Agricultural economics or agronomics is an applied field of economics concerned with the

application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fibrea
discipline known as agronomics. Agronomics was a branch of economics that specifically dealt
with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil ecosystem.
Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope of the discipline is much
broader. Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied areas, having considerable
overlap with conventional economics.[1][2][3][4] Agricultural economists have made substantial
contributions to research in economics, econometrics, development economics, and environmental
economics. Agricultural economics influences food policy, agricultural policy, and environmental
policy.

Origins
Economics has been defined as the study of resource allocation under scarcity. Agronomics, or the
application of economic methods to optimizing the decisions made by agricultural producers, grew to
prominence around the turn of the 20th century. The field of agricultural economics can be traced out
to works on land economics. Henry Charles Taylor was the greatest contributor with the
establishment of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Wisconsin in 1909. [5]
Another contributor, 1979 Nobel Economics Prize winner Theodore Schultz, was among the first to
examine development economics as a problem related directly to agriculture.[6] Schultz was also
instrumental in establishing econometrics as a tool for use in analyzing agricultural economics
empirically; he noted in his landmark 1956 article that agricultural supply analysis is rooted in
"shifting sand", implying that it was and is simply not being done correctly.[7]
One scholar summarizes the development of agricultural economics as follows:
"Agricultural economics arose in the late 19th century, combined the theory of the firm with
marketing and organization theory, and developed throughout the 20th century largely as an
empirical branch of general economics. The discipline was closely linked to empirical applications of
mathematical statistics and made early and significant contributions to econometric methods. In the
1960s and afterwards, as agricultural sectors in the OECD countries contracted, agricultural
economists were drawn to the development problems of poor countries, to the trade and
macroeconomic policy implications of agriculture in rich countries, and to a variety of production,
consumption, and environmental and resource problems."[8]
Agricultural economists have made many well-known contributions to the economics field with such
models as the cobweb model,[9]hedonic regression pricing models,[10] new technology and diffusion
models (Zvi Griliches),[11] multifactor productivity and efficiency theory and measurement,[12][13] and the
random coefficients regression.[14] The farm sector is frequently cited as a prime example of
the perfect competition economic paradigm.
In Asia, agricultural economics was offered first by the University of the Philippines Los Baos
Department of Agricultural Economics in 1919. Today, the field of agricultural economics has
transformed into a more integrative discipline which covers farm management and production
economics, rural finance and institutions, agricultural marketing and prices, agricultural policy and
development, food and nutrition economics, and environmental and natural resource economics.
Since the 1970s, agricultural economics has primarily focused on seven main topics, according to a
scholar in the field: agricultural environment and resources; risk and uncertainty; food and consumer
economics; prices and incomes; market structures; trade and development; and technical change
and human capital.[15]

Major topics in agricultural economics

Agricultural environment and natural resources
In the field of environmental economics, agricultural economists have contributed in three main
areas: designing incentives to control environmental externalities (such as water pollution due to
agricultural production), estimating the value of non-market benefits from natural resources and
environmental amenities (such as an appealing rural landscape), and the complex interrelationship
between economic activities and environmental consequences.[16] With regard to natural resources,
agricultural economists have developed quantitative tools for improving land management,
preventing erosion, managing pests, protecting biodiversity, and preventing livestock diseases. [17]

Food and consumer economics

While at one time, the field of agricultural economics was focused primarily on farm-level issues, in
recent years agricultural economists have studied diverse topics related to the economics of food
consumption. In addition to economists' long-standing emphasis on the effects of prices and
incomes, researchers in this field have studied how information and quality attributes influence
consumer behavior. Agricultural economists have contributed to understanding how households
make choices between purchasing food or preparing it at home, how food prices are determined,
definitions of poverty thresholds, how consumers respond to price and income changes in a
consistent way, and survey and experimental tools for understanding consumer preferences. [18]

Production economics and farm management

Agricultural economics research has addressed diminishing returns in agricultural production, as well
as farmers' costs and supply responses. Much research has applied economic theory to farm-level
decisions. Studies of risk and decision-making under uncertainty have real-world applications to crop
insurance policies and to understanding how farmers in developing countries make choices about
technology adoption. These topics are important for understanding prospects for producing sufficient
food for a growing world population, subject to new resource and environmental challenges such as
water scarcity and global climate change.[19]

Development economics
Development economics is broadly concerned with the improvement of living conditions in low-
income countries, and the improvement of economic performance in low-income settings. Because
agriculture is a large part of most developing economies, both in terms of employment and share of
GDP, agricultural economists have been at the forefront of empirical research on development
economics, contributing to our understanding of agriculture's role in economic development,
economic growth and structural transformation. Many agricultural economists are interested in the
food systems of developing economies, the linkages between agriculture and nutrition, and the ways
in which agriculture interact with other domains, such as the natural environment. [20][21]

Professional associations
The International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) is a worldwide professional
association, which holds its major conference once every three years. The association publishes the
journal Agricultural Economics. There also is a European Association of Agricultural Economists
(EAAE), an African Association of Agricultural Economists [AAAE]and an Australian Agricultural and
Resource Economics Society. Substantial work in agricultural economics internationally is conducted
by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
In the United States, the primary professional association is the Agricultural & Applied Economics
Association (AAEA), which holds its own annual conference and also co-sponsors the annual
meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA). The AAEA publishes the American
Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy.
Careers in agricultural economics
Graduates from agricultural and applied economics departments find jobs in many sectors of the
economy: agricultural management, agribusiness, commodities markets, education, the financial
sector, government, natural resource and environmental management, real estate, and public
relations. Careers in agricultural economics require at least a bachelor's degree, and research
careers in the field require graduate-level training.[22] A 2011 study by the Georgetown Center on
Education and the Workforce rated agricultural economics tied for 8th out of 171 fields in terms of
employability.

An agroecosystem is the basic unit of study in agroecology, and is somewhat arbitrarily defined as
a spatially and functionally coherent unit of agricultural activity, and includes the living and nonliving
components involved in that unit as well as their interactions. [1]
An agroecosystem can be viewed as a subset of a conventional ecosystem. As the name implies, at
the core of an agroecosystem lies the human activity of agriculture. However, an agroecosystem is
not restricted to the immediate site of agricultural activity (e.g. the farm), but rather includes the
region that is impacted by this activity, usually by changes to the complexity of species
assemblages and energy flows, as well as to the net nutrient balance. Traditionally an
agroecosystem, particularly one managed intensively, is characterized as having a simpler species
composition and simpler energy and nutrient flows than "natural" ecosystem. [2] Likewise,
agroecosystems are often associated with elevated nutrient input, much of which exits the farm
leading to eutrophication of connected ecosystems not directly engaged in agriculture.

The future for farming?

Some major organizations are hailing farming within agroecosystems as the way forward for
mainstream agriculture. Current farming methods have resulted in over-stretched water resources,
high levels of erosion and reduced soil fertility. According to a report by the International Water
Management Institute and the United Nations Environment Programme,[4] there is not enough water
to continue farming using current practices; therefore how critical water, land,
and ecosystem resources are used to boost crop yields must be reconsidered. The report suggested
assigning value to ecosystems, recognizing environmental and livelihood tradeoffs, and balancing
the rights of a variety of users and interests, as well addressing inequities that sometimes result
when such measures are adopted, such as the reallocation of water from poor to rich, the clearing of
land to make way for more productive farmland, or the preservation of a wetland system that limits
fishing rights.
 long tradition
Forest gardens are probably the world's oldest and most resilient agroecosystem.[6] Forest gardens
originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills
of monsoon regions. In the gradual process of a family improving their immediate environment,
useful tree and vine species were identified, protected and improved whilst undesirable species were
eliminated. Eventually superior foreign species were selected and incorporated into the family's
garden.[7]
One of the major efforts of disciplines such as agroecology is to promote management styles that
blur the distinction between agroecosystems and "natural" ecosystems, both by decreasing the
impact of agriculture (increasing the biological and trophic complexity of the agricultural system as
well as decreasing the nutrient inputs/outflow) and by increasing awareness that "downstream"
effects extend agroecosystems beyond the boundaries of the farm (e.g. the Corn
Belt agroecosystem includes the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico). In the first
case, polyculture or buffer strips for wildlife habitat can restore some complexity to a cropping
system, while organic farming can reduce nutrient inputs. Efforts of the second type are most
common at the watershed scale. An example is the National Association of Conservation
Districts' Lake Mendota Watershed Project, which seeks to reduce runoff from the agricultural lands
feeding into the lake with the aim of reducing algal blooms.

A system that includes all living organisms (biotic factors) in an area as well as its physical environment (abiotic

factors) functioning together as a unit.

Supplement

An ecosystem is made up of plants, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, minerals, water sources and the

local atmosphere interacting with one another.

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of

their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. [2] These biotic
and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows.
[3]
As ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between
organisms and their environment,[4] they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited
spaces[5] (although some scientists say that the entire planet is an ecosystem).

The term "ecosystem" was first used in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley.[fn 1][10] Tansley
devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms
and their environment.[11] He later refined the term, describing it as "The whole system, ... including
not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call
the environment".[12] Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates.
[12]
Tansley later[13]defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope.

Limnology from Greek , limne, "lake" and , logos, "knowledge"), is the study of inland
waters. It is often regarded as a division of ecology or environmental science. It covers
the biological, chemical, physical, geological, and other attributes of all inland waters (running and
standing waters, both fresh and saline, natural or man-made). This includes the study
of lakes and ponds, rivers, springs, streams and wetlands.[1] A more recent sub-discipline of
limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and conserves these aquatic ecosystems
using a landscape perspective.
Limnology is closely related to aquatic ecology and hydrobiology, which study aquatic organisms in
particular regard to their hydrological environment. Although limnology is sometimes equated
with freshwater science, this is erroneous since limnology also comprises the study of inland salt
lakes.

Biotic
Biotic describes a living or once living component of a community; for example organisms, such as
plants and animals.
Biotic may refer to:

Life, the condition of living organisms

Biology, the study of life

Biotic material, which is derived from living organisms

Biotic components in ecology

Biotic potential, an organism's reproductive capacity

Biotic community, all the interacting organisms living together in a specific habitat

Biotic energy, a vital force theorized by biochemist Benjamin Moore

Biotic may also refer to:

Biotic Baking Brigade, an unofficial group of pie-throwing activists

In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and
physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems.
Abiotic factors and phenomena associated with them underpin all biology.Abiotic components
include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth,
maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the
environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by
other organisms.Component degradation of a substance occurs by chemical or physical processes,
e.g. hydrolysis. All non-living components of an ecosystem, such as the atmosphere or water, are
called abiotic components. In biology, abiotic factors can include water, light, radiation,
temperature, humidity, atmosphere, and soil. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the
above. Pressure and sound waves may also be considered in the context of marine or sub-terrestrial
environments.[4]
All of these factors affect different organisms to different extents. If there is little or no sunlight then
plants may wither and die from not being able to get enough sunlight to complete the cycle of
photosynthesis. Many Archea require very high temperatures, or pressures, or unusual
concentrations of chemical substances, such as sulfur, because of their specialization into extreme
conditions. Certain fungi have evolved to survive mostly at the temperature, the humidity, and
stability of their environment.[5]
For example, there is a significant difference in access to water as well as humidity
between temperate rain forests and deserts. This difference in water access causes a diversity in the
types of plants and animals that grow in these areas.

Antibiotics are agents that either kill bacteria or inhibit their growth

Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and/or activity of
bacteria in the digestive system

Probiotics consist of a live culture of bacteria that inhibit or interfere with colonization by
microbial pathogens

Synbiotics refer to nutritional supplements combining probiotics and prebiotics

Postbiotics are the probiotic metabolic products that stimulate the growth and/or activity of
bacteria in the digestive system.

Leisure has been defined as a quality of experience or as free time.

Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores and education. It
also excludes time spent on necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. From a research
perspective, this approach has the advantages of being quantifiable and comparable over time and
place.[2] Leisure as experience usually emphasizes dimensions of perceived freedom and choice. It
is done for "its own sake", for the quality of experience and involvement. [1] Other classic definitions
include Thorsten Veblen's (1899) of "nonproductive consumption of time."[3] Different disciplines have
definitions reflecting their common issues: for example, sociology on social forces and contexts and
psychology as mental and emotional states and conditions.

Leisure has historically been the privilege of the upper-class.[6] Opportunities for leisure came with
more money, or organization, unless working time, rising dramatically in the mid to late 19th century,
starting in Great Britain and spreading to other rich nations in Europe. It spread as well to the United
States, although that country had a reputation in Europe for providing much less leisure despite its
wealth. Immigrants to the United States discovered they had to work harder than they did in Europe.
[7]
Economists continue to investigate why Americans work longer hours. [8]. In a recent book, Laurent
Turcot argue that leisure was not created in the 19th century but is imbricated in the occidental world
since the beginning of history

Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time.[1] The "need to do something for
recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology.[2] Recreational activities are
often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun".
The term recreation appears to have been used in English first in the late 14th century, first in the
sense of "refreshment or curing of a sick person",[3] and derived turn from Latin (re: "again", creare:
"to create, bring forth, beget.).

Humans spend their time in activities of daily living, work, sleep, social duties, and leisure, the latter
time being free from prior commitments to physiologic or social needs,[4] a prerequisite of recreation.
Leisure has increased with increased longevity and, for many, with decreased hours spent for
physical and economic survival, yet others argue that time pressure has increased for modern
people, as they are committed to too many tasks.[5] Other factors that account for an increased role
of recreation are affluence, population trends, and increased commercialization of recreational
offerings.[6] While one perception is that leisure is just "spare time", time not consumed by the
necessities of living, another holds that leisure is a force that allows individuals to consider and
reflect on the values and realities that are missed in the activities of daily life, thus being an essential
element of personal development and civilization.[1] This direction of thought has even been extended
to the view that leisure is the purpose of work, and a reward in itself, [1] and "leisure life" reflects the
values and character of a nation.[6] Leisure is considered a human right under the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

Recreation is difficult to separate from the general concept of play, which is usually the term for
children's recreational activity. Children may playfully imitate activities that reflect the realities of adult
life. It has been proposed that play or recreational activities are outlets of or expression of excess
energy, channeling it into socially acceptable activities that fulfill individual as well as societal needs,
without need for compulsion, and providing satisfaction and pleasure for the participant. [8] A
traditional view holds that work is supported by recreation, recreation being useful to "recharge the
battery" so that work performance is improved. Work, an activity generally performed out of
economic necessity and useful for society and organized within the economic framework, however
can also be pleasurable and may be self-imposed thus blurring the distinction to recreation. Many
activities may be work for one person and recreation for another, or, at an individual level, over time
recreational activity may become work, and vice versa. Thus, for a musician, playing an instrument
may be at one time a profession, and at another a recreation. Similarly, it may be difficult to separate
education from recreation as in the case of recreational mathematics.