Definition of agriculture

: the science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and
marketing of the resulting products

 cleared the land to use it for agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products
used to sustain and enhance human life. [1] Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby
farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is
known as agricultural science. The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and
defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculturefarming has
become the dominant agricultural method.

Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have in many
cases sharply increased yields from cultivation, but at the same time have caused widespread ecological damage and negative
human health effects. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, but
have raised concerns about animal welfare, environmental damage (such as massive drainage of resources such as water and feed
fed to the animals, global warming, rainforest destruction, leftover waste products that are littered), and the health effects of
the antibiotics, growth hormones, artificial additives and other chemicals commonly used in industrial meat production. Genetically
modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food
production and water management are increasingly becoming global issuesthat are fostering debate on a number of fronts.
Significant degradation of land and water resources, including the depletion of aquifers, has been observed in recent decades, and
the effects of global warming on agriculture and of agriculture on global warming are still not fully understood.
However, entomophagy would solve most of the former problems, and may start to gain popularity among society in the West.[2]

The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods
include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meats and spices. Fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials
include lumber and bamboo. Other useful materials are also produced by plants, such
as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. Over one third of the
world's workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although the percentages of agricultural workers in
developed countries has decreased significantly over the past several centuries.

Economics of Agricultural Development/Stages of Agricultural Development:

Transformation from Peasant Subsistence Farming to Specialized Farming:

In respect of agri. production and agri. development the economists present three stage, which are as:

(1) The subsistence farming: It is most primitive type of farming which is characterized with low productivity and the produced
output is just for the sake of subsistence.

(2) The mixed farming: Where the farmers not only produce for their personal consumption but also for the sale in the market.

(3) The commercialized farming: In such stage of farming the agri. productivity is higher and whole of the produced output is sold
in the market. Now we discuss them in a turn.

(1) Stage I: Subsistence Farming:

Features:

This type of farming has following salient features:

(i) Most of the output is produced for family consumption.

(ii) The agri. production is mostly consisted of a few staple food crops like wheat, barley, sorghum, rice and corn etc.

(iii) The traditional methods and tools are used - leading to a lower level of output and productivity.

(iv) Land and labor are the only factors of production, and the capital investment is minimal. Accordingly, law of diminishing return
applies in agri. sector as more labor are employed with fixed lands.
(v) The farmers are always worried of inadequacy of rains, appropriation of their lands and appearance of the money lenders to
collect outstanding loans.

(vi) The agri. labor are fully employed during planting and harvesting seasons while they remain unemployed during most of the
year.

(vii) The peasants cultivate only that much of land which they could manage without hired labor.

(viii) The agri. environment is mostly tough, harsh and static.

(ix) Technological limitations, rigid social institutions, fragmented markets and reduced communication net-work between rural areas
and urban centers often inhibit the higher level of production. The cash income attained by peasants mostly comes from non-farm
wage labor, as the salaries and wages earned by the off springs of

peasants working in urban centers or in military in case of India and Pakistan.

(x) The farmers are surrounded by uncertainties. They just want to survive. Thus because of rigid behavior, poverty and illiteracy the
farmers exist in the atmosphere of uncertainty.

(xi) Subsistence farming is highly risky and uncertain venture. They resist the use of new techniques, new seeds and new
machinery on farms because they do not want to put their lives at stake.

(xii) The farmers are hardly aimed at maximizing their profits; they are just desirous to save their families from starvation.
Sometimes they are worried of rains. On other occasions they are afraid of drought and famine. In such state of uncertainty they
would hardly bother about inventions and innovations. Moreover, in the state of risk and uncertainty the poor peasants will be
reluctant to surrender those techniques which they have inherited from their forefathers. Accordingly, when sheer survival is at stake
the peasants will prefer low production to those technologies which are concerned with higher production etc.

Now we present a diagram which shows that the attitudes towards risk among the small peasants may militate them against the use
of economically justified innovations.

Here the lower horizontal line shows the MCR which is necessary for the farm family's physical survival. This may be taken as the
starvation minimum fixed by nature. Any output level below MCR would mean a catastrophe for the farmer and his family. The
upper, positively sloped straight line represents the minimum level of food consumption that would be desirable in the presence of
given cultural factors which could affect the village consumption standards. The MDC curve slopes upward which shows that MDCL
rises as the traditional societies are influenced by the external factors. This fig. also shows that at time X, the farmer A's level of
output is close to MCR. Here he is not prepared to take any chance of crop failure. He is having a greater incentive to minimize the
risk than farmer B whose output performance has been well above the minimum subsistence level and is near to

the level of consumption - MDCL.

Accordingly, it is obvious that the farmer B is more innovative than the farmer A who is occupied of risk and uncertainty.

In addition to above discussed risk and uncertainty, following reasons are given regarding subsistence farming in the poor
countries.

(i) All the measures taken regarding economic development only benefited the big land lords.

(ii) The Mahajans and Money-lenders captured all the profits earned by small farmers.

(iii) The govts. procurement prices did not benefit the poor peasants.

(iv) The supply of complementary inputs like credit, water, pesticides, high yielding varieties of seeds and crop insurance were never
granted to the poor peasants.

From the above discussion it is concluded that it does not mean that the poor tillers have been found resistant to change but the real
matter is of circumstances and the environment where the orthodox and traditional environment serves to be a big obstacle in the
way of growth of traditional farmer. In this respect Prof. Griffen writes:
"If peasants sometimes are found hostile to technical changes it is because that risks are high, the returns to the farmers are low
perhaps because of local customs or land tenure system or because of inadequate credit and marketing facilities".

Therefore, if the risks are minimized the commercial and institutional obstacles facing poor farmers are removed the poor farmers
will be prepared to innovate and rural development would become possible. In addition to the factors discussed regarding
subsistence farming, the 'Share cropping and the Interlocking of the factor markets' also check the small farmers to use modern
techniques on their farms. Share-Cropping occurs when a peasant farmer uses the land owner's farm land in exchange for a share
of food output, such as half of the rice or wheat what ho grows. The economic and social framework in which sharecropping takes
place is one of the extra-ordinary social inequality and far-reaching market failure. Again when the peasant faces his landlord whom
he has to pay the rent he also looks like an employer for the peasant Moreover, he is to face the loan officer

and the Arthias, to whom he is bound to sell his produce even at reduced prices because he had borrowed from him, These all
conditions are known as 'Inter locking Factor Markets', and they provide the rural land lord with abundant sources of monopoly
and monopoly power. To remove such problems the 'Land Reforms' are required.

(2) Stage II: Transition to Mixed and Diversified Farming:

It is not so easy to transform that agrarian system which has been in operation since centuries, and the traditional agri. system could
assume the shape of commercial farming just in a shock. Thus the mixed farming is a first step to commercialized farming from
subsistence farming. In such stage of agri. development the cash crops like vegetables, tea, coffee, cotton and fruits are produced,
rather staple foods. In addition to these the dairy and live stocks are developed. Those labor which remained unemployed during the
major part of the year go on getting employed. In this way, the demand for labor goes on to increase on the farms, particularly at the
time of harvesting and sowing. This leads to increase the real wages of farm labor.

Accordingly, in such situation the tractors and threshers are used to substitute labor. In order to boost the staple crops the fertilizers
are used. Along with the more production of foods the stress is laid upon to produce more of cash crops. In this way, the agri. sector
goes on to earn 'Surplus'. With such surplus the farmer can uplift the standard of living of its family. When mixed or diversified
farming starts the farmers some how are prepared to take risks. But all this depends upon the abilities and competence of the
farmers as well as on the social, commercial and institutional setup where the farmer resides. If the farmer is in a position to get the
complementary inputs and he is convinced of that the agri. improvement will benefit him and his family he will welcome the new
changes. The agri. history of Pakistan, India, Philippine. Columbia, Mexico and Nigeria confirms that if the farmers are sure of the
profits they are prepared to move from subsistence farming to Mixed

farming. The use of better seeds, fertilizers, and simple irrigation devices will not only enhance the production of staple crops but it
will also lead to free the land which would now be available for cash crops. The farm surplus can also bo used to make investment
in the farms. Diversified farming will also lead to minimize the impact of staple crop failure, and provide a security of income which
was not available earlier.

Thus, we conclude that the transition from subsistence farming to diversified farming depends upon reasonable and reliable access
to credit, fertilizers, water, crop information, and marketing facilities, fair market price for agri. produce and provision of extensive
services.

(3) Stage III: From Diversed to Specialization/ Modern and Commercial Farming:

In the free market economy the specialized farming is the last and final stage in agri. development. It is the most prevalent type of
farming in advanced industrial nations. It comes into being along with the development of other sectors of the economy. The
biological and mechanical changes, improvement in living standard of the people and extension in domestic and foreign markets
played an important role in such type of farming. In such farming it is the motive of profit which plays an important role, rather than
the personal needs for foods. The farmers are highly aimed at maximizing their outputs per acres. The growers keep in view the
costs, fixed as well as variable, the revenues, the support prices and investment in lands while determining the prices of agri.
produce. The farmers have to be acquainted with the scientific inventions, harvesters, modern fertilizers, cropping techniques and
marketing trends etc. These specialized farms differ in their size and operation. In such type of farming the orchards of fruits and
vegetables are also included where there is the intensive type of cultivation. Here there are vast wheat, corn and rice farms. In most
cases, the sophisticated labor saving techniques are followed furnished with air spray, combine harvesters, bulldozers, huge tractors
and tube wells etc. where a single family becomes capable enough to cultivate thousands of hectares of land - the case of North
America etc.

Features:
The followings are the common features of specialized farming or commercialized farming:

(i) A single crop is produced from these farms ranging from staple crops, cash crops, vegetables and fruits.

(ii) The agri. technology applied on such farms is of capital-intensive or labor-saving nature.

(iii) The farmers (big) rely upon economies of scale to reduce their costs of production and maximization of profits.

(iv) The big and specialized farms are in no way different from big industrial concerns. In certain cases such farms known as
'Ranches' are owned or controlled by large agri. business multi-national corporate enterprises.

The followings are the implications of such commercialized farmings:

(a) When one crop is produced and cultivated the economies of scale will be accrued and the goods would become available to
domestic and foreign consumers at lower prices Such big production becomes very much helpful during world supply shocks,
shortages, famines, sectarian and ethnic violence's and civil wars.

(b) As the commercial farmings is made on big farms the use of modern agri. machinery, superior chemicals and hybrid seeds is
increased. In this way, not only agri. sector, but the industrial concerns of the country would also expand. The employment will
increase boosting the national outputs. In this way, both agri. and industrial sectors

will support each other.

(c) The commercialized farming is like a business where highly efficient and experienced farm managers are employed. The
entrepreneurs get themselves engaged in inventions and innovations. The production functions are prepared; the predictions
regarding inputs and outputs are made; and the projections regarding outputs and prices are made.

Despite the above mentioned benefits there exist the following apprehensions regarding commercialized farmings:

(a) The small farmers and their business enterprises are coming to an end. Such situation is not only rising up in DCs but also in
UDCs.

(b) The entry of MNCs in agri. business will lead to create their monopolies. As a result, the farmers as well as consumers will be
exploited.

Land tenure

3.1 Land tenure is the relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, among people, as individuals or groups, with respect to
land. (For convenience, “land” is used here to include other natural resources such as water and trees.) Land tenure is an institution,
i.e., rules invented by societies to regulate behaviour. Rules of tenure define how property rights to land are to be allocated within
societies. They define how access is granted to rights to use, control, and transfer land, as well as associated responsibilities and
restraints. In simple terms, land tenure systems determine who can use what resources for how long, and under what conditions.

3.2 Land tenure is an important part of social, political and economic structures. It is multi-dimensional, bringing into play social,
technical, economic, institutional, legal and political aspects that are often ignored but must be taken into account. Land tenure
relationships may be well-defined and enforceable in a formal court of law or through customary structures in a community.
Alternatively, they may be relatively poorly defined with ambiguities open to exploitation.

3.3 Land tenure thus constitutes a web of intersecting interests. These include:

 Overriding interests: when a sovereign power (e.g., a nation or community has the powers to allocate or reallocate land
through expropriation, etc.)

 Overlapping interests: when several parties are allocated different rights to the same parcel of land (e.g., one party may
have lease rights, another may have a right of way, etc.)

 Complementary interests: when different parties share the same interest in the same parcel of land (e.g., when members
of a community share common rights to grazing land, etc.)
  Competing interests: when different parties contest the same interests in the same parcel (e.g., when two parties
independently claim rights to exclusive use of a parcel of agricultural land. Land disputes arise from competing claims.)

3.4 Land tenure is often categorised as:

 Private: the assignment of rights to a private party who may be an individual, a married couple, a group of people, or a
corporate body such as a commercial entity or non-profit organization. For example, within a community, individual
families may have exclusive rights to residential parcels, agricultural parcels and certain trees. Other members of the
community can be excluded from using these resources without the consent of those who hold the rights.

 Communal: a right of commons may exist within a community where each member has a right to use independently the
holdings of the community. For example, members of a community may have the right to graze cattle on a common
pasture.

 Open access: specific rights are not assigned to anyone and no-one can be excluded. This typically includes marine
tenure where access to the high seas is generally open to anyone; it may include rangelands, forests, etc, where there
may be free access to the resources for all. (An important difference between open access and communal systems is that
under a communal system non-members of the community are excluded from using the common areas.)

 State: property rights are assigned to some authority in the public sector. For example, in some countries, forest lands
may fall under the mandate of the state, whether at a central or decentralised level of government.

3.5 In practice, most forms of holdings may be found within a given society, for example, common grazing rights, private residential
and agricultural holdings, and state ownership of forests. Customary tenure typically includes communal rights to pastures and
exclusive private rights to agricultural and residential parcels. In some countries, formally recognised rights to such customary lands
are vested in the nation state or the President “in trust” for the citizens.

3.6 The right that a person has in an object such as land may be considered as property. The range of property is extensive and
includes, for example, intellectual property. In the case of land tenure, it is sometimes described more precisely as property rights to
land. A distinction is often made between “real property” or “immovable property” on the one hand, and “personal property” or
“movable property” on the other hand. In the first case, property would include land and fixtures (buildings, trees, etc) that would be
regarded as immovable. In the second case, property would include objects not considered fixed to the land, such as cattle, etc.

3.7 In practice, multiple rights can be held by several different persons or groups. This has given rise to the concept of “a bundle of
rights”. Different rights to the same parcel of land, such as the right to sell the land, the right to use the land through a lease, or the
right to travel across the land, may be pictured as “sticks in the bundle”. Each right may be held by a different party. The bundle of
rights, for example, may be shared between the owner and a tenant to create a leasing or sharecropping arrangement allowing the
tenant or sharecropper the right to use the land on specified terms and conditions. Tenancies may range from formal leaseholds of
999 years to informal seasonal agreements. If the farm is mortgaged, the creditor may hold a right from the “bundle” to recover the
unpaid loan through a sale of the mortgaged property in the case of default. A neighbouring farmer may have the right from the
“bundle” to drive cattle across the land to obtain water at the river. Box 1 gives some examples of rights.

3.8 At times it may be useful to simplify the representation of property rights by identifying:

 use rights: rights to use the land for grazing, growing subsistence crops, gathering minor forestry products, etc.

 control rights: rights to make decisions how the land should be used including deciding what crops should be planted,
and to benefit financially from the sale of crops, etc.

 transfer rights: right to sell or mortgage the land, to convey the land to others through intra-community reallocations, to
transmit the land to heirs through inheritance, and to reallocate use and control rights.

Very often, the poor in a community have only use rights. A woman, for example, may have the right to use some land to grow crops
to feed the family, while her husband may collect the profits from selling any crops at the market. While such simplifications can be
useful, it should be noted that the exact manner in which rights to land are actually distributed and enjoyed can be very complex.

3.9 In broad terms, land tenure rights are often classified according to whether they are “formal” or “informal”. There can be
perceptual problems with this approach because, for example, some so-called informal rights may, in practice, be quite formal and
secure in their own context. Despite these perceptual problems, the classification of formal and informal tenure can sometimes
provide the basis for useful analysis.

3.10 Formal property rights may be regarded as those that are explicitly acknowledged by the state and which may be protected
using legal means.

3.11 Informal property rights are those that lack official recognition and protection. In some cases, informal property rights are illegal,
i.e., held in direct violation of the law. An extreme case is when squatters occupy a site in contravention of an eviction notice. In
many countries, illegal property holdings arise because of inappropriate laws. For example, the minimum size of a farm may be
defined by law whereas in practice farms may be much smaller as a result of informal subdivisions among heirs. Property rights may
also be illegal because of their use, e.g., the illegal conversion of agricultural land for urban purposes.

3.12 In other cases, property may be “extra-legal”, i.e., not against the law, but not recognised by the law. In some countries,
customary property held in rural indigenous communities falls into this category. A distinction often made is between statutory
rights or “formally recognized rights” on the one hand and customary rights or “traditional rights” on the other hand. This distinction is
now becoming blurred in a number of countries, particularly in Africa, which provide formal legal recognition to customary rights.

3.13 Formal and informal rights may exist in the same holding. For example, in a country that forbids leasing or sharecropping, a
person who holds legally recognized ownership rights to a parcel may illegally lease out the land to someone who is landless.

3.14 These various forms of tenure can create a complex pattern of rights and other interests. A particularly complex situation arises
when statutory rights are granted in a way that does not take into account existing customary rights (e.g., for agriculture and
grazing). This clash of de jure rights (existing because of the formal law) and de facto rights (existing in reality) often occurs in
already stressed marginal rainfed agriculture and pasture lands. Likewise in conflict and post-conflict areas, encounters between
settled and displaced populations lead to great uncertainties as to who has, or should have, the control over which rights.

3.15 The layers of complexity and potential conflict are likely to be compounded, particularly where, for example, state ownership is
statutorily declared and state grants or leases have been made without consultation with customary owners (who are not considered
illegal), and where squatters move illegally onto the land, as in figure 2.

EXAMPLES OF RIGHTS

 A right to use the land.

 A right to exclude unauthorized people from using the land.

 A right to control how land will be used.

 A right to derive income from the land.

 A right to protection from illegal expropriation of the land.

 A right to transmit the rights to the land to one’s successors, (i.e., a right held by descendents to inherit the land).

 A right to alienate all rights to the entire holding (e.g., through sale), or to a portion of the holding (e.g., by subdividing it).

 A right to alienate only a portion of the rights, e.g., through a lease.

 A residuary right to the land, i.e., when partially alienated rights lapse (such as when a lease expires), those rights revert
to the person who alienated them.

 A right to enjoy the property rights for an indeterminate length of time, i.e., rights might not terminate at a specific date but
can last in perpetuity.

 A duty not to use the land in a way that is harmful to other members of society, (i.e., the right is held by those who do not
hold the right to use the land).
  A duty to surrender the rights to the land when they are taken away through a lawful action, (e.g., in a case of insolvency
where the right is held by the creditors, or in the case of default on tax payments where the right is held by the state).

In common law systems, land tenure is the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land. The
French verb "tenir" means "to hold" and "tenant" is the present participle of "tenir". The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown,
held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants. Tenure signifies the relationship between tenant
and lord, not the relationship between tenant and land.

DIVINE RIGHT KINGSHIP. The belief that kings are related to gods, if not actually gods themselves, and derive their authority from
this status has been a remarkably enduring feature of human societies. Monotheism challenged it, but in Europe the belief lost
power only very gradually, as European society slowly became Christianized. Christian doctrine identified Christ as the divine king,
Son of God the Father, who was incarnated once for all in order to rule over the souls of men. It thus set in train the separation
between the spiritual and temporal realms that would eventually allow for the secular, or "constitutional" kingships characteristic of
modern European monarchies. Christian kings could, and from the time of Charlemagne (742–814) did, claim to rule dei gratia : by
the grace of God, by his gift and permission. As such they were God's representatives on earth. They might even possess God-
given miraculous healing powers that attested to their sacred status. By the twelfth century both English and French kings regularly
touched for scrofula, a tuberculous infection of the skin of the neck that, left untreated, produces draining sores. The kings' ability to
heal the condition through the laying on of hands led to the condition being known as the "King's Evil." That supernatural power, and
the view of kingship as quasi-divine that informed it, survived the abolition of kingship in both countries brought about by the English
and French revolutions, ceasing only in the early nineteenth century. Kings could thus claim to have a quality of divinity, but
Christian doctrine insisted that they themselves could not be divine. It is, as A. M. Hocart remarked (p. 16), "a very fine distinction
between a king who is the incarnation of the Deity and one who is only His representative"—but it proved to be a decisive one in the
European history of kingship.

Definition of feudalism

1: the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries having as its basis the relation of
lord to vassal (see vassal 1) with all land held in fee (see fee 1) and as chief characteristics homage, the service of tenants under
arms and in court, wardship (see wardship 1), and forfeiture (see forfeiture 1)

2: any of various political or social systems similar to medieval feudalism