Editing Agriculture (section)

== Etymology and scope ==
{{further|Horticulture#Scope}}
The word ''agriculture'' is a late [[Middle English]] adaptation of Latin {{lang |la |agricultūra}}, from {{lang |la |ager}} 'field' and {{lang |la |cultūra}} '[[Tillage|cultivation]]' or 'growing'.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_x2z7/page/14 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-863121-7 |editor-last=Chantrell |editor-first=Glynnis |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_x2z7/page/14 14] |url-access=registration}}</ref> While agriculture usually refers to human activities, certain species of [[Attine ants|ant]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=St. Fleur |first1=Nicholas |title=An Ancient Ant-Bacteria Partnership to Protect Fungus |newspaper=The New York Times |date=6 October 2018 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/science/ants-fungus-amber.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/science/ants-fungus-amber.html |archive-date=1 January 2022 |url-access=limited |access-date=14 July 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Hongjie |last2=Sosa Calvo |first2=Jeffrey |last3=Horn |first3=Heidi A. |last4=Pupo |first4=Mônica T. |last5=Clardy |first5=Jon |last6=Rabeling |first6=Cristian |last7=Schultz |first7=Ted R. |last8=Currie |first8=Cameron R. |title=Convergent evolution of complex structures for ant–bacterial defensive symbiosis in fungus-farming ants |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=2018 |volume=115 |issue=42 |page=10725 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1809332115 |pmid=30282739 |pmc=6196509 |bibcode=2018PNAS..11510720L |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424}}</ref> [[termite]] and [[ambrosia beetle|beetle]] have been cultivating crops for up to 60 million years.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mueller |first1=Ulrich G. |last2=Gerardo |first2=Nicole M. |author-link2=Nicole Gerardo |last3=Aanen |first3=Duur K. |last4=Six |first4=Diana L. |author-link4=Diana Six |last5=Schultz |first5=Ted R. |date=December 2005 |title=The Evolution of Agriculture in Insects |journal=Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics |volume=36 |pages=563–595 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.36.102003.152626}}</ref> Agriculture is defined with varying scopes, in its broadest sense using natural resources to "produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops, and their related services".<ref name=Maine /> Thus defined, it includes [[arable farming]], horticulture, [[animal husbandry]] and [[forestry]], but horticulture and forestry are in practice often excluded.<ref name="Maine">{{cite web |title=Definition of Agriculture |url=http://www.maine.gov/education/aged/definition.html |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323075557/http://www.maine.gov/education/aged/definition.html |archive-date=23 March 2012 |access-date=6 May 2013 |publisher=State of Maine}}</ref>
It may also be broadly decomposed into '''plant agriculture''', which concerns the cultivation of useful plants,<ref name="Stevenson1971">{{cite journal |last=Stevenson |first=G. C. |title=Plant Agriculture Selected and introduced by Janick Jules and Others San Francisco: Freeman (1970), pp. 246, £2.10 |journal=Experimental Agriculture |publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) |volume=7 |issue=4 |year=1971 |issn=0014-4797 |doi=10.1017/s0014479700023371 |page=363 |s2cid=85571333}}</ref> and '''animal agriculture''', the production of agricultural animals.<ref name="Herren2012">{{cite book |last=Herren |first=R.V. |title=Science of Animal Agriculture |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-133-41722-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-fQIAAAAQBAJ |access-date=1 May 2022 |page= |archive-date=31 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531005013/https://books.google.com/books?id=-fQIAAAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>