PSS 1321 Agronomic Plant Science

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PSS 1321 Agronomic Plant Science
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Introduction
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Importance of Plants to Man

• Earth is a plant-oriented planet.
• Scheme for food production
• The sun is the source of all our biological
  energy.
• Thermonuclear reaction on the surface of the sun
  where hydrogen fuses to helium and a tremendous
  amount of energy is given off.
• This energy is unaffected while in space because
  it is a vacuum.

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Importance of Plants to Man

• Scheme for food production (continued)
• Solar energy enters earths atmosphere and
  travels to the earths surface (modified in the
  atmosphere).
• Solar energy is converted into chemical energy by
  the plants through the process of photosynthesis.

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Summary
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Importance of Plants to Man

• Scheme for food production (continued)
• Man is at the top of the food chain, but we are
  totally dependent upon plants.
• No energy conversion is able to completely
  utilize all of the energy.

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Problems Faced in Agriculture

• Population growth
• Current world population 6 billion
• Population by 2050 9 billion
• Quantity of food production
• Quantity is measured by calories (energy content
  in that food)
• Adequate diet provides 2200 cal/day
• 1/2 of worlds population lives on lt1500 cal/day
• 60 - 80 of worlds deaths are related to
  starvation and malnutrition

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Problems Faced in Agriculture

• Quality of food production
• The more animal products in a nations diet
  typically means a higher standard of living.
• From 1950 to 1970, world food production double
  but the per capita amount stayed the same
  (because population also increased)

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Problems Faced in Agriculture

• Shortage of land
• Urbanization
• Drought
• Erosion
• Environmental concerns
• Pollution (air, water, soil)

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Solutions to the Problem

• Bring more land into cultivation
• Control population
• Increase food production
• through research and education
• help those countries help themselves

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Brief History of Agronomy

• Farming (plant domestication) probably began
  7,000 years ago in the valleys of the Tigris,
  Euphrates, and Nile regions.
• Early man was primarily nomadic, but they became
  non-nomadic after they learned that they could
  plant the seeds of other plants to grow food.

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Brief History of Agronomy

• Development of modern agriculture
• probably began in England around 1700 (Industrial
  Revolution)
• Tull invented the grain drill in 1701

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Brief History of Agronomy

• Development of agriculture in the U.S.
• Formation of various organizations
• Formation of various publications
• Legislation
• USDA was established in 1862
• Homestead Act in 1862 - provided for free land
  after you lived and farmed a piece of land, you
  owned it.

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Brief History of Agronomy

• Development of agriculture in the U.S.
• Legislation (continued)
• Morrill Act of 1862 - created a land-grant
  university system to train agricultural
  scientists.
• Hatch Act of 1887- provided funding to land-grant
  universities for agricultural research
• Cooperative Extension Act in 1914 - established
  the cooperative Extension Service
• 1916 the Federal Farm Loan program was
  established to enable farmers to purchase farm
  equipment at reasonable interest rates

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Brief History of Agronomy

• Development of agriculture in the U.S.
• Soil Conservation Service in 1935
• Creation prompted by Dust Bowl
• Changed name to NRCC (Natural Resources
  Conservation Commission)

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Challenge for Future

• Increase food, feed, fiber production
• Statistics
• 1776 - farmer produced food for 4 people
• 1950 - farmer produced food for 16 people
• 1975 - farmer produced food for 50 people
• 1998 - farmer produced food for 130 people
• About the same today