Importance of Agriculture

Agriculture is one of the most important primary activities of man and it is the basis of food supply of the entire population of the world. Though the activity of agriculture is defined variously in different parts of the world, it most commonly includes raising of crops and animals. Being a primary activity, agriculture is very closely related the environmental conditions prevailing in an area. This activity can not be performed everywhere and the climatic and soil conditions are the most important factors influencing the development of this activity. Among climatic elements, temperature and moisture are the basic controls of plant growth. In very cold areas, the plants can not be grown and same is the case of very hot and dry regions. Similarly the animals can not tolerate very extreme conditions of climate. Then for the cultivation of plants a fairly fertile soil is also required. Therefore, the activity of agriculture can not be adopted in all parts of the world.

Perhaps the most important regions of the world from the point of view of the possibilities of development of agriculture are the tropical regions receiving a fairly large amount of precipitation. From the point of view of the soils, the areas of river valleys and deltas and the areas of grassland soils are the most important. Even within the tropical regions the zones of very high precipitation are not suitable for intensive agriculture as the soils in such regions tend to lose their fertility very soon. Within this zone the equatorial regions have also witnessed only limited development of this activity as the growth of weeds etc. in very humid and hot climates makes it difficult to protect the crops from the wild growth. In the high latitudes also the major problem is that of climatic controls as the temperatures remain low for most of the year round. Also, a flat terrain is necessary for the cultivation of crops. That is why it is the low-lying flat areas which have experienced the maximum development of farming. River valleys and deltas of Asia, prairies of North America, steppes of Eurasia and tropical moist regions of South America, Australia and Africa are the major areas of crop and animal farming.