agronomy

We explain what agronomy is, its history, branches, auxiliary sciences and why it is important. Also, the agronomy career.

Agronomy studies the agroecosystem and its physical and biological factors.

What is agronomy?

Agronomy or agronomic engineering is a science composed of a set of knowledge articulated around the practice of agriculture. Seeks to improve through technology the various agricultural and food production processes. For this, it includes the set of physical, chemical, biological, economic and social factors that govern the farming.

Agronomy includes agricultural production as the framework of an agroecosystem, that is, a specific form of human intervention in the natural processes of plant germination, growth and reproduction, in order to obtain food Y raw material.

In this agroecosystem physical factors intervene, such as the I usually, the weather or the availability of waters, but also biological, such as the presence of pests, the competence between the species cultivated, among others. It is the task of agronomy to understand these factors and use them for agricultural improvement.

Furthermore, since agriculture and cattle raising are not formal sciences, if not applied, agronomy constitutes the opportunity to systematize and organize this knowledge and knowledge from a scientific, academic, verifiable perspective.

History of agronomy

Agriculture and the set of knowledge around it are not exactly new in the history human, but they were given gradually and practically since agricultural activity emerged in the Neolithic Revolution approximately ten thousand years ago.

Despite this, agriculture as a field of formally constituted knowledge, that is, agronomy, emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Europe and the United States, under the idea of ​​applying the new scientific-technological knowledge that began to flourish in those times.

His objective was to induce an improvement in the levels of agricultural food production, improving the standard of living of the rural populations and guaranteeing food to a set of nations in frank growth.

Thus, the nascent industrial society was able to take its practices and knowledge to the field, providing new agricultural technology, new instruments and specialized professionals in the area. One of the first and most prestigious schools of agronomy in Europe was created in 1855 in the capital of Spain, and it is the Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineers of Madrid.

Importance of agronomy

Agronomy is indispensable for agricultural countries.

The changes that agronomy introduced in agricultural production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were surprising, and key to the agricultural renewal that accompanied the industrialization of the so-called First World.

The maximization of the productive possibilities of the field allowed to sustain a population growing world. Therefore, knowledge of agronomy is indispensable for agricultural countries, such as the raw material exporting nations of the so-called Third World.

Branches of agronomy

Agronomy comprises various branches, each of which constitutes the application of certain knowledge to a specific aspect of agricultural work. The main ones are:

  • Agrotechnics. Discipline focused on the study of the methods of sowing and agriculture, that is, of the techniques agriculture and the ways in which these can be improved, especially through the incorporation of technology.
  • Phytopathology. This is the name given to the science of the study and control of diseases suffered by plants, especially those that are part of the agricultural production of a country or a region.
  • Economy agricultural. Combination of agronomy with economic Sciences, is dedicated to the study of the specificities of the agricultural sector within the productive schemes of a nation.
  • Plant breeding. Discipline that addresses methods combinatorial genetics, from artificial selection and human intervention in the production of more suitable plant species for agricultural work, either because they produce more and better food, or because they better resist adverse environmental conditions.

Auxiliary Sciences of Agronomy

Agronomy draws on many other sciences, such as microbiology.

Agronomy is helped by the knowledge shared with many other scientific disciplines, such as biology, the chemistry, geochemistry, microbiology wave botany, to understand the natural factors (physical or organic) that determine agricultural work.

At the same time it relies on the various engineering firms to design new tools, methods or systems that take advantage of that knowledge. In addition, economic Sciences, the management and others social Sciences they also play their part in shaping agronomy, as they deal with the human part of every agricultural process.

Agronomy career

Agricultural engineering is a very common career in countries endowed with large agricultural sectors. It is taught as a bachelor's degree, that is, through university higher study for five years.

It is a career with a trans-disciplinary profile, that is, it is based on knowledge from different fields of knowledge, and has an eminently practical orientation, since its fundamental task is to improve agricultural production.

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