AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY by PRIYANKA A S

AN ASSIGNEMENT ON AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY
SUBMITTED TO PROF.JAYAMOHAN NAIR





SUBMITTED BY
PRIYANKA A S
1ST SEM MBA
ICM IMK
POOJAPPURA


Agriculture Industry
Agriculture industry is one of the world’s oldest and most important industry.It began to develop about 10000 years ago in the middle east.Soon after,the barbarians mastered the agriculture skill,they began to depend chiefly on farming for food.

The Agriculture Industry encircles a variety of procedures wherein natural resources give rise to a number of products. Agriculture Industry consists of different activities which include harvesting crops, plants, livestock feeding, grazing etc.

Agriculture Industry encompasses preparing the soil for optimum returns, improving crops, services relating to horticulture, landscaping services, veterinary services,managing labours or farmers etc.

Agriculture Industry is always seeking to improve, by adopting new technologies. The new technologies aim at improving the efficiency of various Agricultural based operations.

Biotechnology has assisted in improving the quality of crops manifold. But it depends on the choice of the consumers as consumers opt for natural food.
Survey carried out by Rice Producers of California, discovered that rice growers could be at a loss of around $200 million for producing rice ,despite the fact that transgenic rice is produced at a cheaper rate as compared to conventional rice.



There are some facts about the Agriculture Industry which can be enumerated as below:
• It is expected that there will be stabilization of the services of the Agriculture Industry in the next few years.
• Agriculture Industry has witnessed major conversion to dairy farming
Agriculture Industry is influenced by prices of commodities, the farmers provide and are also associated with products obtained as a result of farming. It comprises of the individuals producing dairy products, vegetables, wine,tobacco, fruits, mushrooms,eggs, products obtained as a result of forestry operations. It also includes the florists, greenhouses, aquaculture and nurseries. It is influenced by Weather conditions prevailing in a particular place. For instance, Southland is a place where crop production is highly affected by very moist weather. Agriculture Industry can be described as:
1. Value added customer food
2. Articles or Commodities
Articles or commodities make up only a small part of the Agriculture Industry. On the contrary, value added products are main products of Agriculture Industry and find a stake in the market sector.

Industry Leaders

Industry leaders are those brands, products or companies that have high dominance in the industry. Industry leaders have the largest percentage of market share with respect to overall sales revenues.
Characteristics of Industry Leaders
An industry leader has the following major characteristics:
Brand Awareness: This implies the degree to which a particular brand is recognized by customers. The brands of industry leaders are requested by customers most often when a specific product is to be purchased due to the brand’s ready acceptance and popularity.

Regulatory Advantages: Industry leaders push for various market-access regulations, which give them competitive regulatory advantages in the market. These regulations come in the form of patents and trademarks. The regulations are granted by the government or other regulatory agencies to prevent other firms from developing similar products or using similar processes in the business for a stipulated time frame. Industry leaders also combine their patents to create entry barriers and discourage entry of new firms in their target market.

First Mover Advantage: This implies the benefit of being the first firm to enter a market with a unique product or service. The first mover advantage of industry leaders enables them to create a brand name and acquire copyright protection. It also helps the industry leaders to maintain a loyal customer base due to the absence of proper substitutes.

Dominance: Industry leaders have high dominance in the market. This dominance can be of the following types:


• Monopoly: This is a market structure that has a large number of buyers but only one seller (industry leader). The monopolistic firm controls the demand and supply conditions in the market. In this market, there is an absence of perfect substitutes.
• Duopoly: This implies a market structure that has two industry leaders. These firms generally compete against each other to acquire higher market share. However, they might work in concert with each other to prevent entry of newer firms in the market.
• Oligopoly and Cartels: In an oligopolistic market, a small number of firms influence the behavior of the market in general and the industry in particular. This type of market has the features of both a monopoly and perfect competition. However, the industry leaders form cartels to fix prices or to limit individual productions to have monopoly in the market. Cartels are considered illegal in most nations.

Industry leaders are able to sustain their market dominance due to their image, distribution coverage, promotional expenditure and perceived value in the market.



Employment Outlook
Employment in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries is projected to decline 11 percent over the 2004-2014 period, even as overall demand for agricultural products increases. Low agricultural prices and increasing imports of lumber and fish will cause many workers to leave this industry. In addition, fishers face growing restrictions on where they can fish and how much they can harvest because many fisheries (fish habitats) have been depleted due to years of over fishing.
Numerous farms are expected to go out of business over the next decade because prices for many agricultural goods are low. The decline in employment will be fastest, at 21 percent, among self-employed and unpaid family workers, most of whom are farmers and their families. Employment of wage and salary workers is expected to decline by 5 percent compared with 14 percent growth for all industries combined.
Employment in forestry is also expected to decline as the sector moves towards greater mechanization, replacing many lower skilled workers with more machinery tended by a few operators. The best job opportunities will be for those forestry workers with more skills, such as technicians and foresters.
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Trends & Emerging Issues
Macro Trends
• World economic growth is projected to increase at a 3.2-percent average annual rate between 2006 and 2015.

• Strong economic growth in developing countries of about 5 percent annually is projected through 2015.

• Growth in global population is assumed to continue to slow, to an average of about 1.1% per year compared with an annual rate of 1.7% in the 1980s.

• From 2007 to 2010, real oil prices are projected to fall as new crude supplies help offset the rise in demand from Asia. In subsequent years, crude oil prices are projected to rise, but only slightly faster than the general inflation rate.

Market Trends
• Urban land amounted to 2.6% of total US land mass in 2002; (but contains 79% of the US population).

• The Renewable Fuel Program of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates renewable fuel use in gasoline (with credits for biodiesel) to reach 7.5 billion gallons by calendar year 2012, nearly double 2005's level.

Global Foresight, Inc. 2006 Report on Industry Trends Agriculture 2
• Consumer food prices are projected to rise less than the general inflation rate.

• Organic farming is one of the fastest-growing segments of U.S. agriculture, with organic food sales reaching $13.8 billion in 2005.

Forecasts
• Researchers have identified a gene that confers on rice crops the ability to survive extended submersion in water.

• The first drug from a transgenic animal may be nearing approval.

• Experiments in clothing made from a new fiber called Ingeo, derived from genetically engineered corn.

• ‘Vertical farms’ potentially offer sustainable production of a varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the reclamation of land that has been used for horizontal farming.

Resources
Associations:
Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP)
Biotechnology Industry Organization
National Association of State Departments of Agriculture

New Technologies, Industry Developments and Emission
Trends in Key Sectors: The Agricultural Sector
Contributions to Emissions
The agricultural sector (excluding land clearing) contributed around 20 per cent
net greenhouse gas emissions in 1996 (Commonwealth of Australia, 1998). The main sources of
these emissions were methane from the digestive systems of cattle and sheep and nitrous oxide
from soils (the latter in part associated with fertiliser use).
Vegetation clearance for agriculture is a further important contributor to Australia’s greenhouse
gas emissions. At present the current rate of land clearing for agriculture is in excess of the rate
of revegetation occurring in Australia., implying a net positive contribution to global warming
emissions.
The forestry sector also has an important influence on greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon
dioxide removal occurs as a result of increased vegetation and the expansion of production
forestry can be an important means of offsetting some of emissions enhancing effects of the
primary sector.
If we consider both food and non-food agriculture resulting from the advanced manipulation of
organisms (in particular), output from the agricultural sector is likely to increase over the next fifty years in both developed and developing countries. Higher production in the
agricultural sector will lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions, the extent of which is driven
largely by locational aspects of the diffusion of advanced information and materials technologies.
The associated effects on emissions are likely to be negligible in the developed world but large
in the developing countries, particularly in East and South Asia and Latin America.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agricultural Production
The National Greenhouse Strategy (Commonwealth of Australia, 1998) advocated the
incorporation of greenhouse considerations into agricultural management practices. It saw the
following issues being addressed.
1. The reduction of energy use in agricultural production through:
•The expanded use of precision farming;
•Increasing the use of renewable energy on farms;
•Introducing farm energy budgets;
•Re-using agricultural waste especially for on-farm applications;
•Accelerating the replacement of old machinery with newer more energy-efficient
equipment; and
•Enhancing the use of alternative fuels and the use of transport modes with low
emissions per tonne-kilometre of freight.
2. Conservation cropping, to be promoted by such practices as:
•Minimum tillage and controlled traffic;
•Significant reduction of cultivated/bare fallow;
•Direct drilling;
•Ley systems and crop rotations;
•Stubble retention;
•Strategic use of inorganic fertiliser and legumes; and
•Use of deep-rooted plants.
3. Improved animal husbandry:
Key management practices to be promoted are:
•Improved feed conversion efficiency through breeding and culling programs;
•Farm management practices such as supplementary feeding, herd health, improved
pastures and feedlotting;
•Farm management practices which promote stocking rates that minimise the risk of
degrading pasture cover, root material and soil carbon; and
•Consideration of alternative and new animal species for production.
4. Manure management and thus use of biogas and other technologies by intensive animal
industries.
5. The reduction of biomass burning and management practices which enhance soil
carbon, including:
•Adoption of green cane harvesting;
•Strategic native pasture management and practices including stocking strategies;
•Stubble mulching and conservation tillage practices in cropping industries;
•Increased strategic management of woody weeds; and
•Alternative use of crop residues (such as cane trash for mulch).
Increased efficiency in the production of animal products will reduce methane emissions,
especially from sheep and cattle. Specific government measures to promote this include
extension programs targeting rangeland systems and new animal waste processing systems for
intensive livestock holdings.
Agriculture and the Global Knowledge Economy
The emissions-reducing strategy outlined above forms part of a more general approach needed
to achieve long-term environmental sustainability in Australian agriculture.
Australia has a bigger stock of knowledge about how to grow food, fibre and forest products
sustainably than almost any other country on earth. There is a significant growth potential from
forming clusters of dynamic small companies utilising these knowledge assets and capturing
global market opportunities for ideas, technology and know-how.
While the potential of the Australian agricultural sector is great, it needs to be recognised that
important aspects of its current development are unsustainable. The sector can only reach its
long term potential if it reconciles economic and environmental considerations through the
development of a sustainable agricultural system.
The Concept of a Sustainable Agricultural System
The concept of a sustainable agricultural system embraces the triple-bottom line of economic,
environment and social considerations. The economic goal is to achieve, and if possible, extend,
international best practice in agriculture in order to meet global competitive challenges. The
environmental goals are to minimise the overall environmental footprint of agriculture by making
the optimum use of scarce natural resources, minimising waste, and contributing to the resolution
of climate change problems. The social goal is to contribute to the maximisation of regional
development opportunities.
Economic and Social Sustainability
The economic sustainability and social sustainability of the agricultural system implies
the full economic potential of the sector for regional and export development. This, in turn,
requires a whole series of attributes focussing on the emerging areas of competitive advantage
associated with product quality and differentiation. This enables the constraints of
commodification to be escaped and market power developed. It places agriculture in the realm
of the global knowledge economy in which attributes such as skills and knowledge become key
attributes of competitiveness.
Environmental Sustainability
The aim is to facilitate the ecologically sustainable development of agricultural industries so that
they contribute to economies wellbeing, protect the biological and physical resource
base on which agricultural industries depend, and improve human health and safety. It is noted
that most of Australia’s soils are old and, as a result, they have a thin zone of fertility in the
topsoil and are easily degraded. Degradation occurs as a result of compaction, waterlogging,
acidification, erosion and salinity. There is widespread concern about the degradation of farm
land. Pressures are exerted by clearing, over-stocking, cropping on marginal land, irrigation, and
introduced species such as rabbits and goats. The low profitability of so many agricultural
enterprises reduces resource care.
A Framework for the Development of the Agricultural Sector
The objective is to ensure the ecological sustainability of agriculture while improving its
economic prospects. These goals will require changing land use patterns and the development of
a more value-added orientation in agriculture. Continuous innovation will be the key to success.
The major facets of the development framework should be:
•Sustainable agriculture;
•Research and development;
•Innovation;
•Product quality;
•Market development;
•Logistics;
•Finance; and
•Collaborative development.
Salinity
The principal objective should be to arrest the spread of dryland salinity. Airborne geophysics
can now be used to investigate land degradation and salinity. A recent breakthrough means that
we can identify and target the most effective management options for individual landscapes. The
breakthrough has three components: airborne electro-magnetic data collection; airborne
magnetic data collection; and airborne radio-metric. The technology provides a cheap way to
target investment in actions to reduce salinity hazards.
Strategies to address salinity and rising water tables need to be implemented through a
catchment-based approach. A catchment plan has to be prepared using data obtained from
airborne geophysics. Revegetation is required, especially in areas higher in the catchment. The
planting of trees needs to meet particular environmental conditions, facilitate recharge to control
rising water tables, and, hopefully, provide some commercial applications. Pasture management
to maintain cover in late spring prevents capillary rise of salts to bare soils surface. Deeper
rooting perennial pasture species utilise more water than others. Excess water should be
removed by surface drainage, taking care to fit into whole-of-catchment plants. In some
situations, such water needs to be harnessed and used for more salt-tolerant crops. Further
drainage to aquaculture and eventual drainage for evaporative salt pans may be required as part
of a total catchment management system.
Irrigation salinity is the other problem. Advanced irrigation techniques using less water, and
more effective watering techniques and control mechanisms, have now become available.
Land Degradation
The processes of land degradation can be divided into three main types:
•Soil erosion loss and deposition (including water erosion and wind erosion);
•Soil degradation which involves the alteration of soil characteristics (soil salinity,
degradation of soil structure, soil fertility decline, soil acidification, water repellency,
waterlogging and soil pollution); and
•Ecosystem change (including vegetation degradation and the introduction of animal and
plant pest species).
Some categories of land degradation can be addressed using a catchment approach
addressing the underlying problems which occur away from the areas in which proximate
symptoms occur. This is the case with localised salinity and some types of soil pollution as well
as aspects of water erosion.
Land planning is the key policy instrument for dealing with land degradation, along with the
adoption of precision agricultural technologies. To the former, planning issues should cover:
•Water erosion control through appropriate techniques for pasture and animal
management, the use of earthworks, and increasing soil infiltration in horticultural areas;
•Wind erosion can be controlled through the use of windbreaks, avoiding overstocking,
and mulching stubble;
•Eutrophication can be controlled through appropriate fertiliser management, vegetation
cover, etc.; and
•Revegetation to remedy the decline of native vegetation.
Biotechnology
The applications of genetic engineering in plant agriculture can be separated into three phases –
gene technology and conventional breeding, gene technology and transgenics, and genomics.
Gene technologies are already assisting conventional breeding by improving the efficiency and
speed of cultivar development. The process of transgenics enables the addition of new
properties via a gene construct. Genomics will possibly become the most significant phase of the
new technologies. The science of genomics can be divided into three areas: functional genomics
(where the role of each gene in a genome is determined), microarray and related techniques
(where the expression of thousands of genes can be monitored simultaneously), and genome
sequencing (where a plant’s entire genetic sequence can be recorded and analysed).
The new era of biotechnology is a further evolution in genetic modification and cross-breeding,
in that it:
•Allows useful characteristics – in a single gene rather than blocks of DNA – to be
transferred;
•Eliminates the need to back cross to eliminate unwanted traits; and
•Can introduce genes from species other than the host.
Benefits for farmers include the capacity for plants and animals to be more environmentally
adapted - for example, crop plants resistant to drought, heat or salt, and plants or animals
resistant to viral or parasitic diseases; plants requiring fewer spray treatments, and the
accelerated breeding of plants , and more nutritious foodstuffs. This would facilitate greater
productivity per hectare, potentially reducing the area that agriculture needs, and enabling
greater conservation of biodiversity. At the same time, consumer preferences can be more
readily addressed. Finally, the less-energy-intensive developments in organism manipulation
replace chemical production as a source of materials, thus providing a new suite of market
opportunities for the agricultural sector.
Skills
With the emphasis on innovation in agriculture, new skills will be needed. This has implications
for existing agricultural courses and for extension services. Maintaining a capacity in higher
education to attract and train talented researchers will also be important.
Product Quality
There is a need to add value through maximising quality at appropriate costs. This involves:
•Producing varieties of crops or livestock that best meet emerging market requirements,
particular where premium prices are on offer;
•Meeting product consistency requirements through the use of quality specifications and
quality control;
•The enhancement of product quality by the ability to define, measure and specify quality
attributes and thereby send clearer signals to the markets; and
•Avoiding the introduction of exotic pests and diseases.
The Development of Markets
There are five key issues to deal with.
1. Tackling international trade barriers – note the activities of the Cairns Group.
2. Developing product differentiation as a means of competitive advantage – moving away
from bulk commodities to emphasising unique qualities.
Eg: The Pink Lady apple is a
distinctively Australian variety and is successfully exported from Western Australia.
3. Developing brands based on:
•A clean green image, emphasising also the environmental sustainability of supply
(organic foods represent an important area with significant long-term potential);
•Emphasising the quality for cost component;
•The innovative qualities of the particular products being branded; and
•Using geographic indications as a market tool.
4. Using wine and food tourism as a means of developing market recognition of brands.
5. Developing adequate marketing budgets on a collaborative basis to finance the building
of brands and the international market recognition of such brands.
Key benefits to agriculture from the adoption of e-commerce are:
•More efficient process for procurement of inputs through ordering and payment on-line;
•Better information on the availability and price of inputs (and even cooperative buying);
•Removal of intermediaries thereby reducing transport requirements and minimising
adverse consequences for product quality;
•Cost reduction through online marketing and selling products;
•Increased access to markets; and
•Timely information on weather, stock information and prices.
Financing Development
It is clear that a future sustainable agricultural sector in Australia will be much more capital
intensive than it presently is. The optimum farm size is likely to grow even larger as scale
economies associated with greater capital and technological intensity keep growing. Corporate
ownership of agricultural lands will become more extensive and capital markets will assist in
providing a greater proportion of equity in farming development. Agricultural investment funds
may become a significant source of equity for farming developments.
Conclusions
1. The contribution of agriculture to global emissions has two unusual features:
•a significant proportion of these emissions are associated with methane from the
digestive systems of ruminants and nitrous oxide from soils; and
•vegetation clearance for agriculture is also a significant contributor to emissions while
revegetation and forestry in particular reduce emissions by acting as a carbon sink.
2. The strategy for reducing emissions associated with agriculture focuses on:
•reducing emissions from agricultural production through improved practices and the
introduction of new technologies; and
•enhancing greenhouse sinks through afforestation and revegetation while reducing
land clearing.
3. The greenhouse strategy for agriculture needs to be considered in the context of a
comprehensive approach to securing environmentally sustainable agriculture.
4. Achieving a sustainable agricultural sector in the widest sense will require substantial
investments of technology, capital and skilled labour.


Background and Current Status of the Industry
1. Carefully define the industry. Are you describing an industry such as the cattle industry or a segment such as the organic beef industry. Or are you defining just a stage such as the beef processing industry.
2. Describe the size of the industry in dollars of sales per year. What has been the trend in the size of the industry in recent years?
3. What is the growth forecast for the industry?
4. Describe the historic profitability of the industry. Also, the historic profitability of the industry segments (i.e. production, processing, manufacturing, etc.).
5. Describe the stage of the product life cycle of the industry's product(s) (rapid growth, mature, etc.).
6. For processing and manufacturing industries, list the total processing capacity and the amount of processing capacity being utilized. Show this for the current period and previous years.
7. List and describe inventory (unsold product) levels in the industry. Do this for the current period and previous years.
8. Is the industry stable or going through a period of restructuring?
9. Describe any developments or problems the industry is currently experiencing.
10. Is the industry dominated by supply chains or open markets?
o Which parts of the supply chain are commodities and which are differentiated products?
o Describe the supply chain relationships that may exist in this industry and describe the role of your business within the supply chain.
o How do participants create or extract value at different points in the supply chain?
11. Describe how distribution works in the industry (i.e. direct sales to customers or sales force, retail, wholesale)?
12. If you are targeting a niche market, identify the relevant industry segments and how they are defined.
Product(s) and Product Usage
1. Describe the product(s) being produced by the industry.
2. What are the overall consumption trends of the product(s).
3. Describe consumption trends by consumer group such as milk consumption of teenagers.
4. Describe the per capita (per person) consumption trends to (i.e. pounds of pork consumed per person).
5. Usage rates – i.e. annual usage of ethanol (not annual production of ethanol – i.e. when production of a product (supply) is larger than usage (demand), inventories increase and prices fall – and vice versa).
6. Describe usage by specific markets (e.g. ethanol usage in the Denver market).
7. Trends in usage or consumption – i.e. per capita beef consumption over the last ten years.
Prices
Provide data on the current price levels in the industry and price levels over previous years. This includes prices for final products, intermediate products in the supply chain and raw materials.
Provide data on the profit margins for the various segments of the industry segments.

1. Industry concentration – This is a measure of the number of firms in an industry and the size of the predominant firms in the industry. It provides an indication of who you are up against.
o Identify the most important players in the industry.
o What percent of the market is controlled by the largest companies (i.e. four largest firms)?
o What is the market share of each major firm?
o What is the number of firms over a certain size (e.g. number of egg producers over one million birds)?
o Is there a dominant industry leader? Who is it?
2. Competition from other products – The more similar a competitive product is to your product, the more competitive it will be (i.e. beef competes with pork, natural gas competes with ethanol). Branding is an effort to differentiate your product from competitive products in the eyes of the consumer.
3. Barriers to entry/ease of entry – Is the industry easy to enter or difficult to enter? If entry is easy, competitors enter the market during periods of high profitability and expand production capacity. This drives down prices and profit margins. Barriers to entry make it more difficult for competitors to enter so profit margins remain favorable. Barriers to entry include:
o Limited access to markets – If the market is dominated by well established branded products, a new entrant will need to spend the time, money and effort to establish a successful branded product.
o Large-scale production – If large scale production requires substantial financial investment, the financial requirements will be to limit entry.
o Limited access to technology or production processes – Patented technology and other intellectual property will limit entry.
4. Concentration within the supply chain – When many firms buy from or sell to a few firms, the segment with the highest concentration (fewest firms) usually has an advantage. What is the relative concentration of input suppliers, producers, processors, etc.?
5. Industry rivalry – Describe the intensity of the rivalry among industry participants.
Industry Drivers
Outline the factors that are currently driving the industry and expected to drive it in the future. Examples of potential agricultural industry drivers are described below.
1. Consumer tastes and preferences – Consumers preferences for food.
2. Population and age distribution – A growing population will drive demand upward. An aging population will affect the types of food demanded.
3. Dietary recommendations – Emerging dietary recommendations (low carbohydrate, low fat) will change consumers buying habits for food products.
4. Package labeling requirements – For example the mandated labeling for trans-fats on food products has the potential to change consumer preferences.
5. Food safety issues – For example the organic food market has its basis in the issue of food safety.
6. Functional foods – Scientists are discovering certain health aspects of different types of foods. For example, isoflavones in soybeans may prevent cancer.
7. Legislation designed to stimulate demand – For example the mandated use of renewable fuels drives that industry. Tax incentives will affect the price.
8. New regulations – Is there new or pending legislation on regulations at the state or national level that will impact the industry.
9. Environmental concerns – For example, global warming will have a significant impact on the energy industry.
10. International trade tariffs and barriers – For example, does the industry have access to foreign markets?
11. Emerging technologies – For example, new technologies in the production of renewable fuels will impact the ethanol industry.
12. Other factors that affect the development of the industry.

Environment & Agriculture? Environmental and agricultural businesses lie at the heart of both urban and rural communities. Strong market drivers such as new environmental legalisation are creating enormous opportunities for environmental solutions.
The global market for environmental goods and services is currently valued at a staggering $600 billion. In the UK, the environmental industry currently employs over 400,000 people across 17,000 companies.
The sector is expanding rapidly as awareness of green issues increases and new regulations come into force, so there is no shortage of opportunities available to those with an interest in the environment. The UK’s environmental market is forecast to grow from £25 billion in 2005 to £46 billion by 2015, supporting an abundance of new jobs.
Moving into the future this industry sector will be vital to sustaining all of our communities, whether focussed on sustaining farming and land management, developing rural businesses, improving the environment, ensuring animal health and welfare or managing our open spaces.
Some of the challenges facing this sector are daunting. Forecasters are expecting our global population to increase to 8 billion within 20 years. If this prediction proves accurate then the environment and agriculture industry will need to meet our soaring demands – not an easy task considering the difficulties we face on combating climate change, the pollution of our water supplies and the increasing erosion of top-soil.
Typical Activities
At the core of the environmental and land-based sector is land management and production. However, there is also a demand for skilled and creative employees working on:
• Producing crops ranging from cereals and vegetables to energy crops
• Learning about animals, especially their health and welfare
• Helping to develop sustainable practices in land management
• Helping firms to design environmental strategies Supplying advice, environmental impact assessments and other services to clients

A great profession for people who enjoy the prospect of working with nature
With increasing demands on this sector, employers in agricultural and land-based industries are setting higher and higher standards and expect more of their employees. Students should therefore ensure that whatever course they choose to follow it contains the elements required by their future employers.
Typical Employers
With the great variety of jobs available, there is bound to be an employer in this sector to suit you:
• Enviros
• Atkins
• Hallam Land Management
• DEFRA
• White Young & Green

The Agricultural Revolution
Introduction to the Agricultural Revolution



Between the eighth century and the eighteenth, the tools of farming basically stayed the same and few advancements in technology were made.
The farmers of George Washington's day had no better tools than had the farmers of Julius Caesar's day; in fact, early Roman plows were superior to those in general use in America eighteen centuries later.
What Was the Agricultural Revolution?
The agricultural revolution was a period of agricultural development between the 18th century and the end of the 19th century, which saw a massive and rapid increase in agricultural productivity and vast improvements in farm technology.
Listed below are many of the inventions that were created or greatly improved during the agricultural revolution.
• History of Plows
Seed Drills
Seed drills sow seeds, before drills were invented seeding was done by hand. The basic ideas in drills for seeding small grains were successfully developed in Great Britain, and many British drills were sold in the United States before one was manufactured in the States. American manufacture of these drills began about 1840. Seed planters for corn came somewhat later, as machines to plant wheat successfully were unsuited for corn planting. In 1701, Jethro Tull invented his seed drill and is perhaps the best known inventor of a mechanical planter.
• Jethro Tull
Machines That Harvest - Sickles, Reapers, & Harvesters
By definition a sickle is a curved, hand-held agricultural tool used for harvesting grain crops. Horse drawn mechanical reapers later replaced sickles for harvesting grains. Reapers developed into and was replaced by the reaper-binder (cuts grain and binds it in sheaves), which was in turn was replaced by the swather and then the combine harvester. The combine harvester is a machine that heads, threshes and cleans grain while moving across the field.

Agriculture and Farm Innovations


Farming and farm machinery have continued to evolve. The threshing machine has given way to the combine, usually a self-propelled unit that either picks up windrowed grain or cuts and threshes it in one step. The grain binder has been replaced by the swather which cuts the grain and lays it on the ground in windrows, allowing it to dry before being harvested by a combine. Plows are not used nearly as extensively as before, due in large part to the popularity of minimum tillage to reduce soil erosion and conserve moisture. The disk harrow today is more often used after harvesting to cut up the grain stubble left in the field. Although seed drills are still used, the air seeder is becoming more popular with farmers. Today's farm machinery allows farmers to cultivate many more acres of land than the machines of yesterday.
Famous Agriculturists
• Luther Burbank - The Idaho Potato
• George Washington Carver
• Jethro Tull
Corn Picker
In 1850, Edmund Quincy invented the corn picker.
Cotton Gin
The cotton gin is a machine that separates seeds, hulls and other unwanted materials from cotton after it has been picked. Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin on March 14, 1794.
Cotton Harvester
Mechanical cotton harvesters are of two types: strippers and pickers.
• Stripper harvesters strip the entire plant of both open and unopened bolls, along with many leaves and stems. The cotton gin is then used to remove unwanted material.
• Picker machines, often called spindle-type harvesters, remove the cotton from open bolls and leave the bur on the plant. The spindles, which rotate on their axes at high speeds, are attached to a drum that also turns, causing the spindles to penetrate the plants. The cotton fibers are wrapped around the moistened spindles and then removed by a special device called a doffer; the cotton is then delivered to a large basket carried above the machine.
The first cotton harvester was patented in the U.S. in 1850, but it was not until the 1940s that the machinery was widely used.
Crop Rotation
Growing the same crop repeatedly on the same land eventually depletes the soil of different nutrients. Farmers avoided a decrease in soil fertility by practicing crop rotation. Different plant crops were planted in a regular sequence so that the leaching of the soil by a crop of one kind of nutrient was followed by a plant crop that returned that nutrient to the soil. Crop rotation was practiced in ancient Roman, African, and Asian cultures. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a three-year crop rotation was practiced by farmers rotating rye or winter wheat in year one, followed by spring oats or barley in the second year, and followed by a third year of no crops.
In the 18th century, British agriculturalist Charles Townshend aided the European agricultural revolution by popularizing a four- year crop rotation with rotations of wheat, barley, turnips, and clover. In the United States, George Washington Carver brought his science of crop rotation to the farmers and saved the farming resources of the south.
The Grain Elevator
In 1842, the first grain elevator was built by Joseph Dart.
Hay Cultivation
Until the middle of the 19th century, hay was cut by hand with sickles and scythes. In the 1860s early cutting devices were developed that resembled those on reapers and binders; from these came the modern array of fully mechanical mowers, crushers, windrowers, field choppers, balers, and machines for pelletizing or wafering in the field.
The stationary baler or hay press was invented in the 1850's and did not become popular until the 1870's. The "pick up" baler or square baler was replaced by the round baler around the 1940's.
In 1936, a man named Innes, of Davenport, Iowa, invented an automatic baler for hay. It tied bales with binder twine using Appleby-type knotters from a John Deere grain binder. A Pennsylvania Dutchman named Ed Nolt built his own baler, salvaging the twine knotters from the Innes baler. Both balers did not work that well. According to The History of Twine, "Nolt's innovative patents pointed the way by 1939 to the mass production of the one-man automatic hay baler. His balers and their imitators revolutionized hay and straw harvest and created a twine demand beyond the wildest dreams of any twine manufacturer."
Milking Machine
In 1879, Anna Baldwin patented a milking machine that replaced hand milking - her milking machine was a vacuum device that connected to a hand pump. This is one of the earliest American patents, however, it was not a successful invention. Successful milking machines appeared around 1870.
Early Cow Milking Machines by Richard Van Vleck
The earliest devices for mechanical milking were tubes inserted in the teats to force open the sphincter muscle, thus allowing the milk to flow. Wooden tubes were used for this purpose, as well as feather quills. Skillfully made tubes of pure silver, gutta percha, ivory, and bone were marketed in the mid-19th century.
Cow Milker Patents
During the last half of the 19th century, over 100 milking devices were patented in the United States.
Plow
John Deere invented the self-polishing cast steel plow - an improvement over the iron plow.
Reaper
In 1831, Cyrus H. McCormick developed the first commercially successful reaper, a horse-drawn machine that harvested wheat.
Tractors
The advent of tractors revolutionized the agricultural industry.