The importance of agricultural practices was further established when ‘Organic food’ began as a small movement decades ago, with gardeners and farmers rejecting the use of conventional non-organic practices. With the growth of the Organic food market now outpacing much of the food industry, many big companies have ventured into it. With the emergence of multi-national companies, and with the creation of a legal certification framework such as the Soil Association, there is every doubt that the very definition of organic food will change, making it more of a commercial activity than ever before!

In fact, modern agriculture has already undergone a sea-change from the ancient times. Today, the importance of agriculture lies in the fact that it is practiced both for subsistence as well as commercial reasons!

The concept of ‘food security’ is fundamentally important, and for that reason, agriculture is important. The task of feeding its people has been perhaps the first priority of its rulers throughout history. As such, agriculture is considered to be the very basis of political and social stability of a nation since times immemorial.

Moreover, the agricultural sector plays an important role in the sphere of providing large scale employment to people. Large and moderately large farms employ workers to undertake the various jobs relating to cultivation of crops and care of farm animals. In most of the countries of the world, agriculture still remains the biggest sector responsible for the employing and feeding a large percentage of the population.

Agriculture is also important from the point of view of appraising the standard of a country’s development, based on the competence of its farmers. Poorly trained farmers cannot apply the advanced methods and new technologies. The prominence of science and technology in the development of agriculture is quite clear from the words of Deng Xiaoping – ‘The development of agriculture depends first on policy, and second on science. There is neither any limit to developments in science and technology, nor to the role that they can play in the field of agricultural growth’.

Why is agriculture important? Agriculture is a very important activity for the survival of human beings on this earth. This is clearly reflected in the very basic fact that agriculture is one of the oldest activities of humankind. The term ‘agriculture’ includes both the cultivation of crops and the domestication of animals.

As the most profound resource, agriculture provides food, clothing and shelter to us. With the spread of knowledge of the most advanced implements, there has been immense progress in the spread of agriculture, as well as agricultural output. The use of agricultural machinery, scientific methods of farming and diversification of crops have improved the overall production of agricultural crops the world over.