Agriculture is defined as the art, the science and the business of producing crops and the livestock for economic purposes.
*As an art, It embraces knowledge of the way to perform the operations of the farm in a skillful manner. The skills is categorized as:
a. Physical skill: It involves the ability and capacity to carry out the operation in an efficient way for e.g., handling of farm implements, animal etc. sowing of seeds, fertilizer and pesticides application etc.
b. Mental skill: For the farmer is able to take a decision based on experience such as (i) time and method of ploughing, (ii) selection of crop and cropping system to suit soil and climate, (iii) adopting improved farm practices etc.
*As a science: It utilizes all modern technologies developed on scientific principles such as crop improvement/breeding crop production, crop protection economics etc,, to maximize the yield and profit. For example, new crops and varieties developed by hybridization, transgenic crop varieties resistant to pests and diseases hybrids in each crop high fertilizer responsive varieties, water management, herbicides to control weeds, use of bio-control agents to combat pest and diseases etc.
*As a business : As long as agriculture is the way of life of the rural population, production is ultimately bound to consumption, But agriculture as a business aims at maximum net return through the management of land, labour water and capital, employing the knowledge of various sciences for production of food, feed, fibre and fuel, In recent years, agriculture is commercialized to run as a business through mechanization.
