Agriculture (from the Latin agricultura, composed from ager, "field", and, de cultura, culture) is a process by which human beings manage their ecosystems and control the biological cycles of domesticated species, with the aim of produce food and other resources useful to their societies. It designates all the know-how and activities relating to the cultivation of soils, and, more generally, all the work on the natural environment (not only terrestrial) allowing the cultivation and removal of living beings (plants, animals). , even fungi or microbes) useful to humans.

The precise delimitation of what does or does not fall within the scope of agriculture leads to many conventions which are not all the subject of a consensus. Certain productions can be considered as not forming part of agriculture: the development of the forest (silviculture), the breeding of aquatic animals (aquaculture), the above-ground breeding of certain animals (poultry and pork mainly), culture on artificial substrate (hydroponic cultures) ... Apart from these particular cases, we mainly distinguish between culture for the activity concerning the plant and breeding for the activity concerning the animal.

Agronomy brings together, since the 19th century, all the biological, technical, cultural, economic and social knowledge relating to agriculture.

In economics, the agricultural economy is defined as the sector of activity whose function is to produce financial income from the exploitation of the land (cultivation), the forest (sylviculture), the sea, lakes and rivers (aquaculture, fishing), farm animals (livestock) and wild animals (hunting) 4. In practice, this exercise is weighted by the availability of resources and the components of the biophysical and human environment. Production and distribution in this area are intimately linked to political economy in a global environment.

• WikipediA: Agriculture