University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

The word agriculture has no rigid definition. It has been explained by many people very comprehensively. Agriculture has been defined as the science and art of cultivating the soil, and this definition emphasizes the primary nature of plant productioon in agriculture. Moreover, it is so frequent that the same person performs both the primary functions of growing plants and the secondary one of feeding the plants to livestock that these two industries are grouped together as agriculture, it may be said that agriculture includes not only the production of crops by the cultivation of the soil, but also the rearing of livestock. Thus, milk, meat and wool are as much agricultural products as are wheat, rice and cotton. In the words of george O brien, therefore, the word agriculture includes every industry which aims at producing vegetables or animals by the cultivation of the soil. so, agriculture is the business of raising products from the land. The products raised may either be plants and their products or animals and their products. The former are the direct products while the latter are the indirect produc ts of the land. Agricultural products are complex and diverse, in nature, and as such, agriculture may be regarded as complex industry.