A farm is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used for specialized units such as arable farms, vegetable farms, fruit farms, dairy, pig and poultry farms, and land used for the production of natural fiber, biofuel, and other commodities. It includes ranches, feedlots, orchards, plantations and estates, smallholdings, and hobby farms, and includes the farmhouse and agricultural buildings as well as the land. In modern times, the term has been extended so as to include such industrial operations as wind farms and fish farms, both of which can operate on land or at sea.
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic Revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards, predating farming of the first crops. By the time of early civilisations such as ancient Egypt, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were being raised on farms.
The BAIF Development Research Foundation is a NGO based in Urali Kanchan near Pune in Maharashtra, India, that pioneers agricultural development. It was founded in 1967 by Manibhai Desai as the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation. Under Manibhai, BAIF pioneered cross breeding of high yielding European cattle such as Holstein Freisian and Jersey with the sturdy Indian breeds such as Gir from Gujarat. Later BAIF expanded the scope of activities to include animal health, nutrition, afforestation wasteland development, and tribal development.
Agriculture in Mongolia constitutes over 10% of Mongolia's annual gross domestic product and employs one-third of the labor force. However, the high altitude, extreme fluctuation in temperature, long winters, and low precipitation provides limited potential for agricultural development. The growing season is only 95 – 110 days. Because of Mongolia's harsh climate, it is unsuited to most cultivation.
Animal husbandry in Himachal Pradesh plays a very major role in the development of agricultural sector of Himachal. Indigenous breeds of cows, buffalo and sheep are of very poor quality.
Numerous schemes for cattle development, cattle health and disease resistance in wood production, poultry development, feed and fodder development, dairy improvement, milk supply schemes and veterinary education has been undertaken in order to improve the livestock in the state. There are many veterinary hospitals, dispensaries and outlying dispensaries in the state to provide veterinary aids and to take measures against various contagious diseases. A number of mobile dispensaries are also in operation.
Recently, Angora rabbits imported from West Germany were introduced in the state. Now 7 units for their propagation have been set up in Kangra.
Milk production has also increased. Milk chilling plants with a capacity of about 55,000 liters have been set up at about 24 places and departmental milk supply schemes are operational in 6 towns.
Many farmers in India depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. In addition to supplying milk, meat, eggs, wool, their castings (dung) and hides, animals, mainly bullocks, are the major source of power for both farmers and dairies. Thus, animal husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy. The gross value of output from this sector was 8,123 billion Rupees in FY 2015–16.
Agriculture in Ethiopia is the foundation of the country's economy, accounting for half of gross domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of exports, and 80% of total employment.
Benin is predominantly a rural society, and agriculture in Benin supports more than 70% of the population. Agriculture contributes around 35% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 80% of export income. While the Government of Benin (GOB) aims to diversify its agricultural production, Benin remains underdeveloped, and its economy is underpinned by subsistence agriculture. Approximately 93% of total agricultural production goes into food production. The proportion of the population living in poverty is about 35.2%, with more rural households in poverty (38.4%) than urban households (29.8%). 36% of households depend solely upon agricultural (crop) production for income, and another 30% depend on crop production, livestock, or fishing for income.
Agriculture in Sudan plays an important role in that country's economy. Agriculture and livestock raising are the main sources of livelihood for most of the Sudanese population. It was estimated that, as of 2011, 80 percent of the labor force were employed in that sector, including 84 percent of the women and 64 percent of the men.
In New Zealand, agriculture is the largest sector of the tradable economy. The country exported NZ$46.4 billion worth of agricultural products in the 12 months to June 2019, 79.6% of the country's total exported goods. The agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector directly contributed $12.653 billion of the national GDP in the 12 months to September 2020, and employed 143,000 people, 5.9% of New Zealand's workforce, as of the 2018 census.
In Sri Lanka many farmers depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood, but not a large proportion. Therefore, many livestock products have to be imported. The main livestock products in Sri Lanka are milk, meat and eggs. Hides, wools and other products are still not produced within the country. Animal power formerly used in the cultivation of rice and vegetables have been replaced by modern technology to farmlands. However animal husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy for improving the living conditions of farmers in the country.
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting in order to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals who are raised for consumption, and sometimes used to refer solely to farmed ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. Horses are considered livestock in the United States. The USDA classifies pork, veal, beef, and lamb (mutton) as livestock, and all livestock as red meat. Poultry and fish are not included in the category. The latter is likely due to the fact that fish products are not governed by the USDA, but by the FDA.
Agriculture in Somalia is a major employment activity and is the largest economic sector in the country. It contributes more than 65% to the national GDP from domestic distribution and exports to other parts of the continent, the Middle East and Europe.
The business of livestock farming is prominent in the Basque Country (Spain). The climate of this region is ideal for raising cattle and other livestock and is classified as Atlantic, or warm and rainy. The most common breeds of livestock raised in this region include beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, and horses. These animals are most often raised in mixed farms, or farms that contain a combination of these types of animals and not just one type exclusively. Although the number of livestock farms notably decreased between the years of 1999 and 2009, the number of animals raised on each remaining farm increased dramatically, as discussed in further detail below. In 2006, there were estimated to be about 19,000 Basque farms that involved the raising of livestock.
Agriculture in Wales has in the past been a major part of the economy of Wales, a largely rural country which is part of the United Kingdom. Wales is mountainous and has a mild, wet climate. This results in only a small proportion of the land area being suitable for arable cropping, but grass for the grazing of livestock is present in abundance. As a proportion of the national economy, agriculture is now much less important; a high proportion of the population now live in the towns and cities in the south of the country and tourism has become an important form of income in the countryside and on the coast. Arable cropping is limited to the flatter parts and elsewhere dairying and livestock farming predominate.
Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar, a publicly funded, institute for water buffalo research. It is located 170 kilometres (110 mi) from Delhi, at Hisar in the north Indian state of Haryana. It has a sub-campus, Bir Dosanjh, at Nabha. CIRB operates a nationwide network of 10 research centres working on breed improvement of the 7 main native breeds. CIRB, with over 20 laboratories for buffalo research, is the world's largest buffalo research institute with the widest range of breeds under study. With the aim of improving breeds and dissemination of information, CIRB has sold over 1,000 bulls, conducted ~200,000 artificial insemination in the field for the farmers' buffaloes with a 41% conception rate, distributed ~520,000 progeny tested frozen semen kits to 45,000 farmers and over 250 institutes, imparted training to several thousand farmers on advanced buffalo husbandry, and created the world's first online Buffalopedia in several languages. It has a large research partner network across India and the globe. It is the second institute to successfully clone a buffalo in 2016, after the first successful cloning was achieved by the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal in 2010. In July 2017, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ranked CIRB Hisar as India's number one Buffalo research institute for the year 2016–17.
Animal husbandry in Azerbaijan is concerned with animals that are raised for meat, milk, eggs, leather, wool, fur and fibre production for people’s consumption in Azerbaijan.
Dairy plays a significant part in numerous aspects of Indian society, including cuisine, religion, culture, and the economy.
The Department of Animal husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) is an Indian government department. It is a subsidiary department of the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries which was formed as a new Indian ministry in 2019. The DAHD or the erstwhile Department of Animal husbandry, Fishiries and Dairying was formed in 1991 by merging together into a separate department, of two divisions of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, namely animal husbandry and dairy development.In 1997 the fishiries division of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation and a part of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries was transferred to it. In February 2019 the Department of Fisheries was carved out from the Department of Animal husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and it has been functioning as Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying since then.
Agriculture in Ireland began during the neolithic era, when inhabitants of the island began to practice animal husbandry and farming grains. Principal crops grown during the neolithic era included barley and wheat.
