustainable agriculture and tries to gauge its impact as a possible solution to the impending food crisis.

Sustainable agriculture is a process of farming using eco-friendly methods understanding and maintaining the relationship between the organisms and environment. In this process of agriculture and animal husbandry are combined to form a simultaneous process and practice. In other words, sustainable agriculture is an amalgamation of three main elements viz. ecological health, profitability, and propagating equality.

The concept of sustainability rests on the principle of not wasting any resources that may become useful to the future generation. Therefore, the main idea of sustainability rests on stewardship of individual and natural resources. Before understanding the technology involved in sustainable agriculture, it is important to know why we need it in the first place.

The rise in population growth and urbanization of people has led to a dietary change of the world population, which now rests more on animal protein 2 . Therefore understanding the demographic changes in the world population has become an important parameter to judge the future demand for food.

As population growth rate is the key variable that affects the demand for food, therefore understanding the number of people increasing worldwide is important. According to the UNDP results, the annual population growth rate had declined from 2.2% in 1962 to 1.1% in 2010, however, this increase to indicate an increase of 75 million people 3 .

However, this increase in population is not equitably distributed as some areas such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia face a growth rate of 2% while others such as the erstwhile Soviet bloc countries have a negative rate.

According to the UNDP predictions, population worldwide is expected to increase to 9 billion in 2050 from the present 7 billion 4 . Therefore, the uncertain growth in population is expected to affect food demand and therefore food production.

Undernourishment is a prevalent problem in the developing world, wherein almost 20% of the developing world that is more than 5 billion people is undernourished.

Further, in emerging economies, food consumption is increasing with increased preference for animal protein such as meat, dairy products, and egg. Therefore, the growth of consumption of animal protein has increased the necessity of grazing of livestock, therefore, increasing further pressure on the food supply.

It is believed that the increase in the demand for food due to the increase in global population and change in dietary habit of the population. In the past, the demand for food and the rate of production has remained at par, but the unequal distribution of food has led to the major problem in food supply and starvation in various parts of the world.

Another problem that food production in the future faces is the constraint of non-renewable natural resources. The most critical resources, which are becoming scant for the future generations are –

• Land : Availability of land globally to cultivate food has grown marginally due to the increase in global population. The availability of land available per person to grow food has declined from 1.30 hectares in 1967 to 0.72 hectares in 2007 5 . Therefore, a clear dearth in agricultural land is a deterrent to future agriculture.
• Water : The world comprises of 70% freshwater resources, available from river and groundwater. Deficiency of freshwater has been growing as usage of water has increased more than twice the rate of population growth 6 . As water is required for irrigation purposes, water availability to is not equally distributed around the world. Therefore, reduced water supply would limit the per capita production of food.
• Energy : Globally, the scarcity of the non-renewable resources of energy is another concern. The global demand for energy is expected to double by 2050, consequently increasing energy prices 7 . Therefore, food production for the future will have to devise a technology based on renewable sources of energy.

The question of sustainability in agriculture arose due to some pressing issues that have limited the utilization of erstwhile processes and technologies for food production. However, it should be noted that sustainable agriculture does not prescribe any set rule or technology for the production process, rather shows a way towards sustainability 8 .

Sustainable agriculture uses best management practice by adhering to target-oriented cultivation. The agriculture process looks at disease-oriented hybrid, pest control through use of biological insecticides and low usage of chemical pesticide and fertilizer. Usually, insect-specific pest control is used, which is biological in nature.

Water given to the crops is through micro-sprinklers which help is directly watering the roots of the plants, and not flooding the field completely. The idea is to manage the agricultural land for both plants and animal husbandry.

For instance, in many southwestern parts of Florida’s citrus orchards, areas meant for water retention and forest areas become a natural habitat for birds and other animals 9 . The process uses integrated pest management that helps in reducing the amount of pesticide used in cultivation.

Sustainable agriculture adopts green technology as a means of reducing wastage of non-renewable energy and increase production. In this respect, the sustainable agricultural technology is linked to the overall developmental objective of the nation and is directly related to solving socio-economic problems of the nation 10 .

The UN report states, “The productivity increases in possible through environment-friendly and profitable technologies.” 11 In order to understand the technology better, one must realize that the soil’s health is crucial for cultivation of crops.

Soil is not just another ingredient for cultivation like pesticides or fertilizers; rather, it is a complex and fragile medium that must be nurtured to ensure higher productivity 12 . Therefore, the health of the soil can be maintained using eco-friendly methods:

Healthy soil, essential to agriculture, is a complex, living medium. The loose but coherent structure of good soil holds moisture and invites airflow. Ants (a) and earthworms (b) mix the soil naturally. Rhizobium bacteria (c) living in the root nodules of legumes (such as soybeans) create fixed nitrogen, an essential plant nutrient.

Other soil microorganisms, including fungi (d), actinomycetes (e) and bacteria (f), decompose organic matter, thereby releasing more nutrients. Microorganisms also produce substances that help soil particles adhere to one another. To remain healthy, soil must be fed organic materials such as various manures and crop residues. 13

This is nothing but a broader term to denote environment-friendly solutions to agricultural production. Therefore, the technology-related issue of sustainable agriculture is that it should use such technology that allows usage of renewable sources of energy and is not deterrent to the overall environment.

The politics around sustainable agriculture lies in the usage of the renewable sources of energy and disciplining of the current consumption rates 14 . The politics related to the sustainable agriculture is also related to the politics of sustainable consumption.

Though there is a growing concern over depleting food for the future and other resources, there is hardly any measure imposed by the governments of developed and emerging economies to sustain the consumption pattern of the population 15 .

The advocates of green politics believe that a radical change of the conventional agricultural process is required for bringing forth sustainable agriculture 16 . Green politics lobbies for an integrated farming system that can be the only way to usher in sustainable agricultural program 17 .

Sustainable agriculture is the way to maintain a parity between the increasing pressure of food demand and food production in the future. As population growth, change in income demographics, and food preference changes, there are changes in the demand of food of the future population.

Further, changes in climate and increasing concern regarding the depletion of non-renewable sources of energy has forced policymakers and scientists to device another way to sustain the available resources as well as continue meeting the increased demand of food.

Sustainable agriculture is the method through which these problems can be overlooked, bringing forth a new integrated form of agriculture that looks at food production in a holistic way.

Batie, S. S., ‘Sustainable Development: Challenges to Profession of Agricultural Economics’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 71, no. 5, 1989: 1083-1101.

Dobson, A., The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory, Psychology Press, London, 1993.

Leaver, J. D., ‘Global food supply: a challenge for sustainable agriculture’, Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 36 , 2011: 416-421.

Martens, S., & G. Spaargaren, ‘The politics of sustainable consumption: the case of the Netherlands’, Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, vol.1 no. 1, 2005: 29-42.

Morris, C., & M. Winter, ‘Integrated farming systems: the third way for European agriculture?’, Land Use Policy, vol. 16, no. 4, 1999: 193–205.

Reganold, J. P., R. I. Papendick, & J. F. Parr, ‘Sustainable Agriculture’, Scientific American , 1990: 112-120.

Townsend, C., ‘ Technology for Sustainable Agriculture. ‘ Florida Gulf Coast University, 1998. Web.

United Nations, ‘ Green technology for sustainable agriculture development ‘, United Nations Asian And Pacific Centre For Agricultural Engineering And Machinery, 2010. Web.

—, ‘ Sustainable agriculture key to green growth, poverty reduction – UN officials ‘, United Nations, 2011. Web.

1 United Nations, Sustainable agriculture key to green growth, poverty reduction – UN officials, UN News Centre, 2011.

2 J. D. Leaver, ‘Global food supply: a challenge for sustainable agriculture’, Nutrition Bulletin , vol. 36, 2011, pp. 416-421.

3 Leaver, p. 417.

5 Leaver, p. 418.

7 Leaver, p. 419.

8 J. N. Pretty, ‘Participatory learning for sustainable agriculture’, World Development , vol. 23, no. 8, 1995, pp. 1247-1263.

9 Chet Townsend, ‘Technology for Sustainable Agriculture’, Florida Gulf Coast University , 1998.

10 United Nations, ‘Green technology for sustainable agriculture development’, United Nations Asian And Pacific Centre For Agricultural Engineering And Machinery , 2010.

11 United Nations, p. 17.

12 J. P. Reganold, R. I. Papendick, & J. F. Parr, ‘Sustainable Agriculture’, Scientific American , 1990, pp. 112-120.

13 Regnold et al., p. 112.

14 S. S. Batie, ‘Sustainable Development: Challenges to Profession of Agricultural Economics’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 71, no. 5, 1989, pp. 1083-1101.

15 S. Martens & G. Spaargaren, ‘The politics of sustainable consumption: the case of the Netherlands’, Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy , vol.1 no. 1, 2005, pp. 29-42.

16 A. Dobson, The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory , Psychology Press, London, 1993, p. 82.

17 C .Morris & M. Winter, ‘Integrated farming systems: the third way for European agriculture?’, Land Use Policy , vol. 16, no. 4, 1999, pp. 193–205.

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Agriculture and Food

Agriculture can help reduce poverty, raise incomes and improve food security for 80% of the world's poor, who live in rural areas and work mainly in farming. The World Bank Group is a leading financier of agriculture.

Healthy, sustainable and inclusive food systems are critical to achieve the world’s development goals. Agricultural development is one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty, boost shared prosperity, and feed a projected  10 billion people by 2050 . Growth in the agriculture sector is  two to four times more effective  in raising incomes among the poorest compared to other sectors.

Agriculture is also crucial to economic growth: accounting for 4% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and in some least developing countries,  it can account for more than 25% of GDP .

But agriculture-driven growth, poverty reduction, and food security are at risk: Multiple shocks – from COVID-19 related disruptions to extreme weather, pests, and conflicts – are impacting food systems. The goal of ending global hunger by 2030 is currently off track. Conflicts, climate change, and high food prices are driving food and nutrition insecurity, pushing millions into extreme poverty, and reversing hard-won development gains. Around a quarter of a billion people now face acute food insecurity .

The growing impact of climate change could further cut crop yields, especially in the world’s most food-insecure regions. At the same time, our food systems are responsible for about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Current food systems also threaten the health of people and the planet and generate unsustainable levels of pollution and waste. One third of food produced globally is either lost or wasted. Addressing food loss and waste is critical to improving food and nutrition security, as well as helping to meet climate goals and reduce stress on the environment.

Risks associated with poor diets are also  the leading cause of death worldwide . Millions of people are either not eating enough or eating the wrong types of food, resulting in a  double burden of malnutrition  that can lead to illnesses and health crises. Food insecurity can worsen diet quality and increase the risk of various forms of malnutrition, potentially leading to undernutrition as well as people being overweight and obese. An estimated 3 billion people in the world cannot afford a healthy diet.

Last Updated: Mar 15, 2024

The World Bank Group provides knowledge, advice, and financial resources in low- and middle-income countries to transform food systems to reduce poverty and achieve green, resilient, and inclusive development.

Our work in food and agriculture focuses on: 

• Food and nutrition security , where we work with efforts to share information, and to rapidly provide resources where they are needed, while helping countries design the long-term reforms needed to build resilient food and nutrition systems.
• Climate-smart agriculture by working with client governments to provide solutions that address global climate priorities, while recognizing national contexts and development objectives.
• Data-driven digital agriculture by expand the frontier of financing and expertise for digital agriculture.
• Mobilizing capital for development in agriculture & food . We identify and leverage growth areas for productive investments, focusing on innovation and impact. And we design projects to ensure that financing boosts sustainable productivity gains, reaches smallholders and SMEs, and creates jobs to end poverty and hunger.
• Public policy and expenditure by working with governments to facilitate the adoption of more sustainable approaches, technologies, and practices, alongside policies that promote public and private sector investment.
• Sustainable and health diets to ensure that food can support a healthy population.

For fiscal year 2024, a total of $2.98 billion in new IBRD/IDA commitments to agriculture and related sectors are being delivered. Around half of this investment will directly support climate action.

 As part of a comprehensive, global response to the food and nutrition crises, the World Bank is scaling up its responses , making $45 billion available in 90 countries. Our intervention is expected to benefit 335 million people, equivalent to 44% of the number of undernourished people. More than half of the beneficiaries are women, who are disproportionately affected by the crisis. It includes both short term interventions such as expanding social protection, also longer-term resilience such as boosting productivity and climate-smart agriculture. The World Bank has also included food and nutriton security as part of the global challenges that it will address at scale.

Increasingly, the Bank supports country efforts to transform their food systems by taking a holistic look at public policies and spending for agriculture and food. A Multi-Donor Trust Fund,  Food Systems 2030 , provides a platform for change in this area.

In Angola, a project  co-financed by the World Bank and the French Agency for Development, contributed to the government economic diversification agenda by supporting the transition from subsistence to a more market-oriented, competitive agriculture sector. The project is helping producers or small and medium enterprises prepare and finance agriculture investments. As of December 2023, 268 projects have been approved, equivalent to about $37 million in agriculture investment. The project funded the first partial credit guarantees scheme ever dedicated to the agriculture sector in Angola – an innovation for the country’s agribusiness sector – mobilizing so far $4.1 million in private bank financing. 

In  Argentina , the Bank supported 14,630 families who benefited from better socioeconomic inclusion. Under the project, 2,409 families accessed water for human and animal consumption, also irrigation; 7,499 rural families improved their productive capacity; and over 900 families accessed infrastructure, equipment and training that improved their marketing. Based on the model of productive alliances, 2,801 families from different regions became beneficiaries by linking their production with the markets. Among the funded activities, the production of honey, orchards, forage, livestock, nuts, spices, yerba mate and tea, among others, stand out.

In Benin, between 2011-2021, the Agricultural Productivity and Diversification Project facilitated the adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies for 327,503 crop producers, leading to 135,549 hectares of land cultivated with improved technologies. The project interventions resulted in increased yields from 0.45 ton to 0.81 ton for cashew; from 1.2 tons to 2.97 tons for maize, from 4 tons to 6.2 tons for rice, and from 50 tons to 70 tons for pineapple. The project led to significant increases of milled rice and fish output. Combined with support for crop production and processing, support to exports has led to increases in the export of cashew and pineapple.

For the past 18 years, Bolivia has been developing a strategy to improve agricultural production and marketing through the productive alliances model. This model links small rural producers with markets, and facilitates their participation in value chains, and access to technical assistance and technology for better market access. Currently, over 2,600 productive alliances have been implemented, benefiting 107,308 producer families. In 2023, the third phase of productive alliances model was launched, expecting to have a significant impact on nearly 130, 000 rural producer’s communities, with a focus on food security, adoption of innovative practices for resilient agriculture and the increased participation of women producers.

A Bank-supported project implemented in partnership with the Government of Rio Grande do Norte, one of Brazil's poorest and most violent states, has aimed to improve agricultural productivity, the quality of and access to health, public security, education and public sector management across the state. The project has implemented 131 subprojects in family farming, renovated 274km of roads, renovated and strengthened the safety of an important dam, and built 22 modern, multi-service Citizen Centers.

In Bhutan,  a project  is supporting the government's efforts to reduce rural poverty and malnutrition through climate-smart agriculture. Irrigation technology and greenhouses introduced through the project have helped farmers to increase their access to local and export markets. More than 6,500 people have increased the quality and quantity of produce like rice, maize, potato, vegetables, quinoa, citrus, apples, and potatoes, as well as high-value spices such as cardamom and ginger. 

In Burkina Faso, the Bank supported the Burkina Faso Livestock Sector Development Project which ran from 2017 to 2022. By project completion, beneficiaries among selected value chains increased their yield by 8.4%. Yield increase for cattle, sheep, and egg production reached 6.76%, 11.93%, and 6.50%, respectively. Sales increased by 45% exceeding the target of a 30% increase. The volume of loans granted by partner financial institutions reached $5.02 million, exceeding the original target of $4.38 million. The project reached a total of 329,000 beneficiaries, out of which 138,314 were women and 112,573 were youth.

In the Central African Republic, through the Emergency Food Security Response project, 330,000 smallholder farmers received seeds, farming tools, and training in agricultural and post-harvest techniques. The project helped farmers boost their crop production and become more resilient to climate and conflict risks. Local food production increased by 250%, from 28,000 tons in September 2022 to 73,000 tons in June 2023. Moreover, 21,006 agricultural households received training on post-harvest loss management and provided equipment, such as mobile storage units, to enhance packaging of agricultural products, leading to higher selling prices.

In  Colombia, since 2010, the adoption of environmentally friendly silvopastoral production systems  (SPS) for over 4,100 cattle ranches has converted 100,522 hectares of degraded pastures into more productive landscapes and captured 1,565,026 tons of CO2 equivalent. In addition, almost 40,000 hectares of pastureland were transformed to SPS and 4,640 hectares into intensive Silvopastoral Production Systems (iSPS). Moreover, 4,100 direct farmers beneficiaries, of which 17% were women, were trained in SPS and iSPS, and over 21,000 farmers, technicians and producers were also trained, visited demonstration farms, and participated in workshops and events and technology brigades. A network of 116 plant nurseries were also established, which produced around 3.1 million fodder trees that were delivered to beneficiary farmers. 

In Cote d’Ivoire, between 2013 and 2017, the Agriculture Sector Project  boosted the productivity of 200,000 farmers and rehabilitated 6,500 kilometers of rural roads allowing farmers to better transport their products  and reduce post-harvest losses. To aid the cashew industry, the Bank also supported a research program that helped disseminate 209 genotypes of high-performing trees and establish 18 nurseries. The Bank-financed project also helped leverage $27.5 million in private investment to boost productivity on at least 26,500 hectares.

In Ethiopia, since 2015 a project has helped 2.5 million smallholder farmers increase agricultural productivity and commercialization by establishing market linkages, increasing access to agricultural public services, building smallholder farmer capacity in efficient water and crop management to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation, and improving diet diversification. The project has also been promoting the use of nutrition sensitive agriculture and gender and climate-smart agriculture including dietary diversity through nutrient-dense crops, livestock products, post-harvest processing/handling and social behavioral change communication, along with food safety and child and maternal health. The project has supported farmers increase yield in crops and livestock by 19% and 52% respectively and their revenue by 96.2%. To date the project has also provided 58,823 hectares of land with irrigation and water related services, and over 1.6 million farmers have adopted improved agriculture technologies promoted by the project. Nearly one million jobs for rural people, including for women and youth in fragile and conflict affected areas have been created as a result of the project interventions.

In Grenada , the World Bank supported local farmers and fisherfolk, along with aggregators and agro-processors to enhance their access to markets and sales from 2017 to 2023 through the OECS Regional Agriculture Competitiveness Project. The project provided vouchers to 206 farmers and fisherfolk and offered co-financing opportunities for 10 agro-processors, leading to significant improvements in their production facilities and market access. Additionally, 260 employees and 53 extension workers received training, improving their skills in agricultural production and market reach. Through the project, 150 producers adopted various climate-smart technologies, such as solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, underscoring the project's dedication to sustainability and efficiency.

In Guinea, from 2018 to 2023, through the  Guinea Integrated Agricultural Development Project , local farmers increased agriculture's productivity, and sustainability. To help local communities, the project disseminated high-yielding seeds, improve irrigation, and trained women and youth to access funds to create jobs. The project also promoted the use of climate-smart, gender-sensitive digital technologies with local producers. The project has reached 149,000 farmers (of whom 38% are women and 30% are youth). The project’s results include a 30% increase in yield of rice and maize; a 42% increase in commodity sales; a 47,470-hectare area covered by improved technologies; over 97,000 users of improved technologies, and more than 2,000 jobs created for women and youth.

In Haiti , a World Bank project strengthened the institutional capacity of Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development by accessing technologies to increase not only agricultural productivity and production but also improved livelihoods and resilience. The project developed irrigation and drainage on 2,244 hectares; established 115 farmer field schools, and trained facilitators in agricultural extension techniques. A total of 78,242 small producers increased their market access, half of whom were women; more than 3,368 private and public sector staff (including staff from the Ministry of Agriculture, municipal staff, among others) and 600 farmers were trained on surveillance and vaccination, the use of fruit fly traps, mealybugs control, and protection of animals against rabies and anthrax and more than 3.6 million animals were vaccinated.

In Honduras, since 2010 , 12,878 small farmers, of which 27% are women, have used productive alliances to improve productivity and access to markets, which has leveraged $33.5 million in finance from commercial banks and microfinance institutions. Under the project, gross sales of producer organizations rose by 25.3%. Also, support to Honduras’ Dry Corridor Alliance, has helped 12,202 households implement food security and agricultural business plans, and improved agricultural yields, nutrition, and food diversity of project beneficiaries.

In India, the  Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project  supported over 400,000 farm families and 1,270 businesses and over 100 of industry associations and producer organizations in improving their productivity and incomes and helping develop new marketing channels since 2017.

In  Kenya, since 2016,   1.5 million farmers , where over 60% are women, have increased their productivity , climate resilience and access to markets. The digital registry (including geo tagging) of these 1.5 million farmers enables them to access agro-weather and market advisories. In addition, the Bank is facilitating partnerships between the government and 26 ag-tech support agencies which enables almost 500,000 farmers to access a range of services (inputs, financial services and markets) by leveraging digital technologies.  

In Kosovo , the Bank provided 775 grants to farmers and 103 grants to agri-processors to increase production capacities and enhance market competitiveness in the livestock and horticulture sector. This was done through upgrading facilities, adopting new technologies, and introducing food safety and environmental standards. Further, support was provided for the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes covering an area of 7,750 hectares which had an impact on the production, yield, quality, and variety of products cultivated in the area.

In the Kyrgyz Republic, the Additional Financing to the Integrated Dairy Productivity Improvement Project is improving productivity through better technologies and breeds of dairy animals rather than increasing their numbers. The project provides training, artificial insemination services, and monitoring milk yields per cow and the quality of milk to processing companies. To date, 10,000 small farmers including 5,000 women farmers, have received training to enhance productivity and climate-smart agriculture. Over 13,000 cows received artificial insemination for breed improvement with positive pregnancy rate of 67.3% which is above the global average. With improved breeds of dairy animals, the market value of the crossbred calves is higher than local calves and the average milk yield per cow has increased by nearly 15%. The project has also established a digital tool to monitor milk quality which is being used by eight dairy processing companies. The project established 30 milk collection points through famers’ Jamaats that are equipped with refrigerated tanks and advanced testing equipment, strategically located to ensure consistent milk quality and timely delivery, especially during hot summers.

In Madagascar, since 2016 , the Bank has boosted the productivity of over 130,000 farmers. Sixty-thousand hectares of irrigated rice fields have been rehabilitated. The Bank also supported the cocoa sector through research, the development of certified seeds, and promotion of improved production and processing techniques. This allowed 4,000 cocoa producers to increase their incomes and increase production and export volumes by 50%. The Bank also financed the country’s largest land rights registration, facilitating the delivery of over 200,000 land certificates to farmers. 

In Mauritania, between 2016 and 2021, the intervention of the Sahel regional support project offered agricultural assets and services to more than 400,000 farmers/pastoralists, where nearly 30% are women. More than 1.9 million hectares of land under sustainable management practices, in addition to the construction of 133 vaccination parks and the realization of 118 water points (wells and boreholes) as well as other infrastructure of valorization and trade of animals were provided to agro-pastoralist communities. Additionally, from April 2023- June 2028, the Bank offered to support the  Agriculture Development and Innovation Support Project (PADISAM)  to improve land resources management and foster inclusive and sustainable commercial agriculture in selected areas of Mauritania. It is anticipated that by the end of the project, there will be 72,000 direct beneficiaries and about 5,000 Ha of land under sustainable landscape management practices.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting spikes in wheat prices in 2022, the World Bank provided emergency support to several countries in the Middle East and North Africa to mitigate the negative socio-economic consequences on the poor and vulnerable. These emergency projects secured access to affordable bread for over 89 million people across the region. In Lebanon, a project ($150 million) has been financing wheat imports that supports universal access to affordable Arabic bread for over a year to 5.36 million people living in Lebanon, of which 1 million are Syrian, Palestinian, and other refugees. In Egypt, a project helped procure around 1.15 million metric tons of wheat – equivalent to at least a 2-month supply to cover the needs of 72 million vulnerable people. A project in In Tunisia procured 160,099 metric tons of soft wheat, equivalent to seven weeks of bread supply for a population of 12 million.

In Moldova, since 2012 , the Bank has helped more than 7,500 farmers gain access to local and regional high-value markets for fresh fruit and vegetables and boosted land productivity through the promotion of sustainable land management practices on 120,000 hectares of farmland.

In  Montenegro , the bank, through the Second Institutional Development and Agriculture Strengthening (MIDAS2), helped the government launch the very first Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPARD)-like agro-environmental measure in a manner compliant with EU requirements, increasing the amount of meadows and pasture lands recorded in the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) from 13,600 hectares (ha) to 92,000 ha. The Bank has also supported almost 4,000 farmers working on orchards, vineyards, livestock and aromatic plants, 224 agro-processors, and 59 farmers working on processing on-farm complying with the European Union requirements for food safety and 278 agricultural households adopting agro-environmental measures, improving their competitiveness and sustainability.

In Morocco , the Strengthening Agri-food Value Chains Program for Results has financed the construction of the first modern regional wholesale market in Rabat, which will improve the distribution of agricultural products throughout the region, benefiting more than 4.6 million inhabitants. The program also financed the establishment of the male sterile Ceratite production center, which will enable citrus producers in the Souss-Massa and Berkane regions, which represent 52% of national citrus production and generate about 6 million working days per year, to protect their production from damage caused by the Mediterranean fruit fly. The program also enabled more than 1,000 agri-food SMEs to obtain sanitary approval after upgrading, leading to an increase in employment by almost 61%. The program co-financed more than 70 units of packaging, cold storage and processing, which leveraged about US$86 million as private investment and led to an overall increase in production value of around 34%.

In Niger , through  the Climate Smart Agriculture Support Project , the World Bank supported over 370,000 farmers, where 145,000 of whom are women. The farmers benefited from the project’s investments in small and large-scale irrigation, improved climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable land management practices. Over 154,000 hectares of land were developed with sustainable land management practices, and 4,400 hectares of cropland were brought under irrigation. In collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and FAO, the project promoted good agriculture practices through farmer led e-extension services and technical assistance. The project investments led to significant increases in agriculture productivity: yields of cowpea, millet, and sorghum increased by 169, 164, and 142 percent, respectively. The project also strengthened the national climate information system by building the capacity of the National Meteorology Department (the project installed 30 meteorological stations and 600 rain gauges). Through its support to the Sahel Regional Center for Hydro and Agrometeorology, the project strengthened the early warning systems of national institutes such as National Meteorology and the National Hydrology Directorate.

In Nigeria,  APPEALS Project   was designed to enhance agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improve value addition along priority value chains. Since 2017, the project has demonstrated 204 improved technologies to 93,0009 farmers. Food crop production has surged, with 304,516 metric tons produced, representing 3.1% of the national output. Furthermore, the project has reached 61,171 farmers with processing assets to improve the quality of their produce. The project also trained 10,346 women and youth, including persons with disability, providing them with business, technical and life skills training, support to business planning and facilitation of business name registration, start-up grant to establish a commercially viable business, and mentorship to provide the beneficiaries with continued support from established agribusiness entrepreneurs. The project linked farmers to market through the facilitation of commercial partnerships resulting in a total of 327 business alliances with 147 off-takers already buying farmers’ produce across the 11 value chains, with a transaction worth of US$ 59.7 million. Similarly, the project has linked 200 agribusiness clusters to infrastructures which includes 55km rural farm access road, 75 aggregation and cottage processing centers, 102 solar-powered water intervention and energy supplies.

In Paraguay, since 2008, 20,863 farmers  increased their agricultural income by at least 30% and 18,951 adopted improved agricultural practices, boosting the productivity of their land.

In the  Philippines, since 2015 , the Bank helped raise rural incomes, enhance farm and fishery productivity, improve market access and mainstream institutional and operational reforms, as well as science-based planning for agricultural commodities in 81 provinces. The project has benefitted a total of 323,501 people–46% of them women–with farm roads, irrigation, and agricultural enterprise projects, boosting incomes by up to 36%. 

In  Rwanda, since  2010, the Bank helped support over 410,000 farmers – half are women – in improving their agricultural production by developing over 7,400 hectares for marshland irrigation, providing hillside irrigation on over 2,500 hectares, and several hundreds of farmers benefitted matching grants to support their investments in Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLID) technologies on over 1,200 hectares of their land. Interventions also included improving soil conservation and erosion on more than 39,000 hectares of hillside. Maize, rice, beans, and potato yields have all more than doubled and around 2.5 tons of vegetables are exported to Europe and the Middle-East every week from intervention areas, or locally, where more horticulture produce is sold to premium markets including 5-star hotels or the national airline, RwandAir. Less than two years after  one of the Bank supported projects  introduced greenhouse farming in its intervention areas to minimize the impacts of unfavorable weather conditions and better manage crop pests and diseases, by 2023, the demand for these technologies has seen a rapid increase in these areas and 132 units have been acquired and installed through the matching grants program under the project. Evidence shows relatively high revenues for farmers investing in greenhouse technology, with revenues increasing up to 15 times for vegetable growers.

Since 2019, the ongoing Serbia Competitive Agriculture Project has been supporting the government economic diversification and competitiveness agenda for small and medium scale farmers and their participation in a more market-oriented agriculture sector. The productive alliance model supported by the project has contributed to the improvement of the agri-food market linkages of 823 farmers, of which 330 are women farmers. Through the project, 4,356 farmers have received technical assistance to prepare their business ideas and plans (1,307 are women), while 1,319 business plans have received support in various forms, such as matching grants, technical assistance, and business development support. The farmers have signed their loans with commercial banks to invest in farm innovations, including equipment, on-farm irrigation, digital agriculture, climate-smart agriculture technologies. By providing co-financing with EUR 24.17 million in matching grants, the project-supported business plans have leveraged an additional EUR 24.17 million in private capital so far, including commercial loans to farmers at market interest rate from 11 local banks, and cash contributions from the beneficiary farmers. Amongst them, 1,117 beneficiary farmers are first-time users of credit.

In  Tajikistan , the Bank supported the establishment of 545 farmer groups in horticulture value chains, specifically apricot, apple, pear, lemon, cucumber, and tomato, and dairy value chain benefiting a total of 13,516 farmers out of which 48% were women. The Bank also supported the establishment of 342 productive partnerships benefitting 4,340 smallholder farmers. A total of 21,882 beneficiaries achieved an increase in commercial activity. The project supported training for 13, 516 farmers, on value chain development.

In  Tunisia, the Bank helped 113 remote rural villages improve  land management practices on 37,000 hectares of land to increase productivity and improve 930 kilometers of rural roads serving some 160 villages. 

In  Uruguay, since 2014, climate-smart agriculture techniques  have been adopted on 2.7 million hectares and adopted by 5,541 farmers, providing for a carbon sequestration potential of up to 9 million tons of CO2 annually.

In Uganda, since 2015 , the  Agriculture Cluster Development Project’s e-voucher scheme has leveraged over $12 million of farmer investments enabling over 450,000 farm households access and use improved agro-inputs resulting in higher farm yields. Provision of matching grants has enhanced storage capacity by 55,000MT, acquiring value addition equipment and machinery thereby facilitating Producer Organizations to add value and undertake collective marketing. Additional infrastructure support addressing road chokes has also led to improved market access.

The Bank has also made investments into strengthening regulatory and administrative functions of the Ministry of Agriculture through the development of IT Platforms and tools facilitating timely planning and decision making.

In the Uganda Multi-Sectoral Food and Nutrition Security Project, the Bank has supported enhanced knowledge on nutrition resulting in improved household nutrition and incomes for 1.55 million direct project beneficiaries.

In Uzbekistan, the Horticulture Development Project has helped create, 34,520 jobs, including 13,124 for women; increase beneficiary productivity by 24% and profitability by 124%, including through entry into new export markets. The  Livestock Sector Development Project  supported a sub-loans benefitting 560 large scale commercial livestock farmers, and a total of 135 value chain development projects benefiting 1,456 smallholder farmers (Dekhans). As a result, the share of improved and high yielding livestock breeds increased by 98.7%; increasing milk and meat productivity by 33% and 38% respectively. The Ferghana Valley Rural Enterprise Project has supported the establishment and operation of nine business incubation hubs in Andijan, Namangan, and Ferghana regions, to support local entrepreneurs in business plan preparation, and facilitated access to finance, technology infusion, also organized training among 5,000 project initiators in 36 districts of Ferghana Valley. The project, under its credit line activities, financed a total of 501 investment sub-projects with $119.6 million of the project fund, of which 77.8% were for small business entrepreneurs This created substantial number of new jobs, and increased the incomes of rural enterprises,

In Vietnam, since 2010, the Bank has promoted sustainable livelihoods by helping develop 9,000 “common interest groups” comprising over 15,500 households and partnering them with agricultural enterprises. The Bank also helped  over 20,000 farmers  improve their livestock production and benefited an additional 130,000 people through capacity building in food safety. 

Under the  West African Agricultural Productivity Program , the Bank supported a research and development effort that promoted technology generation, dissemination, and support to local farming systems in 13  ECOWAS  countries. The project reached over 2.7 million beneficiaries, 41% of whom were women. It also generated 112 technologies that reached over 1,850,000 hectares.

The Yemen Food Security Response and Resilience Project has directly benefited over 1 million beneficiaries to date. The project is focusing on resilience building amidst protracted crisis – including conflict, insecurity, and climate-related shocks. The project has created around 20,000 short-term jobs and benefited over 50,000 smallholder farm households through various agricultural infrastructure improvements. The project invested in the vaccination of 11 million small ruminants and treated a similar number for parasites. In addition to building resilience, as a short-term response, the project supported 20,000 vulnerable households with kitchen gardens and livestock kits, business development training and start-up grants to vulnerable women. Furthermore, the project facilitated a supplemental feeding program for over 740,000 most vulnerable beneficiaries.

Last Updated: Apr 09, 2024

The World Bank works with a range of partners to achieve ambitious development goals: transforming food systems, boosting food security and empowering smallholder farmers, to realize zero hunger and poverty by 2030. 

The World Bank Group is a joint convener, with the G7 Presidency, of the Global Alliance for Food Security (GAFS) . A key outcome of the Global Alliance is the  Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard , a key tool to fast-track a rapid response to the unfolding global food security crisis, designed to consolidate and present up-to-date data on food crisis severity, track global food security financing, and make available global and country-level research and analysis to improve coordination of the policy and financial response to the crisis.

The Bank hosts a  Multi-Donor Trust Fund,  Food Systems 2030 , that helps countries build better food systems, fostering healthy people, a healthy planet and healthy economies. The Trust Fund aims to deliver improved livelihoods and affordable, and nutritious diets for all, and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals of zero poverty and hunger by 2030 and the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Food Systems 2030 provides advice and analytical products to underpin policy options, funds to pilot innovative approaches, and information to build support for change in different country contexts. It engages with the private sector by supporting the design, piloting and de-risking of innovative public-private partnerships that advance development and climate goals.   

The  Global Agriculture and Food Security Program , a multilateral financing platform, is dedicated to improving food and nutrition security worldwide. Launched by the  G20 in the wake of the global response to the 2007–08 food price crisis, GAFSP works to build sustainable and resilient agriculture and food systems in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries. Since its inception in 2010, the Program has mobilized more than US$2 billion in donor funds to reach more than 16.6 million people. GAFSP provides financial and technical resources – investment grants, technical assistance, concessional finance, and advisory services – to demand-driven projects along the food chain to accelerate the transformation of food systems at scale.

The World Bank leads the  Food Systems, Land use and Restoration Global Platform (FOLUR) , financed by the Global Environment Facility, in partnership with UNDP, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Global Landscapes Forum and the Food and Land-use Coalition. FOLUR is a $345 million, seven-year program that aims to improve the health and sustainability of landscapes that produce the world’s food. FOLUR targets sustainable production landscapes in 27 country projects for eight major commodities (livestock, cocoa, coffee, maize, palm oil, rice, soy, and wheat).

The World Bank chairs the System Council of  CGIAR , a global partnership that advances cutting-edge science to reduce rural poverty, increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and ensure sustainable management of natural resources.

For more information, contact Clare Murphy-McGreevey on [email protected].

Last Updated: Sep 19, 2023

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Essay on Agriculture

Agriculture is a very common word which is used almost by everyone. When we talk about agriculture than the very first thing that strikes our brain is, it must be something that is related to farming and farmers. But this thought limits the aspects of agriculture. Agriculture does not only mean the procedure of cropping instead it means much more.

Short and Long Essays on Agriculture in English

Here I have provided you with three different essays that are different in length. With the help of these essays, you will be able to know almost all the aspects of agriculture.

Agriculture Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

1) Agriculture is the process of producing crops and rearing animals for gaining profit.

2) Agriculture provides occupation to a huge Indian population.

3) The contributor to India’s more than 15% GDP is agriculture.

4) Agriculture is the occupation that gives us crops to eat.

5) Fruits, pulses, oil, vegetables, etc things are obtained through agriculture.

6) Agriculture also provides us with leather, cotton, wool, and other animal products.

7) Shifting cultivation, dairy farming, grain farming, fruit farming, etc are some types of agriculture.

8) The use of pesticides in agriculture reduces soil fertility.

9) Agriculture is also a contributor to environmental pollution.

10) Agriculture can reduce starvation, poverty, and can raise employment to some extent.

Essay 1 (250 Words) – Meaning and Importance of Agriculture

Introduction

Agriculture is one of the most important aspects of everyone’s life. It is something that is necessary for the survival of each and every human being. Along with being a necessity, it also helps in the economy of the country.

Agriculture has been derived from two different Latin words, ‘ager’ and ‘cultura’ where ager means ‘field’ and cultura means ‘growing or cultivation’. So the literal meaning of agriculture is the ‘cultivation of fields’.

Agriculture is the process of practicing farming including cultivation of the soil for growing crops, rearing animals, and producing other products such as wool, oil, etc.

Importance of Agriculture

Agriculture plays a vital role in living life. It is impossible for one to sustain his/her life without agriculture as it gives the most usable products of human life such as food, fruits, oil, etc.

The most important aspect of agriculture for human beings is to provide food for people. As we all know that food is the most important thing for the survival, nothing comes before food when it comes to sustaining life, and food is a very important part for everyone’s livelihood, so we can say that agriculture is particularly important because it is our main source of the food supply. It is also the backbone of our economic system. Agriculture not only provides food and raw materials but also employment opportunities to a large proportion of the population.

Agriculture plays a very vital role in our life. Without agriculture, the existence of human beings is not possible as it is the main source of our food supply to sustain on the earth and it also helps to grow our economy across the world.

Essay 2 (400 Words) – Types and Impact of Agriculture

We feel gratitude when we hear the word “agriculture”. Without agriculture, it is not possible to feed ourselves. Our farmers work so hard in the agriculture sector to feed us. They also help to prevent future attacks on us or our neighbor country for food. Our farmers stand for us in any situation by giving food to the world.

Types of Agriculture

There are many types of agriculture; here we will see all the types point-wise and in details:

• Grain Farming

Grain farming is the process of planting a variety of crops which is later harvested at the end of the season. The seeds of the crops are later refined for use. Grains are basically the seeds of the crops planted. In this farming, people from the same family can work on a small piece of land. Grain farming is done for providing food to animals and human beings.

• Shifting Cultivation

As the word shifting has been used, this cultivation is shifted from one place to another. In this cultivation, farmers use a small piece of land for a temporary time and then leave it to abandon until and unless the land gets its fertility back naturally.

• Gardening and Fruit Farming

In gardening and fruit farming, fruits and vegetables are produced on a large scale from a commercial point of view. It requires fewer resources and laborers as compared to grain farming and shifting cultivation.

• Pastoral Nomads

Here pastoral means sheep herding. This is a kind of agriculture that is based on the herding of domesticated animals.

• Dairy Farming

Dairy farming is related to the prolonged production of milk. This procedure is done for producing products like sweets, chocolates, curd, cheese, etc.

Few other types of agriculture are:

• Mediterranean agriculture
• Livestock ranching
• Plantation farming
• Mixed crop and livestock

Environmental Impact of Agriculture

Agriculture has many impacts on the environment. Even if it is very important for sustaining life, it also has some bad effects on the environment. We will see a few impacts one by one point wise:

• The pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture cause pollution.
• Waterlogging and pesticide contamination causes soil degradation.
• Deforestation is also taking place as the forests are being transformed into agricultural land.
• Poor agriculture also leads to climate change.

Agriculture is a very important aspect of each and everyone’s life. It is impossible to feed human beings without the help of agriculture. There are many types of agriculture such as grain farming, shifting cultivation, dairy farming, etc. There are some bad impacts of agriculture on our environments such as manures and fertilizers cause pollution, soil loses its fertility and many more.

Essay 3 (500 – 600 Words) – Benefits and Issues Faced in Agriculture

If we generally talk about agriculture then it means that agriculture is related to harvesting and cropping. But in economics the meaning of agriculture is little different, here it does not only mean harvesting or cropping instead it also includes animal husbandry, dairy farming, poultry, fishing, and forestry.

Agriculture in India

No one can deny the fact that agriculture is the backbone of our nation. In the world, India is the second-largest producer of various agricultural products like rice, wheat, sugarcane, etc. It produces more than 280 million tonnes, which contribute more than 15% of India’s GDP [Gross Domestic Product]. Farmers play a vital role in uplifting the economy of India because agriculture forms more than 70% of India’s export capacity.

If we had our food today then we should be heartily thankful to the farmers of our nation. India’s farmers are the most dedicated peasants towards their duties. This is the reason because of which our former prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri termed a coin saying “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”. The way soldiers of our nation protect our country from enemy attacks, in the same way; farmers of our country feed us daily.

Issues Faced in the Agriculture

Farmers have to face many problems during agriculture. Few of the major problems are discussed below:

• Instability

As we know that in India, agriculture depends upon the monsoon. Being dependent on the weather condition, area, and yield, the production of crops is liable to substantial variations from year to year in this way the production becomes unstable.

• Land Ownership

In, land ownership, a piece of land is owned by a person. The owner of the land gives his piece of land to poor farmers for cultivation and they charge the cost of their land from the poor farmers.

• Subdivision and Fragmentation of Land Holding

When division takes place among the families then the pots also get divided between the family members. These scattered pieces of land increase the cost of agriculture management and make the agricultural occupation uneconomical.

• Land Tenure

In the procedure of land tenure, a large piece of land is owned by a person and that person decides who can use his land and for how long. This procedure is almost similar to land ownership.

• Grain Storage Problem

Even if there is a good production of crops, sometimes what happens is, farmers, don’t get enough space to store their surplus food grains and thus grains are wasted in a large amount.

Benefits of Agriculture:

• It helps in satisfying the hunger of people.
• It uplifts the economy of our country.
• It provides employment to unemployed people.
• It helps in trade.
• It contributes to the government by paying revenue.

From the above discussion, we can conclude that India is the second-largest producer of the product of agriculture. We get benefited a lot by agriculture in many ways; however, people nowadays, are getting distracted from agriculture and moving towards cities for their butter and bread, which is not good for the country and its people.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Ans . The study of agriculture is called Agricultural science.

Ans . The green revolution is related to agricultural production.

Ans . The title of “Father of the Green Revolution in India” is given to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.

Ans . The Methane gas is released from the paddy fields.

Ans . The agricultural sector is called the backbone of the Indian economy?

Ans . The first Agricultural University of India was established in Pantnagar that is now in Uttrakhand.

Ans . Grey Revolution is related to the production of fertilizers.

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• Essay On Agriculture

Essay on Agriculture

500+ words essay on agriculture.

In India, agriculture is considered a primary livelihood for most of the population, which can never be underestimated. Agriculture has existed for thousands of years in our country and has developed with new technologies and equipment that have replaced traditional farming methods. In India, few farmers still use the traditional farming method because they lack the resources to use modern techniques. Agriculture is the only sector that contributes to itself and other country sectors. India is the second-largest wheat, rice, cotton, fruit, vegetables, and tea producer. It is also a global powerhouse of agricultural production. It is the world’s largest producer of spices, milk, wheat, rice and cotton.

Role of Agricultural in Economic Development

The population of India largely depends on agriculture, and it is not only just a means of livelihood but a way of living. The Government of India is continuously developing the agricultural sector by framing new laws, implementing modern technology, etc. In India, the entire nation depends on agriculture for food. In earlier times, agriculture was mainly dependent on the monsoon, but dams, canals, pump sets, and tube wells are now being constructed.

Agriculture plays a crucial role in the economic development of India as 3/4th of the population is based on agriculture. It is one of the largest sources of livelihood for the country. The country was dependent on agriculture for a thousand years.

The agricultural sector also benefits the industries in getting their raw materials, which clearly states that a large part of the economy will freeze without a flourishing agriculture sector. It leads to the expansion of the industrial sector. Indian agriculture provides employment opportunities to most people, and 70% of the population, especially in rural areas, earn their livelihood from cultivation.

In India, agriculture plays an imperative role in enhancing foreign exchange. To other nations, India exports commodities such as coffee, spices, tea, vegetables, tobacco, etc. Agriculture contributes to Indian exports. With the invention of organic farming, exports have also increased in the last few decades.

Agriculture is the Indian economy’s most important sector, and India’s farm sector is the largest industry. With constant changes and developments happening and introduced policies, it will only go upwards. It will always remain a significant factor in the nation’s economic growth.

An essay on Agriculture is crucial that can be asked during the exam. Students can also access CBSE Essays from our BYJU’S website.

Frequently Asked Questions on Agriculture Essay

Where was agriculture originally developed.

Agriculture was developed in modern-day Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, parts of Turkey and Iran which was also known as the Fertile Crescent.

What are the main types of agriculture?

The four main types of agricultural activities include livestock production, crop production, agricultural economics and agricultural engineering.

What are agricultural methods which are famous in India?

The majority of Indian farmers practice subsistence farming which involves the cultivation of crops on small pieces of land.

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The Development of Agriculture

The development of agricultural about 12,000 years ago changed the way humans lived. They switched from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to permanent settlements and farming.

Social Studies, World History

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The Farming Revolution Taking root around 12,000 years ago, agriculture triggered such a change in society and the way in which people lived that its development has been dubbed the “ Neolithic Revolution.” Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles, followed by humans since their evolution, were swept aside in favor of permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Out of agriculture, cities and civilizations grew, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet demand, the global population rocketed—from some five million people 10,000 years ago, to eight billion today.

There was no single factor, or combination of factors, that led people to take up farming in different parts of the world. In the Near East , for example, it’s thought that climatic changes at the end of the last ice age brought seasonal conditions that favored annual plants like wild cereals . Elsewhere, such as in East Asia, increased pressure on natural food resources may have forced people to find homegrown solutions. But whatever the reasons for its independent origins, farming sowed the seeds for the modern age.

Plant Domestication

The wild progenitors of crops including wheat ( Triticum aestivum ), barley ( Hordeum vulgare ), and peas ( Lathyrus oleraceus ) are traced to the Near East region. Cereals were grown in Syria as long as 9,000 years ago, while figs ( Ficus carica ) were cultivated even earlier; prehistoric seedless fruits discovered in the Jordan Valley suggest fig trees were being planted some 11,300 years ago. Though the transition from wild harvesting was gradual, the switch from a nomadic to a settled way of life is marked by the appearance of early Neolithic villages with homes equipped with grinding stones for processing grain.

The origins of rice and millet farming date to the same Neolithic period in China. The world’s oldest known rice paddy fields, discovered in eastern China in 2007, reveal evidence of ancient cultivation techniques such as flood and fire control.

In Mexico, squash cultivation began around 10,000 years ago, but corn ( maize ) had to wait for natural genetic mutations to be selected for in its wild ancestor, teosinte. While maize -like plants derived from teosinte appear to have been cultivated at least 9,000 years ago, the first directly dated corn cob dates only to around 5,500 years ago.

Corn later reached North America, where cultivated sunflowers ( Helianthus annuus ) also started to bloom some 5,000 years ago. This is also when potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) growing in the Andes region of South America began.

Farmed Animals

Cattle ( Bos taurus ), goats ( Capra hircus ), sheep ( Ovis aries ), and pigs ( Sus domesticus ) all have their origins as farmed animals in the so-called Fertile Crescent , a region covering eastern Turkey, Iraq, and southwestern Iran. This region kick-started the Neolithic Revolution. Dates for the domestication of these animals range from between 13,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Genetic studies show that goats and other livestock accompanied the westward spread of agriculture into Europe, helping to revolutionize Stone Age society. While the extent to which farmers themselves migrated west remains a subject of debate, the dramatic impact of dairy farming on Europeans is clearly stamped in their DNA. Prior to the arrival of domestic cattle in Europe, prehistoric populations weren’t able to stomach raw cow milk. But at some point during the spread of farming into southeastern Europe, a mutation occurred for lactose tolerance that increased in frequency through natural selection thanks to the nourishing benefits of milk. Judging from the prevalence of the milk-drinking gene in Europeans today—as high as 90 percent in populations of northern countries such as Sweden—the vast majority are descended from cow herders.

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Essay on Agriculture: Short Essay, 100 and 250 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 7, 2023

Agriculture is one of the major sectors in India that provide livelihood to the people. The majority of the Indian population depends on agriculture as it is the major source of income and contributes to around 18.3% of India’s GDP. It provides food, raw materials, and employment to billions of people across the world. As common people, most of us anticipate that agriculture is just the cultivation of crops. However, it is much more than that, it includes fishery , livestock, forestry , and crop production . It is the backbone of the civilization. Read this blog and get to know how to write an essay on agriculture with the help of examples!

Table of Contents

• 1 Short Essay on Agriculture
• 2 Essay on Agriculture 100 Words
• 3.1 Significance of Agriculture
• 3.2 Challenges for Agriculture
• 3.3 Sustainable agriculture

Also Read: English Essay Topics

Also Read: How to Write an Essay in English

Also Read: Speech on Republic Day for Class 12th

Short Essay on Agriculture

India is also referred to as agricultural land because a major part of India is covered by agricultural activities. The entire world has been practising agriculture for thousands of years from the nomadic times to date. 

Agriculture started during the Neolithic Revolution for the production of food. Nowadays, the scenario has been completely changed with the application of AI tools and Machinery in the world of Agriculture. New technologies and equipment are being developed to replace the traditional methods of farming. Some of the AI technologies are integrated sensors, weathering forecasting, IoT-powered agriculture drones, smart spraying, etc. 

Millions of people across the world depend on agriculture, even animals are also dependent on agriculture for their fodder and habitat. Besides that, agriculture also plays a key role in the economic development of the country because 3/4th of the population depends on agriculture.

Also Read: Agriculture and Animal Husbandry 

Essay on Agriculture 100 Words

Agriculture is the main source of life on earth. Animals and humans depend on agriculture for a living. It is the oldest practice in the history of mankind. There has been tremendous growth and evolution in the field of agriculture.

The use of AI-based technology and modern techniques in farming is helping the sector to generate high yields with better quality. 

Now, our country is able to produce surplus food crops which is enough to satisfy domestic needs. It also helps to eradicate malnutrition and address hunger issues in various parts of the world. Thus, agriculture will always remain the cornerstone of human existence and continue to fulfil the demands of the changing world.

Also Read: Essay on Population Explosion

Essay on Agriculture 250 Words

Agriculture can be termed as the global powerhouse of the world. It is feeding billions of people across the world. Every individual directly or indirectly depends on agriculture.

Significance of Agriculture

The significance of agriculture is listed below:

• The food we consume is a gift of the agriculture sector. Farmers are working day and night to cultivate food crops for the entire human population.
• It also adds value to the Gross Domestic Product as well as the national income of the country.
• As it is one of the largest sectors, there is a huge need for a labor force and employees. Thus, it imparts employment to 80% of the people in this world.
• 70% of the total food crop production of India is used for the purpose of exports. Some of the main items of export are rice, spices, wheat, cotton, tea, tobacco, jute products, and many more.

Challenges for Agriculture

Every year, the agriculture sector has to face difficult challenges. It includes harsh weather conditions be it drought or flood or extreme heat waves and cold breezes. Soil degradation is also one of the major threats to agriculture due to soil erosion and soil pollution. All these conditions create the need to generate sustainable practices in the agriculture sector.

Sustainable agriculture

Advancement in technology helps to create sustainable agriculture. The use of technology in the field of agriculture like weather forecasts, automated sowing, drones, AI-driven sensors, pest control, etc. helps in developing sustainable agriculture.

Besides that, farmers are adopting new farming practices such as crop rotation reduced chemicals, organic farming, etc. for sustainable agriculture.

Also Read: Essay on Water Pollution

Related Articles:

• Essay on Water Pollution
• Essay on Winter Season
• Essay on Peacock
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• Essay on Air Pollution
• Essay in Deforestation
• Essay on Environmental Pollution

Agriculture is the process of cultivation of crops. Every individual is dependent on agriculture for food crops, and employment. The perfect essay on agriculture must include, what is agriculture, the importance, and the significance of agriculture.

Here are 5 main points about agriculture: Agriculture is the source of food and fodder for the world; It is one of the oldest human practices that date back thousands of years; Agriculture is essential for the breeding and raising of livestock; The incorporation of modern techniques in farming helped in the evolution of the agriculture sector; and Agriculture contributes to the economy of the nation.

Agriculture refers to the science, art, or practice of cultivating crops, raising livestock, and marketing the finished products for the use of human consumption while contributing to the economy of the country.

This was all about an essay on the principle of population. For more information about such interesting topics, visit our essay writing website and make sure to follow Leverage Edu .

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Hi, I am Kajal, a pharmacy graduate, currently pursuing management and is an experienced content writer. I have 2-years of writing experience in Ed-tech (digital marketing) company. I am passionate towards writing blogs and am on the path of discovering true potential professionally in the field of content marketing. I am engaged in writing creative content for students which is simple yet creative and engaging and leaves an impact on the reader's mind.

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Essay on Agriculture and Rural Development

Today, urbanization has made people from rural areas to shift to cities and towns, for better opportunities and facilities. This trend isn’t specific to a particular region of the globe, but is witnessed almost in every country. Despite this huge population shift from rural to urban centers, agriculture has remained a significant source of income and livelihood for one-third of the world population. Agriculture, at the grass root level functions as a family run business, by the farmers. Nearly 70-80% of total world’s poor people rely on agriculture for livelihood, including the farmers. Hence, the role that agriculture plays in Rural Development is significant.

Long and Short Essay on Agriculture and Rural Development in English

We have given below Short and Long Essay on Agriculture and Rural Development in English under varying word lengths.

After reading these short and long agriculture and rural development essay, you will know what role does agriculture plays in rural development, the world statistics on agriculture; facts and figures around the world; what role does agriculture plays in economy; importance/significance of agriculture; components of rural development; Indian statistics on agriculture and rural development; steps taken by the government of India for rural development etc.

These Agriculture and Rural Development essays are especially beneficial for the students of senior secondary level and help them in essay writing, debate or other competitions.

Agriculture and Rural Development Essay – 1 (200 Words)

Nearly 45% of the total world population resides in villages, that is roughly 339 Crores. By and large, nearly 60% of the global population depends on agriculture and allied businesses. Villages primarily are agriculture based economies, not only in developing but also in developed nations around the world.

Development in rural areas, up to a large extent depends on Agriculture, as it constitutes the prime source of livelihood and food for farmers and other villagers. But, the statement also hold true, the other way round, that is agricultural in a village also depends hugely on the infrastructure developments and scientific advancements in farming.

That is, better roads, 24/7 dedicated electricity supply for farms, irrigation canals, introduction of modern farming technologies are some of the areas of rural development which in turn will mutually benefit the agriculture industry.

Agriculture and Rural Development are directly proportional to each other and a development in any one will consequently lead to the improvement of other. On the other hand a poor state of any one of them will adversely affect the other.

Agricultural economy of a village will suffer in absence of good roads and electricity, hence, stalling the overall economical as well as social development of a village.

Agriculture and Rural Development Essay – 2 (300 Words)

Introduction

Agriculture plays a significant role in rural development by way of employment creation, food production and livelihood. Almost 60% of world’s population i.e. 450 Crores (roughly) depends directly on agriculture and its allied sectors for their living. Agriculture plays a significant role in rural development by making the villages self sustainable. With better agriculture yield and growth prospects in a village, development is evidently the next natural thing to happen.

World Statistics of Agriculture

Agriculture is an industry which has the potential to end poverty and misery around the world. A little more than half of the world’s population i.e. 450 Crores depends on agriculture for livelihood. Studies reveal that agriculture is the prime source of income for 65% of the world’s poor adult population. Also, agriculture contributes to 6.4% of world’s total economic production, which roughly sums up to $5,084,800 million.

On the contrary, despite such huge potential of agriculture in improving economy and eliminating poverty, rural population in most parts of the world faces slow social and economic development. The farmers, who provide food for almost the entire world population has very low or no access to modern amenities as in urban centers. They considerably lag behind in education, health and other sectors.

Nearly 80% of population in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa that also supports the livelihood of 2.5 billion people, face economic and social marginalization.

Agriculture and Rural Development are two different aspects, yet they are also co-related. While agriculture hugely contributes in sustaining rural economy and strengthening its social structure, reducing poverty etc; rural development on the other hand, includes the developments in agriculture sector as well as other sectors like, health, education, roads, industrialization and others. Agriculture sector is obviously benefited by infrastructure development, because of better accessibility to markets and urban trade centers.

Agriculture and Rural Development Essay – 3 (400 Words)

Agriculture sector has a huge potential for transforming rural economy by making it, self sustainable. Growth in agriculture produces consequently leads to economical development and poverty eradication. It makes the village economy self sustainable; however, the overall development of a rural area depends on wide number of factors other than agriculture. The two however are closely co-related in some aspects as we will know in the following essay.

Facts and Figures

Approximately 45% of World’s population lives in rural areas, that is in terms of numbers 3.4 billion people. Also, nearly 2 billion people have agriculture as their primary source of income. Agriculture sector also employs nearly 866 million people across the globe. Out of which, approx 75% (656 million) are in south-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Around 80% of world food is produced by over 500 million farms run by a family.

Agriculture and Rural Economy

Agriculture is an integral part of many world economies, especially the developing ones, and hence plays a significant role in rural development. It helps the villages to be self reliant by creating new job opportunities, eradicating poverty and improving rural society.

Economic development of a rural area primarily depends on the state of agriculture in that particular area. A decline in agriculture produce will adversely affect the economy. However, over dependency of rural areas on agriculture and allied sectors for employment generation is also a challenge for rural economy.

Though, agriculture is self reliable, it is also vulnerable to natural calamities like drought, flood, storms and pollution. A year of unexpected less rain or drought could put the whole village economy on back foot in terms of economy.

The challenge is therefore to make rural economy more independent of agriculture, by introducing sectors like fish farming, honey bee farming etc.

Agriculture plays a great role in overall development of rural areas; though, it is not the only factor on which rural development depends. Overall rural development includes development in agriculture along with other sectors, like development in education, health facilities, transportation, basic amenities like water and electricity, proper infrastructure etc. There is no doubt that the development in terms of infrastructure, water and electricity will support agriculture sector and hence the village economy.

Agriculture and Rural Development Essay – 4 (500 Words)

Agriculture sector around the world is a major player in sustaining rural economy and development. It is the largest employer in rural areas and hugely contributes in its overall development. Nearly 80% of world population depends on agriculture for its livelihood by supplying food to the rest of the world. Rural development and agriculture are also co-related in more than one way, as we will find out in the following essay.

Significance of Agriculture

The contribution of agriculture in improving rural economy is immense. It sustains village economy by generating food, employment and other related means of livelihood. Agriculture sector is the huge employment provider in rural areas. It provides employment to daily wage labours as well as skilled work force in fields as well as other agriculture related activities.

Agriculture sector is also a mass producer of food, necessary for sustaining human nutritional needs. With low yield or declining agricultural activities, signs of hunger and malnutrition start showing up within no time.

Components of Rural Development

Social, economic and overall development of a rural area depends on a wide number of factors like agriculture, better planning, employment generation etc. We will discuss in brief some of the chief components of rural development below-

1) Employment Generation

Employment Creation is the main component of rural development. Though, in rural areas, agriculture sector is the largest employer. Therefore, to generate employment opportunities in villages, there is a need to strengthen agriculture sector and also setup other industries.

2) Better Planning

Better planning must be done by the government, to boost up local economy of a village by employing development model conducive to its growth. A village economy largely depends on agriculture and hence any positive changes made in the latter will automatically improve the state of former.

3) Better Roads

Better road connectivity is a major sign of rural development which also improves the agriculture sector. Better roads and connectivity to urban trade centers mean that the farm produces reach the market early and fetch good price, hence, aiding in agricultural economy as well.

4) Modern Techniques

Introducing modern techniques in agriculture and allied industries will automatically improve the overall development of villages. Using genetically modified seeds and organic fertilizers for better yield will consequently lead to overall development of rural areas.

5) Basic Amenities

Availability of basic amenities like water and electricity is also a major component of rural development. It also improves crop yield by ensuring that the field never run dry even when the natural rain is scarce. Similarly, continuous electricity supply is also beneficial for agriculture.

Agriculture and Rural Development are the backbones of the economy of a nation. This becomes more befitting in case of developing and underdeveloped economies of the world. In an agrarian economy, the more better the state of agriculture is the better will be the development around rural areas. On the other hand, rural development in terms of infrastructure and other sectors creates an environment conducive to the growth of agriculture sector.

Agriculture and Rural Development Long Essay – 5 (600 Words)

India is primarily an agriculture based economy and a large portion of its population still resides in villages. Therefore, for developing rural India, it is imperative to develop the agriculture sector by introducing new reforms and policies. In the following essay we will go through the state of agriculture and rural development in India, discussing prospects of their improvement.

Agriculture Statistics – India

Nearly 75% of India’s total population (133 Crores) depends primarily on agriculture sector for its livelihood, which roughly sums up to approximately 100.4 Crores people. Agriculture sector in India contributes around 16% of the total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of India. It is only in third place preceded by service sector and industrial sector at first and third place respectively. Indian economy is the fastest growing economy of the world and is expected to consistently improve.

Role of Agriculture in Economy

Agriculture sector is one of the primary sectors of the Indian economy. Though, the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) contribution of agriculture has consistently declined in past six to seven decades, it still employs nearly 53% of Indian population.

Agriculture also plays a significant role in making the village economy self sustainable and independent. Rural India is still far away from industrialization and the prime source of employment for rural people is the agriculture sector.

Agriculture sector therefore is the main player in Indian economy as it sustains not only farmers but also other small businesses and vendors those rely on it. Agricultural produces are transported to markets, in turn providing employment in transport sector.

While the products breach markets, small vegetable vendors, shop keepers purchase the products for direct selling, thereby generating tremendous employment opportunities. Needless to say that agriculture sector employs skilled and unskilled labours at all levels and in all allied sectors.

Initiatives for Rural Development

1) Five Year Plan

Beginning in 1951, the Government of India has been framing and implementing five year plan, after every five year, to improve the overall development of the country, primarily in the rural areas. Under the five year plan dams had been built, irrigation canals constructed, agricultural reforms introduced etc.

2) Increased Budgetary Allocations for Agriculture

Government has in the subsequent years increased spending on agriculture and related sectors in a bid to make them independent and self reliant. The money is spent on improving agriculture sector right from the production stage to marketing stage.

3) Road Connectivity

Good roads are the most significant symbols of rural development and also the most important one. They not only reduce the distance between villages and cities but also boost up the agricultural industry by providing fast and easy transportation.

4) Giving Agricultural Credit

Giving agricultural loans at reasonable rates to small and poor farmers will also aid in rural development. When a poor farmer is given credit to purchase fertilizers, farm equipments etc, it will consequently improve village economy and development.

5) Rural Job Guarantee Schemes

Rural job guarantee schemes like MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) which guarantees job on daily basis to rural population do a commendable job in improving the village economy. It provides job not only in agriculture sector but also in other fields such as road and building construction etc.

Indian economy is largely dependent on agriculture, while the latter depends on rural development. It is also true that economic and social development of Indian villages is primarily dependent on agriculture sector. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to see agriculture and rural developments as two sides of one coin, where one depends on or is affected by changes in other.

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Essay on Agriculture in English for Children and Students

Table of Contents

Essay on Agriculture in English for Children and Students: Agriculture is known to be one of the most significant economic activities. It involves the production of plants, livestock, fiber, fuel and more by utilizing natural resources such as water and land. The term agriculture is broader than it is commonly anticipated to be. It includes forestry, fishery, livestock and most importantly crop production. Agriculture sector is also one of the largest employers across the world, mainly in developing and under developed nations. Millions of people around the world, directly or indirectly depend on agriculture sector for their livelihood. It is an activity which provides our everyday requirement of food, vegetables, fruits, spices etc.

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Long and Short Essay on Agriculture in English

Here are essay on agriculture in English of varying lengths to help you with the topic in the exam.

These Agriculture Essays will let you understand the meaning of “agriculture” and the significant role it plays in the overall economic growth and prosperity of a nation.

After going through the following Agriculture essay you will be able to understand the advantages of agriculture.

These essays will be helpful during several of your school assignments. You can select any agriculture essay as per your need and interest.

Agriculture Essay 1 (200 words)

Introduction

Agriculture is basically the cultivation of plants for the production of food, fuel, fiber, medicines and many other things that have become a necessity for the mankind. Agriculture also involves the breeding of animals. The development of agriculture turned to be a boon for the human civilization as it also gave way to their development.

Agriculture is said to be an art, science and commerce all at the same time as it suffices the factors involved in all three.

It is said to be an art as it involves the growth, development and management of crop and animal husbandry. It requires patience and dedication to yield good results in this field and only someone who possesses this art can achieve it.

The knowledge of breeding and genetics is employed to come up with new improved methods of agriculture. Several inventions and explorations are being made in the field. It is ever evolving and thus qualifies as science.

Agriculture supports the economy like no other sector and thus undoubtedly falls in this category too.

With around two-third of the Indian population dependent directly or indirectly on agriculture, it is considered to be the basis of the country’s economic development. It is not just known to be a source of livelihood in India but a way of life.

Agriculture Essay 2 (300 words)

The term agriculture comes from the Latin word ager which means field and cultura that means cultivation. Agriculture basically involves the cultivation and production of crops and livestock products.

History of Agriculture

The history of agriculture dates back several centuries. It began in different parts of the world independently about 105,000 years back mostly by the collection of wild grains for the purpose of eating. Here is how different countries were involved in this activity:

• In Mesopotamia, pigs domesticated around 15,000 years ago. They began domesticating sheep around 2000 years later.
• In China, rice cultivated around 13,500 years ago. They eventually began cultivating soy, azuki beans and mung.
• In Turkey, cattle domesticated around 10,500 years ago.
• Beans, potato, coca, llamas and alpacas domesticated around 10,000 years ago.
• Sugarcane and certain root vegetables were cultivated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago.
• Cotton was domesticated in Peru around 5,600 years ago.

Similarly, the domestication of various plants and animals is being done in many other parts of the country since thousands of years.

Impact of Modern Technology on Agriculture

The development in the field of science and technology led to the use of modern techniques in agriculture. While it has contributed a great deal to the development of the agriculture sector, the modern technology has also had certain negative repercussions on the sector. Here is the kind of impact it has had:

• The use of fertilizers and pesticides as well as the use of technologically advanced equipments for the cultivation of crops has increased the yields drastically however it has also been the cause of ecological damage and impacted the human health negatively.
• Selective breeding and the use of other modern practices in the rearing of animals has increased the supply of meat however it has raised the concern about animal welfare.

Like every other sector, the agricultural sector has also evolved over the centuries and its development has brought about certain positive and negative repercussions to the society.

Agriculture Essay 3 (400 words)

Agriculture is a vast subject. It encompasses the production of crops, animal husbandry, soil science, horticulture, dairy science, extension education, entomology, agriculture chemistry, agri engineering, agri economics, plant pathology and botany. These subjects taught in various universities across the world to train people in the field.

Different Kinds of Farming

Here is a look at how the agricultural field has broadly categorized in our country:

Subsistence Farming

One of the most widely practiced technique of farming in India. Under this type of farming, the farmers grow grains for themselves as well as for the purpose of sale.

Commercial Agriculture

This type of agriculture focuses on high yield with the aim to export it to other countries to generate profit. Some of the commonly grown commercial crops in the country include cotton, wheat and sugarcane.

Shifting Agriculture

This type of farming majorly practiced by tribal groups to grow root crops. They mostly clear the forested area and grow crops there.

Extensive Agriculture

This is more common in the developed countries. However, it also practiced in certain parts of India. It focuses on the use of machinery to grow and raise crops.

Intensive Agriculture

This a common practice in densely populated areas of the country. It focused on generating maximizing output of the land by employing different techniques. A good amount of investment in terms of money and huge labour force required for this.

Plantation Agriculture

This type of agriculture involves the cultivation of crops that require a good amount of time and space for growing. Some of these crops include tea, rubber, coffee, cocoa, coconut, fruits and spices. This is mostly practiced in the states of Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala.

Wetland Farming

The areas that receive heavy rainfall well irrigated and these are apt for the farming of crops such as jute, rice and sugarcane.

Dry Land Farming

It practiced in desert-like areas such as the central and northwest India. Some of the crops grown in such areas are bajra, jowar and gram. This is because these crops require less water for growth.

With the advancement in technology, agriculture has come a long way. It not limited to just growing crops and rearing of cattle. It includes a whole lot of other subjects and someone who interested in getting into the agricultural field can choose to specialize in one.

Agriculture Essay 4 (500 words)

Agriculture basically involves the cultivation of crops and the domestication of animals for the purpose of generating food and other things necessary for the mankind. While it practiced since centuries, it evolved over the time and has become one of the major factors in the development of our country’s economy.

Significance of Agriculture

Here is a look at the significance of agriculture:

Major Source of Food

It goes without saying that the food we eat is a gift of the agricultural activities that take place in the country. The country seen times of acute food shortage before independence however the problem resolved with the advent of the green revolution in agriculture in the year 1969.

Major Contributor to National Income

Statistics reveal that, the national income from primary agricultural activities was about 59% in the year 1950-51. While it has come down eventually and reached around 24% about a decade back, the agricultural sector in India is still one of the major contributors to the national income.

Development of the Industrial Sector

Agriculture plays a major role in the development of the industrial sector by providing the raw material. Industries such as the cotton textiles, sugar, jute, oil, rubber and tobacco are majorly dependent on the agricultural sector.

Employment Opportunities

The agricultural sector offers numerous employment opportunities as a large labour force required for the smooth functioning of various agricultural activities. It does not only open a vast arena of direct employment opportunities but indirect as well. For instance, the agricultural products need to transported from one place to another and hence it supports the transport sector.

Boost in Foreign Trade

Foreign trade relies majorly on the agricultural sector. Agricultural exports form a good 70% of the total exports. India is an exporter of tea, tobacco, cotton textiles, jute products, sugar, spices and many other agricultural products.

Generation of Government Revenue

Excise duty on agro-based goods, land revenue and taxes on the sale of agricultural machinery make for a good source of government revenue.

Formation of Capital

The surplus income generated from agricultural activities can very well invested in banks for capital formation.

Agriculture: A hazardous Industry

While agricultural sector is of great importance to the country, we cannot deny the fact that is a hazardous industry. Farmers across the globe have a high risk of work related injuries. One of the common causes of agricultural injuries is tractor rollovers and other motor and machinery related accidents. Due to the nature of their job they are also prone to skin diseases, lung infections, noise-induced hearing problems, sun strokes as well as certain types of cancers. Those exposed to pesticides may have serious illnesses and might even have kids with birth defects.

However, that said, agriculture does play a significant part in the development of the human civilization as a whole. As Booker T. Washington said, “No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem”, agriculture sector is an integral part of the country.

Agriculture Essay 5 (600 words)

Agriculture is one sector that has been in place since thousands of years. It has developed over the years with the use of new equipments and techniques of farming and domestication. This is one sector that has not only seen immense growth but has also been the reason for growth of various other sectors.

The Growth and Development of Agricultural Sector

India is one such country which is largely dependent on the agricultural sector. Agriculture in India is not just a means of livelihood but a way of life. The government is continually making efforts to develop this sector. Let us learn how this sector has evolved with time.

Though agriculture is being practiced since centuries in India, it remained under developed for a pretty long time. We were unable to produce sufficient food for our people and foreign export was simply out of question. On the contrary, we had to purchase food grains from other countries. This was because agriculture in India depended on the monsoon.

In case, enough rain, the crops fertilized properly, when there wasn’t enough rain the crops just failed and most parts of the country were hit by famine. However, things changed with time. After independence, the government planned to bring about improvement in this sector.

With the use of technologically advanced equipment, good irrigation facilities and with specialized knowledge about the field things began improving. We soon started producing much more than we required and subsequently started exporting food grains and different agricultural products. Our agricultural sector is now stronger than that of many countries. India stands first in the production of groundnuts and tea and ranks second in the production of sugarcane, rice, jute and oil seeds across the globe.

However, we still have a long way to go and the government is making efforts in this direction.

Negative Repercussions of Agriculture on Environment

As much as it has helped in the development of the human civilization and the growth of the country’s economy, agriculture has also had certain negative repercussions on the people involved in this sector as well as the environment as a whole. Here are the negative repercussions of agriculture on environment:

• Agriculture has led to deforestation. Many forests cut to turn them into fields to cultivate crops. The negative impacts of deforestation and the need to control hidden from none.
• Not many of you may be aware that the building of watersheds and draining of water from the rivers for irrigation of fields leads to drier natural habitats.
• The runoff from the fields into the rivers and other water bodies results in that water getting poisoned owing to the use of excessive nutrients and insecticides.
• Topsoil depletion and groundwater contamination are some of the other issues that the agricultural activities have given way to.

Agriculture has thus impacted the soil and water resources negatively and this has had a major impact on the environment.

Agriculture also considered to be a hazardous occupation. Those involved in farming constantly exposed to different chemical based fertilizers and pesticides and the continual use of these can lead to several health hazards such as skin diseases, lung infections and certain other serious illnesses.

While agriculture given so much to our society, it comes with its own set of cons that cannot overlooked. While the government is doing so much to bring about growth and development in this field, it should also take measures to tackle the negative impact it is creating on the environment and those involved in the field.

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Essay on Agriculture and It’s Significance

Agriculture is the main occupation in India. Two-third of population is dependent on agriculture directly or indirectly.

It is not merely a source of livelihood but a way of life. It is the main source of food, fodder and fuel. It is the basic foundation of economic development.

Agriculture provides highest contribution to national income.

“Agriculture needed top most priority because the Govt. and the nation would both fail to succeed if agriculture could not be successful”

Literally speaking agriculture means the production of crops and live stock on a farm. Generally speaking, agriculture is cultivation of crops. In Economics, agriculture means cultivation of crops along with animal husbandry, poultry, dairy farming, fishing and even forestry.

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Agriculture is the back bone of our economy. Agriculture is important not only from economic point of view but has deep rooted influence on our social, political and cultural life. In the words of Jawahar Lal Nehru, “Agriculture needed top most priority because the Govt. and the nation would both fail to succeed if agriculture could not be successful”

The following points explain the significance of agriculture:

(i) Contribution to National Income:

Contribution to national income from agriculture, forests and other primary activities is 24%. In 1950-51 contribution of agricultural sector to national income was 59% and in 2004-05, it came down to 24.4%. Contribution of agricultural sector in national income is considerable. In rich countries the agriculture is quite developed but contribution is very little. In USA agriculture contributes only 2%. In under-developed countries like India, contribution of agriculture is national income was 27%.

(ii) Main source of Food:

Agriculture provides food for Nation. Before 1947, we had acute food shortage but after 1969 Green Revolution in agriculture has made us self sufficient in food production. In 2003-04, production of rice was 870 lakh metric tonnes and of wheat 721 lakh metric tonnes.

(iii) Agriculture and Industrial development:

For industrial development, agriculture plays active role. It provides essential raw materials to many industries like cotton textiles, jute, sugar, vegetables, oil, tinned food, Cigarettes and rubber etc.

(iv) Sources of Revenue:

Land revenue, excise duty on agro-based goods, taxes on production and sale of agricultural machinery forms a goods part of sources of Govt. Revenue.

(v) Source of Foreign trade:

Foreign trade is associated with agriculture. We export tea, tobacco, spices and coffee etc. Other agricultural exports include cotton, textiles, jute goods and sugar etc. So total share of agricultural exports becomes 70%.

(vi) Transport:

Means of transport are required for transporting food grains from farms to consumers and agricultural raw materials to markets and factories. Transport is also needed for taking chemical fertilizers, seeds, diesel and agricultural equipment from markets and factories to villages and farms.

(vii) Source of saving:

Green revolution has increased the production manifold and farmers become rich. The additional income earned by these farmers can be saved and invested in Banks.

(viii) Capital formation:

Agriculture also helps in capital formation. Surplus income from agriculture production can be invested in other sources like banks, shares etc. Use of tractors and harvesters increase capital formation.

(ix) International importance:

India ranks top position in production of groundnuts and sugarcane. It has second position in production of rice and staple cotton. It has third position in production of tobacco. Our agricultural universities are working as role model for other developing nations.

(x) Way of life:

Agriculture in India is not only a source of livelihood but has become a way life. Our fairs, festivals and customs are influenced by agriculture. In politics; too, agricultural community has say.

(xi) Effect on prices:

Sufficient production of food grains will bring stability in prices of food grains. This brings stability in cost of living and wages also. Agriculture influences the price level. So increased production of agriculture keeps the price stable.

(xii) Source of labour supply:

Agriculture is the main occupation in India. Majority of people live in villages. So labour force in various sectors like police, defence and industries is provided by villages disguised unemployment present in agricultural sector can be used as source of supply for other sectors.

(xiii) Economic development:

India is agricultural state. 71% people live in villages and most of these depend on agriculture. So development of agriculture gives boost is economy. Progress of industry, trade and transport is impossible without progress of agriculture. Stability of prices also depends on agriculture growth.

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• 8 Main Features of Indian Agriculture – Explained!
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America’s Young Farmers Are Burning Out. I Quit, Too

I n 2023, Scott Chang-Fleeman—a young farmer like me—put down his shovel. A post on his Instagram read, “Shao Shan Farm, in its current form, is going on indefinite hiatus.” From the outside, the burgeoning farm had the makeup of one that could stand the test of time. In reality, his experience of farm ownership was wrought with challenges.

A farmer in his late 20s, Chang-Fleeman started Shao Shan Farm in 2019 to reconnect with his roots and provide a source of locally grown heritage Asian vegetables to the Bay Area. He quickly secured a clientele and fan base—two of the greatest hurdles of starting a farm—and became the go-to for San Francisco’s high-end Asian eateries.

But after four years of creative pivots to withstand unexpected hurdles that included financial stress, severe drought, and a global pandemic, Chang-Fleeman made a choice that many young farmers are considering: to leave farming behind. Why he left and what could have kept him on the land are critical questions we must address if we are to have a sustainable and food-secure future.

The USDA Census of Agriculture reported that in 2017, nearly 1 in 4 of the 3.4 million agricultural producers in the US were new and beginning farmers. Many of these new farmers are doing exactly what it seems American agriculture needs: starting small farms. According to the most recent data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) in 2019 , farms with annual sales of less than $100,000 accounted for about 85% of all U.S. farms. And though not all of these small-scale farms are necessarily organic, small farms are more likely to grow a diversity of crop types, use methods that reduce negative impacts on the climate, increase carbon sequestration, and tend to be more resilient in the face of climate change.

Read More: How Extreme Weather Is Affecting Small Farmers Across the U.S.

There has been a growing interest among younger people in recent years in sustainable and organic farming practices, as well as in local food systems. This interest has led people in their 20s and 30s to enter into small-scale farming, particularly in niche markets such as organic produce, specialty crops, and direct-to-consumer sales.

As a result, both congressional Democrats and Republicans have maintained that encouraging young people to farm is of utmost importance in ensuring the stability of our food system. But getting young people into farming may not be the problem. Keeping them on the farm may be the hardest part.

I should know. I quit too.

Chang-Fleeman got his start in agriculture right out of college, where he spent several years working at the on-campus farm. As a third-generation Chinese American, he noticed a distinct lack of Asian vegetables at local farmers markets, particularly those that were grown organically, and suspected there would be a demand should a supply exist. He started trialing some varieties, and his suspicions were quickly affirmed when samples of his choy sum caught the attention of chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s, a contemporary Chinese eatery with a Michelin star in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Jew provided some seed funds for what was to become Shao Shan Farm in 2019.

During the first year running his farm, Chang-Fleeman focused his sales on his relationships with local restaurants, while attending some farmers' markets sales to supplement income. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, he lost all of his restaurant accounts overnight.

Like many farmers at that time, he pivoted to a CSA model, offering farm boxes that provide a household with an assortment of vegetables for the week.

“So literally over a night, I reworked my crop plan” he told me. “Just to get through that year, or through that season, not knowing how long [the pandemic was going to] last.”

As if a global pandemic wasn’t enough, in 2021, California entered a drought, and he lost the ability to irrigate his crops come mid-summer, which meant a hard stop for production.

“I was hoping to hit some sort of a rhythm, and every year felt a bit like starting from scratch,” Chang-Fleeman reflected.

Throughout farm ownership, he worked side jobs to compensate for the slow build of business income and the fact that he could only afford to pay himself a monthly salary of $2,000. He regularly worked 90 hours a week. At the same time, farm expenses were on the rise.

“The cost of our packaging went up like three times in one year and the cost of the produce didn't change,” he explained. “Our operating expenses went up like 30%, after COVID.”

In four short years, Chang-Fleeman experienced an avalanche of extenuating circumstances that would bring most farm businesses to their knees. But the thing that finally catalyzed the closing of his business was burnout. He relayed the experience of the exhaustion and stress building over time until he reached a breaking point. “If I don’t stop now, it’s going to kill me,” he recalled thinking.

Chang-Fleeman’s burnout reminded me of my own story. In the fall of 2018, I took what ended up being a two-month medical leave from an organic farm I managed in Northern California in order to try to try to resolve a set of weird symptoms that included dizzy spells and heart palpitations. If you know anything about farming, fall is not the time to be absent. It’s peak harvest time and the culmination of all of your work is underway. But as my medical anomaly continued to worsen, I came no closer to getting back to work. After many doctor visits, several trips to the specialist, a flurry of blood tests, and a week of heart monitoring, it took one Xanax to solve the mystery.

Read More: ‘ They’re Trying to Wipe Us Off the Map.’ Small American Farmers Are Nearing Extinction

The prolonged physical stress that I had been harboring at work had triggered the onset of panic disorder, a nervous system affliction that had led me into a near-chronic state of fight or flight mode, causing a swath of physical symptoms not typically associated with “anxiety.”

For me, this was a wake-up call. I turned to a slew of Western and naturopathic remedies to alleviate my symptoms, but ultimately, removing the stressors of farm management was the thing that allowed me to, mostly, reach a nervous system balance. Even still, six years later, I’m constantly navigating the ‘new normal’ of this diagnosis.

A pilot study conducted by agriculture researcher Josie Rudolphi and her colleagues in 2020 found that of 170 participants, approximately 71% met the criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. By comparison, in the US, an estimated 18% of adults experience an anxiety disorder. Rudolphi’s work indicates that these disorders maybe three times more prevalent in young farmer and rancher populations.

This rang true as I went from farm to farm trying to figure out what so often goes wrong in a new farm operation. Again and again mental health was a through-line. Collette Walsh, owner of a cut-flower operation in Braddock, PA, put it to me bluntly: "I usually get to a point in late August or early September, where there’s a week where I just cry.”

How can we build a farming economy that helps young farmers not only stay, but also thrive on the land? The Farm Bill , a federal package of legislation that provides funding for agricultural programs, is one route. As the reboot of the Farm Bill approaches, it’s a critical time to ask these questions and advocate for policies that support young farmers and the barriers they’re facing in maintaining a long-lasting career in agriculture.

Take for instance, Jac Wypler, Farmer Mental Health Director at the National Young Farmer Coalition (Young Farmers), who oversees the Northeast region’s Farmer and Rancher Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). The organization was established by the Farm Bill in 2018 to develop a service provider network for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers that was dedicated to mental well-being. Through the network of service providers she directs, called “Cultivemos,” Wypler and her colleagues utilize a multi-tiered approach to address mental health in farming spaces. Cultivemos partners provide direct support in moments of stress and crisis as well as peer-to-peer support spaces.

An expanded (and subsidized) program that scales efforts like Cultivemos to a size commensurate with the young work force is clearly needed. But it’s only part of the picture.

“While we believe that it is important to make sure that farms, farmers, and farmworkers are getting direct support around their mental health,” Wypler explained. “We need to alleviate what is causing them stress.” 

Cultivemos works to address the structural root causes of stress which can include climate change, land prices, and systemic racism, to name a few. They focus on communities that are disproportionately harmed by these structural root causes, specifically Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color. Finally, they seek to make this impact by regranting funding directly into the hands of these farmers.

“The way I think of regranting is that the USDA and these large institutions are the Mississippi River of funding.” Wypler says. “We’re trying to get the funding into these smaller rivers and tributaries to disperse these funds and shift that power dynamic and leadership dynamic.”

The next Farm Bill cycle will be critical in ensuring this work is continued. In November of 2023, lawmakers signed a stopgap funding bill that allows for a one-year extension on the 2018 Farm Bill. Lawmakers are currently in deliberations over the bill until September when it will be up for a vote. Young Farmers underscores the importance of the appropriations process, which is when program areas that are authorized in the farm bill are allocated funding.

Back-to-the-landism has waxed and waned throughout the last hundred years, booming in the pre-Depression years of the 1930s, dying in the war years and then storming back in the 60s and 70s. When my generation’s own farming revolution came along in the early 2000s, I was similarly swept up. I imagined when I chose to farm that the path would be lifelong. What I hadn’t accounted for, as a determined, starry-eyed changemaker, was the toll that a decade of farming through wildfires, evacuations, floods, power outages, and a global pandemic would take on my mental health.

Don’t get me wrong:  I was happy working hard with my two feet planted firmly on the land. In a better world I and people like Scott Chang-Fleeman would have kept getting our hands dirty, making an honest, if modest, living providing good and wholesome food in synch with the rhythms of the planet.

But to borrow a word from the world of ecology, being a young farmer in today’s economy is “unsustainable.” The numbers don’t work economically and, eventually, any mind trying to square this un-squarable circle is going to break. The economic, physical and mental challenges are all interconnected.

It’s hard to find an American, Republican or Democrat, red or blue state resident that doesn’t want more young hands on the land. We all rightly see agriculture as a pathway to personal fulfillment and a way to make our food supply healthier and more secure. But words and intentions can only do so much. We must answer these very real problems with very real subsidy.

If we don’t, my generation might be the last to think of going “back-to-the-land” as something actually worth doing.

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Essay On Agriculture – 10 Lines, Short And Long Essay For Kids

Key Points To Remember When Writing An Essay On Agriculture For Lower Primary Classes

10 lines on agriculture for kids, a paragraph on agriculture for kids, essay on indian agriculture for kids, long essay on agriculture for children, what will your child learn from the essay on agriculture.

Agriculture is one of the major sectors of the Indian economy, and the country. It has been present in the country for thousands of years. Children may have seen farms and fields while travelling from one place to another for a holiday or any other outing, but may not be familiar with what exactly agriculture means.

One effective way to teach them would be through an essay on agriculture in English. Through essay writing on this topic of agriculture for classes 1, 2 and 3, children will learn to gather facts and write them in their own words. Let us guide your child to write an essay on agriculture.

• Before you begin writing an essay on agriculture, keep the following points in mind:
• Gather some factual information on agriculture.
• Jot down your ideas in a well-organised sequence.
• Weave them into sentences and paragraphs to form a great essay.

For better understanding, you can refer to the following samples of essays that you can use to write a composition of your own.

An essay for classes 1 and 2 can be written in very simple language with accurate facts and ideas. Let us guide your child to write this essay with a few lines on agriculture with this example given below:

• Agriculture means the cultivation of crops for food and fodder.
• Agriculture plays a significant role in the Indian economy as the main source of food.
• Dairy, poultry, fisheries etc. come under animal husbandry, a sub-sector of agriculture.
• Scientific research and improved farming techniques helped India to achieve the Green revolution and attain a self-reliant status in terms of food production.
• India is the second-largest producer of wheat and paddy in the world.
• India is also the world’s largest exporter of spices, primarily exporting ginger, cardamom, curry powder, tamarind, fennel etc.
• Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of wheat and sugarcane in India.
• Climate change and pollution have adversely affected the quality and yield of agricultural produce.
• Climate change has led to a 1.5% decline in the Indian GDP.
• Agriculture is the prime source of food production, and any mistake in it can adversely affect the food supply and our normal course of life.

Let us write a small paragraph in English on Agriculture:

Agriculture is one of the most important aspects of everyone’s life. It is something that is necessary for the survival of each and every human being. It not only provides food and raw materials but also employment opportunities to a large proportion of the population. Along with being a necessity, it also helps in the economy of the country. Agriculture plays a very vital role in our life. Without agriculture, the existence of human beings is not possible as it is the main source of our food supply to sustain on the earth and it also helps to grow our economy across the world.

Essay for classes 1, 2 and 3 can be made more elaborate by expressing each idea in a few lines with details. Here is an example of a short essay on agriculture:

India largely depends on the agriculture sector. Besides, agriculture is not just a means of livelihood but a way of living life in India. For thousands of years, we have been practicing agriculture. After independence, we use to import food grains from other countries to fulfill our demand. But, after the green revolution, we became self-sufficient and started exporting our surplus to other countries.

We feel gratitude when we hear the word “agriculture”. Without agriculture, it is not possible to feed ourselves. Our farmers work so hard in the agriculture sector to feed us. They also help to prevent future attacks on us or our neighbouring country for food. Our farmers stand for us in any situation by giving food to the world.

Agriculture is a very important aspect of each and everyone’s life. It is impossible to feed human beings without the help of agriculture. There are many types of agriculture such as grain farming, shifting cultivation, dairy farming, etc. There are some bad impacts of agriculture on our environment such as manures and fertilizers causing pollution, soil losing its fertility and many more.

An essay for class 3 would require students to write a long composition with many facts and observations. Guide them to organise these ideas into sub-headings and paragraphs for a good layout.

What Is The Importance Of Agriculture In Our Lives?

Agriculture has a lot of importance in each and everyone’s life. From employment opportunities to trades to consuming the end products of agriculture, it impacts all our lives. It also maintains our ecosystem. It is impossible to feed human beings without the help of agriculture.

Types Of Agriculture

There are many types of agriculture as explained below:

• Grain Farming: The process of planting a variety of crops which is later harvested at the end of the season. The seeds of the crops are later refined for use. Grains are basically the seeds of the crops planted. In this farming, people from the same family can work on a small piece of land. Grain farming is done to provide food to animals and human beings.
• Shifting Cultivation:  this cultivation is shifted from one place to another. In this cultivation, farmers use a small piece of land for a temporary time and then leave it to abandon until and unless the land gets its fertility back naturally.
• Gardening and Fruit Farming: fruits and vegetables are produced on a large scale from a commercial point of view. It requires fewer resources and labourers as compared to grain farming and shifting cultivation.
• Pastoral Nomads: This is a kind of agriculture that is based on the herding of domesticated animals.
• Dairy Farming: Dairy farming is related to the prolonged production of milk. This procedure is done for producing products like sweets, chocolates, curd, cheese, etc.

What Is The Role Of Agriculture In Economic Development?

Agriculture plays a role in India’s economic development, for a continuous level of farm surplus is one of the wellsprings of technological and commercial growth. Industries too, depend on agriculture for raw materials. Expansion in the agriculture sector also leads to the expansion of the industrial sector. Also, when there is an increase in the agriculture sector, its production, more employment opportunities will also be generated.  Direct employment in crop raising, and agriculture expansion also provides work in the other sphere.

Problems Faced In Agriculture

Agriculture is the backbone of our economy yet, there are many problems that farmers in the agriculture sector are facing.

• Poor and outdated techniques
• Inadequate irrigation facilities
• Debt of the farmers
• Low adoption of improved technology
• Low Rate Of Innovation in Agriculture
• Rural transport and communication network

Negative Effects Of Agriculture On Environment

Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries. Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air and soil. They also can remain in the environment for generations.

When children compose an essay on agriculture, they learn a lot about a field of work that they may not have seen first-hand. They will learn many new facts and will understand the importance of the hard work of farmers in the hinterlands.

Writing on such a topic requires children to gather facts and present them in dramatically sound language with appropriate vocabulary. This improves the students’ communication skills and makes them analytical thinkers.

Essay On Gardening for Kids How to Write An Essay On Food for Children Climate Change Essay in English for Lower Primary Classes

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NPR's service to this aspirational mission was called in question this week, in two distinct ways. The first was a critique of the quality of our editorial process and the integrity of our journalists. The second was a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are.

Asking a question about whether we're living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions. Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.

It is deeply simplistic to assert that the diversity of America can be reduced to any particular set of beliefs, and faulty reasoning to infer that identity is determinative of one's thoughts or political leanings. Each of our colleagues are here because they are excellent, accomplished professionals with an intense commitment to our work: we are stronger because of the work we do together, and we owe each other our utmost respect. We fulfill our mission best when we look and sound like the country we serve.

NPR has some of the finest reporters, editors, and producers in journalism. Our reporting and programming is not only consistently recognized and rewarded for its quality, depth, and nuance; but at its best, it makes a profound difference in people's lives. Parents, patients, veterans, students, and so many more have directly benefited from the impact of our journalism. People come to work here because they want to report, and report deeply, in service to an informed public, and to do work that makes a difference.

This is the work of our people, and our people represent America, our irreducibly complex nation. Given the very real challenges of covering the myriad perspectives, motivations, and interests of a nation of more than 330 million very different people, we succeed through our diversity. This is a bedrock institutional commitment, hard-won, and hard-protected.

We recognize that this work is a public trust, one established by Congress more than 50 years ago with the creation of the public broadcasting system. In order to hold that trust, we owe it our continued, rigorous accountability. When we are asked questions about who we serve and how that influences our editorial choices, we should be prepared to respond. It takes great strength to be comfortable with turning the eye of journalistic accountability inwards, but we are a news organization built on a foundation of robust editorial standards and practices, well-constructed to withstand the hardest of gazes.

It is true that our audiences have unquestionably changed over the course of the past two decades. There is much to be proud of here: through difficult, focused work, we have earned new trust from younger, more diverse audiences, particularly in our digital experiences. These audiences constitute new generations of listeners, are more representative of America, and our changing patterns of listening, viewing, and reading.

At the same time, we've seen some concerning changes: the diffusion of drivetime, an audience skewing further away in age from the general population, and significant changes in political affiliations have all been reflected in the changing composition of our broadcast radio audiences. Of course, some of these changes are representative of trends outside our control — but we owe it to our mission and public interest mandate to ask, what levers do we hold?

A common quality of exceptional organizations is humility and the ability to learn. We owe it to our public interest mandate to ask ourselves: could we serve more people, from broader audiences across America? Years ago we began asking this question as part of our North Star work to earn the trust of new audiences. And more recently, this is why the organization has taken up the call of audience data, awareness, and research: so we can better understand who we are serving, and who we are not.

Our initial research has shown that curiosity is the unifying throughline for people who enjoy NPR's journalism and programming. Curiosity to know more, to learn, to experience, to change. This is a compelling insight, as curiosity only further expands the universe of who we might serve. It's a cross-cutting trait, pretty universal to all people, and found in just about every demographic in every part of the nation.

As an organization, we must invest in the resources that will allow us to be as curious as the audiences we serve, and expand our efforts to understand how to serve our nation better. We recently completed in-depth qualitative research with a wide range of listeners across the country, learning in detail what they think about NPR and how they view our journalism. Over the next two years we plan to conduct audience research across our entire portfolio of programming, in order to give ourselves the insight we need to extend the depth and breadth of our service to the American public.

It is also essential that we listen closely to the insights and experiences of our colleagues at our 248 Member organizations. Their presence across America is foundational to our mission: serving and engaging audiences that are as diverse as our nation: urban and rural, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, often together in one community.

We will begin by implementing an idea that has been proposed for some time: establishing quarterly NPR Network-wide editorial planning and review meetings, as a complement to our other channels for Member station engagement. These will serve as a venue for NPR newsroom leadership to hear directly from Member organization editorial leaders on how our journalism serves the needs of audiences in their communities, and a coordination mechanism for Network-wide editorial planning and newsgathering. We're starting right away: next week we plan to invite Members to join us for an initial scoping conversation.

And in the spirit of learning from our own work, we will introduce regular opportunities to connect what our research is telling us about our audiences to the practical application of how we're serving them. As part of the ongoing unification of our Content division, Interim Chief Content Officer, Edith Chapin, will establish a broad-based, rotating group that will meet monthly to review our coverage across all platforms. Some professions call this a retro, a braintrust, a 'crit,' or tuning session — this is an opportunity to take a break from the relentless pressure of the clock in order to reflect on how we're meeting our mandate, what we're catching and what we're missing, and learn from our colleagues in a climate of respectful, open-minded discussion.

The spirit of our founding newsroom and network was one of experimentation, creativity, and direct connection with our listeners across America. Our values are a direct outgrowth of this moment: the independence of a public trust, the responsibility to capture the voice and spirit of a nation, a willingness to push boundaries to tell the stories that matter. We're no strangers to change, continuously evolving as our network has grown, our programming has expanded, and our audiences have diversified — and as we look to a strategy that captures these values and opportunities, the future holds more change yet.

Two final thoughts on our mission:

I once heard missions like ours described as asymptotic — we can see our destination and we strive for it, but may never fully meet it. The value is in the continued effort: the challenge stretches on toward infinity and we follow, ever closer. Some people might find that exhausting. I suspect they don't work here. I suspect that you do because you find that challenge a means to constantly renew your work, and to reinfuse our mission with meaning as our audiences and world continues to change.

The strongest, most effective, and enduring missions are those that are owned far beyond the walls of their institution. Our staff, our Member stations, our donors, our listeners and readers, our ardent fans, even our loyal opposition all have a part to play: each of us come to the work because we believe in it, even as we each may have different perspectives on how we succeed. Every person I have met so far in my three weeks here has shown me how they live our mission every day, in their work and in their contributions to the community.

Continuing to uphold our excellence with confidence, having inclusive conversations that bridge perspectives, and learning more about the audiences we serve in order to continue to grow and thrive, adding more light to the illumination of who we are as a shared body public: I look forward to how we will do this work together.

Guidance on energy and macronutrients across the lifespan

In the long history of recommendations for nutritional intake, current research is trending toward the concept of "food as medicine" -- a philosophy in which food and nutrition are positioned within interventions to support health and wellness. In the paper -- "Guidance on Energy and Macronutrients Across the Lifespan" -- by Pennington Biomedical Research Center's Dr. Steven Heymsfield, he shares the latest clarity and recommendations in the rich and storied history of energy and macronutrient intake.

The research paper by Dr. Heymsfield and colleague Dr. Sue Shapses, Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University and Director of the Next Center at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health, was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine , showcasing recommendations with increased clarity for protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber and water intake at various stages in the human lifespan.

"Couple with the amount and pattern of the foods people eat, the primary macronutrients of protein, carbohydrates and fat can shape the major determinates of health throughout the lifespan," said Dr. Heymsfield, who is a professor of Metabolism & Body Composition at Pennington Biomedical. "Even considering the incredible diversity of traits and nutritional needs across the global population, we can potentially provide effective care for all patients, including the growing number of patients with diet-related diseases, so long as we recognize the subtle effects of the key macronutrients."

Throughout the research document, the authors frequently reference the original, historic research for which they are providing the latest incarnation and related knowledge. Focusing primarily on energy and three macronutrients -- protein, carbohydrates and fat, and their subsequent substrates -- amino acids, glucose and free fatty acids, the paper shows how these can fuel growth and maintenance throughout life. For optimal health, the study provides dietary reference intakes for the three micronutrients at various stages: 0 to 6 months, 7 months to slightly less than a year old, one year to three, four to eight years, nine to 13 years, 14 to 18 years, over 19 years, and then additional recommendations for pregnancy and lactation.

The research goes on to provide recommendations to patients and caregivers on healthy eating patterns consistent with the energy and macronutrient guidelines and includes an online calculator. While the energy requirements and variable needs for the three main macronutrients and multiple micronutrients vary across the nine life stage groups, there are overarching nutritional goals for patients when choosing healthy food patterns. A variety of healthy meal pattern examples are available, but reoccurring components feature the inclusion of vegetables of all types, whole fruits, fat-free or low-fat dairy, lean meats, seafood, eggs, beans, and nuts, plant- and seafood-based oils, and grains, with at least half of those being whole grains.

The need to incorporate the three main macronutrient groups and micronutrients into the diets of the various life stage groups is a matrix that is further complicated as varying financial resources, personal preferences, cultural backgrounds and ethnic food traditions are accounted for. The paper structures a priority framework, offering better insights into those diets that can be tailored for specific diet-related chronic conditions, such as obesity or type 2 diabetes.

"The legacy of research into dietary nutrition continues to refine what we know about our bodies and the capacity for a tailored diet, featuring key macronutrients to support our long-term health," said Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center. "Dr. Heymsfield's recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine is the latest contribution to this research history of contributing to the knowledge base, and further promotes the notion of 'food as medicine' -- delivering the potential to improve health across the lifespan with bespoke, nutrient-rich diets."

• Diet and Weight Loss
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Materials provided by Pennington Biomedical Research Center . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Steven B. Heymsfield, Sue A. Shapses. Guidance on Energy and Macronutrients across the Life Span . New England Journal of Medicine , 2024; 390 (14): 1299 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra2214275

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Hofstra University senior's D-Day essay earns him Normandy trip to mark 80 years since invasion

Hofstra University senior Dominick Pursino's winning essay, intertwining the 1944 D-Day invasion’s military significance with his family history, earned him a trip in June to Normandy, France for the 80th anniversary of the allied assault. Credit: Howard Schnapp

A Hofstra University senior has won the Museum of American Armor’s D-Day essay contest. His prize is a professionally guided tour that will put him on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, the 80th anniversary of the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Dominick Pursino, 22, of Commack, wrote an essay that intertwined the invasion’s military significance with his family history. Pursino's connection was indirect but powerful: His late grandmother had lived under Nazi occupation in Italy during World War II and heard about the Allied operation on the radio.

From her, Pursino wrote, he heard stories about the “synchronous stomping of the German troops in formation,” forced labor and severe punishments, and later, the chocolate handed out by American troops.

Had D-Day failed, he wrote, so might have the Allied war effort. His grandmother might never have immigrated to Brooklyn and suburban Long Island. Were it not for the soldiers on Normandy’s beaches, he wrote, “my existence on this planet would be extremely unlikely.”

Pursino, an education major who hopes to teach middle school social studies and special education, said in an interview that his grandmother, Christina D’Agostino — who died several years ago at 92 — was in her teens in 1941 when the Nazis appeared in her small hometown of Giovinazzo. They left in 1943. Pursino said D’Agostino was a professional artist who settled in Kings Park.

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U.S troops wade ashore at Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Credit: AP

He said he’d listened avidly to his grandmother’s stories about life under occupation: the strict rules, the curfews, the neighbors who sometimes disappeared. D-Day, when the Allies used 7,000 vessels to land 133,000 troops, of which more than 10,000 were either killed or wounded, is now considered a watershed moment in the war. But as it unfolded for Pursino’s grandmother, “it took a while for it to be deemed successful,” he recalled.

Leading up to his June Normandy trip, Pursino said he plans to read up on the history of World War II. His 10-day adventure will start in London “in the war rooms where they planned the whole campaign.” A ferry ride over the channel waters crossed by the troops will follow, then on to the beaches where the troops landed.

But it's the stories his grandmother told to him of her life and how the invasion changed it that Pursino hopes to one day tell his students.

“In history, you always learn about the big names, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But sometimes there are more interesting personal stories that can be taken from those who didn’t get representation in textbooks,” he said.

In an interview, Gary Lewi, a museum board member and one of the contest judges, said Pursino’s essay was chosen from roughly 100 entries. It “put together, in a very cogent way, the sacrifice of thousands of GIs on the beach and the liberation of a continent from a terror that is still unimaginable,” Lewi said. “It wasn’t just a recitation of statistics, how many ships, how many men, but the human dimension of what that sacrifice on June 6 meant to humanity.”

While Pursino is in Europe, the museum will commemorate D-Day with a ceremony at its Old Bethpage grounds, Lewi said. Scheduled to attend are British and French diplomats, military veterans, along with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine.

The ceremony will honor two Long Islanders killed in the invasion, Charles T. Byrnes and Sidney Dudgeon , Lewi said.

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.

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An NPR editor who wrote a critical essay on the company has resigned after being suspended

The Associated Press

April 17, 2024, 8:51 PM

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NEW YORK (AP) — A National Public Radio editor who wrote an essay criticizing his employer for promoting liberal views resigned on Wednesday, attacking NPR’s new CEO on the way out.

Uri Berliner, a senior editor on NPR’s business desk, posted his resignation letter on X, formerly Twitter, a day after it was revealed that he had been suspended for five days for violating company rules about outside work done without permission.

“I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems” written about in his essay, Berliner said in his resignation letter.

Katherine Maher, a former tech executive appointed in January as NPR’s chief executive, has been criticized by conservative activists for social media messages that disparaged former President Donald Trump. The messages predated her hiring at NPR.

NPR’s public relations chief said the organization does not comment on individual personnel matters.

The suspension and subsequent resignation highlight the delicate balance that many U.S. news organizations and their editorial employees face. On one hand, as journalists striving to produce unbiased news, they’re not supposed to comment on contentious public issues; on the other, many journalists consider it their duty to critique their own organizations’ approaches to journalism when needed.

In his essay , written for the online Free Press site, Berliner said NPR is dominated by liberals and no longer has an open-minded spirit. He traced the change to coverage of Trump’s presidency.

“There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed,” he wrote. “It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line.”

He said he’d brought up his concerns internally and no changes had been made, making him “a visible wrong-thinker at a place I love.”

In the essay’s wake, NPR top editorial executive, Edith Chapin, said leadership strongly disagreed with Berliner’s assessment of the outlet’s journalism and the way it went about its work.

It’s not clear what Berliner was referring to when he talked about disparagement by Maher. In a lengthy memo to staff members last week, she wrote: “Asking a question about whether we’re living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions. Questioning whether our people are serving their mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful and demeaning.”

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo revealed some of Maher’s past tweets after the essay was published. In one tweet, dated January 2018, Maher wrote that “Donald Trump is a racist.” A post just before the 2020 election pictured her in a Biden campaign hat.

In response, an NPR spokeswoman said Maher, years before she joined the radio network, was exercising her right to express herself. She is not involved in editorial decisions at NPR, the network said.

The issue is an example of what can happen when business executives, instead of journalists, are appointed to roles overseeing news organizations: they find themselves scrutinized for signs of bias in ways they hadn’t been before. Recently, NBC Universal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde has been criticized for service on paid corporate boards.

Maher is the former head of the Wikimedia Foundation. NPR’s own story about the 40-year-old executive’s appointment in January noted that she “has never worked directly in journalism or at a news organization.”

In his resignation letter, Berliner said that he did not support any efforts to strip NPR of public funding. “I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” he wrote.

David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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Guest Essay

The Fantasy of Reviving Nuclear Energy

By Stephanie Cooke

Ms. Cooke is a former editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly and the author of “In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age.”

World leaders are not unaware of the nuclear industry’s long history of failing to deliver on its promises, or of its weakening vital signs. Yet many continue to act as if a “nuclear renaissance” could be around the corner even though nuclear energy’s share of global electricity generation has fallen by almost half from its high of roughly 17 percent in 1996.

In search of that revival, representatives from more than 30 countries gathered in Brussels in March at a nuclear summit hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Belgian government. Thirty-four nations, including the United States and China, agreed “to work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy,” including extending the lifetime of existing reactors, building new nuclear power plants and deploying advanced reactors.

Yet even as they did so, there was an acknowledgment of the difficulty of their undertaking. “Nuclear technology can play an important role in the clean energy transition,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told summit attendees. But she added that “the reality today, in most markets, is a reality of a slow but steady decline in market share” for nuclear power.

The numbers underscore that downturn. Solar and wind power together began outperforming nuclear power globally in 2021, and that trend continues as nuclear staggers along. Solar alone added more than 400 gigawatts of capacity worldwide last year, two-thirds more than the previous year. That’s more than the roughly 375 gigawatts of combined capacity of the world’s 415 nuclear reactors, which remained relatively unchanged last year. At the same time, investment in energy storage technology is rapidly accelerating. In 2023, BloombergNEF reported that investors for the first time put more money into stationary energy storage than they did into nuclear.

Still, the drumbeat for nuclear power has become pronounced. At the United Nations climate conference in Dubai in December, the Biden administration persuaded two dozen countries to pledge to triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Those countries included allies of the United States with troubled nuclear programs, most notably France , Britain , Japan and South Korea , whose nuclear bureaucracies will be propped up by the declaration as well as the domestic nuclear industries they are trying to save.

“We are not making the argument to anybody that this is absolutely going to be a sweeping alternative to every other energy source,” John Kerry, the Biden administration climate envoy at the time, said. “But we know because the science and the reality of facts and evidence tell us that you can’t get to net zero 2050 without some nuclear.”

That view has gained traction with energy planners in Eastern Europe who see nuclear as a means of replacing coal, and several countries — including Canada, Sweden, Britain and France — are pushing to extend the operating lifetimes of existing nuclear plants or build new ones. Some see smaller or more “advanced” reactors as a means of providing electricity in remote areas or as a means of decarbonizing sectors such as heat, industry or transportation.

So far most of this remains in early stages, with only three nuclear reactors under construction in Western Europe, two in Britain and one in France, each more than a decade behind schedule. Of the approximately 54 other reactors under construction worldwide as of March, 23 are in China, seven are in India, and three are in Russia, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The total is less than a quarter of the 234 reactors under construction in the peak year of 1979, although 48 of those were later suspended or abandoned.

Even if you agree with Mr. Kerry’s argument, and many energy experts do not, pledging to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 is a little like promising to win the lottery. For the United States, it would mean adding an additional 200 gigawatts of nuclear operating capacity (almost double what the country has ever built) to the 100 gigawatts or so that now exists, generated by more than 90 commercial reactors that have been running an average of 42 years. Globally it would mean tripling the existing capacity built over the past 70 years in less than half that time in addition to replacing reactors that will shut down before 2050.

The Energy Department estimates the total cost of such an effort in the United States at roughly $700 billion. But David Schlissel , a director at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis , has calculated that the two new reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia — the only new reactors built in the United States in a generation — on average, cost $21.2 million per megawatt in today’s dollars — which translates to $21.2 billion per gigawatt. Using that figure as a yardstick, the cost of building 200 gigawatts of new capacity would be far higher: at least $4 trillion, or $6 trillion if you count the additional cost of replacing existing reactors as they age out.

For much less money and in less time, the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of renewables like solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal power, and by transmitting, storing and using electricity more efficiently. A recent analysis by the German Environment Agency examined multiple global climate scenarios in which Paris Climate Agreement targets are met, and it found that renewable energy “is the crucial and primary driver.”

The logic of this approach was attested to at the climate meeting in Dubai, where more than 120 countries signed a more realistic commitment to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

There’s a certain inevitability about the U.S. Energy Department’s latest push for more nuclear energy. The agency’s predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, brought us Atoms for Peace under Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s in a bid to develop the “peaceful” side of the atom, hoping it would gain public acceptance of an expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons while supplying electricity “too cheap to meter.”

Fast forward 70 years and you hear a variation on the same theme. Most notably, Ernest Moniz, the energy secretary under President Barack Obama, argues that a vibrant commercial nuclear sector is necessary to sustain U.S. influence in nuclear weapons nonproliferation efforts and global strategic stability. As a policy driver, this argument might explain in part why the government continues to push nuclear power as a climate solution, despite its enormous cost and lengthy delivery time.

China and Russia are conspicuously absent from the list of signatories to the Dubai pledge to triple nuclear power, although China signed the declaration in Brussels. China’s nuclear program is growing faster than that of any other country, and Russia dominates the global export market for reactors with projects in countries new to commercial nuclear energy, such as Turkey, Egypt and Bangladesh, as well as Iran.

Pledges and declarations on a global stage allow world leaders a platform to be seen to be doing something to address climate change even if, as is the case with nuclear, they lack the financing and infrastructure to succeed. But their support most likely means that substantial sums of money — much of it from taxpayers and ratepayers — will be wasted on perpetuating the fantasy that nuclear energy will make a difference in a meaningful time frame to slow global warming.

The U.S. government is already poised to spend billions of dollars building new small modular and “advanced” reactors and keeping aging large ones running. But two such small reactor projects based on conventional technologies have already failed. Which raises the question: Will future projects based on far more complex technologies be more viable? Money for such projects — provided mainly under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — could be redirected in ways that do more for the climate and do it faster, particularly if planned new nuclear projects fail to materialize.

There is already enough potential generation capacity in the United States seeking access to the grid to come close to achieving President Biden’s 2035 goal of a zero-carbon electricity sector, and 95 percent of it is solar, battery storage and wind. But these projects face a hugely constrained transmission system, regulatory and financial roadblocks and entrenched utility interests, enough to prevent many of them from ever providing electricity, according to a report released last year by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Even so, existing transmission capacity can be doubled by retrofitting transmission lines with advanced conductors, which would offer at least a partial way out of the gridlock for renewables, in addition to storage, localized distribution and improved management of supply and demand.

What’s missing are leaders willing to buck their own powerful nuclear bureaucracies and choose paths that are far cheaper, less dangerous and quicker to deploy. Without them we are doomed to more promises and wasteful spending by nuclear proponents who have repeatedly shown that they can talk but can’t deliver.

Stephanie Cooke is a former editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly and the author of “In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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