Knowing some basic terms of agriculture

in STEMGeeksyesterday (edited)
In the agricultural sector it is important to know terms related to the agronomic management of crops, in this way productive activity can be executed in a more efficient way. In the same way, it is important to mention that agricultural production systems should be visualized as a system integrated by different components such as soil, plant, animals and man.

Let's start by mentioning that a primary component in agriculture is the soil, since it not only serves as a support surface for the plant, but also contains nutritional elements from the decomposition of organic matter that can be used by plants for their physiological processes.

Therefore, one of the recommended agronomic practices before planting a crop is soil analysis because through such analysis you can know the texture of the soil (Sandy, clayey, silty, loam), also the pH levels, macro and micro nutrients present, organic matter among other aspects of interest. With this information provided by the soil analysis, a series of agronomic activities can be planned, such as the application of fertilizers depending on nutritional deficiencies, in short, the soil analysis allows us to make more accurate decisions about the possible agronomic activities that will be implemented on the farm.

Other terms of which we can talk about is soil erosion and leaching, let's start talking about erosion consisting of the wear that the soil can suffer from different causes, for example, the action of wind, precipitation and when an excessive use of mechanical tillage is made, therefore, it is important to maintain the soil with good vegetation cover and reduce the use of mechanical tillage.

As for the leaching refers to the washing of the soil, or filtration of the soil into the deeper layers dragging with it, the nutrients that the soils may contain, in soils with sandy texture the pores are larger and there is possibly a greater leaching of the soil, especially when it is devoid of organic matter and humus.

In this same vein, a technique that has currently begun to be implemented is crop rotation, which is an agroecological practice that has been implemented in agricultural production systems to avoid the depletion of soil nutrients, since, if plant species of the same family are planted for a long time, some nutrients can be progressively depleted, since crops of the same family tend to require the same nutrients to a greater or lesser extent. It also allows to break the life cycle of pest insects that may be found in the ecosystem, because by changing the crop it is possible that the new planted species will be more tolerant to the pest insect present.

In this publication we cannot stop talking about tillage, which is an agronomic activity that consists of preparing the soil for planting, there is primary tillage that consists of setting the surface and turning the soil surface and secondary tillage that consists of refining the soil, providing the seed with an adequate planting bed. For this tillage, implements that are driven by the tractor are usually used, such as plows, harrows, rotary cultivator, among others.

Another term widely used in livestock farming is Grazing which is the action of directing animals to consume pastures directly on the surface where they are sown, there are different types of grazing such as continuous where animals remain consuming pastures on large areas for indefinite times and rotational grazing where the surfaces are divided into smaller spaces and the animals are rotated with established rotation time.

Last but not least, we refer to biodiversity, this term refers to the diversity of living organisms that exist in an ecosystem, in agricultural production units it is important to consider biodiversity, since there is functional biodiversity that is responsible for certain natural processes such as the decomposition of organic matter by soil microorganisms. A diverse ecosystem is synonymous with a strong ecosystem.

In summary dear readers, knowing the aspects described in this article is a basis for anyone who wants to educate themselves about agriculture, there are many aspects that should be studied for crop production taking into account that they are natural spaces transformed by human beings.

Thank you for reading our article, until a next publication.

Bibliographic references
  • Urbano, P. (2008). Phytotechnics, plant production engineering. Mundi-prensa, Madrid: Spain.

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