Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first. Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have sharply increased yields, while causing widespread ecological and environmental damage. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal welfare and environmental damage. Environmental issues include contributions to global warming, depletion of aquifers, deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and growth hormones in industrial meat production. Genetically modified organisms are widely used, although some are banned in certain countries. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meat, milk, fungi and eggs. Over one-third of the world's workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although the number of agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased significantly over the centuries.
La agricultura (del latín agri ‘campo’, y cultÅ«ra ‘cultivo’, ‘crianza’) es el conjunto de actividades económicas y técnicas relacionadas con el tratamiento del suelo y el cultivo de la tierra para la producción de alimentos. Comprende todo un conjunto de acciones humanas que transforma el medio ambiente natural. Las actividades relacionadas son las que integran el llamado sector agrícola. Todas las actividades económicas que abarca dicho sector tienen su fundamento en la explotación de los recursos que la tierra origina, favorecida por la acción del ser humano: alimentos vegetales como cereales, frutas, hortalizas, pastos cultivados y forrajes; fibras utilizadas por la industria textil; cultivos energéticos etc. La agricultura también comprende una demanda global del ramo y servicio de la alimentación mundial depende en gran medida del clima y de las técnicas para poder hacer la tierra fértil, conserva su origen en la propiedad privada y en la explotación de la tierra entregada a familias para poder establecerse. Es una actividad de gran importancia estratégica como base fundamental para el desarrollo autosuficiente y riqueza de las naciones. La ciencia que estudia la práctica de la agricultura es la agronomía.